Define Organic Vitamins

Organic labeling on a product usually makes you think of a product free of chemicals and additives. However, in the case of vitamins, products that pass the standards test and bear the organic label may not live up to expectations. Many organic vitamins still contain synthetically derived substances.

Organic Vitamins

Vitamins bearing the organic label are available from a wide range of manufacturers and come in combinations ranging from prenatal to men's daily vitamins to mono-vitamin supplements -- such as C, D or E. Making sense of all this variety and understanding what the organic label means can be difficult, but could make a big difference for your health.

Organic Standards

According to the website Organic.org., organic foods are those "grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation." They do not include any synthetically produced foods -- those that are created in a test tube rather than growing in the earth.

Organic standards are set by the United States Department of Agriculture. An organic product may be a single-ingredient food -- such as a strawberry or carrot -- that was grown and produced in accordance with organic standards. Multi-ingredient foods and supplements -- such as vitamins -- are classified as organic when at least 95 percent of the ingredients they contain are organic and the remaining ingredients are not available in organic form.

Organic Vitamins

According to the Organic Consumer Association, most vitamins labeled as organic contain synthetic ingredients. This occurs because certain vitamins cannot be isolated in natural form and so must be created synthetically. But since the substances are not available in organic form, organic labeling laws still allow them to bear the organic label. According to the 2007 book "Diet and Nutrition," synthetically produced vitamins may be harder for your body to absorb and so may be inferior to those derived from whole-food sources. Nevertheless, both bear an organic label, which can lead to confusion among consumers.

Reading Labels

According to the Organic Consumers Association, organic labeling laws should change to reflect the discrepancy of synthetically produced substances included in organic vitamins. This would change the definition of organic vitamins to include only those derived from whole food substances and may help consumers better understand what they are buying. Until this happens, look for vitamins labeled as coming from whole-food sources or get vitamins from highly nutritional foods.