Vitamins Versus PLANT MEDICINE
Is There a Difference?
Author: Magda Strachan Let me start by sharing this quote by Don Miguel Ruis, “What you are communicating is just a point of view based on what you believe”. I don’t claim to have the answer to the above question, however when it comes to Plant Medicine, I feel comfortable sharing my point of view with anyone who asks. Most of what I share comes from many years of research, personal experience, and documented studies which are available to anyone who makes the time to do the research.
The Oxford Dictionary describes Vitamins as “any of a group of organic compounds which are essential for normal growth and nutrition and are required in small quantities in the diet because they cannot be synthesized by the body. Plant Medicine as “remedies and medicines made from plants”.

In essence if we consider the Oxford definition of Vitamins and Plant Medicine, then the simple answer to the question is NO, there is no difference between Vitamins and Plant Medicine.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple! If indeed we can find the Vitamins we need in plants, surely, we can get everything we need from the food we eat? What’s wrong with our food? Why do we have to spend our hard-earned money on pills, powders and creams that claim to provide us with the necessary Vitamins? What are we missing? Let’s look at what’s in the Vitamins that we buy! Do they live up to Oxfords definition of what a Vitamin is?
Vitamin C is an important Vitamin that all of us need and one that has received a lot of attention over the last couple of years. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient required for the maintenance of the skin, blood vessels, bones and cartilage, and wound healing. Vitamin C also helps protect cells against oxidative stress, which in turn provides protection against certain diseases.
There is an American range of Vitamins available in South African and promoted as one of the better options for a variety of reasons, one being the quality of the product. I personally used both the Vitamin C and B for several years because the ingredient list was short and there were no strange added ingredients. I make a point of regularly checking the labels of any product I use and about two years ago I noticed that the Vitamin C list of ingredients had grown to seven, not a good sign! Ideally a good Vitamin should consist mostly of the actual Vitamin compound and perhaps one extra natural ingredient for the capsule shell.

Three of the ingredients were unfamiliar so I looked them up and words like soap, sand, lubricant, and toxicity were used to describe them. One, stood out, Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC). It was described as “an odourless and tasteless, white to slightly off-white, fibrous, or granular, free-flowing powder that is a synthetic modification of the natural polymer, cellulose. It is used in the food industry as a multipurpose food ingredient. HPMC is used as a replacement for Gelatine, thereby making it Vegetarian and Vegan friendly. What they don’t tell you is that during production, various highly reactive, harmful, and toxic substances are used.
Is it fair for the manufacturers to claim that their product consists of “Organic Compounds” which the Oxford definition describes as a Vitamin, when clearly there’s a lot more in these products? Perhaps we should look at the word “Organic”!

Next time you buy your Vitamins, look at the ingredients and see if you recognise all of them? If not, look them up and weigh up the pro’s, and con’s, of taking something that contains sand, soap and that may be toxic! Do you know anything about the company that manufactures your Vitamins? There are so many questions that need answering, like, if the Vitamins on the shelf are not what they claim to be, can we trust our food to provide us with these Vitamins?
It’s time we take responsibility for our wellbeing and if you allow me, I would be willing to answer some of the questions we should be asking and share my findings with you.
Until next time!
Magda Strachan
Willing Wellness