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Lutein, Lycopene, and Selenium Pills

Which of these three has been associated with increased cancer risk?

January 29, 2011 |
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Lutein, Lycopene, and Selenium Pills, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

Sources Cited

M. L. Neuhouser, S.Wassertheil-Smoller, C. Thomson, A. Aragaki, G. L. Anderson, J. A. E. Manson, R. E. Patterson, T. E. Rohan, L. van Horn, J. M. Shikany, et al. Multivitamin use and risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the women's health initiative cohorts. Archives of Internal Medicine, 169(3):294, 2009.

J. A. Satia, A. Littman, C. G. Slatore, J. A. Galanko, and E. White. Long-term use of beta-carotene, retinol, lycopene, and lutein supplements and lung cancer risk: Results from the vitamins and lifestyle (vital) study. Am. J. Epidemiol., 169(7):815{828, 2009.

Acknowledgements

Transcript

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.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

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!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    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 the other “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!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/derbym/ derbym

    I have an allegery (RAST testconfirmed) to Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, coconut and almonds and have been advised to avoid all tree nuts for a while (not seeds).

    I eat mostly raw and used to eat a brazil nut everyday for selenium. Sunflower seeds seem to be the next best think that could be on my diet. I would have to eat 8 cups a day though to get 200mcg!

    Is a selenium deficiency worse than taking supplements? I don’t want to supplement if I can help it. This whole tree nut allergy thing has introduced some serious problems to eating raw for me. Vitamin E is a little tricky but at least attainable.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Selenium is abundant in the plant supply. I wouldn’t concern myself with getting adequate levels of selenium. Eating a variety of whole grains provides sufficient selenium levels. 1 cup of brown rice for example has 27% of our daily value of selenium.
      http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5707/2

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post Multivitamins and Mortality!

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