This seems to be a very credible study, and pretty much damns the health benefits of taking vitamin supplements - it even claims people taking such supplements, particularly Vitamin A and E and beta carotene, increase their mortality risk. If you don't eat sensibly, pills and chemists can't save you. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7349980.stm
i have a friend who sells shaklee supplements. she makes 100k a year doing this. i have had many arguments over the fact that it is not the same getting your nutrients from supplements as getting them from the right food.
If you are healthy to begin with and do not have a deficiency, you might be able to get enough from food alone, if done properly. Natural food sources high in a certain vitamin or mineral of course are much better than synthetics. I have a chronic B12 deficiency that causes anemia, most likely from mercury interference. Eating liver and meat 3 times a day doesn't do a thing for it. I will have to take a substantial supplement maybe forever if I can't get rid of the mercury. B12 is cheap stuff now, about $5 per month. Eventually the drug companies will alter the vitamin studies enough so only they will be allowed to sell supplements at the cost of 20+ times that. Once they have the entire market, the outcome of the studies on supplements will be substantially positive.
Impossible to OD on B12 also (water soluble, more so than even C). Cool thing about B12 is it raises HDL (good cholesterol) just like fish oil. Hard exercise in addition to B12 is supposed to have a really good effect. I put one under my tongue while running, etc. I take a B12 and fish oil every day. My HDL has gone from 42 two years ago to 66 now! I work out hard, but I am also 46! My LDL is exactly the same as two years ago, so its not a diet thing. I think there is definitely a place for supplements if you don't overdo it. Can save you money also. Fish oil is way cheaper than buying fish.
I wipe my ass with these studies. An article was published the other day with a huge headline stating that eating eggs leads to premature death. Upon reading further they found another correlation between the test subjects, the consumption of eggs and the early mortality rate: They all were obese, did not exercise, drank, smoked, etc. But I guess the eggs are the culprit...
the problem as i see it is that there is evidence that the body does not utilize supplements in the same way that it uses natural nutrients from food. taking fish oil may not be the same benifit as eating salmon. the supplement industry being some of the biggest scammers in america does not help us to learn the truth either.
Vitamin hustlers worse than stock pimps. And thats sinking pretty low. Ever hear these 'infomercial' shows on radio? Pure scam.
While I deplore the vitamin scammers out there pimping juices, pills, et cetera as the cure for all ills...I am not quick to dismiss the need to take quality vitamins. The problem with these studies is there is a new one every day - and they all conflict and contradict one another. One day this is good for you, the next it is bad. One day this fights cancer, the next day it causes it. The entire industry is a joke, and we get screwed because of it.
Go to pubmed and read the reviews on vitamins then you can make a somewhat informed decision. I've read the studies showing both the positive and negative for the vitamin, once you start you'll see everything isn't black and white. One study does not a fact make.