What is Titanium Dioxide Doing in My Vitamin Supplements?

“Vitamins are good for us’” is the overwhelming consensus if you ask just about anybody.  They support our body functions and gives us the extra nutrients we need. So what’s titanium dioxide, (now categorized as a carcinogenic in Canada)  doing in bottles from some of the largest vitamins manufacturers.  If you’re like me, this news comes as a big surprise.

How can that be you ask?  The question you should be asking is, do you read your vitamin bottles, herbal supplements and cosmetics carefully enough to know what your buying? Below is the label of one of the largest vitamin manufactures in the U.S.  Check out the nomenclature,  CAREFULLY!  If your not a chemist it may look like a foreign language.  This is the real label, nothing added or subtracted. INGREDIENTS: Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Dibasic Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C), Ferrous Fumarate, Pregelatinized Corn Starch, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vit. E). Contains < 2% of: Acacia, Beta-Carotene, BHT, Biotin, Boric Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Calcium Stearate, Cholecalciferol (Vit. D3), Chromium Picolinate, Citric Acid, Corn Starch, Crospovidone, Cupric Sulfate, Cyanocobalamin (Vit. B12), FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake, Folic Acid, Gelatin, Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Hypromellose, Manganese Sulfate, Medium-Chain Triglycerides, Modified Food Starch, Niacinamide, Nickelous Sulfate, Phytonadione (Vit. K), Polyethylene Glycol, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Potassium Iodide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vit. B6), Riboflavin (Vit. B2), Silicon Dioxide, Sodium Ascorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Metavanadate, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenate, Sorbic Acid, Stannous Chloride, Sucrose, Talc, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vit. B1), Titanium Dioxide, Tocopherols, Tribasic Calcium Phosphate, Vitamin A Acetate (Vit. A), Zinc Oxide. May also contain < 2% of Ascorbyl Palmitate, Maltodextrin, Sodium Aluminosilicate, Sunflower Oil.

You are not alone if you’re having a hard time understanding the names on this list of ingredients. Certainly, this is not a product you should purchase if you are looking for a healthy vitamin. There was once a time when we received all our vitamins from the foods we ate and the water we drank.  Sadly, it is no longer the case. Vitamins and minerals once plentiful in our soil have been depleted by years of over-harvesting and the use of harsh fertilizers. Taking supplements is necessary today.  But to include un-pronounceable chemicals into vitamin supplements is obscene. This practice by the large manufacturers is not done for fun, all these chemicals actually have a purpose.  Some prevent the gluing together of the tablets, others provide a pleasing color or help the machinery so they don’t clog when filling bottles or capsules.  But why would we want to include these chemicals into our vitamins and herbal supplements when they have never been part of the food chain? Have you seen FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake (included in the list above) grown anywhere or does it come from an animal? The answer is nobody really wants to ingest these chemicals.  Yet ingesting any substance, never before in our food supply worries me.  The trace amounts of scary sounding chemicals may seem like insignificant risk factors but when you add up the number of chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis it becomes alarming,  as do cancers rates. We have no real data on how these chemicals react in our bodies, yet the FDA has approved the use of these chemicals in food products. What about herbal supplements?  Many contain a similarly long list of added chemicals and preservatives.

Do you buy from reputable manufacturers?  Do you read the labels?  Pacific Herbs herbal products are produced with the highest grade raw herbs available.  All our raw herbs are inspected and tested for 200 different impurities. This is the only way to know the raw products are pure and void of contaminants.  We package our herbs in individual stay-fresh packets to avoid the use of fillers, binders, excipients and flow agents.  We figured you probably get enough unknown chemicals from everyday life, you don’t need anymore in your health supplements.