The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts: how unscrupulous marketers use evidence that ties high blood levels of phytonutrients with superior health to sell dietary supplements that may do more harm than good.
Industry Response to Plants Not Pills
4.8/5 - (44 votes)
This is the famous study that started so many down the wrong track. Thousands of men followed for 19 years, and there was a stepwise drop in risk of lung cancer for smokers that got more and more beta-carotene in their diet, which they estimated by just adding up how much fruit, vegetables and soup they ate. So, did they start treating smokers with fruit, veggies, and soup? No, they gave them beta-carotene pills.
And, those taking the pills got more lung cancer than those that didn’t. And, more deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. And, a shorter average lifespan overall. Didn’t stop them from trying it again, over and over, though. Six more studies performed, and beta-carotene pills continued to increase mortality. Twenty other studies in which they gave beta-carotene and other antioxidant supplements, significantly increased mortality.
An obvious conclusion is that isolated nutrients are drugs, but not studied or regulated as drugs, and perhaps they should be. Food, on the other hand, needs to be treated in a different way, cognizant of the food synergy concept. The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts.
Yes, low beta-carotene levels in the blood increase the risk of heart disease mortality, but that’s just basically saying low carrot, pumpkin, collard greens, and kale levels increase the risk of heart disease mortality, or here in the U.S., carrots, spinach, and sweet potatoes.
Yes, the more carotenoids we have in our blood, the healthier we may be, but though unscrupulous marketers may use this to sell dietary supplements, responsible scientists and food producers need to emphasize the use of foods and whole food products to improve blood carotenoid concentrations.
We can now see that giving supplements of beta-carotene was a misguided way to prevent cancer. Instead, researchers maybe should have sought to determine which foods worked best and then put fruits and veggies to the test in randomized controlled trials.
‘Science’ tends to be reductionist, looking for discrete causes and effects. It is hard to get food studies past peer grant reviewers unless they take the food apart, which seems to us to miss the point. The key is to encourage consumers to increase the total amount to 9 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables
The past 30 years have seen the development of an enormous body of evidence on the importance of plant-based foods in preventing or reducing the risk of chronic disease. But, despite broadly disseminated public information programs on how to eat healthily, it is extremely difficult to get people to change their diets. Therefore, one proposed solution is to add back the health-promoting phytonutrients that are missing from many convenience foods. By eating more fruits and vegetables? No, silly, by genetically engineering phytonutrients into fast food.
People eat ketchup, not kale, but who needs greens when you can genetically engineer high-folate tomatoes. Why buy berries when you make tomatoes purple by stitching in two genes from snapdragons to make transgenic tomatoes. Instead of soybean burgers, we can have soybean genes in the ketchup on our burgers. And, you’ve heard of grape tomatoes–how about really grape tomatoes?
Pills are more profitable than plants. But when pills don’t work, industry will try to patent the produce itself.
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 Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- R H Liu. Health-promoting components of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Adv Nutr. 2013 May 1;4(3):384S-92S.
- C Martin. E Butelli, K Petroni, C Tonelli. How can research on plants contribute to promoting human health? Plant Cell. 2011 May;23(5):1685-99.
- M S Donaldson. A carotenoid health index based on plasma carotenoids and health outcomes. Nutrients. 2011 Dec;3(12):1003-22.
- J Karppi, J A Laukkanen, T H Mäkikallio, K Ronkainen, S Kurl. Low β-carotene concentrations increase the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality among Finnish men with risk factors. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 Oct;22(10):921-8.
- D R Jacobs, L C Tapsel. Food synergy: the key to a healthy diet. Proc Nutr Soc. 2013 May;72(2):200-6.
- C Martin.The interface between plant metabolic engineering and human health. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2013 Apr;24(2):344-53.
- N J Temple. What is the optimum research strategy to study the effects of phytochemicals on disease prevention? Nutrition. 2012 Jun;28(6):611-2.
- M M Murphy, L M Barraj, D Herman, X Bi, R Cheatham, R K Randolph. Phytonutrient intake by adults in the United States in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012 Feb;112(2):222-9.
- G Bjelakovic, D Nikolova, C Gluud. Meta-regression analyses, meta-analyses, and trial sequential analyses of the effects of supplementation with beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations on all-cause mortality: do we have evidence for lack of harm? PLoS One. 2013 Sep 6;8(9):e74558.
- E Butelli, L Titta, M Giorgio, H P Mock, A Matros, S Peterek, E G Schijlen, R D Hall, A G Bovy, J Luo, C Martin. Enrichment of tomato fruit with health-promoting anthocyanins by expression of select transcription factors. Nat Biotechnol. 2008 Nov;26(11):1301-8.
- R B Shekelle, M Lepper, S Liu, C Maliza, W J Raynor Jr, A H Rossof, O Paul, A M Shryock, J Stamler. Dietary vitamin A and risk of cancer in the Western Electric study. Lancet. 1981 Nov 28;2(8257):1185-90.
- (No authors listed) The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. N Engl J Med. 1994 Apr 14;330(15):1029-35.
- C H Shih, Y Chen, M Wang, I K Chu, C Lo. Accumulation of isoflavone genistin in transgenic tomato plants overexpressing a soybean isoflavone synthase gene. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jul 23;56(14):5655-61.
- G Giovinazzo, L D'Amico, A Paradiso, R Bollini, F Sparvoli, L DeGara. Antioxidant metabolite profiles in tomato fruit constitutively expressing the grapevine stilbene synthase gene. Plant Biotechnol J. 2005 Jan;3(1):57-69.
This is the famous study that started so many down the wrong track. Thousands of men followed for 19 years, and there was a stepwise drop in risk of lung cancer for smokers that got more and more beta-carotene in their diet, which they estimated by just adding up how much fruit, vegetables and soup they ate. So, did they start treating smokers with fruit, veggies, and soup? No, they gave them beta-carotene pills.
And, those taking the pills got more lung cancer than those that didn’t. And, more deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. And, a shorter average lifespan overall. Didn’t stop them from trying it again, over and over, though. Six more studies performed, and beta-carotene pills continued to increase mortality. Twenty other studies in which they gave beta-carotene and other antioxidant supplements, significantly increased mortality.
An obvious conclusion is that isolated nutrients are drugs, but not studied or regulated as drugs, and perhaps they should be. Food, on the other hand, needs to be treated in a different way, cognizant of the food synergy concept. The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts.
Yes, low beta-carotene levels in the blood increase the risk of heart disease mortality, but that’s just basically saying low carrot, pumpkin, collard greens, and kale levels increase the risk of heart disease mortality, or here in the U.S., carrots, spinach, and sweet potatoes.
Yes, the more carotenoids we have in our blood, the healthier we may be, but though unscrupulous marketers may use this to sell dietary supplements, responsible scientists and food producers need to emphasize the use of foods and whole food products to improve blood carotenoid concentrations.
We can now see that giving supplements of beta-carotene was a misguided way to prevent cancer. Instead, researchers maybe should have sought to determine which foods worked best and then put fruits and veggies to the test in randomized controlled trials.
‘Science’ tends to be reductionist, looking for discrete causes and effects. It is hard to get food studies past peer grant reviewers unless they take the food apart, which seems to us to miss the point. The key is to encourage consumers to increase the total amount to 9 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables
The past 30 years have seen the development of an enormous body of evidence on the importance of plant-based foods in preventing or reducing the risk of chronic disease. But, despite broadly disseminated public information programs on how to eat healthily, it is extremely difficult to get people to change their diets. Therefore, one proposed solution is to add back the health-promoting phytonutrients that are missing from many convenience foods. By eating more fruits and vegetables? No, silly, by genetically engineering phytonutrients into fast food.
People eat ketchup, not kale, but who needs greens when you can genetically engineer high-folate tomatoes. Why buy berries when you make tomatoes purple by stitching in two genes from snapdragons to make transgenic tomatoes. Instead of soybean burgers, we can have soybean genes in the ketchup on our burgers. And, you’ve heard of grape tomatoes–how about really grape tomatoes?
Pills are more profitable than plants. But when pills don’t work, industry will try to patent the produce itself.
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 Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- R H Liu. Health-promoting components of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Adv Nutr. 2013 May 1;4(3):384S-92S.
- C Martin. E Butelli, K Petroni, C Tonelli. How can research on plants contribute to promoting human health? Plant Cell. 2011 May;23(5):1685-99.
- M S Donaldson. A carotenoid health index based on plasma carotenoids and health outcomes. Nutrients. 2011 Dec;3(12):1003-22.
- J Karppi, J A Laukkanen, T H Mäkikallio, K Ronkainen, S Kurl. Low β-carotene concentrations increase the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality among Finnish men with risk factors. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 Oct;22(10):921-8.
- D R Jacobs, L C Tapsel. Food synergy: the key to a healthy diet. Proc Nutr Soc. 2013 May;72(2):200-6.
- C Martin.The interface between plant metabolic engineering and human health. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2013 Apr;24(2):344-53.
- N J Temple. What is the optimum research strategy to study the effects of phytochemicals on disease prevention? Nutrition. 2012 Jun;28(6):611-2.
- M M Murphy, L M Barraj, D Herman, X Bi, R Cheatham, R K Randolph. Phytonutrient intake by adults in the United States in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012 Feb;112(2):222-9.
- G Bjelakovic, D Nikolova, C Gluud. Meta-regression analyses, meta-analyses, and trial sequential analyses of the effects of supplementation with beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations on all-cause mortality: do we have evidence for lack of harm? PLoS One. 2013 Sep 6;8(9):e74558.
- E Butelli, L Titta, M Giorgio, H P Mock, A Matros, S Peterek, E G Schijlen, R D Hall, A G Bovy, J Luo, C Martin. Enrichment of tomato fruit with health-promoting anthocyanins by expression of select transcription factors. Nat Biotechnol. 2008 Nov;26(11):1301-8.
- R B Shekelle, M Lepper, S Liu, C Maliza, W J Raynor Jr, A H Rossof, O Paul, A M Shryock, J Stamler. Dietary vitamin A and risk of cancer in the Western Electric study. Lancet. 1981 Nov 28;2(8257):1185-90.
- (No authors listed) The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. N Engl J Med. 1994 Apr 14;330(15):1029-35.
- C H Shih, Y Chen, M Wang, I K Chu, C Lo. Accumulation of isoflavone genistin in transgenic tomato plants overexpressing a soybean isoflavone synthase gene. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jul 23;56(14):5655-61.
- G Giovinazzo, L D'Amico, A Paradiso, R Bollini, F Sparvoli, L DeGara. Antioxidant metabolite profiles in tomato fruit constitutively expressing the grapevine stilbene synthase gene. Plant Biotechnol J. 2005 Jan;3(1):57-69.
Republishing "Industry Response to Plants Not Pills"
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
Industry Response to Plants Not Pills
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
I’ve talked about this kind of reductionistic thinking before:
- Dietary Supplement Snake Oil
- Some Dietary Supplements May Be More Than a Waste of Money
- Food Antioxidants and Cancer
- Food Antioxidants, Stroke, and Heart Disease
- Treating Asthma With Plants vs. Supplements?
- Broccoli: Sprouts vs. Supplements
- Antioxidants and Depression
There may actually be benefits of patenting produce, though. See Plants as Intellectual Property – Patently Wrong?
What about the GMOs that are already on the market? See:
- Are GMOs Safe? The Case of BT Corn
- Are GMOs Safe? The Case of Roundup Ready Soy
- Is Monsanto’s Roundup Pesticide Glyphosate Safe?
- GMO Soy and Breast Cancer
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
