Paying to live a shorter life.
Antioxidant Vitamin Supplements
4/5 - (19 votes)
In my 2007 annual review, I went nuts over nuts. Cuts our risk of dying from the #1 killer disease in half, with, what, some new expensive miracle drug? No, with a handful of nuts every day. Now, scientists suspect that the healthfulness of nuts is, in part, because of their Vitamin E content.
So why not just forget the nuts, and take the Vitamin E directly? Who thinks scientists discovered that this is a bad idea? Who thinks, well, it probably won’t hurt, but probably won’t help either? And who thinks Vitamin E supplements are a good idea?
According to this landmark review in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Vitamin E supplements increase all-cause mortality, meaning if you take Vitamin E supplements, you live, on average, a shorter life. We’re in effect paying to live a shorter life.
Same study, but this time Vitamin A. Who says Vitamin A supplements decrease your lifespan? How many say they don’t really affect it one way or another? And how many say they make you live longer? Vitamin A supplements decrease your lifespan. Ever since Arctic explorers started dying from Vitamin A overdoses after eating the livers of polar bears, the safe upper limit of intake has continued to drop, and indeed, those taking Vitamin A supplements also live shorter lives.
What about the plant-based source of Vitamin A—beta carotene? Who says shorter life? Neither makes it shorter nor longer? Makes you live longer? And the answer is, shorter life. With two notable exceptions, we should try to get our nutrients from produce, not pills. The only brand of multivitamin I recommend is this one [image of vegetables].
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.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
In my 2007 annual review, I went nuts over nuts. Cuts our risk of dying from the #1 killer disease in half, with, what, some new expensive miracle drug? No, with a handful of nuts every day. Now, scientists suspect that the healthfulness of nuts is, in part, because of their Vitamin E content.
So why not just forget the nuts, and take the Vitamin E directly? Who thinks scientists discovered that this is a bad idea? Who thinks, well, it probably won’t hurt, but probably won’t help either? And who thinks Vitamin E supplements are a good idea?
According to this landmark review in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Vitamin E supplements increase all-cause mortality, meaning if you take Vitamin E supplements, you live, on average, a shorter life. We’re in effect paying to live a shorter life.
Same study, but this time Vitamin A. Who says Vitamin A supplements decrease your lifespan? How many say they don’t really affect it one way or another? And how many say they make you live longer? Vitamin A supplements decrease your lifespan. Ever since Arctic explorers started dying from Vitamin A overdoses after eating the livers of polar bears, the safe upper limit of intake has continued to drop, and indeed, those taking Vitamin A supplements also live shorter lives.
What about the plant-based source of Vitamin A—beta carotene? Who says shorter life? Neither makes it shorter nor longer? Makes you live longer? And the answer is, shorter life. With two notable exceptions, we should try to get our nutrients from produce, not pills. The only brand of multivitamin I recommend is this one [image of vegetables].
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.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Republishing "Antioxidant Vitamin Supplements"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Antioxidant Vitamin Supplements
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
More on the risks associated with certain supplements:
Some Dietary Supplements May Be More Than a Waste of Money
Multivitamin Supplements and Breast Cancer
Risk Associated With Iron Supplements
Dietary Supplement Snake Oil
Also check out my blog post, Eating To Extend Our Lifespan.
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here. Read our important information about translations here.
Previous Video
Next Video
