Citrate = "black mold"!? & The alternatives to citrate (glycinate, liposomal, gluconate, etc)

I like Magnesium Citrate, zinc citrate, copper citrate, Choline Citrate etc..

I came across this info today however which is interesting, so i want to get your feedback CS on this.... is Citrate made out of mold?


This is almost a great product except for the fact that it contains Choline Citrate. Any vitamin or mineral that includes the term "citrate" is a derivative of citric acid. Now you might think of citrus fruits when you hear of citric acid, fruits like lemons, oranges and limes. But citric acid is not made from citrus fruits. It is made from "aspergillus niger," otherwise known as "black mold." If you don't believe me, just google "citric acid industrial production" and you will see how it is made. It's not some nice mom in her kitchen squeezing lemons one at a time to make your citric acid - it's huge steel vats of black fungus. So any product that claims to contain citrate and to also be yeast free is not entirely truthful, especially if you're someone who is either sensitive to molds or has a less than perfect immune system. And if your immune system were perfect, you wouldn't be taking supplements in the first place.  from www.iherb.com/product-reviews/Thorne-Research-B-Complex-12-60-Veggie-Caps/18126/?p=1&fr=2/?rcode=ZAG620


and from wikipedia
In 1917, the American food chemist James Currie discovered certain strains of the mold Aspergillus niger could be efficient citric acid producers, and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer began industrial-level production using this technique two years later, followed by Citrique Belge in 1929.

In this production technique, which is still the major industrial route to citric acid used today, cultures of A. niger are fed on a sucrose or glucose-containing medium to produce citric acid. The source of sugar is corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn starch or other inexpensive sugary solutions.[10] After the mold is filtered out of the resulting solution, citric acid is isolated by precipitating it with calcium hydroxide to yield calcium citrate salt, from which citric acid is regenerated by treatment with sulfuric acid, as in the direct extraction from citrus fruit juice.


     

If one wanted to avoid citrates, and orotate is pricy, what's another good form of magnesium, and copper, and zinc?  are gluconate  or  glycinate or liposomal  absorbed well/more bio-available?


if you wanted to rate these on bioavailability how would you rate them: orotate, glycinate, liposomal, gluconate, citrate and finally oxide ?

Reading that comment about citrate on the B complex review put me off buying it again

It can come from fruit, but's unlikely. However i dont think it's a big problem. Interested in the same thoughts here.

http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/13452-a-sour-deception-citric-acid-comes-from-gmo-black-mold-not-fruit.html?c=tca

Holy shit, and I've been taking tons of magnesium citrate

i think its ok, the article is just fear mongering .. but still worth sharing

SonofOdin wrote:Holy shit, and I've been taking tons of magnesium citrate

Yeah same, I've stopped taking it for the moment though.

Citrate does not equal black mold. Citrate is an anion of citric acid.

You are treating it as if the citrate comes riding in on an aspergillus fungal body. This is not the case.

You are simply taking a metabolic byproduct from the mold and isolating it. The key term here is 'isolating'. We are not throwing mold in a pill during this process. The mold is actually destroyed and a series of chemical reactions is undergone to isolate and extract only the citrate product. The purified citrate salt is then sold to other supplement manufacturers to add to their formulations.

So to alleviate your concerns. There are no fungal bodies being preserved here. These would be filtered out with some kind of industrial solvent like menthanol or something.

There are also likely to be no mold toxins either. First of all, of all the aspergillus species, A. Niger is one of the more innocuous species. It rarely ever causes human disease, and the reported cases have often been from field or greenhouse workers inhaling potting soil (because A. Niger is widely distributed in the soil).

The key again though is the isolation process. The calcium hydroxide treatment will convert the mycotoxins (if they are present at all, and only about 1/3 of the Niger will produce any) to a non-toxic derivative, but won't alter the citrate.

For what its worth - I realize many here don't place stock in this - but it does have GRAS status, referring to the citrate that is derived this way.

Using biological means of generating chemicals and additives isn't going away. Luckily, in controlled conditions its pretty easy to filter out mycotoxins (assuming proper procedures are used), unlike just consuming raw food which is contaminated.

Don't worry about this. The article is presenting some truths with a lot of fear mongering mixed in. What I especially don't like is the referral to specific compounds (like citrate) as GMO, i.e "GMO citrate". This is misleading. Its one thing to call GMO corn that. You are consuming the actual modified organism. But who care if the mold being used to produce citrate - which is then isolated - is modified or not? You AREN'T consuming the mold. The mutations introduced into the mold to help increase yield is a useful example of biotechnology at work. This type of technology in different contexts is probably how we'll keep the world and humanity going at some point. But to reiterate, the citrate is NOT GMO. Its just citrate. The mold is a GMO. But again, who gives a fuck? I'd probably be more concerned about the other additives in supplements than with citrate salts.

102, if there was a "like" button i'd click it. good answer.

speaking of additives, what does everyone think of titanium dioxide added for color to some supplements and chewing gum like the tablet varieties?

Thank you.

Let's put it this way. Its not doing anything good for you. Increasing "performance" of said product? Yes. Producers like the white color and refractive properties. But inhaled, its been proven to be cancer causing.

Magnesium stearate, at the doses you're likely to be getting from pills probably isn't a big concern. The evidence used against it tends to have a lot of conflicting data, such as that it supports biofilm formation, while others show stearic acid can degrade biofilm. Again, is it doing anything good for you? Probably not. But is it doing anything very damaging? Probably not. I'd be more concerned about particular supplement company practices, or with magnesium stearate producers and the possibility for metals used in the reactions to show up in the product.

Artificial colorants, I don't like.

Hydrogenated oils, like soybean oil. Also don't like. But again, the amounts are miniscule so its really about how far you wanna dive into the minutia when making your health choices. Does the good outweigh the bad?

The greater point would be to find reputable and quality supplement manufacturers who source clean ingredients. Get as much as you can from food, period. These ingredients we've just mentioned aren't going to kill anyone, more than likely. I would avoid the titanium dioxide though.