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It’s not easy to eat the recommended 1 to 2 cups of fruits, 2 to 3 cups of vegetables, and 3 to 4 ounces of grains every day. We are living in a fast-paced age, spending too many lunch times rushing through fast-food lines. Then we drive to the supermarket or pharmacy, where we stock-up on vitamins, minerals and food extracts in the hope that these pills will help us to get the all-important nutrients when our diets fail to supply them. But is there really any value in taking these supplements? According to Mary Ellen Camire, PhD, professor in the department of food science and human nutrition at the University of Maine in Orono, they certainly can! ‘When you’re running around and skipping meals, taking a multivitamin can help you get nutrients that you may be missing.’ It’s a fact that many doctors now believe that supplements may do more than make up for deficiency in nutrition. There is evidence that even if you’re eating well, supplements can make you healthier. Michael Jansen, MD, author of Dr. Janson’s New Vitamin Revolution says: ‘The scientific literature clearly states that people who get certain nutrients, like vitamins C and E, in higher levels than you can get from foods are going to get additional benefits.’ The federal Food and Nutrition Board, a committee of the National Academy of Science - National Research Council, which is made up of a prestigious group of nutritional scientists, has been telling us for more than 80 years, how much of various nutrients we should try to get from our food each day. The board’s recommendations, called Recommended Dietary Allowances, prepared to act as guidelines for good basic nutrition. (A shorthand version of these recommendations, called Daily Values, or DV’s, are the numbers that you can see on food labels.) Lately, scientists started to find connections between vitamins and the prevention of some health threats that they didn’t know before, including links to cancer and heart disease. Although the DV’s are high enough to prevent deficiency diseases, such as rickets, scurvy and beri-beri, which used to be common problems in society, they may not be high enough to prevent other diseases that are more common today. There is also a deficiency particularly in antioxidant vitamins C and E. These are essential to block the damaging effect of free radicals on healthy cells. They are thought to be the main cause of serious health conditions, like heart disease, cancer, dementia and others. Because free radicals are created in enormous quantities every day, the amounts of antioxidants recommended by the DV’s may not be enough to neutralize the free radicals. Another important nutrient that is lacking in the American diet is omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 are “essential” fatty acids, meaning that our bodies can’t make them. we must get them from our diet. Fish oil provides the most powerful omega-3. Research has proved that omega-3 found in fatty fish, canola oil, flaxseed, and walnuts, among other foods, help prevent heart disease and cancer, improve joint health, and may even be protective against depression and dementia. Unfortunately, Americans get only about 25 percent of the omega-3 we need every day. We should get a ratio of 4:1: 4 units of omega-6 against 1 unit omega-3. Omega-6 is another essential fatty acid found in grain. The international agreed-upon recommendation of omega-3 is 650 milligram per day, which is hard to get from fish alone. Fortunately, there are quality fish oil supplements on the market. One of them is Nordie Naturals Omega-3 capsules. Take one capsule per day to boost your omega-3s. Apart from omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E is also an important nutrient, which comes in high fat foods like vegetable oils, nuts for example. When people reduce the amount of fat in their diet, they may also reduce the amount of vitamin E as well. A vitamin E supplement may help to reach your goal, without all the fat. What are the amounts we need? The major antioxidants and their co-factors in the forms and amounts used by the Colgan Institute and other laboratories in studies that have successfully inhibited a wide variety of diseases, and have also improved the vitality and performance of people already in excellent health are as follows: Vitamin A 5000-10,000 IU Beta carotene 10,000-25,000 IU Vitamin C as: ascorbic acid 2000-10,000 mg calcium ascorbate 500-1000 mg magnesium ascorbate 500-1000 mg ascorbyl palmite 250-500 mg Vitamin E as: tocopherol complex 200-800 IU d-alpha tocopheryl succinate 400-1200 IU Zinc (picolinate) 10-60 mg Selenium as: selenomethionine 200-400 mcg sodium selenite 100-200 mcg Co-Enzyme Q10 30-60 mg Some studies have proven that by eating a lot of fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C can help protect against numerous forms of cancer, including cancer of the pancreas, esophages, larynx, mouth, stomach, colon and rectum, cervix, breast and lungs. However, there is no evidence that support taking vitamin C supplements for cancer protection. Scientists believe the other phytochemicals in vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables could play a role in the protection. When it comes to cancer protection, you may be better off sticking to foods to get your vitamin C. Other studies have shown that taking amounts of vitamin C above and beyond the DV can boost immunity, improve lung function, and lower the risk of heart disease and cataracts. One Finnish study published in Stroke: The Journal of the American Heart Association showed that men with the lowest blood levels of vitamin C had more than two times the stroke risk of men with the highest blood levels of vitamin C. It seems that vitamin C may help prevent clogged arteries and lower blood pressure, making blood vessels more flexible. Vitamin E is a very powerful antioxidant. Studies indicated that it may block the process that causes cholesterol to stick to artery walls, while at the same time preventing platelets, the blood components that can cause blood clotting, from clumping together in the bloodstream and increasing the risk of heart disease. While supplements can work for some nutrients, the benefits are not so clear for beta-carotene. Although foods rich in beta-carotene, like carrots, spinach, and kale, have proved to help prevent a variety of illnesses, cancer included, beta-carotene supplements haven’t shown to be as useful and may even be harmful. It appears that this nutrient may work best when it’s taken combined with other protective plant compounds- in other words, when you get it in its natural form from foods. One sweet potato contains almost 15 milligrams of beta-carotene. Other good sources include bright orange and dark green vegetables, such as winter squash, collard greens, and broccoli. Also, fruits, such as cantaloupe and dried apricots. Neutraceuticals When you are going to shop for vitamins and minerals, look for the neutraceuticals section of the store. Vitamin and mineral supplements contain some nutrients, but the so-called neutraceutical supplements contain compounds extracted from whole foods, which are then supposedly concentrated into a Jetson-like pill. You can find pills containing broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, mixed vegetables, fruit juices and more. The advantage of neutraceuticals is that they supposedly contain all of the compounds naturally found in foods in the same proportion that nature intended. It may sound too good to be true and most researchers think it is unrealistic to think that you can reduce foods down to pills and still can get all the benefits, and most studies confirm this. However, even if the pills provide all the health-protecting compounds and phytochemicals that you can get from fruits and vegetables, they probably won’t contain the fiber, says Dr. Camire. Also, the process of making the pills may damage some of the healthful chemicals they claim to contain. ‘Mother Nature’s chemicals are much more potent than the ones made in factories,” she adds. At the very least, however, fruits and vegetables in pill form may provide a bit of a boost for folks who are not always able to eat as well as they would like, or for people who dislike fruits and vegetables so much that they find it impossible to choke hem down. ‘There are a lot of people out there who simply do not or will not eat vegetables.’ Says Dr. Camire. ‘For these people, the pills may be somewhat beneficial.’ Dr. Camire note that it is important to read labels carefully. However, some products that call themselves neutraceuticals only contain one or two isolated extracts – of carotenoids, for example- and not the full complement of health-promoting compounds found in the real foods.
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vitamins, minerals, nutrients, omega-3, omega-6, phytochemicals, neutraceuticals,
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