Cataplex Series

Cataplex Series – In Standard Process, the word Cata means catalyst and Plex is short for complex.  

Catalyst is something that initiates chemical/biological reactions. Complex suggests that is a multitude of nutrients unlike the vast majority of synthetic isolated extracts that we call vitamins. An isolated extract such as what we call Vitamin C ( Ascorbic Acid)  is not complete.  Ascorbic Acid is not an active nutrient it needs synergistic cofactors, like copper, to be active.  

When you take high doses of an incomplete vitamin several things happen:

  1. Without the cofactors the nutrient is less absorbable into the body meaning you poop not pee most of it out.
  2. The amount that is absorbed is not usable biologically by the body. To activate it, you have to steal its natural cofactors away from other tissues in the body thus causing deficiencies in those areas.
  3. That which doesn’t bind to other cofactors gets urinated out like the excess Riboflavin will give you the classic yellow pee after taking a Vitamin B complex.

A whole food supplement to be effective needs several factors 

  1. To be grown on organic, non chemically treated fields.
  2. Proper management and rotation of fields so the maximum nutrients and pytochemicals are absorbed by the plant.
  3. Processed without heat so that there is no denaturing of the nutrients or enzymes that give it the potency.
  4. Clear of any chemical washes during processing.
  5. Uses natural binding agents such as honey.

Cataplex B vs. Vitamin B Mega Complex

If you just look at the labels, Cataplex B will lose compared to a synthetic vitamin. Synthetic extracts will give you well over the RDA value in the pill.  Mega’s will give you a short term boost until you actually feel worse several weeks later after you have exhausted all the cofactors from other parts of the body. Most B vitamins are isolates from coal tar made by the pharmaceutical industry. There is nothing wrong with the molecule it just doesn’t exist in nature.  So it is not usable by the body.

Cataplex B will look light on the label but gives you the full spectrum of nutrients that the B vitamins need not only to be absorbed but also to be active in the body. Less equals more.

Here is my best analogy to explain the whole food supplement to a mega isolated vitamin:

If you ask me for a piece of apple pie and I give you an apple, what would you say? That the apple is not a piece of pie it is just one of the ingredients. If my response is to give you a full bushel of apples you would be no closer to your piece of apple pie. More of incomplete does NOT make it better.