Focus: How much stearic acid is generally contained in supplements?


Myatt:


• The daily adult intake of stea- ric acid from food (US adult) av- erages about 7,000 mg/day.6


• A person taking 20 vitamin capsules weighing 500 mg each and containing 1% magnesium stearate would take in less than 96 mg of stearic acid per day. Manufacturers typically use 0.25% - 5% magnesium stearate in nutritional formulations.


• The amount of stearic acid from supplements in the above scenario is 1.3% of the total daily adult intake.


• Four ounces of human breast milk contains more than 5,000 mg of stearic acid. A 2-ounce choc- olate bar will also provide well over 5,000 mg of stearic acid.


• Magnesium stearate is con- sidered safe for human con- sumption at levels below 2,500 mg/kg per day. This equates to 170,000 mg per day as a safe dose for a 150-pound adult.7 That’s almost 6 ounces of pure magnesium stearate.


Focus: One claim we’ve seen is that the addition of magnesium stearate to supplements decreas- es bioavailability. Another claim is that magnesium stearate is a chalklike substance that gums up your intestines and prevents ab- sorption of your nutrients. Fact or fiction?


Myatt: What the studies actually show is that absorption might be


slowed somewhat but overall ab- sorption is not decreased.8,9


And


magnesium stearate is definitely not a chalk. Chalks are soft, stone- like minerals, including things like gypsum (calcium sulfate) CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and CaO (calcium oxide). Remember that magnesium stearate is a salt, containing approximately 96% stearic acid, which is a saturated fat. The other 4% is magnesium. Chalks are combinations of min- erals, but magnesium stearate is mostly saturated fat. How could a fat be a chalk? It isn’t, not by any known scientific definition of a chalk.


Even if it were a chalk, you shouldn’t be worried about it gumming up your intestines or “caking the lining.” Why? Be- cause if you did eat chalk, like cal- cium carbonate, which is a form of calcium used in many nutri- tional supplements, your diges- tive system would break it down to its mineral components. Hu- man digestion is truly amazing.


By the way, I used to perform quite a few endoscopies in clin- ic. This is where you examine the lining of the large intestine with a special scope, looking for polyps. I never once saw anyone with a “caking of the lining” of their intestinal tract. Tenacious, dry stool sometimes, yes. But “cak- ing” with a chalk-like substance? Never. If this story about “caking the lining” is told by a doctor, it must be one who has never actu- ally visualized the inside of the large intestine.


Focus: No T-cell collapse in hu- mans, no “caking of the lining” of intestines. How about the claim that magnesium stearate stim- ulates the gut to form a biofilm? And that a biofilm is equivalent to a sludge that would act as a barri- er to the absorption of nutrients?


Myatt: There is not one single scientific reference or study to support this claim. In fact, if you know what a biofilm is you’ll see that this entire argument is com- pletely preposterous. It has no basis in any known science.


To clarify for those readers who haven’t seen it, there was an in- ternet video by a well-known doctor that said that a biofilm is basically like the “sludge in your toilet tank,” and that magnesium stearate causes this sludge and prevents nutrient absorption.


Just as there is a big difference between a chalk and a fat, a bio- film is not akin to sludge, or a “soap scum” that you might find in your bathtub (a toilet tank just holds water and won’t even form a soap scum ring). A bathtub ring occurs when hard water, contain- ing calcium or magnesium, reacts with fatty acid in soap to form so- called “soap scum”. If you live in a hard-water area, you’ll see this as an annoying white film on your shower curtain. Humans get significant amounts of mag- nesium, calcium and fatty acids — the ingredients in soap scum — from diet. But we don’t form soap scums in our bodies be- cause of our digestive enzymes and acids.


Focus April 2013 23


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