Why is the natural form of vitamin E better than the synthetic form?
In one word, the difference is: availability. Natural vitamin E has roughly twice the availability of synthetic vitamin E. Most vitamins are produced as synthetic. Most of the vitamins used to make nutritional supplements (tablets, capsules, etc.) are synthetic. Same thing for the vitamins used to fortify our cereals, milk, and other foods. Is there a problem with that? For most vitamins NO. The synthetic molecules behave and look exactly the same as the ones found in our food. Not so for alpha-tocopherol. There is a difference in the molecule, in its potency and in the way it behaves in the body. Here is the difference: The d-alpha-tocopherol in our food, the natural form, is a single entity, in other words all the molecules are identical. By contrast, the synthetic dl-alpha-tocopherol is a mixture of 8 different molecular entities, known in the chemical jargon as “stereoisomers”. Of these 8, only 1 is identical to the natural form. The other 7 do not exist in nature. Synthetic dl-alp
