Here’s a healthy tip: Don’t take your vitamins

I am the world’s easiest person to market to. If you tell me that your product will do something miraculous I believe you – which may explain why I recently bought 3 tubes of mascara simply called “better than false eye lashes” (it’s actually not better than false eyelashes– in fact it’s only just better than using cocoa powder on your lashes*). It’s also why I sometimes (always) spend way too much money in the cosmetics section of any department store. I see a sign saying purporting that a certain cream will reduce fine lines and I’m there before my lines get any deeper.

It’s not just make up that get’s me – I once had to explain to a washing machine repair person that the reason I had used washing powder for a top loader for my front loader was because the ad said it was really, really good (and I am not brilliant at reading the small print).

But the one thing that I have managed to steer clear of is health food proclamations. I just don’t fall for them – I understand that there are certain things you should stay away from like you know, too many additives and palm sugar and overly processed foods but I don’t really rush into buying “super foods”. Especially super foods that are only grown in remote South American regions and exported all over the world so that the local people can no longer eat them – but that’s a rant for another day.

I’ve not fallen for bread with extra fibre and added iron and 25% more calcium because I know that I’m getting all the fibre, iron and calcium I need from foods that actually had this stuff to start.

So, as you can imagine, I have never really considered taking vitamins. It’s been a point of much contention because my husband’s family like vitamins a LOT and I am often alerted to the miraculous benefits of ingesting them. And it’s not just them– people everywhere are seeking to teach me the error of my ways by suggesting I take vitamins as a preventative measure or to cure any existing ailment.

It’s been a hard job justifying to ardent vitamin takers why I don’t slug down A’s B’s or C’s – until I read this in The New York Times by Paul A. Offit, chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Most people assume that, at the very least, excess vitamins can’t do any harm. It turns out, however, that scientists have known for years that large quantities of supplemental vitamins can be quite harmful indeed.

In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1994, 29,000 Finnish men, all smokers, had been given daily vitamin E, beta carotene, both or a placebo. The study found that those who had taken beta carotene for five to eight years were more likely to die from lung cancer or heart disease.
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Two years later the same journal published another study on vitamin supplements. In it, 18,000 people who were at an increased risk of lung cancer because of asbestos exposure or smoking received a combination of vitamin A and beta carotene, or a placebo. Investigators stopped the study when they found that the risk of death from lung cancer for those who took the vitamins was 46 percent higher.

There are a lot more scary satistics before the article goes on to say

What explains this connection between supplemental vitamins and increased rates of cancer and mortality? The key word is antioxidants.

To neutralize free radicals, the body makes antioxidants (good). Antioxidants can also be found in fruits and vegetables, specifically in selenium, beta carotene and vitamins A, C and E. Some studies have shown that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower incidence of cancer and heart disease and live longer. The logic is obvious. If fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants, and people who eat fruits and vegetables are healthier, then people who take supplemental antioxidants should also be healthier. It hasn’t worked out that way.

The likely explanation is that free radicals aren’t as evil as advertised. (In fact, people need them to kill bacteria and eliminate new cancer cells.) And when people take large doses of antioxidants in the form of supplemental vitamins, the balance between free radical production and destruction might tip too much in one direction, causing an unnatural state where the immune system is less able to kill harmful invaders. Researchers call this the antioxidant paradox.

You can read the full article here.

Paradox indeed. I’ve never felt healthier about not taking vitamins or worrying about anti-oxidant intake. Even though if you offer me an anti-oxidant in a cream that’s guaranteed to remove fine lines I don’t know how I will react.

Do you take vitamins or supplements?