The supplement industry has spent decades trying to engineer food in a laboratory. We think that’s the wrong direction.
For most of human history, nutrition came from food. Not synthetic vitamin premixes, not “complete nutrition” powders, and not drinks fortified with isolated nutrients to make a label look more impressive.
It came from real food: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, organs, broths, fruit, roots, plants, minerals, ferments and foods raised from soil, sun, rain and animals.
Then modern nutrition took a different turn - we discovered vitamins, isolated them, learned how to manufacture them, and used them to prevent serious deficiency diseases and in certain medical and public-health contexts, that has been useful.
But... somewhere along the way, the supplement industry stretched that idea far beyond its original purpose. Synthetic vitamins went from being targeted tools to becoming the foundation of daily “wellness” products: greens powders, meal replacements, fortified shakes, multivitamin drinks and all-in-one nutrition blends.
We don’t believe that is progress. We think it is a move away from real food.
We believe daily nutrition should begin with wholefoods, animal foods, sunlight, soil health and proper farming - not isolated compounds manufactured in industrial systems and added back into powders.
That is why Prime Life contains no added synthetic vitamins.
Synthetic vitamins are not food
Most people see vitamins on a label and assume they have come from food. They imagine vitamin C from oranges, vitamin A from liver, folate from greens and B12 from animal foods.
More often than not, that is not what is happening.
Many added vitamins are manufactured through industrial chemical synthesis, microbial fermentation, bioconversion or a combination of these processes. A review on microbial vitamin production notes that most vitamins are manufactured by chemical synthesis, while industrial bioprocesses have been established for vitamins such as B2 and B12.
Vitamin C is a good example. Industrial vitamin C production has used the Reichstein process and more modern fermentation routes, including two-step fermentation processes designed for large-scale output.
Synthetic vitamin E is another. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements distinguishes naturally sourced vitamin E, commonly labelled d-alpha-tocopherol, from synthetically produced vitamin E, commonly labelled dl-alpha-tocopherol.
None of this means synthetic vitamins are automatically harmful. But it does mean they are not the same as food.
They are isolated compounds, manufactured or processed at industrial scale, purified, standardised and added back into formulas. That kind of laboratory nutrition may be efficient, scalable and commercially convenient, but it's really not the same thing as eating nutrient-dense food.
The industry has confused “deficiency prevention” with “daily nutrition”
Synthetic vitamins can make sense in narrow contexts.
If someone has a diagnosed deficiency, a clinician may use a targeted nutrient to correct it. If someone has a medical condition affecting absorption, that is a medical conversation.
But that is very very different from building everyday nutrition around synthetic vitamin premixes.
This is where we think the supplement industry deliberately blurs the line. A nutrient used as an intervention is not the same thing as a nutrient used as a marketing tool. A targeted correction is not the same thing as a daily “complete nutrition” powder. A medical edge case is not a nutritional philosophy.
Panterre is not built around the idea that modern humans need more synthetic fixes. We are built around the opposite idea: that many of us need to move closer to real food, better animal foods, more time outdoors, better farming, stronger daily rhythms and fewer ultra-processed shortcuts.
If vitamin D is low, the first questions should not be about what synthetic capsule to add to a morning stack. The first questions should be about whether your daily life actually supports human health. Are you getting outside? Are you seeing sunlight? Are you eating fatty fish, eggs, dairy, liver or other natural sources?
Vitamin D is naturally present in a small number of foods, including fatty fish, fish liver oils, beef liver, egg yolks and cheese.
If B12 is low because someone has removed animal foods from their diet, our response is not to celebrate synthetic fortification as the solution. Our response is that animal foods clearly matter. B12 is naturally present in foods of animal origin, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, while plant foods do not naturally contain it unless fortified.
This is the Panterre position: synthetic nutrients may have a role in specific medical contexts, but they are not our model of health. They are not our foundation for daily nutrition, and they are not something we want to build our products around.
Folic acid is exactly why we are cautious
Folic acid is often presented as a simple success story, but the reality is more complicated.
Folic acid is the synthetic form of vitamin B9. It is not the same as naturally occurring folate found in foods.
Folate is essential. It plays a role in DNA synthesis, cell division and normal growth. The issue is not folate itself. The issue is the assumption that synthetic folic acid should be treated as an uncomplicated daily nutrient for everyone.
We do not support that assumption.
One concern is the interaction between high folate status and low vitamin B12 status, especially in older adults. A study of cognitively healthy older adults found that low B12 combined with high folate was associated with worse performance in specific cognitive domains, including attention and memory.
That matters because B12 deficiency is not at all rare in older adults, and neurological effects can be serious. Adding high levels of synthetic folic acid into the food supply or supplement routine is not a neutral act. It changes the nutritional environment people are living in.
Cancer biology makes the picture even more complicated. Folate is involved in DNA synthesis and cell division, which means context matters. Adequate folate from real food may support normal health, but high-dose synthetic folic acid is not automatically benign.
In a large randomised trial in people with a recent history of colorectal adenomas, folic acid did not reduce adenoma risk. The PubMed abstract also reports that folic acid was associated with higher risks of having three or more adenomas and of non-colorectal cancers.
That does not prove folic acid causes cancer in every context. But it absolutely challenges the simplistic idea that adding more synthetic folic acid is automatically a good thing.
This is exactly the problem with isolated nutrients. They are sold as simple, but biology is not simple.
Nutrition is not a spreadsheet
The supplement industry has trained people to read nutrition like accounting.
People are encouraged to look at percentages, daily values, ingredient counts and nutrient tables as if a longer label automatically means a better product. One hundred percent of this. Two hundred percent of that. Twenty-five vitamins and minerals. Seventy ingredients. A “complete” daily formula.
It looks impressive, but the body does not eat spreadsheets. The body eats food.
An egg is not just choline and selenium. Liver is not just vitamin A and B12. Bone broth is not just amino acids. Beef is not just protein. Fruit is not just vitamin C.
Whole foods contain nutrients within structure. They contain proteins, fats, enzymes, peptides, cofactors, minerals, phospholipids, organic acids, polyphenols and compounds we are still learning about - this is called the food matrix.
The food matrix is the reason a food cannot be fully understood by reducing it to individual nutrients. A well-known review argued that food, not nutrients, should be treated as the fundamental unit in nutrition because the health effects of eating patterns cannot always be explained by isolated compounds.
This is where synthetic nutrition fails philosophically. It assumes food can be broken apart, rebuilt and improved in a factory.
We disagree. We believe nutrients belong in context.
That does not mean every natural food is perfect or every synthetic nutrient is useless. It means that whole foods are a better starting point for daily nutrition than isolated molecules.
More vitamins does not mean better nutrition
A longer label is not proof of a better product.
In fact, one of the easiest ways to make a cheap formula look premium is to add a vitamin premix. You can take a basic powder, add synthetic vitamins, print an impressive nutrition panel and suddenly it looks “complete.”
But complete on paper does not mean complete in the body.
This is especially true with high-dose isolated nutrients.
In 2022, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended against beta-carotene and vitamin E supplements for preventing cardiovascular disease or cancer in community-dwelling, nonpregnant adults. It also concluded that evidence was insufficient for multivitamins and most other single or paired nutrients for that purpose.
Vitamin E is one of the clearest warnings against the “more is better” mindset. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial found that men taking vitamin E alone had a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer in later follow-up, according to the National Cancer Institute’s summary of the trial.
Again, this does not mean all supplements are dangerous. It means the marketing story is far too simple.
The body is not a machine where you can keep adding isolated nutrients and expect better outcomes. More is not always better. Higher dose is not always better. A longer label is not always better.
Sometimes, it is just more chemistry.
High-dose antioxidants show the problem clearly
Antioxidants are a good example of how supplement marketing often gets ahead of biology.
For years, antioxidants were sold as universally good. Oxidative stress was bad, antioxidants were good, and therefore more antioxidants must be better.
But the body is not that simple.
Exercise creates oxidative signals. Those signals help the body adapt. They are part of how training improves mitochondrial function, endurance capacity and resilience.
When you take high-dose isolated antioxidant supplements, you may interfere with some of those signals. Research has raised concerns that high-dose vitamin C and E supplementation can blunt some training adaptations, including cellular signalling linked to mitochondrial biogenesis.
This does not mean berries, fruit, liver, eggs or vegetables are bad because they contain antioxidants. That would be ridiculous.
It means isolated compounds behave differently from food. A whole food arrives with context. A high-dose synthetic capsule does not.
That distinction matters, especially for people who train, recover and want long-term health rather than just impressive numbers on a label.
Why companies use synthetic vitamins
There is a reason synthetic vitamins dominate the supplement world.
They are cheap compared with real food ingredients. They are stable, scalable and easy to add. They make labels look impressive and allow brands to make simple claims.
From a manufacturing perspective, synthetic premixes are convenient. From a marketing perspective, they are powerful.
From a food-first nutrition perspective, we think they are often the wrong foundation.
Real food ingredients are harder. They can taste stronger, cost more, vary by source, create formulation challenges, require better sourcing and be less convenient for mass production.
But that is exactly why they matter.
If you are trying to build the cheapest possible “complete nutrition” powder, a synthetic premix makes sense. If you are trying to build a product rooted in whole food, animal nutrition and better farming, it does not.
Prime Life was never meant to be the cheapest way to print vitamins on a label. It was designed to be a better daily foundation.
We are not trying to recreate food in a lab
A lot of modern nutrition is built around substitution.
Replace a meal with a shake. Replace sunlight with a capsule. Replace animal foods with fortified alternatives. Replace nutrient-dense food with a synthetic blend. Replace the complexity of nature with a formula.
That is not our direction.
Panterre exists because we believe modern life has moved too far away from the things humans actually need: real food, enough protein, animal foods, sunlight, movement, time outdoors, better soil, better farming, meals shared with people and daily habits that feel human.
We are not interested in building another synthetic wellness product that makes people more dependent on powders, pills and fortified shortcuts.
We want to build products that move people back towards food.
That is why our approach is animal-based, wholefood-led and rooted in regenerative agriculture. It is not just about what we leave out. It is about what we choose to stand for.
Why we use organs
Organ meats are among the most nutrient-dense foods humans have traditionally eaten.
Modern diets often focus almost entirely on muscle meat, while the most nutrient-rich parts of the animal are ignored. We think that is a mistake.
Beef liver naturally contains preformed vitamin A, B12, riboflavin, folate, copper and other nutrients. The NIH notes that concentrations of preformed vitamin A are highest in liver, fish, eggs and dairy products.
Beef heart provides protein and naturally occurring compounds such as CoQ10. Organ meats are listed among primary dietary sources of CoQ10.
Kidney provides selenium, B vitamins and other micronutrients.
These are not fashionable “actives” added to a blend because they sound scientific. They are real foods. They come from animals. They have a place in traditional diets. They provide nutrients in a form that belongs to food, not a synthetic premix.
That is why Prime Life uses organs - not in extreme amounts, and not as a gimmick, but as part of a daily wholefood nutrition formula designed to bring back foods modern diets often leave behind.
Why we use bone broth, collagen and beef protein
Prime Life is not a multivitamin drink. It is built around protein and wholefood nutrition.
Grass-fed beef protein provides complete protein. Collagen peptides provide amino acids such as glycine, proline and hydroxyproline. Bone broth contributes amino acids and compounds traditionally associated with slow-cooked animal foods.
Together, they create a daily drink that supports protein intake, recovery and a more nutrient-dense routine.
This is fundamentally different from a greens powder fortified with synthetic vitamins. We are not starting with cheap bulk ingredients and adding a premix to make it look complete.
We are starting with animal foods.
That is the foundation.
Why we use date, maple, vanilla and mineral salt
We also made a conscious decision around flavour and sweetness.
The easy route in supplements is artificial sweeteners, synthetic flavour systems, gums and masking agents. We chose a different route.
Prime Life uses natural carbohydrates from date and maple, real vanilla and mineral salt. Not because sugar is magic, and not because natural sweeteners should be eaten without limit, but because we would rather use recognisable food ingredients than artificial sweeteners and flavour systems designed to imitate food.
That is the same philosophy again.
Closer to food. Further from synthetic shortcuts.
Why we do not add synthetic vitamins to Prime Life
We could have added them - It would have made the label look more impressive. We could have made a longer table, and we could have made the product easier to compare with daily greens brands and fortified meal replacements.
But it would have been the wrong product.
We do not want Prime Life to be another synthetic multivitamin drink. We do not want to use a vitamin premix to create the appearance of completeness. We do not want to sell the idea that health is found in longer labels and higher percentages.
We would rather build from real ingredients: grass-fed beef protein, collagen, bone broth, liver, heart, kidney, date, maple, vanilla and mineral salt.
That is the product. That is the philosophy. No synthetic vitamins. No artificial sweeteners. No proprietary blends. No synthetic completeness.
“Food first” should actually mean food first
A lot of brands say “food first.”
Then they sell products built around synthetic vitamins, artificial sweeteners, flavour systems and heavily processed ingredients.
To us, food first means something much more literal.
It means asking whether the nutrient can come from food. It means asking whether the ingredient can come from an animal, plant or mineral source we recognise. It means asking whether we can build the product around ingredients that would make sense outside a laboratory.
It also means asking whether we can support farming systems that produce real nutrition, and whether we can help people build a better daily routine rather than replacing one shortcut with another.
That is the standard.
We will not always get everything perfect. No packaged product can replace a good diet. But we can choose a direction.
Our direction is clear: towards whole foods, animal foods, regenerative agriculture and simpler ingredients, and away from synthetic vitamin premixes and industrial nutrition.
The problem with “complete nutrition”
The phrase “complete nutrition” sounds reassuring, but it often hides a weak idea.
No powder is complete. No drink is complete. No synthetic blend can replicate a varied diet, sunlight, movement, sleep, community, seasonality and food grown or raised properly.
A product can be useful. A product can be convenient. A product can support a better routine.
But calling a fortified powder “complete nutrition” encourages people to think of health as something that can be engineered and consumed in isolation.
We do not believe that.
Prime Life is not complete nutrition. It is daily wholefood nutrition.
That difference matters.
It is designed to support a real diet, not replace one.
The Panterre position, plainly
Synthetic vitamins are not our enemy, but they are not our philosophy.
They may be used in specific medical, clinical or public-health settings, but they are not the foundation of daily nutrition. They are not the future of health, they are not the same as food, and they are not something we want to build our products around.
We believe the foundation should be animal foods, whole foods, enough protein, nutrients in context, sunlight and time outdoors, regenerative agriculture, simple daily habits and less dependence on synthetic shortcuts.
That is what Panterre stands for.
What to look for in a daily nutrition product
If you are choosing a daily nutrition product, don’t just ask how many vitamins are on the label.
Ask where the nutrition comes from.
Is it built from real foods, or is it built from isolated compounds? Does it rely on synthetic fortification, or does it use naturally nutrient-dense ingredients? Does it contain artificial sweeteners, gums, synthetic flavours or unnecessary fillers?
Does it support a real diet, or does it try to replace one? Does the brand talk about sourcing, farming and why each ingredient is there? Does the product move you closer to food, or further away from it?
Those are better questions than “how many vitamins does it contain?”
The bottom line
Synthetic vitamins are one of the defining features of modern supplement culture. They are cheap, scalable, stable and easy to market. They can also be useful in targeted medical contexts.
But we do not believe they should be the foundation of everyday nutrition.
Food is not just a delivery system for isolated nutrients. It has structure, context and biology. It is connected to farming, animals, soil, sunlight, seasonality and tradition.
The supplement industry has spent decades trying to engineer food in a laboratory. We think the better direction is to move closer to real food again.
That is why Prime Life contains no added synthetic vitamins. Not because we forgot, and not because it was easier, but because it is the whole point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are synthetic vitamins bad?
Not always.
But they are not the same as food, and we do not believe they should be the foundation of daily nutrition.
They may have a role in specific medical or clinical contexts, but that is different from using them to build everyday “complete nutrition” products.
Are food-based nutrients always better?
Not in every single technical sense.
Some synthetic nutrients can be absorbed effectively and may be useful in certain situations.
But whole foods provide nutrients in context, alongside other compounds and structures. For daily nutrition, we believe that is a better starting point.
Why doesn’t Prime Life contain added vitamins?
Because we do not want to build a synthetic multivitamin drink.
Prime Life is built around wholefood ingredients such as grass-fed beef protein, collagen, bone broth and organs.
Is Prime Life a multivitamin?
No.
Prime Life is a daily wholefood nutrition drink.
It is not designed to diagnose, treat or correct nutrient deficiencies.
Can Prime Life replace a healthy diet?
No.
Prime Life is designed to support a real-food routine, not replace meals, sunlight, movement, sleep or proper food.
Why do you use animal foods?
Because animal foods are naturally rich in high-quality protein and important nutrients.
B12 is naturally found in animal-origin foods, while preformed vitamin A is highest in foods such as liver, fish, eggs and dairy.
Why mention regenerative agriculture?
Because nutrition does not begin in a factory.
It begins with soil, animals, farming systems and the quality of the food produced.
We believe better nutrition and better farming belong together.
References
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Wang Y, Liu L, Jin Z, Zhang D. Microbial Cell Factories for Green Production of Vitamins. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 2021.
Supports the point that many vitamins are manufactured through chemical synthesis, while industrial bioprocesses are also used for vitamins such as B2 and B12. -
Tucaliuc A, et al. Strain Development, Substrate Utilization, and Downstream Processing in Vitamin C Production. Processes. 2022.
Supports the section explaining industrial vitamin C production, including the Reichstein method and fermentation-based approaches. -
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin E — Health Professional Fact Sheet.
Supports the distinction between naturally sourced vitamin E and synthetically produced vitamin E, including differences in conversion values between natural and synthetic alpha-tocopherol. -
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin D — Health Professional Fact Sheet.
Supports the claim that vitamin D is naturally found in relatively few foods, including fatty fish, fish liver oils, beef liver, egg yolks and cheese. -
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin B12 — Health Professional Fact Sheet.
Supports the claim that vitamin B12 is naturally present in animal foods such as fish, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy, while plant foods do not naturally contain B12 unless fortified. -
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin A and Carotenoids — Health Professional Fact Sheet.
Supports the claim that preformed vitamin A is found in animal foods, including dairy, eggs, fish and organ meats. -
Jacobs DR Jr, Tapsell LC. Food, Not Nutrients, Is the Fundamental Unit in Nutrition. Nutrition Reviews. 2007.
Supports the article’s central argument that nutrition should not be reduced to isolated nutrients alone, and that food is the more meaningful unit of nutrition. -
Weaver CM. Overview: The Food Matrix and Its Role in the Diet. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 2025.
Supports the explanation of the food matrix and the idea that foods are more than their individual nutrient composition. -
Klein EA, et al. Vitamin E and the Risk of Prostate Cancer: The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA. 2011.
Primary trial paper supporting the vitamin E/prostate cancer point. -
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Folate — Health Professional Fact Sheet.
Supports the section on folic acid, including unmetabolised folic acid, possible concerns in older adults, and the distinction between folate and folic acid. -
Moore EM, et al. Among Vitamin B12 Deficient Older People, High Folate Status Is Associated With Worse Cognitive Function. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2014.
Supports the caution around high folate or folic acid intake in older adults with low B12 status. -
Bailey RL, et al. High Folic Acid or Folate Combined With Low Vitamin B12 Status. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2020.
Supports the concern that high folic acid exposure combined with low B12 status may be linked with impaired cognitive function. -
Cole BF, et al. Folic Acid for the Prevention of Colorectal Adenomas. JAMA. 2007.
Supports the statement that 1 mg/day folic acid did not reduce colorectal adenoma risk and that further research was needed into whether folic acid supplementation might increase colorectal neoplasia risk. -
Wu K, et al. A Randomized Trial on Folic Acid Supplementation and Risk of Recurrent Colorectal Adenoma. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2009.
Supports the more nuanced position that folic acid did not show an overall protective effect on adenoma recurrence, while effects may vary by baseline folate status. -
Paulsen G, et al. Vitamin C and E Supplementation Hampers Cellular Adaptation to Endurance Training in Humans. The Journal of Physiology. 2014.
Supports the section explaining that high-dose isolated antioxidant supplementation may blunt some exercise-induced cellular adaptations. -
Mason SA, et al. Antioxidant Supplements and Endurance Exercise. Sports Medicine / Review Article. 2020.
Supports the broader antioxidant section, including the idea that antioxidant supplementation can interfere with redox signalling and some training adaptations. -
Bhagavan HN, Chopra RK. Coenzyme Q10: Absorption, Tissue Uptake, Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics. Free Radical Research / Review.
Supports the point that organ meats are among dietary sources of CoQ10.