There are some well documented cases in society where supplement intake is necessary and intelligent. For example, for females before and during pregnancy, athletes, or when there is a deficieny present, for instance vitamin B12. However, how much of the population would come under one of these categories? 1%, 5% or 10%?
But still there are not many kitchens I go into where there is not a few small bottles of vitamins, that I would guess people do not need. So why are people buying and consuming them? Let me try and convince you once and for all that you (probably) do not need them.
One of the great tools supplements have in their favor is their nutritional boxes – the list of what micro and macro-nutrients, vitamins etc are in them. They typically state dozens of ingredients that are contained and it leaves you thinking that these are special ingredients that must be good for you. Surely 40mg of alpha-tocopherol must be good for you right? The truth is that these ingredients are contained in many of the foods we eat – check out the nutrient profile of this supplement (care of the USDA):
- Water (g) 405.43
- Energy (kcal) 326
- Protein (g) 15.02
- Fat, total (g) 4.61
- Carbohydrate (g) 61.1
- Sugars, total (g) 43.92
- Fiber, total dietary (g) 6.1
- Cholesterol (mg) 15
- Saturated fatty acids, total (g) 2.603
- 4:0 (g) 0.113
- 6:0 (g) 0.078
- 8:0 (g) 0.049
- 10:0 (g) 0.109
- 12:0 (g) 0.132
- 14:0 (g) 0.401
- 16:0 (g) 1.161
- 18:0 (g) 0.382
- Monounsaturated fatty acids, total (g) 1.144
- 16:1 (g) 0.096
- 18:1 (g) 0.957
- Polyunsaturated fatty acids, total (g) 0.393
- 18:2 (g) 0.25
- 18:3 (g) 0.143
- Calcium (mg) 462
- Copper (mg) 0.193
- Iron (mg) 0.87
- Magnesium (mg) 78
- Phosphorus (mg) 392
- Potassium (mg) 1043
- Selenium (mcg) 9.2
- Sodium (mg) 174
- Zinc (mg) 2.56
- Vitamin A, RAE (mcg) 41
- Vitamin C (mg) 24.8
- Vitamin B-6 (mg) 0.562
- Vitamin B-12 (mcg) 1.37
- Vitamin E, alpha tocopherol (mg) 1
- Folate, DFE (mcg) 56
- Folate, food (mcg) 56
- Folate, total (mcg) 56
- Vitamin K (mcg) 29
- Niacin (mg) 1.55
- Retinol (mcg) 34
- Riboflavin (mg) 0.656
- Thiamin (mg) 0.193
- Carotene, beta (mcg) 77
- Carotene, alpha (mcg) 25
- Lutein + zeaxanthin (mcg) 138
Pretty impressive stuff!
Well this is in fact not a supplement, but actually part of what I had for breakfast this morning: 1 cup of yoghurt, 1 cup of blueberries and a banana. My breakfast also contained other things that go beyond this profile (and the cost)…
What I would consider a benchmark study was done in the 1990′s in Finland where thousands of smokers took one of two supplements in a controlled scientific study on Cancer. The authors concluded the following:
“We found no reduction in the incidence of lung cancer among male smokers after five to eight years of dietary supplementation with alpha-tocopherol or beta carotene. In fact, this trial raises the possibility that these supplements may actually have harmful as well as beneficial effects”.
But supplements are good for your health…..right?
Alpha-tocopherol is a type of what most non-scientific people call Vitamin E. It is important to note one of the reasons this study was undertaken was because high blood levels of these vitamins, and the intake of fruit and vegetables high in them decreased the risk of cancer.
So what did this result mean? Good news for fruits and vegetables really: Taking these supplements by themselves offers no benefit. However, eating foods that contain them still does protect us. One likely reason is that there are yet to be identified elements in fruits and vegetables that help protect us from cancer.
So chuck those supplements and focus on eating lots of fruits and vegetables – the more variety in colour the better.
October 25, 2007 at 8:45 pm |
Hey great post about vitamins. I agree, there’s no substitute for healthy eating. Thing is, most people underestimate how much fruit/veg you need for optimum health. UK goverment says ’5 a day’ of fruit/veg combined. I reckon its closer to 8 (3 fruit and 5 veg) for optimum health.
Cheers,
Dom (www.fitness4london.com)