Vitamins 'may shorten your life'

Most weeks there's some story in the media about what we should or shouldn't be eating. This week it's the turn of vitamins. A study carried out by Goran Bjelakovicat at Copenhagen University suggests that vitamin supplements either don't work or even increase the risk of dying.

The research papers used in the study had been based on trials of very high does of synthetic isolated vitamins over a short period of time to individuals already suffering from serious illness. The study therefore has no relevance to the vast majority of vitamin consumers.

I personally use a food based multi-vitamin daily on the basis that even though I have a diet with a good amount (way above 5 portions a day) of organically grown fruit and veg, the quality of our foods has deteriorated over the past few decades and we are unavoidably exposed to a large amounts of pollutants and toxins that require us to consume even more nutrients to repair the damage.

With an emphasis on watching what macro nutrients we consume (the proportion of fats, carbohydrate and proteins) which give us energy, we seem to have lost sight of the importance of micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) which provide us with vitality. Many of these vitamins, and certainly the enzymes within food that we need, are destroyed by pesticides, microwaves and processing methods which means many of us are deficient in micro nutrients even if we do consume a 'healthy' diet.

There's certainly nothing in the study that would give me any cause for concern in continuing to take a daily multi-vitamin. I just wish the same amount of media coverage would go into the negative effect on our health that the food industry are having with growing techniques and processing methods.

I strongly recommend a book called 'The Vitamin Murders' by James Ferguson for anyone interested in knowing more about this subject. (It's also a great true life murder mystery story)