The core strength of the FoodForce organization is the sophistication of its nutritional supplements, which harness a unique technology known as FoodMatrix®. Only a handful of companies around the world have been granted a license to use this groundbreaking technology by its USA-based developers.
FoodMatrix® is based on the work of Hungarian scientist, Andrew Szalay, who developed proprietary processes to concentrate micronutrients into food complexes. The technology is supported by recent research.
FoodMatrix® Nutrients: Just like real food
FoodMatrix® technology has positioned our products way ahead of any other nutritional supplement range on the market today. Their advantage is based on the fact that they are food complexes and as such, are recognized, absorbed and utilized just like real food.
FoodMatrix® nutrients are:
- up to 12 times more bioavailable
- retained up to 16 times longer by the body
The bioavailability is so efficient that they need only be taken in conservative amounts.
FoodMatrix® Technology
Where did it all begin?
The discovery of Vitamin C in 1927 by the Hungarian scientist Albert Szent Györgyi was a significant step forward in the understanding of the role that nutrients play in the maintenance of health in the human body. Szent Györgyi used paprika and orange to isolate the white crystalline powder that we know today as ascorbic acid or vitamin C. These fruits had been used to miraculously treat and cure the incidence of scurvy.
In the process of synthesizing the active substance, Szent Györgyi used a progressively more and more concentrated form to treat scurvy patients, and found that the more concentrated the substance, the shorter the recovery time. This was an exciting discovery, but he was devastated when in his final stage of purification, when the isolated ascorbic acid was finally synthesized, the patients showed a poor response. Szent Györgyi realized that Vitamin C needs to be combined with other food substances for optimal utility in the human body.
Szent Györgyi received the Nobel prize for his work, but only much later, in 1955, discovered one of the group of substances that enhance the uptake of Vitamin C in the body. He called it Vitamin P. Today we recognize these substances as bioflavonoids and we are aware of the assistance they provide in the effective utilization of Vitamin C in the body.
Szent Györgyi’s work intrigued a young student at the University of Hungary, where Szent Györgyi was a professor. That student, Andrew Szalay, after receiving his Masters in Pharmacology, moved to the United States in the late 30’s and was distressed to see that ascorbic acid was being sold very widely as a chemical isolate for supplemental purposes. He also observed that other vitamins and minerals were also being sold as chemical isolates.
He knew that the human body was designed to process foods and to extract nutrients from these whole foods. In nature there are no isolated chemicals as source material for human nutrition. Andrew Szalay set out to find a way of providing concentrated nutrients in a food form where the nutrients are embedded to other elements including protein, carbohydrates and lipids. This endeavor took many years but culminated in a new, unique and innovative way of providing whole food nutrients as supplemental products.
Andrew Szalay developed a range of technologies that take concentrated nutrients in isolated chemical form and embed them to their essential food elements. An example would be where calcium carbonate is introduced under very specific conditions to a reactor containing live yeast. The calcium carbonate is integrated into the yeast plant to form part of the whole-food matrix. Once this process is completed, the outer membrane of the yeast cells are removed by enzymatic action, with no live yeast remaining.
Andrew Szalay has produced something most remarkable for mankind. We can now take concentrated nutrients in a food matrix form rather than as chemical isolates. Absorption, bioavailability and utilization are dramatically increased.
Are supplements necessary?
In spite of an abundant food supply in developed countries, people do not obtain sufficient quantities of essential nutrients from food. It is well understood that soils have become depleted of essential minerals. The nutrient integrity of food has been eroded through modern processing, transportation and the preoccupation of food producers with appearance and shelf life. These factors, combined with poor food choices and imbalanced diets contribute to an inadequate intake of vital nutrients. Nutritional supplementation is essential in the modern world. There are, however, significant differences in the quality and efficacy of different nutrient supplements.
What are isolated chemical vitamins and minerals?
The countless brands of vitamins and minerals available today all use isolated chemical USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) nutrients. In our modern world we have become used to the biomedical model. This model is reductionistic in its point of departure and believes that in general terms, medications and nutrients should be given as single isolated substances. Nutrients are removed from their natural environment and presented as a synthesized single chemical.
Ascorbic acid as an example, however, is never isolated in nature, but occurs in a food matrix, molecularly embedded to other food elements including bioflavonoids, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. This food form is just what the body requires to process the nutrients. On the other hand the body has difficulty in recognizing and processing the chemically isolated forms. The digestive process requires a delivery system where nutrients are taken from the gut into serum (the blood) so that they can be utilized appropriately. The delivery system is dependent on proteins to provide the vehicle for transport. Because isolated chemicals are not embedded to protein, they are poorly absorbed and bioavailability is retarded. The absorption factor for most chemical isolates is in the area of 5% and very rarely exceeds 20%. This may be the reason that many scientists and doctors have suggested that taking large amounts of supplements is only useful for producing expensive urine.
What are FoodMatrix® Nutrients?
FoodMatrix® nutrients are vitamins and minerals embedded in a food matrix, without the water and the fiber. In the edible portions of our natural foods, vitamins and minerals are always found in protein complexes. They are never found as isolated pure molecules and they are never found to be embedded to other chemicals. Vitamins and minerals which are present in food are contained within a complexed matrix of proteins + lipids + enzymes + bioflavonoids + trace elements.
Professor J Vinson from Scranton University in Pennsylvania has been involved for many years in conducting trials comparing isolated chemicals and FoodMatrix® nutrients. His summary expresses the important elements of this unique and remarkable technology:
“FoodMatrix® nutrients are the most important advancements in nutrition today. They are not just another brand of USP vitamins and inorganic mineral salts. Instead, FoodMatrix® nutrients are a unique generation of vitamins and minerals that are molecularly embedded to the basic building blocks of life: protein.”
These FoodMatrix® nutrients are essentially foods and are recognized by the body as such. These 21st century nutrients are the first supplements that can truly be called food supplements. FoodMatrix® supplements have the nutritional components and structure of real food.
The unique and outstanding feature of FoodMatrix® nutrients is the complete imbedding of the micronutrients into a food matrix. This does not mean physically mixing the vitamins and minerals with proteins and other substances. Rather it involves a sophisticated “growing” process.
How are FoodMatrix® Nutrients Assembled?
Producing vitamins and minerals in a food form is achieved through a range of exclusive, proprietary processes. FoodMatrix® Vitamin C for example, is derived through an elaborate process, where ascorbic acid is biochemically incorporated and concentrated into a citrus extract.
A breakthrough technology using yeast and yogurt has been developed to produce food form minerals. In this process, a mineral is attached to a specific peptide which in turn is introduced into a growth tank containing a yeast solution. Upon inoculation of the protein chauffeured mineral into the budding yeast, the mineral is absorbed and metabolized by the yeast cells. Intracellular, and through bio transformation the once isolated nutrient is incorporated with other food elements to produce a wholesome vitalized, concentrated food.
The proprietary process can take anywhere from 12 – 24 hours depending on the mineral being metabolized. Enzymes are then introduced to break down the yeast cell walls. The yeast cell structure breaks down entirely and no active yeast remains. What remains is an easily digestible, nutrient rich compound.
People who have yeast allergies are typically sensitive to the proteins in the yeast wall membranes. These allergenic components are entirely broken down in this process.The final step is drying the finished product. This is accomplished with an instant drying process (flash drying) to protect the nutrients. This is the same process used to dry enzymes and retain their activity. The resultant powder is subjected to rigorous physical, chemical, and microbiological quality control tests before being passed for sale.
It is the complete matrix of food co-factors that the body naturally recognizes as food that makes FoodMatrix® nutrients so much more effectively absorbed and utilized than normal USP supplements.
What Exactly Does Absorption Mean?
Absorption is an over-used and often abused word. Most people who take food supplements are “sold” that one brand is better absorbed than another. Absorption, however, is not the complete story. Bioavailability covers absorption, retention, assimilation and utilization. Unless the supplement is high in all of these factors, the real benefit to our body can be very low. There is little benefit if the isolated nutrient, having been absorbed into the blood stream, cannot be assimilated by a solid organ such as the liver. If it is not assimilated, it cannot be retained or utilized on demand. The nutrient must also be delivered to the right place.
Dr. Massoud Arvanaghi, the scientist responsible for the manufacturing of FoodMatrix® nutrients, has examined the technical comparison of food and FoodMatrix® nutrients with regular isolated nutrients.
This is what he has to say about FoodMatrix®:
“It is well accepted that humans are intended to receive the nutrients they need from food sources. Attempts to improve on this basic principle by concentrating the elements in food into single actives (such as ascorbic acid) or into fractions that are considered to be the most valuable, have not yielded the beneficial effects that were expected. Isolated substances cannot compare in value to food or FoodMatrix® nutrients and this has been well demonstrated through scientific research.”
“The significance of the FoodMatrix® efficiency in absorption, delivery and utilization is found in the way in which the nutrients are embedded to a peptide (protein) carrier or chauffeur. Nutrients are not found on their own in the body and they do not simply wander about looking for an appropriate destination site. Nutrients are targeted by a transportation system whereby protein chauffeurs deliver nutrients to the exact location for utilization within the cell.”
This means that isolated chemical nutrients may be absorbed, but when they enter the body there is no mechanism to target their delivery. The body does not recognize them. So, they are either deposited in the wrong places, which causes problems, or they are flushed right back out of the body.
FoodMatrix® nutrients on the other hand are delivered by the protein chauffeurs to the cells that need the nutrients and, more specifically, to the right sites within the cells.
Nutrients occur naturally as complex food compounds and it is in this form that they best support the body’s processes. Isolated chemical nutrients are foreign to the body. Their effectiveness is vastly inferior to their natural counterparts and there is some evidence that they may even confuse or override the natural processes.
*What Does The Evidence Show?
Calcium is traditionally very difficult to absorb and use in the human body. If for example you give Calcium Carbonate as a supplement for calcium deficiency, there are a number of difficulties. Firstly you need to give a large amount to get a little benefit. 1000mg of calcium carbonate yields 400mg of elemental or actual calcium. Of this 400mg, we would be fortunate if 5% is absorbed.
This means that with 1000mg of Calcium Carbonate we end up with about 20mg (5% of 400mg) of calcium absorbed. Secondly, one is not sure if the calcium is correctly utilized. Because it is an inorganic chemical which comes from the soil, it is not embedded to a protein and therefore it is not properly targeted in the body. We know that this type of calcium tends to clog arteries and cause atherosclerosis and also ends up as deposits in the colon or the kidneys.
FoodMatrix® calcium is embedded to protein and research has shown between 70% and 90% absorption. Because it is embedded to the protein chauffeur, it is targeted for appropriate utilization.
Scientists under the leadership of Prof J. Vinson of Scranton University showed that:
FoodMatrix® calcium was 300% better absorbed than the isolated form. FoodMatrix® Calcium showed a significant reduction (7.7% diastolic) in blood pressure where Inorganic calcium had no effect.
Vitamin C is an interesting case study. The half-life of ascorbic acid (the chemical isolate) is approximately 2 hours. This means that 2 hours after ingestion, there will be no further absorption. The bioavailability of ascorbic acid is noted at USP100. Tests done with FoodMatrix® Vitamin C showed some staggering results. The half-life was extended to 18 hours and the bioavailability shot up to 1210. This is dramatic evidence of the practical benefit of taking FoodMatrix® nutrients.
With Beta-Carotene, Prof Vinson showed that FoodMatrix® beta-carotene was 100% better absorbed than the isolated form. It is possibly this fact that explains why some clinical trials with beta-carotene have not produced the anticipated results.
Our own observations with other FoodMatrix® nutrients are notable. We have seen, for example, that FoodMatrix® Iron has elevated hemoglobin in iron deficient anemia cases in a few weeks, without the accompanying side effects of inorganic iron such as black stools and severe constipation.
*After well over 50 independent studies, Prof Vinson has concluded that FoodMatrix® nutrients have far greater absorption and 16 times longer retention.
Are Mega Doses Necessary?
The profusion of today’s high potency products is more the result of competition among manufacturers then scientifically proven need. With FoodMatrix® nutrients, only conservative amounts need to be taken because they are absorbed as readily as food and remain in the body longer than ordinary USP products.
Numerous studies have shown that embedding vitamins and minerals to proteins, just as they are found in natural foods, enables them to be utilized more effectively by the body. That’s why FoodMatrix® nutrients are more efficient in replenishing energy and nutrient supplies. Because these nutrients are absorbed and utilized more effectively than USP vitamins and inorganic mineral salts, and are retained longer by the body, they provide high-potency reserves that the body can use when it needs them most.
FoodMatrix’s Efficacy Proven in a Court of Law
In the early 1990’s, a landmark court case took place in the United States. This court case, perhaps more than any other, had a profound bearing and significance on the nutritional industry.
As you would expect, when the reports of the superiority of FoodMatrix® nutrients began to surface, the mammoth companies that have spent billions on manufacturing and marketing chemical isolates were not pleased with the news.
The case involved a company selling isolated chemical nutrients that objected to and discounted the fact, that FoodMatrix® nutrients were better absorbed, retained and utilized.
To determine the differences, experts used a variety of leading edge technologies including nuclear magnetic resonance testing. These technologies have been utilized by federal police crime labs as well as NASA.
On February 8th, 1993, this $3 million lawsuit came to an out of court settlement when all parties agreed that the following claims can be made about FoodMatrix® nutrients:
- Studies indicate that FoodMatrix® materials may be different from vitamins mixed with food.
- FoodMatrix® materials are better than isolated USP nutrients.
- FoodMatrix® materials may be better absorbed, retained and utilized than USP nutrients.
- FoodMatrix® materials are manufactured under a proprietary process.
Conclusion – A Practical Imperative
FoodMatrix® nutrients revolutionize our understanding of supplementation and preventative health.
We need to optimize our nutritional intake and support our biochemical processes. We must do that with the most efficient and cost effective nutrients available.
Dr Peter Mansfield, a highly respected author and doctor in England expresses it most succinctly:
“There is no doubt in my mind that FoodMatrix® technology solves our nutritional problems. It provides doctors and other therapists with a harmless, yet potent,means of healing, alongside restoration of adequate food quality. At last health seems attainable by us all.”
* Disclaimer: “These studies may not conform to peer review standards. Therefore, the results are not conclusive.”
