Meal Replacement Drinks That Don’t Contain Folic Acid or Cyanide

Recently, I saw an ad on Instagram for a really delicious-looking meal replacement drink. I’m always looking for excellent options in this area, and so are many of my clients, so I clicked real quick! Let’s be honest: real, unprocessed foods are always preferred but when time or digestive function are lacking, you still gotta eat.

I burrowed into the ingredient list and frowned to see this product contains “folic acid” and “cyanocobalamin”. These are the cheap, synthetic forms of the B vitamins, folate & B12, respectively.

“Cheap” sounds okay until you realize that, on a molecular level, synthetic vitamins are slightly different from the natural vitamins found in food. “Slightly” sounds acceptable until you realize our bodies have grown used to recognizing and using specific molecules for millions of years!

Imagine that the building blocks of food and the micro mechanical parts of our bodies are made out of Legos. When you eat an apple dunked in almond butter, your teeth, stomach acid and digestive enzymes break that food into tiny pieces of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. When those tiny pieces are escorted from your Food Tube into your body, they click into cell receptors and become part of you.

Now, imagine you eat food that’s made of an off-market brand of building blocks, called Schmegos. You can force a Schmego to fit into a Lego, but it’s either gonna be a bit wobbly or a bit too tight. Schmegos cost less than Legos, but when you’re talking about your inner bits, the extra money is well worth it.

Sometimes a Schmego (synthetic vitamin) can be swapped for a Lego (natural vitamin) as-is. But most of the time small changes must be made to the Schmego to turn it into a Lego. This requires the body to do extra work and use up some of its raw materials.

The small differences between Schmegos and Legos can be tolerated by most people, but for others, such as those with MTHFR flaws, these synthetic B vitamins can create long-term havoc.

More on Folic Acid:

If all you can get is folic acid, it’s better than nothing because folate deficiency is dangerous! For pregnant women, folate deficiency results in _. For anyone else, it means anemia. Anemia is a deal-breaker because it prevents the body from distributing energy and nutrients… like only being able to get gasoline to 3/4s of a car’s engine.
Here are a couple articles with good references: http://thepaleodiet.com/the-dangers-of-artificial-folic-acid/ & https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/eat-to-live-blog/16/why-you-need-folate-and-not-folic-acid.

More on Cyanocobalamin:

The ideal forms of B12 are: methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin. Cyanocobalamin and hydroxycobalamin must be converted into these ideal forms. For each molecule of cyanocobalamin that’s converted, a smidge of cyanide (yes, cyanide, the poison) is released into the body. Obviously, since cyanocobalamin is still being used, it’s not responsible for any widespread injury or death, but.. I mean… how many steps below ideal is it to purposely consume cyanide at any level when there are other options?