Wexilarious
DiodoraAstarothMaxxing
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We have become a nation of pill-swallowers. We are told that they can do everything from cure cancer to prevent baldness, from relieving hangovers to increasing the body's tone.
"But we colossally overestimate the benefits of vitamins and underestimate the risks associated with them. There is virtually no proven benefit for any vitamins, but there is growing evidence that they can cause harm," says British geneticist Tim Spector, author of the book "Mandatory Breakfast, Harmful Coffee and Dangerous Fast Food", published in Russia by the publishing house "MYTH". "Doctor Peter" publishes an excerpt from it.
Vitamin Myths
The idea that people need extra vitamins and supplements dates back to the 1930s, when the population was actually short of essential nutrients. However, it still lives on today, even though the main problem now is the overconsumption of junk food.
For example, the myth that taking vitamin C strengthens the immune system probably comes from Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, who hypothesized in the early 1960s that taking vitamin C prevents the common cold (although many credible experiments have disproved this theory). Some studies have shown that vitamin C, when taken with zinc, reduces the severity of cold symptoms for 6 to 12 hours. However, it is quite possible that you can get the same result from drinking a glass of orange juice or eating a kiwi, but no one has yet given the money to conduct such experiments.
If you eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes plenty of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, fish, and small amounts of dairy products and high-quality meats, and get plenty of sun exposure every day, you'll get enough vitamins and minerals for 99% of people.
In fact, our gut microbiota synthesizes some vitamins, such as the B vitamins, folate, and vitamin K.
Tim Spector
I've studied well-conducted, objective studies, and they've convinced me that vitamins not only don't help, but in many cases they can actually hurt.
No one tests them
The thousands of supplements that fill drugstore shelves have never been tested for safety or effectiveness. No one even checks to see if the bottle actually contains what it says on the label. Vitamin manufacturers around the world can still make exaggerated or false claims. What was once a cottage industry has become a global business.
Because vitamin doses are so small, pills have to be bulked up with fillers, preservatives, and small amounts of other chemicals or waste that are never tested. Multivitamins are often found to contain ingredients that are not listed on the label, and some “multivitamin tonics” have been found to contain crushed Viagra and anabolic steroids.
A study of more than half a million people taking unregulated multivitamins has found that they increase their risk of cancer and heart disease.
People confuse cause and effect
For some reason, vitamin D is considered to be the most proven vitamin of all. As a researcher, I studied vitamin D for 25 years, led the team that discovered the genes that affect it, and wrote more than 20 papers about it, including a placebo-controlled clinical trial of supplements in healthy postmenopausal women. I believed that this vitamin prevented disease and should be taken in large quantities. After all, hundreds of observational studies have shown that almost all common diseases, including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, depression, and cancer, are associated with low levels of this vitamin.
But now I think differently. I believe that for most people (except bedridden patients and a few other rare exceptions, such as those with multiple sclerosis), it is useless, and the risks outweigh the possible benefits. The observational studies I mentioned above are biased because it is the disease that causes low blood levels of vitamin D, not the other way around. People confuse cause and effect.
No Proven Effectiveness
More importantly, high-quality, randomized controlled trials do not prove that vitamin supplements are effective.
The largest clinical trial to date on the effectiveness of vitamin D in preventing fractures was recently published. The study involved more than half a million people from many countries with 188,000 fractures, divided into 23 cohorts. Instead of measuring vitamin D levels in the blood, it looked at the presence of genes responsible for its presence. The study found no association between vitamin D or milk (and therefore calcium) intake and fracture risk.
Vitamin D is not really a vitamin, as our bodies can synthesize it naturally from chemicals produced in the skin when exposed to sunlight. It should be called “steroid hormone D,” although that would probably hurt its popularity.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble and, like vitamins A, E, and K, accumulates in fatty tissues, where it can become toxic. Supplements are usually recommended in moderation, but many people exceed the recommended dose, especially those who buy high-dose supplements online. Although vitamin D toxicity is rare and can cause elevated calcium levels in the blood, it can cause serious complications to the heart, kidneys, and brain that can last for months.
Contrary to popular belief and advertising, you can get the vitamin D you need from 15 minutes of daily sun exposure or by eating fatty fish fillets, such as salmon, or vitamin D-rich mushrooms.
Protein Shakes - What the Research Says
Protein supplements are a heavyweight in the $16 billion-a-year sports nutrition market. Sure, strength athletes need more protein than the average couch potato. But the difference isn't huge - about 50 grams a day. That's an amount you can easily get from an extra chicken breast or a can of tomato-infused beans.
There's no difference between plant and animal protein when it comes to building muscle, so you don't have to eat steak and eggs exclusively. Some studies, including small-scale studies sponsored by health food and diet food companies, suggest that protein foods and drinks consumed within 45 minutes of a workout can help with muscle recovery. But many higher-quality studies have found no benefit over consuming protein before a workout. This means that you can skip the expensive supplements and get the same results by drinking a glass of milk and eating a handful of nuts (on the way to or from the gym).
High levels of protein are no longer considered bad for your kidneys, but many popular supplements contain a whole list of chemicals and fragrances that have not been properly tested.
If you usually take a serving of diluted protein powder, soy or whey, after a workout, it is much healthier to eat these protein-rich foods at home, in their natural form. Unless you are a professional athlete, then eating several servings of high-protein foods a day will almost certainly satisfy your protein needs.
Omega-3
A recent review of 79 randomized clinical trials involving 112,000 people concluded that taking long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in supplement form, such as fish oil, eicosapentaenoic acid, or docosahexaenoic acid, does not reduce the risk of stroke or death from any cause.
A large 2019 clinical trial involving 25,000 Americans found no benefit from fish oil in preventing heart disease or cancer. Other robust studies have shown that fish oil does not prevent blindness, Alzheimer’s, or prostate cancer.
Healthy People Don't Need Supplements
We buy into fads, looking for an easy solution to our problems and a magic pill that will give us health, and taking vitamins and minerals every day seems like the perfect solution. It's comforting to think that you're doing something good for yourself. But no amount of pills will make up for a bad diet. And there's no scientific evidence that vitamins and other supplements are beneficial.
If you continue to take vitamins and supplements after reading this, be sure to find out what you're taking and how much, as overdosing on these chemicals can be harmful to your health.
TLDR: Even a scientist who believes in science can prove that vitamins do not work and even cause harm, imagine if I wrote what I think about this, but no one would believe me
Tags for Healthmaxxers: @REGULUS @TuniaLTN
"But we colossally overestimate the benefits of vitamins and underestimate the risks associated with them. There is virtually no proven benefit for any vitamins, but there is growing evidence that they can cause harm," says British geneticist Tim Spector, author of the book "Mandatory Breakfast, Harmful Coffee and Dangerous Fast Food", published in Russia by the publishing house "MYTH". "Doctor Peter" publishes an excerpt from it.
Vitamin Myths
The idea that people need extra vitamins and supplements dates back to the 1930s, when the population was actually short of essential nutrients. However, it still lives on today, even though the main problem now is the overconsumption of junk food.
For example, the myth that taking vitamin C strengthens the immune system probably comes from Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, who hypothesized in the early 1960s that taking vitamin C prevents the common cold (although many credible experiments have disproved this theory). Some studies have shown that vitamin C, when taken with zinc, reduces the severity of cold symptoms for 6 to 12 hours. However, it is quite possible that you can get the same result from drinking a glass of orange juice or eating a kiwi, but no one has yet given the money to conduct such experiments.
If you eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes plenty of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, fish, and small amounts of dairy products and high-quality meats, and get plenty of sun exposure every day, you'll get enough vitamins and minerals for 99% of people.
In fact, our gut microbiota synthesizes some vitamins, such as the B vitamins, folate, and vitamin K.
Tim Spector
I've studied well-conducted, objective studies, and they've convinced me that vitamins not only don't help, but in many cases they can actually hurt.
No one tests them
The thousands of supplements that fill drugstore shelves have never been tested for safety or effectiveness. No one even checks to see if the bottle actually contains what it says on the label. Vitamin manufacturers around the world can still make exaggerated or false claims. What was once a cottage industry has become a global business.
Because vitamin doses are so small, pills have to be bulked up with fillers, preservatives, and small amounts of other chemicals or waste that are never tested. Multivitamins are often found to contain ingredients that are not listed on the label, and some “multivitamin tonics” have been found to contain crushed Viagra and anabolic steroids.
A study of more than half a million people taking unregulated multivitamins has found that they increase their risk of cancer and heart disease.
People confuse cause and effect
For some reason, vitamin D is considered to be the most proven vitamin of all. As a researcher, I studied vitamin D for 25 years, led the team that discovered the genes that affect it, and wrote more than 20 papers about it, including a placebo-controlled clinical trial of supplements in healthy postmenopausal women. I believed that this vitamin prevented disease and should be taken in large quantities. After all, hundreds of observational studies have shown that almost all common diseases, including autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, depression, and cancer, are associated with low levels of this vitamin.
But now I think differently. I believe that for most people (except bedridden patients and a few other rare exceptions, such as those with multiple sclerosis), it is useless, and the risks outweigh the possible benefits. The observational studies I mentioned above are biased because it is the disease that causes low blood levels of vitamin D, not the other way around. People confuse cause and effect.
No Proven Effectiveness
More importantly, high-quality, randomized controlled trials do not prove that vitamin supplements are effective.
The largest clinical trial to date on the effectiveness of vitamin D in preventing fractures was recently published. The study involved more than half a million people from many countries with 188,000 fractures, divided into 23 cohorts. Instead of measuring vitamin D levels in the blood, it looked at the presence of genes responsible for its presence. The study found no association between vitamin D or milk (and therefore calcium) intake and fracture risk.
Vitamin D is not really a vitamin, as our bodies can synthesize it naturally from chemicals produced in the skin when exposed to sunlight. It should be called “steroid hormone D,” although that would probably hurt its popularity.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble and, like vitamins A, E, and K, accumulates in fatty tissues, where it can become toxic. Supplements are usually recommended in moderation, but many people exceed the recommended dose, especially those who buy high-dose supplements online. Although vitamin D toxicity is rare and can cause elevated calcium levels in the blood, it can cause serious complications to the heart, kidneys, and brain that can last for months.
Contrary to popular belief and advertising, you can get the vitamin D you need from 15 minutes of daily sun exposure or by eating fatty fish fillets, such as salmon, or vitamin D-rich mushrooms.
Protein Shakes - What the Research Says
Protein supplements are a heavyweight in the $16 billion-a-year sports nutrition market. Sure, strength athletes need more protein than the average couch potato. But the difference isn't huge - about 50 grams a day. That's an amount you can easily get from an extra chicken breast or a can of tomato-infused beans.
There's no difference between plant and animal protein when it comes to building muscle, so you don't have to eat steak and eggs exclusively. Some studies, including small-scale studies sponsored by health food and diet food companies, suggest that protein foods and drinks consumed within 45 minutes of a workout can help with muscle recovery. But many higher-quality studies have found no benefit over consuming protein before a workout. This means that you can skip the expensive supplements and get the same results by drinking a glass of milk and eating a handful of nuts (on the way to or from the gym).
High levels of protein are no longer considered bad for your kidneys, but many popular supplements contain a whole list of chemicals and fragrances that have not been properly tested.
If you usually take a serving of diluted protein powder, soy or whey, after a workout, it is much healthier to eat these protein-rich foods at home, in their natural form. Unless you are a professional athlete, then eating several servings of high-protein foods a day will almost certainly satisfy your protein needs.
Omega-3
A recent review of 79 randomized clinical trials involving 112,000 people concluded that taking long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in supplement form, such as fish oil, eicosapentaenoic acid, or docosahexaenoic acid, does not reduce the risk of stroke or death from any cause.
A large 2019 clinical trial involving 25,000 Americans found no benefit from fish oil in preventing heart disease or cancer. Other robust studies have shown that fish oil does not prevent blindness, Alzheimer’s, or prostate cancer.
Healthy People Don't Need Supplements
We buy into fads, looking for an easy solution to our problems and a magic pill that will give us health, and taking vitamins and minerals every day seems like the perfect solution. It's comforting to think that you're doing something good for yourself. But no amount of pills will make up for a bad diet. And there's no scientific evidence that vitamins and other supplements are beneficial.
If you continue to take vitamins and supplements after reading this, be sure to find out what you're taking and how much, as overdosing on these chemicals can be harmful to your health.
TLDR: Even a scientist who believes in science can prove that vitamins do not work and even cause harm, imagine if I wrote what I think about this, but no one would believe me
Tags for Healthmaxxers: @REGULUS @TuniaLTN
