Originally published September 27 2005
Experts tell dieters to get vitamins from healthy foods, not pills
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dieting takes willpower and motivation, but many dieters still try to take the path of least resistance when it comes to getting vitamins by popping vitamin pills rather than eating the nutrient-rich foods they are derived from, and the Bradenton Herald reports that nutrition experts say a healthy diet is the way to go because pills are never as effective, and can even be potentially harmful.
Three times over this summer, scientists writing in medical journals have attacked the notion that heavy-duty helpings of vitamins can thwart life-threatening illnesses.
The way to live a long, healthy life, the researchers insisted, is not to pop lots of pills, but to eat a balanced, healthy diet.
For reasons that scientists have yet to figure out, the body processes vitamins differently when they arrive in food than in pill form - probably because foods interact with each other in a way that may help nutrient absorption.
So far, nutrition specialists said, scientists working in labs can't beat what nature does.
"What you can buy in a bottle doesn't come close to providing you with the wealth of benefits that come automatically when those nutrients are present in the form of food," said Linda Van Horn, a research nutritionist at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Much of the recent criticism of vitamins has revolved around megadoses, which can be 10, 20, even 30 times stronger than the amount recommended for the daily diet.
Physicians still encourage women trying to get pregnant to take supplements that include folate, because of scientific studies showing it prevents birth defects.
But recent findings have tempered hopes that folate would also help battle heart disease, and one study suggested that heart patients who took large amounts of folate after an operation to unclog their arteries, were more likely to get clogs again.
The studies debunking the disease-preventing powers of vitamins have come under steady attack, both from the supplement industry and from vitamins aficionados.
For comment, the alliance provided Maret Traber, a professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at Oregon State University, as a specialist on the usefulness of vitamins.
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