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The plant-based vitamin C is absorbed by the body in its most bioavailable form. What of the ascorbic acid? Synthetic nutrients pose a unique challenge to the body, which often does not recognize them or their value. The human body is so intelligent that it constantly adjusts to remedy nutritional deficits by attempting to make incomplete nutrients whole. When we consume synthetic ascorbic acid, our bodies immediately begin scavenging bones and tissue to complete the ascorbic acid by finding the missing critical metabolic compounds. From this perspective, synthetic vitamins can actually deplete the body of its vitamin stores. In the case of ascorbic acid, one recent study even suggests that without its cofactors it damages the body by hardening the arterial walls.
I have worked with a number of talented food scientists who were actively developing “vitamin-enhanced” beverages. They usually qualify their work privately with statements like, “I know that this doesn’t really work.” When I probe further, they reluctantly admit their concern stems from both application and efficacy points of view. In one study to understand shelf stability, 3500 IU of vitamin A was added to a beverage and placed in a visi-cooler common in convenience stores. Within seven days the vitamin A level had dropped to 1000 IU. Even if they did function properly to improve health, the premix vitamins commonly used in today’s functional beverages have the reputation for a very short shelf life.
The Future of Functionality?
So are all synthetic ingredients bad and nature-made good? Of course not. Is it easier and less expensive to fortify with synthetic vitamins? Yes. But does ease-of-manufacture rationalize a nutritionally compromised product? Not to me.
It is too early in the evolution of the development of the healthy, functional beverage category to make predictions, but colorful packaging, fantasy flavors, catchy names, and the suggestion of nutritional benefits have so far been enough to build the category to over a billion dollars. I do believe that there is significant growth ahead, but as a beverage innovator, I ask myself if I will simply ride the existing wave or actively shape the direction of the next one. At any given point in history, our ability to create solutions is only as good as the accumulated knowledge to date. It takes some measure of humility to acknowledge that what we know today about nutrition will appear in the future to be very simplistic. But what we can say with certainty is that nutrition from food works, and that nutrition from anything else may or may not. In this sense, taking the side of food source nutrients, while seemingly the conservative approach, is also the right next one.