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Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

The Big Supplement Scam Nobody Talks About

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are multivitamins bad for you? How could that be? In this video, I’ll share the truth about the multivitamin scam. Find out about the vitamins you should never take, supplements that don’t work, and the harmful ingredients in your supplements.




0:00 Introduction: Multivitamins truth

0:19 Harmful ingredients in supplements

1:45 Synthetic vs. natural vitamins

3:38 Do multivitamins really work?

9:32 Natural vitamins and minerals

11:17 Fake vitamins exposed!



Many multivitamins are made with the cheapest, synthetic ingredients which could be doing more harm than good.


The first ingredient in many multivitamins is often calcium carbonate, which is limestone! The first ingredient usually makes up the majority of the product. Magnesium oxide, another common ingredient, is very cheap and has the lowest absorption rate compared to other forms of magnesium.


The term “natural” isn’t regulated, so ingredients derived from sources such as petroleum and coal tar can be labeled as natural. In nature, vitamins don’t exist alone; they are combined with other nutrients and cofactors, which are often missing when you take synthetic vitamins. Biochemistry can not work without cofactors.


Although there are nutrients that are difficult to obtain in sufficient amounts from food, that doesn’t mean they should be replaced with synthetic multivitamins.


Maltodextrin is commonly used as a filler in vitamins and minerals. It’s a highly refined industrial starch, classified as a complex carbohydrate, and spikes blood sugar more than sugar.


Ascorbic acid is a synthetic part of the vitamin C complex. Approximately 90% is made in China from GMO corn and sulfuric acid. Many people have a genetic issue converting cyanocobalamin, a synthetic form of B12, and folic acid, a synthetic form of B9, into their active forms. This can cause negative side effects in 40% of the population.


Almost all of the popular multivitamins are owned by Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Chemical, or large investment groups. For example, Centrum Silver is owned by Pfizer, and One a Day is owned by Bayer. Nature Made is owned by the same company that sells Abilify!


Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:


Dr. Berg, age 60, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals and author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.


Disclaimer:


Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients, so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey Dr. Berg here again. Today we're going to talk about the multi-vitamin mineral scam.

0:06.0

And yes, it is a scam. You go to any GNC and you're going to find one a days,

0:11.0

okay, or multi-vitamin mineral products with the absolute worst, cheapest ingredients on the planet.

0:19.0

So let's first start with the ingredients. When you read the back

0:23.0

of the ingredients on these bottles, the first ingredient is always calcium carbonate. What is that?

0:30.8

That's limestone. And also you need to realize that first ingredient is usually the majority of the

0:36.3

product. So this is why these vitamin bottles are so

0:40.4

heavy because we have rocks in them. There's two things you have to be careful about taking in a

0:45.6

supplement. One is iron because our bodies have a very difficult time getting rid of it. Number two,

0:50.3

calcium. And especially the carbonate version, because the body has to literally

0:55.3

go through many different steps, I think up to 12 steps before it gets absorbed.

0:59.7

So we're not talking about the calcium that comes from cheese or dairy.

1:03.5

We're talking about calcium in the earth, so it's a very different form of calcium.

1:08.0

All right, the next ingredient you're going to see in a lot of these products is magnesium oxide. Again, another very inexpensive ingredient. And the type of magnesium

1:17.7

is very important because magnesium oxide has the lowest bioavailability, the absorption. So we're

1:23.8

talking about three to four percent gets absorbed versus magnesium glycinate, which is more expensive, but you absorb 80%. Some people say, well, oh, it's cheap. That's fine. I'll just take more. Well, the more you take, the more it becomes a laxative. So it comes with a package. It might be good if you have constipation, but other than that, that's not the form that I would recommend. Then we have the next ingredient,

1:49.9

escorbic acid. You have two types of vitamins. You have synthetic and natural. And even the synthetic ones, which are more man-made in a lab, they can call them natural because there's no legal definition

1:55.0

of the word natural, because synthetic could come from petroleum and that comes from nature, right?

2:03.3

Or coltar. Well, that's from nature. It could be natural.

2:11.3

You will probably hear from certain medical experts that there's no difference between natural and synthetic.

2:16.5

If we're looking at the molecule, it's the same molecular structure at the basic level.

2:19.2

But let me just ask you this. How can you tell me that you're going to take coal tar, okay, and you're going to take other chemicals and you're

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