Essential Nutrients: Food or Supplements? Where Should the Emphasis Be?
Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc; Robert M. Russell, MD
Jean mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, Mass.
This paper can be accessed at: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/294/3/351
The author reports, "The consumption of adequate levels and proper balance of essential nutrients is critical for maintaining health. The identification, isolation, and purification of nutrients in the early 20th century raised the possibility that optimal health outcomes could be realized through nutrient supplementation. Recent attempts using this approach for cardiovascular disease and lung cancer have been disappointing, as demonstrated with vitamin E and beta carotene. Moreover, previously unrecognized risks caused by nutrient toxicity and nutrient interactions have surfaced during intervention studies. The most promising data in the area of nutrition and positive health outcomes relate to dietary patterns, not nutrient supplements. These data suggest that other factors in food or the relative presence of some foods and the absence of other foods are more important than the level of individual nutrients consumed. Finally, unknown are the implications on public health behavior of shifting the emphasis away from food toward nutrient supplements. Notwithstanding the justification for targeting recommendations for nutrient supplements to certain segments of the population (eg, the elderly), there are insufficient data to justify an alteration in public health policy from one that emphasizes food and diet
to one that emphasizes nutrient supplements". AMAZON UK We Want Real Food
AMAZON USA We Want Real Food
ADVERT: Click here for New Body New Life: Restore Your Health, Life, & Freedom. Guide To The Only Real Solution: The Changing Of Unhealthy, Damaging, Or Controlling Choices To Healthy Ones
Click here to find out how to get the FREE shopping APP that finds you the cheapest prices for all your shopping
