The New York Times published an article in early 2009 entitled "News keeps getting worse for vitamins", which summarised the results of some recent studies with synthetic vitamins and minerals:
"The best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keep falling short," writes columnist Tara Parker-Pope. Pope lists numerous studies published over more than a decade that have linked synthetic vitamins (including vitamins A, C, E, and B, as well as beta-carotene and selenium) to negative health effects, or that have simply been found to have no benefit.
"Despite a lack of evidence that vitamins actually work, consumers appear largely unwilling to give them up," she writes, adding that some people feel it is poorly conducted studies rather than the vitamins themselves that are the problem.
Negative results
The article highlights the negative results of numerous studies, the most recent of which include:
· A clinical trial (highlighted at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, DC) of 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins C and E for up to 10 years found no effect on cancer rates, including prostate cancer.
· Another study (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) on almost 15,000 male physicians found that vitamins C and E have no benefit for heart disease.
· A SELECT trial on the ability of vitamin E and selenium to lower prostate cancer risk was halted early amidst fear that the supplements were doing more harm than good.
· Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York found that vitamin C may do more harm than good as it may protect cancer cells.
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At Simply Vital, we have never supplied or advocated the use of unnatural, synthetic vitamins and minerals. The issues with synthetic supplements are described in the article 21st Century Health Insurance
To counter the problem that we are indeed overfed yet malnourished as government reports confirm, see the article: We Are Overfed But Undernourished
Our advice remains as before: include some of Nature's first food -wild, blue-green algae, AFA, from Klamath Lake into your diet as often as possible to ensure you receive the full range of nutrients required for for physical, mental and emotional health.
Find organic AFA in:
vitalLIFE - AFA flakes for dissolving in water, juices or smoothies
vitalWOMAN - capsules of AFA, Soy isoflavones, Black cohosh and Angelica archangelica to balance a woman's hormones
vitalMAX - capsules of AFA potentiated with a concentrated extract of PEA/Phycocyanin and Vegimineral 77
vitalCALM - capsules delivering an even higher concentration of PEA and Phycocyanin from AFA and supported by Grape extract, Anise seed, Ginger root and organic minerals
WILDBARS - superfood bars with a very high concentration of PEA made with organic raw foods; AFA, raw Cocoa, Agave syrup, Macadamia nuts, Mesquite, Hemp seeds, Maca, Poppy seeds and natural flavours
