Many people tell me that they would rather buy the natural vitamin C even if it may be slightly more expensive. But how is the natural vitamin C actually different from the synthetic version?
As a
chemist, there is no difference… That’s what one of my chemistry profs said in
first year. The vitamin C molecule is a vitamin C molecule. Exactly same
regardless of the previous history.
Think about
how many atoms once forming Isaac Newton is part of your breakfast porridge…
According to a redditor veryLittle, there will be around 10 million "Isaac Newton atoms" for every ounce of soup (The original post shows the calculation method in
detail. link).
The world
is made of molecules and the molecules that were once Isaac Newton are
chemically no different from ones that were once Adolf Hitler. A human being is
an emergent property. Just because all the components have property X, it does
not mean that the overall structure has that property.
On a
smaller level, all molecules are made of atoms. Depending on the rearrangement
of atoms, the overall property of the molecule can change. When the atomic make
up is the same, they are called isomers. A very interesting kind of isomers is
enantiomers. Two molecules are enantiomeric if they are mirror images of each
other. These molecules are interesting in that they have the same chemical
properties but their actions in the body can be different. One common kind of enantiomer
is amino acid. In our body, we only have the L version.
The next
nature question might be how the enantiomer can act differently in our body.
Before I describe the process in depth, it’s worth asking how compounds have an
effect on our body. There are many ways, but the most general way is by binding
to receptors. The binding event triggers other biological processes in our body
and this is the effect that we notice.
When binding, the handedness matters. Intuitively,
it’s like a right-handed person using left handed tools or putting left hand
gloves on your right hand. It just doesn’t fit well.
At the end, it's the molecule that matters...
Wait no that's not true. The environment in which the molecule is at also matters. Phenophethalein is a very common pH indicator. It changes color depending on the pH of the environment. I remember doing a phenophthalein pH titration in highschool. I thought it was really cool at first, because color change is just cool... So the same molecule can exhibit different properties... in different environments...
So to summarize, the the physiological and physicochemical properties of something depends on 1. the chemical composition, 2. the arrangement of atoms (isomers can have different effects), and 3. the environment in which the molecule is exposed to.
So... back to the original question. Is natural vitamin C different from a synthetic one? Maybe maybe not. The fact that it is natural or synthetic doesn't matter. However, natural vitamin C and synthetic vitamin C may contain different impurities. The extraction process for obtaining natural vitamin C is not perfect, so some other compounds may be existent and very low quantities. Similarly, the synthetic process introduces impurities that is not completely removed (just because 100.00000000...% is near impossible to achieve). Can this factor have any influence? I would say yes... for sure. In theory, it's possible. Whether it actually does is a different question altogether. Human studies suggest to difference apparently [1] and I would personally buy whatever is cheaper. But don't take my word for it. I need to do more readings to make sure.
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3847730/
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