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| All the nutrients in an apple make it a healthier choice than taking a vitamin C supplement Photo: ABBIE TRAYLER-SMITHn |
7:30AM GMT 21 Nov 2011
9 Comments
Every day I do something that, among my medical colleagues, would raise a few eyebrows. I bet lots of you do it, too. Each morning, I take a fistful of supplements. It started off innocently enough – a multivitamin while I was recovering from flu a few years ago. More recently, I noticed a funny creaking sound in the vicinity of my knees. Imagining my future life in a wheelchair (despite the reassurance of a rheumatologist friend), I started on the cod liver oil capsules. After that, it was the slippery slope to ginseng, then vitamin B complex, and garlic. And, of course, where would I be without my echinacea? In bed, nursing a life-threatening cold, no doubt.
The scientific evidence would suggest that as I eat a (fairly) balanced diet and I’m not infirm, pregnant or alcoholic, there is absolutely no need for me to take any form of nutritional supplement. Countless studies have shown that they make absolutely no difference, except to your wallet.
In addition, there is evidence emerging that excessive quantities of supplements can, in fact, do harm. Last week, we were told that high levels of vitamin D – which many post-menopausal women take with calcium to fend off osteoporosis – may increase the risk of a heart condition, atrial fibrillation, by two‑and-a-half times. This got me thinking about the nation’s penchant for pill-popping. That we need vitamins and minerals is not in dispute. That we need them from a bottle is what scientists would challenge.
We know that vitamin supplements don’t work in the same way as those nutrients that occur naturally in food, probably because it is not just the vitamin that is important but a complex interplay between it and other naturally occurring substances, which just can’t be replicated and packaged.
In a study conducted by Cornell University, it was found that in addition to vitamin C, apples contained many other chemicals, including the antioxidants flavonoids and polyphenols. This meant that eating a small apple gave a combined antioxidant effect equivalent to 1,500mg of vitamin C – a dose far higher than most supplements.
In addition, the apple was found to have anti-allergy, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties as a result of the presence of an array of other “phytochemicals”. This might be why a Cochrane review – an analysis of all the key research on a subject – found that even very high doses of supplementary vitamin C did nothing to prevent colds in the general population.
We spend some £220 million a year on vitamin and mineral supplements, and yet it is clear that an average person living an average life has absolutely no need to take them. But the crucial question is: do I feel any better since I started taking supplements? And the answer is a resounding yes. I don’t feel healthier. I don’t get fewer colds. I can’t now instantly remember the sequence of a deck of playing cards or lift cars off trapped children. But I no longer worry that my diet is letting me down.
Taking those pills each morning means I don’t feel guilty when I eat a pizza and leave the salad, or when I have Coco Pops instead of muesli. This feeling of guilt and anxiety is a direct result of scaremongering by the medical and scientific communities – and the media, too – about how our health is at risk because we don’t eat properly.
The boom in vitamin supplements is a direct result of the pressure that we are under to lead ‘‘healthier’’ lives. It is an artefact of the anxiety that the doomsayers manufacture. Vitamin supplements aren’t really about not getting colds, protecting our hearts or improving our nervous system. They are about feeling a bit more relaxed about eating banoffee pie instead of a banana.
I get a strange satisfaction from my morning ritual. It’s a sort of confessional; a supplementary absolution from the sins I committed the previous day. Missed lunch? Overindulged in alcohol? Pop some pills the next morning and all is forgiven.
I haven’t become more cavalier in my attitude to my health since taking supplements, just less worried about it. I believe that somehow, despite the evidence, they must be doing me good. I hand over my money, pop the pills and, most importantly, relax. And for that reason, they’re worth every penny.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthadvice/maxpemberton/8899641/An-apple-or-a-few-vitamin-pills-a-day.html
