Which of these three has been associated with increased cancer risk?
Lutein, Lycopene, and Selenium Pills, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating
Normally I wouldn’t spend so much time on one topic, but people are always asking me about supplements. Let’s try three at a time. Lutein, a phytonutrient found in dark green leafy veggies, lycopene, found in tomatoes, and selenium, a trace mineral found in nuts and whole grains. Not a single one of these, in pill form, prevented cancer, and one of these three was just found to increase cancer risk when taken in pill form. Which one was worse than just a waste of money, and actually seemed to cause cancer?
It was the lutein pills. There’s no getting around it; we just have to eat our greens, which has thousands of phytonutrients in it. Drug companies are never going to find the right combination, but they don’t need to, because Mother Nature did it for us.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
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Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out theother “HHH” videos (Harmful, Harmless, or Helpful?). Also, there are over a thousand subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!
For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: Multivitamins and Mortality, Acai to Zucchini: antioxidant food rankings, Preserving Vision Through Diet, and Soymilk: shake it up!


