Powdered Vitamins Safe From Toxic Additive Found in some Liquid Vitamins

By: Mandy Wildman

While sodium benzoate is considered technically indispensable in pre-made liquid vitamins (it is used as a preservative), powdered supplements that need no preservatives can be mixed with juice and provide a viable alternative. Doug Ingoldsby, President of All One / Nutritech (www.All-One.com), whose father, James Ingoldsby, pioneered the nutritional supplement industry starting in the 1930's, feels that powdered nutrition supplements that dissolve in liquid provide a healthy alternative. "I am in full agreement that liquids absorb more thoroughly than pills or tablets. However, pre-made liquids are very unstable and must contain preservatives," says Ingoldsby.

People buy liquid supplements to improve their health and because they absorb better than vitamin pills. But ironically, they could unwittingly be doing irreversible damage to their bodies. Studies show that the chemical makeup of any liquid vitamin supplement containing sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate is the perfect environment for the formation of benzene when combined with ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. Benzene has been linked to leukemia and other cancers of the blood and can cross the placenta, affecting the fetus. It has also been linked to hyperactivity in children.

Major companies and some retailers are taking notice. With growing pressure from British consumers about the presence of sodium benzoate in their diet soda, even Coca Cola - a company not renowned for being particularly health-conscious - began eliminating the ingredient from some of its product lines in Britain as of May 2008, though there are currently no plans to do the same in the United States.

Roots Market, a local chain of stores in the Baltimore area, made the courageous commitment to pull all the products off their shelves containing chemical preservatives. Says Roots Market buyer Katie Shamp, "We created a short-list of "banned" ingredients - some of the ingredients on that list were artificial preservatives sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate," says Shamp. "There was a moment of pause when we realized that one of our top-sellers also contained these artificial preservatives but we kept working at it and found replacements. Powders or effervescents that can be made into a drink replaced many of these liquids."

So should we be concerned about potentially toxic levels of benzene contained in liquid vitamins (primarily consumed by babies, children, nursing mothers and the elderly)? The US National Institute of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements seems to think so, and has contracted a laboratory to test the potential dangers of liquid supplements preserved with sodium benzoate. And in a 2006 study, the Korean Food and Drug Administration found that 27 out of 30 liquid supplements contained significant levels of benzene, with some harboring more than 17 times the maximum allowable limit. Ingoldsby muses: "It's almost funny that the Coca Cola company is taking the lead in the elimination of a so-called 'technically indispensable' ingredient even before many health food supplement companies." It may not be too long before Americans make the switch to powdered nutrient supplements as their health-conscious European counterparts have been doing for some time.

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Mandy Wildman has worked over 20 years as a freelance writer for numerous publications and a variety of clients. She is the owner of YOU Video Branding and Two Cups Connect.

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