More about good nutrition and antioxidants

Yesterday, I mentioned the article which concluded taking antioxidant vitamins may increase mortality risk.

What I didn’t mention was the number of participants included in this literature review — 232,606! In other words, this study had some real weight.

Given that 80 to 160 million people are taking these supplements in the United States, the results of this study should cause some real concerns.

But, it will probably get mentioned by the media for a week or two and then get overwhelmed by all the advertising for these supplements. Within a few weeks, the results of this study will likely be forgotten and we’ll go back to purchasing the $20 billion we spend annually on these supplements.

So, why do antioxidants have this negative effect on mortality?

Well, the researches offered this explanation:

“By eliminating free radicals for our organism, we interfere with some essential defensive mechanisms like apoptosis, phagocytosis, and detoxification.”

Now, I’m not sure exactly what this means but it doesn’t sound too good. But, what’s interesting is how often nutrition theories change.

Everyone thought that getting rid of free radicals was a good thing (the theory why these supplements were supposed to be good for us) but now — after almost 40 years of believing in this theory — it turns out this probably isn’t true.

Here’s the reality — scientists know very little about nutrition. But that doesn’t keep food and dietary supplement companies from making health claims.

Rather than listening to these claims and acting upon them, we should just eat a variety of real foods that we truly like. That’s the way to optimize our nutrition.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness