It is important to know that 95% of supplements on the market are synthetic, i.e. they are created in a lab. Whole food nutrition means the supplements are produced from food or isolates that mimic the action of the chosen nutrient within the body if it were to come directly from food. Only vitamins in the whole food form contain what is needed for those vitamins to be broken down and used.\n\nBeginning around the 1950’s, Americans did begin to recognize the value of vitamins and minerals within their diet. Patented organic minerals are the only minerals that exactly mimic those found in foods, and are what we use in Optimal 2. Only in this form are minerals readily absorbed.\n\nCommercial supplements are aimed at increasing the vitamin and mineral intake using minerals like calcium carbonate, calcium citrate and other mineral derivates taken from rocks and sea shells. Unfortunately, synthetic vitamins and commonly marketed forms of minerals often create more problems than the nutrient deficiencies they are supposed to address.\n\nTherefore we are partnered with a company with a 40-year history; we have chosen to only sell products that create a real difference in the health and safety of those who purchase them – whether that was fire detectors that saved people’s lives in the ’70s, purifiers that cleaned people’s air and water in the ’80s or nutritional products and food-growing systems that enhance people’s health and well-being today, but we’ll get to that later.\n\nWhile it might be a bit of stretch to call it a nutrient, dietary fiber or ‘roughage’ is vital to the health of the digestive system, and thus to the efficacy with which all other nutrients get absorbed. They are not in adequate quantities required to label them as products made from all natural vitamins.