Vitamins... bad for you?

[Devon8822]

I read an article in the paper a couple days ago saying that vitamins supplements are bad for you, I don't remember the specific because i didn't have to to read it thoroughly... but does anybody know about this? anything to read on it? thanks!

[Cran]

The thought goes something like this:
- Vitamins in supplements are not natural.
- They can be overdosed.
- We know very little about how vitamins are best distributed to the body, can he handle so many vitamins though supplements (large doses) at all, can he process them without food?
- Perhaps we loose benefits by taken supplements instead watching our diet (antioxidants in fruit and vegetables, for example).

All in all, nobody knows it for certain, but regards it for better to make the right choices with food instead of trying to supplement with supplements.

[Erebos]

The best way to get vitamins is through eating healthy. If you lack cyanocobalamin, eat more liver. If you lack folic acid, eat more green leaves. If you lack citric acid and developing scurvy, chow down on oranges.

Any chemical in excess or in shortage isn't good for the body. You can die from drinking too much water, after all.

As for vitamin supplements, the vitamins themselves probably aren't bad for you if you take the right amount. The other stuff that goes into the pill may be bad, but that will depend on the manufacturer. And yes, you do risk overdosing. On the other hand, overdosing on oranges would be difficult.

[AttractIt]

Cran,

There are lots of Vitamins that are Natural,
They are produce from the planets and herbal and
without any chemical,

Unfortunately most of the vendors don't do it like that,

But you can find some that do.

[openeyes]

This rebuttal could be said to be biased since it's from a supplement company (Life Extension Foundation), but still the info seems valid:

"This negative report attacking supplements is fatally flawed because it:

1. Omitted 91% of the studies that measured the effects of these vitamins on human subjects including all studies for which there was no mortality!
2. Included studies that used doses far below or far above what health conscious people actually supplement with.
3. Chose to bias the reporting of the results by emphasizing one type of statistical model that showed a significant effect rather than another statistical model that did not show a significant effect.
4. Failed to account for the 14 mechanisms involved in aging and premature death. For example, it is absurd to think that taking 1,333 IU to 200,000 IU of vitamin A is going to have meaningful impact when there are more than one hundred individual components to a science-based death reduction program."

(link to be posted separately in case spam filter delays its posting. it did.)

[openeyes]

here is the link:

Vitamin Studies: Rebuttal To Allegation That Certain Vitamins May Shorten Lifespan

[Keith]

It's generally ludicrous to try to sort foods and nutrients in binary terms into "good" and "bad". Unfortunately, the media (which needs catchy headlines) often does this.

eg. Sodium is a vital component of your nervous system, but it can also harden your arteries. So is it "good" or "bad"?

Also the combination of foods and nutrients makes a difference too. Having an occasional doughnut as part of an otherwise healthy diet probably won't do you any harm. Having an occasional doughnut as part of a diet of fish, chips, pizza and hamburgers might.

Vitamins can be dangerous in excessive amounts. Supplements also probably aren't as effective as taking the same vitamins in their natural form (ie. in food). Conversely it's not always easy to get the full range of necessary vitamins through food (especially when your body is sick or otherwise weakened and its hunger for particular vitamins increases significantly).

[Kaspian]

This is the article I recently read about vitamins:

Ascorbic Acid is Not Vitamin C

[Vantage72]

Originally Posted by Devon8822

I read an article in the paper a couple days ago saying that vitamins supplements are bad for you,

Yes I read this. The study that is referred to is very limited by it's nature.

But taking too much vitamins can definetly be bad. Especially Vitamin A and E.

If you use supplements, make sure you don't overdose.

[anitaroy121]

Hi friends, I am a passionate cyclist and I'm 10 pounds away from my perfect ideal weight. My boss suggested a diet plan which doesn't eliminate carbs but considerably reduces them. This diet worked wonders for him and the three days I've been on it I can tell it'll do like a joke. But I'd like to know if anyone out there has experience with low carbs diet and bicycling. Any advice on what I should eat would be appreciated.

[Vantage72]

Originally Posted by anitaroy121

Hi friends, I am a passionate cyclist and I'm 10 pounds away from my perfect ideal weight. My boss suggested a diet plan which doesn't eliminate carbs but considerably reduces them. This diet worked wonders for him and the three days I've been on it I can tell it'll do like a joke. But I'd like to know if anyone out there has experience with low carbs diet and bicycling. Any advice on what I should eat would be appreciated.

Hi please start a new thread about your question, with the appropriate title.