- I have carried a lot of water-wholly justified-for the
Chiropractic profession over the last 25 years. This is prosecuted given
truly extraordinary treatment: my own and the treatment I have witnessed,
personally, regarding many, many others over the years.
-
- My steadfast support is further evidenced, moreover,
by the recent and very positive article (News Letter) I'd written for the
Jeff Rense site, et al, cataloguing many of the true wonders associated
with quality Chiropractic care. Consequently, and it pains me-on multiple
levels-to have just recently and very innocently discovered the forthcoming:
that many in the Chiropractic community indorse and fervidly push a suspicious
and questionable supplement called Catalyn... by Standard Process Inc.
(SP).
-
- My contention?
-
- The headline would be: "Catalyn is NOT a complete
"Multi-Vitamin/Mineral." It is a... let's call it a "unique"
supplement more appropriately described as a "Raw Multi-Glandular
Herbal Formula w. Enzymes." It is, at best, what one might use in
concert with aREAL multi-Vitamin, eh?
-
- BTW, there are many, cheap, excellent Multi-Glandular
Formula's out there that don't claim to be a "Complete-Multi"
just by throwing in some suspiciously small amounts of a meager handful
of six Vitamins and Minerals.
-
- So, to pass Catalyn off as a "Complete" Multi-Vit/Min
is absurd, to be kind, forgetting the grave disservice to all those trusting
people who spend their hard earned cash feeling this is something it's
not.
-
- I think it might, perhaps, be a pretty good, if too minimal
"supplement." That jury is still out. I pass on it regardless
and can tell you why, here and now...
-
- First... Reader! Please don't write and tell me how great
you feel after taking Catalyn! All that "good will" is likely
to evaporate upon learning the truth about many of these so-called "Whole-Foods",
as you become aware precisely from where your affect actually comes. Think...
nowhere, that place of smoke and mirrors, empty promises, literary slight
of hand, and deft misdirection!
-
- See, many years ago, myself and many thousands of other
dupes suffered from the very same "Placebo-Effect" alluded to
in the previous paragraph. We testified heartily and with great sincerity
to "feeling great" after taking "SeaSilver!" Then,
the boom got lowered! An independent Lab was hired by a legitimate supp-maker
to validate this seeming magic elixir, "SeaSilver"!
-
- You guessed it! The Lab analysis revealed that SeaSilver
was essentially grape juice, reader, with very tiny (read Non-Therapeutic)
TRACE amounts of every nutrient listed on the label, you know, so they
wouldn't actually be lying when they advertised all those wonderful things
being in there... even in amounts so small as to be virtually non-existent!
Again, this kind of "Half-Truth" is the most insidious kind of
lie... Rightfully, all my "Great Feelings" regarding "SeaSilver"
evaporated into empty air.
-
- Now, SP makes over one hundred Whole-Food (WF) Supp's
which I suspect may be great products! It remains, the only item I am addressing
is their "Whole-Food" Multi-Vit/Min, Catalyn, and the only reason
I looked at it in the first place was because my Chiropractor asked me
to. He seemed genuinely confident, even proud of "his" product...
It was indorsed by the Chiropractic hierarchy, after all! Though, when
I went home and researched it, fully anticipated it to be a quality and
effectual product, I was straight away disabused of that wrongful notion!
-
- Oh yeah, uh-huh... disabused even as I was to discover
that it is also indorsed by thousands of websites as the greatest Multi
EVER! That's right! Hundreds of doctors, nutritionists, dieticians and
the 'man on the freakin' street'... all love Catalyn... ...So stop reading
me right now, Right?! How can 10,000 websites be wrong?! I'm obviously
the guy with one toy short of a Happy Meal, right? Be disabused, yourself.
-
- Anyway, much to my shocked dismay, it took about 2 minutes
to see the first obvious signs that this is just another Whole-Food "Shuck
& Jive"... but take heart! The signs are easy to spot when you
know what to look for!
-
- Back to my Catalyn research, after only about 20 minutes
of reviewing their Web-site I was hanging my head in dismay ... then my
tortured dismay was further exacerbated by a scathing report I discovered
from the watch-dog service, supplementwatch.com , to which I am a paid
subscriber. It said, frankly, "Don't waste your money" (the highlights
of that report are at the end of this piece).
-
- Really, this is "Connect the Dots - 101, for beginners"...
which really makes me wonder about all those "doctors" on those
thousands of sites just drooling over Catalyn. It's humiliating!
-
- Indeed, I'm driven to the startling conclusion that Chiropractors,
much like MD's, "don't understand squat" about supplements and
nutrition. Nothing "airy-fairy" here at all, reader. I'm only
talking about the best peer-reviewed nutritional science that big food
and medicine won't pay attention to for self-interested pecuniary reasons!
-
- As aside, if you want to understand many of these tricks
employed by Bogus Whole Foods scams, read my paper about "FrequenSea"...
another "Whole-Food" rip-off, Courting CODEX: "Whole-Food"
Deceptions... Drop me a note and I'll forward the link.
-
- Back to business, it took just a few minutes of looking
at the revealing "Supplement Facts" and "Other Ingredients"
sections forCatalyn to discover a new sneaky little twist even Supplement-Watch
missed! It was a trick that you normally don't see in products so fervently
declaring their "Whole-Foodiness." Let me first give some necessary
info, then I will explain this interesting twist...
-
- The main deception generally used by bogus "Whole-Food"
Multi's, as opposed to "real" Whole-Food Multi's, is that the
former won't list the "amounts" of every Vitamin, Mineral, Enzyme,
etc. contained, so you have no way of knowing what you are really getting.
This is key, reader.
-
- The bogus WF's will tell you that because they are natural
Whole foods, every batch will be "slightly different," but still
"in balance." See, you would not expect the grocery store to
try to list the amount of Vit. C in every Orange, say, because every orange
is "slightly different"... yet still "in balance,"
eh?
-
- OK, this may sound logical but it is a disingenuous ruse!
Believe me; we have all the affordable technology we need to standardize
each batch so you could list the amounts of each item. ...But Folks, the
dishonest WF's don't want to list the amounts... because then you might
notice that the really important required nutrients, or even the highly
bragged about nutrients, are in such small "Trace" amounts as
to be wholly non-therapeutic at all... at least that is my opinion forgetting
"Supplement-Watch" confirms same!
-
- Believe me folks, there are some real WF Multi's out
there that do list the amounts of all the Vit's & Min's... in fact
I take 2 different true Whole-Food Multi's (in my opinion) showing the
distinction between those listing the amounts and those not. BTW, I'm not
pushing or selling any product.
-
- Anyway, this is because it is difficult to get a halfway
therapeutic dose into a reasonable number of capsules or tablets. From
3 to about 8 capsules is reasonable...but if you have to take 15 or 20
capsules to get even close to a therapeutic dose, one that really works
for you, people won't buy it...so...
-
- (1).. Those quality WF supplements listing the amounts
of each Vit & Min have to go to the trouble and expense of growing
special,nutrient-rich, and arcane little types of flora you've never heard
of and will never see in the produce section of "Wally World."
This is necessary, you see, in order to get the adequate concentrated dose
of nutrients into only 3 or 4 capsules and still be part of the food matrix.
-
- (2).. Those not listing the amounts essentially just
take regular foodstuffs, grind them up, and then suck out the moisture
to be put into capsules. Consequently, even if these are nutritious foods
like the glandular-herbal-veggie formula in Catalyn, it is virtually impossible
to get more than just insignificant amounts of the necessary Vit's &
min's you need into the 3 tablet Catalyn dose! I think this is why they
had to add a handful of Vit's & Min's listed in the "Supp facts."
-
- I suspect that when confronted with the fact that there
are only trace (or very small) amounts of most recommended nutrients, your
Catalyn supporters would counter with the 'mumbo-jumbo' claims about Catalyn
being a "Catalyst," which speeds up chemical reactions.
-
- OK, without a catalyst's activity it would take a week
or so to digest the contents of your stomach... so I assume they mean the
digestive enzymes (catalysts) which are found in most raw whole foods.
OK, but see, all the enzymes in the world can't take the very small, 800
milligrams of ground up food in Catalyn and magically turn it into ALL
the nutrients you need... this is insultingly stupid!
-
- Moreover, I understand that a Whole Food tablet or capsule
will not have nearly the amounts of the Vit's & Min's (in the same
amount of space) that you find in a quality Organic, Natural Multi-Vitamin...
so, it is OK and perfect understandable that a big WF tablet will have
fairly small amounts of the Vit's & Min's... I get that!
-
- See, I can look at the amounts listed in the "Supplement-Facts"
of a "REAL," Whole-food capsule, one generally having only maybe
1/5 or 1/6 of the recommended amounts found in a "regular" full-featured,
or complete Multi tablet of the same size...
-
- ...But that would still be fine, reader, because, at
least, the real WF capsule shows me the amounts! With that info I can then
decide if I want to take only the one or 2, 3, or howsoever many more capsules
or tablets... so I could get up closer to a therapeuticamount! Yes, yes,
yes... this is keeping in mind the Whole-Food philosophy that you likely
don't need the 100% of the Gov. recommended %DV because even though the
WF has a lesser amount, you should get better utilization due to the synergistic
effect of the Vit/Min being part of the Food-matrix... again, I get it
!
-
- However; if the "Whole Food" doesn't list any
amounts... How. Do. You. Know? See the problem?
-
- OK...here's that cute Catalyn trick I alluded to above!
Sometimes these "less than honest" WF's will, in fact, list a
few amounts of the handful of Vit's, etc. just high enough to register
an amount other than only the insignificant trace amounts. So look at the
"Supp-Facts" % DV and in particular, the ***Other Ingredients***
for the 3 tablet dose of Catalyn.
-
-
- Supplement Facts Serving Size: 3 Tablets
-
- % Daily Value
- Vitamin A
- 1,200 IU
- 25%
- Vitamin C
- 4 mg
- 6%
- Vitamin D
- 312 IU
- 80%
- Thiamine
- 0.2 mg
- 15%
- Riboflavin
- 0.2 mg
- 15%
- Vitamin B6
- 1 mg
- 50%
-
- Other Ingredients: Honey, glycerin, arabic gum, ascorbic
acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A palmitate, gelatin,cocarboxylase,
riboflavin, and cholecalciferol.
-
- OK, on the honor system, now... how many of you see the
disconnect showing this is not really a 100%, "Whole-Food"! Maybe
I'm wrong, but it looks to me like the only nutrients listed above in amounts
remotely large enough to list on the label, are not from the whole food,
at all, but were added... ...later! The way you can tell, reader, is that
all 6 items are also listed in the "Other Ingredients" section!
You see, if they were part of the touted and ostensible "Whole Food"
it would not be necessary to list them in the "Other Ingredients,"
would it! No.
-
- A lay person might not readily notice this because they
do not know that - The Vit.D in the above "Supp-Facts" is called
by another name, cholecalciferol, in the "Other Ingredients"...
the Thiamine in "Supp-Facts" is called cocarboxylase in the "Other
Ingredients"... the Vitamin B6 in the "Supp-Facts" is called
pyridoxine hydrochloride in the "Other Ingredients"...the Vit.C
in the "Supp-Facts" is called ascorbic acid in the "Other
Ingredients".
-
- See? This is really not a true whole-food multi because
they added Vit's & Min's the same way a quality (Natural, Organic)
Multi-Vit. does... but while duplicitously railing against those rival
Multi's and the very process they, themselves, employ! What foul disingenuousness
is this? That's a measure of dismissive disrespect for you, good reader!
If I'm wrong and these 6 items are actually an integral part of and came
from the Whole Food, then please explain my mistake so I can be improved.
-
- Interestingly, you find, when SP does its adding Vitamins,
they don't actually do as good a job as the "Regular" Multi's
they bad-mouth because a "Regular Multi" would put in the minimum
100% of the % DV! So, instead of 0.2mg Thiamine at a meager 15%, a good
multi would put in 100%... instead of 0.2mg of riboflavin (B-2) at a measly
15% in Catalyn, a good Multi would run that sucker up to at least 100%
of the Daily Value. See the subterfuge? You only think you're getting what
you need based on the sellers seeming duplicity of artful labeling!
-
- Here is part of what supplement-watch reported - the
rest at the end :
-
- Theory-
- Meaningful long-term dietary multivitamin/mineral supplementation
should be complete, by providing the recommended intakes for all vitamins
and minerals. Catalyn meets the SupplementWatch Essential Nutrients criteria
for only 2 of the 22 vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D and vitamin B6 were
the only nutrients present at levels above 50% of the NRC recommended intakes.
Trace minerals are present in the formula as part of the food concentrates,
but the amount of each mineral was not available and could not be included
in this review.
- Value
- Catalyn did not score well based on the SupplementWatch
criteria. Catalyn is lacking many of the essential nutrients needed for
a basic multivitamin and mineral supplement. Catalyn is only available
through health care professionals and costs 30 cents per day.
- .
- copyright supplementwatch Inc. 2007
-
- Let me be clear about something: I don't expect the nutrient
amounts in Catalyn or any other Whole Food to even come close to the recommended
100% of the % DV... but whatever it is, I want to know the amount, even
if it is very small! Especially when it is very small!
-
- I want to decide how many tablets I want to take! I want
to make an informed consent; I would know! If; however, a recommended daily
dose of 3 big tablets like Catalyn only contain a trace amount of the necessary
Vit's & Min's, then all the enzymes, synergy and whole-foodness in
the world can't turn virtually nothing into something significant! They
provide disservice only implying to you that they can!
-
- In reference to the "quality," the "high-tech
processing," and "purity," etc.: all of this "Fluff"
means nothing if the product is as therapeutic as combining V-8 and grape
juice together with inadequate amounts of regular "non-WF" Vitamins...
added later to inadequate amounts of whole-food!
-
- Now, the preceding is a considered speculation and justified
hyperbole because I have no idea how nutritiously efficacious the WF portion
of Catalyn might be so as to make that comparison... but, oh yeah, that
was the problem, wasn't it! You can't make that comparison because that
info is not made available to you!
-
- See?! This is in fact one of the tricks bogus "Whole
Food" Supplement makers use to confuse and beguile us! They overwhelm
us with the "high-techiness," the quality-control, and the wonderful
processing, but that is all but "fluffy-crap-word-salad" to make
you forget that you have no idea how much "stuff" is actually
in there.
-
- Go to the Catalyn web-site and you will see yet another
trick! They overwhelm you with lists of hundreds of phyto-nutrients (sans
amounts!) to make it look like this product is loaded with lots of great
stuff, though, look at it this way:
-
- ...V8 juice is heavy with tomatoes... the lowly tomato
has over 10,000 different phyto-chemicals! If V8 decided to list about
a thousand of these nutrients on it's label, it would look very impressive
but it would mean virtually NOTHING (it's still just a tomato)... just
like the long list of nutrients on the Catalyn web-site means virtually
NOTHING because, think about this, reader...
-
- ...You could sell a freaking bottle of tap-water and
boldly list all 72 trace minerals found naturally in tap-water on the label!
...And, Elements like Praseodymium & Dysprosium would impress some
boned-headed people into believing the crap was a "Mineral-Health
Drink" and a 30 day supply might cost $30 for a one tablespoon "daily
dose" you mix in your freaking juice or slosh on your grits!
-
- It remains, this single tablespoon of plain, fluorine
laden tap-water will have a great selling point when it "truthfully"
says on the label "Contains every Mineral needed for Good Health."
"Good for your teeth": considering fluorine!
-
- You see, a Tbls of tap-water DOES have every mineral
needed for good health BUT in such tee-tiny amounts as to be almost nonexistent.
That's truth in advertising?
-
- We need a pretty big daily dose of Calcium... so do you
think the eentcy, weency, teeny, tiny trace amount of Calcium in a spoonful
of tap-water could come close to being a therapeutic dose? Of course not,
though our imaginary ad is true - it does have "every" mineral,
but our imaginary ad also implies that 1 tablespoon's worth has enough
"for good health" when it has virtually nothing to do with good
health.
-
- That's the whole, "Whole-Food conundrum" in
a nutshell! It is just too easy to mislead people with Whole-Food flash.
This is not forgetting that Catalyn does have some good "Glandular"
nutrients with all the associated beneficial enzymes, etc, so if it was
sold as a "Glandular-Enzyme, Herbal Formula" to be used in conjunction
with a good MultiVitamin/Mineral, then I would say "fine"! ...But
to pass itself off as a "Complete" MultiVit/Min. is deception
of the highest order.
-
- When Dr. Royal Lee invented Catalyn back in 1929 it was
supposedly the first "Multi" Vitamin ever made. I certainly feel
sure he was headed in the right direction with his Whole-Food Philosophy
and I'm sure the nutrients in Catalyn are helpful to some people... though,
I don't think we can expect it, 7 decades later, to be considered a "COMPLETE"
MultiVitamin/Mineral... considering back then no one was sure what an adequate
"MultiVitamin/Mineral" should actually look like.
-
- Also Dr. Lee is philosophically endorsed by the "Weston
A. Price" Foundation, which is WAY ahead of its time and one of the
greatest Organizations on this planet so it is very uncomfortable for me
to be at odds with them... the two PhD gals who run that place are my heroes!
-
- Believe me Folks, this whole business makes me very sad
because I think the world of my Chiropractor and I have a profound respect
for Chiropractors in general... so jeez, can't they just stop calling the
damn thing a...
-
- ***Complete MULTI-Vitamin/Mineral***
-
- That is just wrong, in my opinion.
-
-
- Closing: an admonition to Standard Process Inc! The errant
representation of Catalyn foments a ready faux-necessity of the CODEX -
that foul initiative removing self-administered nutritional supplementation
materials from lay hands. Who can buy their product line, then, eh?
-
- Questions?
-
- Alan Graham
- E-mail - alan068@centurytel.net
- Paper Archive - http://www.alienview.net/ALLTCON.html
-
- That's enough. Well be.
-
- Supplement-Watch report:
-
- Rating
- Don't waste your money
-
- Company
- Standard Process Inc.
-
-
- Claims
- Catalyn is a multiple vitamin, mineral, trace mineral,
and enzyme-concentrate, formulated by Dr. Royal Lee in 1929. Catalyn is
the antithesis of the "mega-dose" approach to nutritional supplementation.
Dr. Lee summoned the whole of his considerable nutritional experience and
know-how to provide a nutritional "catalyst", a supplement using
whole food ingredients which he named Catalyn. Dr. Lee's goal was to provide
a food-based package of nutrients in the most potent and "bioavailable
form" - its natural state.
-
-
-
-
- Science
- Criteria #1 = Essential Nutrients = Catalyn meets the
SupplementWatch Essential Nutrients criteria for only 2 of the 22 vitamins
and minerals. Vitamin D and vitamin B6 were the only nutrients present
at levels above 50% of the NRC recommended intakes. Criteria #2 = Vitamin
and Mineral Sources = Vitamin E and all of the minerals reviewed were not
present in the formula. Criteria #3 = Antioxidant Blend = Catalyn does
not provide optimal levels for any of the evaluated antioxidant nutrients.
Vitamin E (0 IU), vitamin C (3 mg), beta carotene (0 IU) and selenium (0
mcg) all fell below the optimal levels. Criteria #4 = B-vitamin blend =
None of the B-vitamins were present in optimal levels that will support
normal homocysteine levels or energy metabolism. Criteria #5 = Bone Nutrition
= Catalyn provides optimal levels for only one of the six required bone
nutrients. Catalyn provides no calcium, magnesium, vitamin K, boron or
silicon.
-
-
- Safety
- Catalyn provides safe (very low) levels of all vitamins
and minerals. None of the ingredients exceed the NOAEL.
-
-
-
- Theory
- Meaningful long-term dietary multivitamin/mineral supplementation
should be complete, by providing the recommended intakes for all vitamins
and minerals. Catalyn meets the SupplementWatch Essential Nutrients criteria
for only 2 of the 22 vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D and vitamin B6 were
the only nutrients present at levels above 50% of the NRC recommended intakes.
Trace minerals are present in the formula as part of the food concentrates,
but the amount of each mineral was not available and could not be included
in this review.
-
- Value
- Catalyn did not score well based on the SupplementWatch
criteria. Catalyn is lacking many of the essential nutrients needed for
a basic multivitamin and mineral supplement. Catalyn is only available
through health care professionals and costs 30 cents per day.
-
- copyright supplementwatch Inc.
|
