Whole Foods, NOT Nutraceuticals! – with Dr T; – your SV Ayurveda Newsletter Oct 9, 2025, #38, Vol 15

This is an ancient classical formula that comes in 6 different variations. My father, Vaidya Kameshwar Mishra, used to favor one of these only. It’s the one that I also like to use. In the classical texts, it is called “dadimastak churn” or a churna (herbal powdered mix) of “dadi” or pomegranate, and “astak” means eight. So the name highlights the fact that the formula primarily contains pomegranate plus eight specific herbs/plants in powder form. This is a proven ancient formula for amlapitta, or sour stomach. Now, under its new SVA name, Pro-Pachaka, you will find it delivers powerful support to enhance the interaction of enzymes with the food. This tablet is tri-doshic. It will help clear up udana – the areas of the chest & throat; balance samana – in the stomach & small intestine; & pacify apana or the colon area, without heating or aggravating pitta.  Purified trikatu powder (pippali, sunthi, & long pepper) is used in this tablet. Trikatu can be very heating (agneya). This formula uses purified trikatu – trikatu is cooled by soaking the raw ingredients in takra (ayurvedic buttermilk) before making the powder.

Ingredients

• Pomegranate (Punica granatum): Supports the interactions of enzymes with food. Great anti-oxidant – wherever amlapitta is present we find amavisha. Pomegranate removes amavisha and supports/restores the mucous membranes of the stomach, lungs, and colon.

• Vanshlochan (Bambusa Arundinacea): Neutralizes acid but carries a good balance of soma and agni. It’s tri-doshic. Vanshlochan can ‘soak’ kledaka kapha of the stomach if it is too high. 

• Nagkeshar (Mesuaferra): Enhances enzymatic secretions and interactions

• Ajmoda (Carum roxburghianum): Supports enzymatic secretions and interactions without heating things up

• Pippali or Long pepper (Piper longum): Mild agneya to balance enzymes and open physical channels

• Sunthi: Ayurvedic ginger for pitta. Opens the channels and increases intelligence of enzymatic interactions

• Black pepper (Piper nigrum): Mild agneya to balance enzymes and open channels, support the flow of bile and digestion

• Chavya (Piper cubeba): Highly aromatic and appetite enhancer plant that helps unblock enzymatic channels, enhancing the interaction between enzymes and the food, without heating up the system. It acts as a great carrier (yogvahi) for pomegranate

• Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum): Agneya to balance kledaka and open the channels

Organic Sugar Crystals: Cools and balances heat of the other ingredients

• Organic Sugar Crystals: Cools and balances heat of the other ingredients

Have you ever wonderful why and where do seasons comes from? The short answer is: Mother Earth circumambulates the sun and the seasons are born. But why and how? Earth’s axis is tilted, and as it orbits the sun, different hemispheres receive more direct sunlight at different times of the year. When a hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, it receives more direct rays and experiences warmer temperatures and longer days (summer). When that same hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, the sunlight is less direct, leading to cooler temperatures and shorter days (winter).

But let’s take this thought further: more or less sunlight results in more or less heat, which results in different natural climates that host different vegetation and animal cycle lives. Just like different locations carry different characteristics based on how much sunlight (and therefore heat/agni) they receive, just so, different seasons of the year have a different impact on our bodies. The relationship between the Sun – agni – and Earth – soma, is akin to the relationship between the Sun and our bodies which also carry Soma….

Autumn is when the earth moves away from its proximity to the sun, and we receive less agni. The primary organ that gets impacted by this is our stomach, our digestive system. In addition, our physical channels, shrotas, shrink.

Because of this and other factors, in Autumn, we inevitably have impaired digestion: our cravings increase as the temperatures cool off, and our digestive fire is at its lowest. And then what? You guessed it: this is the perfect scenario for making toxins from our food – regardless of how careful we are; AND this is also a primary reason why get the infamous “seasonal cold.” In the ayurvedic tradition, this is why it is recommended to do a “seasonal cleanse” at this seasonal juncture, or “ritu sandhi.” What should you do? Go easy on heavy rich foods, initiate elimination, shift dietary habits, etc. The primary objective of a seasonal is to stoke and reset the digestive fire.

Don’t have time to do detox, or not sure how to do it? No worries! Here is a balanced formula made by Vaidya Mishra that does just that: resets your digestive fire, or pachak agni.

In addition to using this product in any form, the next best thing you can do is NOT ingest food items that you know can be too heavy and may cause toxicity in your body. Summer is over so you can safely eliminate ice-cream, excessive sweet treats, too many carbs – bread, pasta; rich heavy cheeses, pizza, etc. Focus on light, nourishing, warm, easy to digest meals – vegetables cooked with easy to digest delicious grains such as: quinoa, millet, amaranth, etc.

Look for our newsletter next week for delicious detox recipes and tips…. In the meantime, Dr Teitelbaum shares invaluable details about why whole foods are better then nutraceuticals, specially in Autumn…

Namaste!

Whole Foods Over

Nutraceuticals

~ Dr Marianne Teitelbaum

Many people are discovering the health benefits of berberine, since it can help to lower blood sugar, and is used for inflammatory conditions and a hyper-reactive immune system. Lots of people have also found out about caprylic acid and how it helps to kill off a candida albicans yeast infection. And health food stores are carrying butyrate as the public finds out the benefits of this amazing compound. And a large segment of the population consumes synthetic vitamins on a regular basis.

But if you’ve been following me and listening to my videos, reading my books or hear me speak in classes and podcasts, you’ll know by now that in Ayurveda we don’t recommend taking the remedies in this way, where you isolate the active ingredient out of the remedy and synthetically make it in a lab. The reason we don’t recommend taking these types of supplements is because they are lacking the prana, or the life energy they receive which is found from the sun and the moon hitting the herb or the food as it’s growing outside. 

There are even more reasons not to take the synthetic versions. Let’s take a look at what some of the pioneers in the field of nutrition had to say about these man-made nutraceuticals.

Dr. Royal Lee, Founder of Standard Process Labs was a prominent figure in the field of nutrition and a strong advocate for whole, natural foods. In fact his supplements were made out of food and not isolated ingredients. 

He spoke out often against the synthetic production of vitamins and other nutrients and the idea that isolated nutrients could replace the complex nutrition found in whole foods. 

Here is a quote taken from his early writings, several decades ago: “Synthetic vitamins are not true vitamins at all. They are chemical compounds that are created in laboratories and are not capable of performing the complex biological functions of natural vitamins. The body cannot utilize synthetic vitamins in the same way it can utilize the vitamins from food.”

He argued that synthetic vitamins are usually isolated from their original complex matrix in food, which means that they lack the co-factors and other compounds that help the body absorb and use them effectively. 

He further stated, “Whole food concentrates contain all the factors necessary for the utilization of nutrients. They have an inherent wisdom, a synergy, that is lost in isolated or synthetic products.”

This inherent wisdom he speaks of is the prana which we recognize in Ayurveda. This pranic energy gives intelligence to our cells, so if the remedy coming in is lacking in intelligence, the cells get confused and don’t know how to function properly.

Dr. Lee often emphasized that food is more than just a collection of vitamins, minerals, and calories. Whole Foods come with a host of supportive nutrients, enzymes, and trace elements that help the body absorb and process the nutrients efficiently.

He spoke out against the dangers of isolated nutrients, stating, “The body doesn’t recognize isolated synthetic vitamins as food. It treats them as foreign substances, which can result in imbalance and toxic buildup.”

When I hear this statement I think of all the patients I have seen through the years who took so many tablets each day of synthetic vitamins, creating lots of liver toxicity and I even saw many patients who developed high liver enzymes, indicating that the liver was under stress from too many toxins going through it. The enzymes came down after they discontinued their nutraceuticals. I even saw patients develop kidney damage from all the supplements they took over their lifetime.

Dr. Lee also spoke out about the synergy contained in foods:

He said, “The vitamins in food work together as part of a complex biological system, where each nutrient influences the absorption and function of the others. Synthetic vitamins, however, are separate, unconnected entities that fail to participate in the natural nutrient synergy.”

I would add here that the same thing can be said about herbs (as in the case of berberine) and food (as in the case of caprylic acid and butyrate).

He went on to say that whole foods are far superior to synthetic isolates as they contain the full spectrum of nutrients that nature intended, in the right balance, and in a form the body can utilize.”

His stance on synthetic vitamins was ahead of its time, especially considering how common synthetic vitamin supplementation is today. His writings date back to the research he was actively involved in around the 1930’s to the 1960’s but many of his ideas were published in the 1940’s and 1950’s. 

There were other pioneers in nutrition who also recommended eating whole foods vs taking synthetic supplements. One of those was Dr. Weston Price, a dentist and nutritionist who studied traditional diets and their relationship to health. He traveled around the world in the 1930’s and studied various indigenous populations and found time and again that those populations who ate whole foods had far superior health than those living on processed foods.

Dr. Edward Howell, an American biochemist and nutritionist who studied enzymes and their role in human health was highly critical of the synthetic vitamins that began to flood the market in the mid-20th century. He argued that synthetic vitamins were not biologically active in the same way that natural vitamins in whole foods were, and he also warned that they could lead to imbalances in the body. 

He emphatically stated, “Enzymes are the catalyst for every chemical reaction in the body, and synthetic vitamins cannot replace the natural vitamins found in living foods.”

Dr. Bernard Jensen was another pioneer in holistic health and was skeptical of synthetic vitamins, believing that they were often harmful or at best ineffective. He was quoted as saying, “Synthetic vitamins are poor substitutes for the real, naturally occurring vitamins found in whole foods. They lack the supporting factors that help the body absorb and utilize them.”

Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp was a German biophysicist and researcher credited with pioneering the field of biophotonics. He discovered that living cells emit light (biophotons) which play a crucial role in the regulation of cellular function. He too was highly critical of synthetic nutrients, particularly because he said they lacked the energetic quality of food grown in natural, healthy environments. He argued that synthetic vitamins could disrupt the balance of the body’s bioenergetic field. 

This also parallels our thinking in Ayurveda since prana is just that — it’s light — the light from the sun and moon charging and absorbing into the food and herbs as they are growing out in the fields. And it’s this vibration of nature that gets absorbed into our cells, imparting vibrant life energy to the whole cellular system.

He stated, “The energetic qualities of food are as important as its biochemical properties. Synthetic nutrients lack the subtle energies that nature provides.”

Dr. Francis M. Pottenger was an American physician best known for his studies on the effects of diet on health. His work was influential in the natural health community, showing the importance of whole, unprocessed foods for maintaining health across generations. He was a critic of modern processed foods and synthetic supplements. He observed that when animals were fed processed foods or synthetic nutrients they developed various health problems such as infertility, bone deformities and immune dysfunction.

Here is a quote from Dr. Pottenger, “The health of animals, as well as humans, depends on the quality of the whole food consumed, not isolated nutrients in synthetic form.”

And there are others. But I think you get the idea. These pioneers of the previous century were able to cognize what the ancient rishis of India always understood — that our health was dependent on the pranic energy found in nature. Once we stray from this foundational truth our health may suffer. Yes, we might get some initial benefit from taking a synthetic supplement, but in the long run our health may deteriorate if too many are taken for too long.

So it is best to get your vitamins, minerals and amino acids from whole foods. Get your berberine from herbs such as barberry or daruharidra, get butyrate from eating fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, raw honey and ghee, and get your caprylic acid from goat’s milk. Don’t be tempted to rush out and buy the synthetic isolated synthetic versions of these foods. You will be much healthier if you don’t.

I hope this information helps you as you strive to eat the healthiest diet possible in order to regain and maintain radiant health.

Thank you,

Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum

Cinnaminson, New Jersey 

856-786-3330

drmteitelbaum.com

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