Why don the labels give elemental or milligram values for the vitamin content of products?
Whole food vitamins do not fit the model used by the FDA labeling system. The FDA regulations for supplement labels require that vitamins listed in the upper portion of the label only include amounts for the isolated “organic nutrient” portion of the specific vitamin with its RDA (ascorbic acid for vitamin C or alpha-tocopherol for vitamin E). The concept of milligrams and units of vitamins simply has no meaning when applied to whole foods. For example, Whole-istic Solutions Vitamin-Mineral does not use ascorbic acid, but instead provides whole food sources of vitamin C from the Indian gooseberry, amla. The amla provides ascorbic acid and all the other members of the natural C complex that function in the body, such as ascorbigen A, ascorbigen B, erthorbic acid, dehydroascorbate, the K factors, etc. In summary, whole food vitamins do not fit the model used by the FDA labeling system and the technology does not exist for accurately assessing the true micronutrient value of whole food co
