Go Research!
Hello All. I read an article today on msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28438651/) that headlined: "antioxidants don't cut cancer risk, study finds." So, of course, I'm intrigued and read on. Before I go any further, I'd like to state for the record that I will never get that 5 minutes back. The article goes on to state that people were given supplements of vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene), C, and E, and lo and behold, no significant reductions in their cancer risk.
Where do I start? Actually it's quite easy. The study is crap. When did it happen that common sense was completely disregarded. Perhaps a rhetorical question, but most likely when corporate dollars got in the mix. Anyhow, it seems like common sense to me anyway, that nutrients that are removed from their natural state and isolated are not in the form in which they should be consumed. Beta Carotene, for instance, is just one of many carotenoids that result in vitamin A. Recent studies have shown significant toxicity resulting from beta carotene supplementation. So much so that M.D.'s such as Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who formulates his own multi-vitamin, leaves vitamin a/beta carotene completely out. Vitamins, minerals etc. (micronutrients) are meant to be consumed (as is the macronutrients like protein, carbohydrates, etc.) in their natural state--i.e. as part of a whole food. Some argument can be made for mild supplementation to act as kind of an insurance policy for nutrition, but to make the argument that supplementation will reduce the risk of cancer is ludicrous. Studies on completely isolated nutrients such as this one drive me nuts.
What is it about our culture that needs a pill to solve our problems? How easy it would be for humans, if they could continue to eat cancer promoting foods--animal protein being the biggest cancer promoting food--but avoid cancer by taking a few vitamin pills. As with miracle 'diets' there is simply no way to be healthy and fit without eating whole foods and exercising.
How about this: save the millions of dollars spent on studies like this one that fall into the 'no duh' category, and devote the same funding to subsidizing organic produce. As an addendum to this quick blog, there is not one crop that goes directly to human consumption that is subsidized. To say it another way: every subsidized crop in this country goes either to things like ethanol or to feed animals that are then tortured (in the case of dairy cows, egg chickens etc.) and slaughtered for our (not mine) consumption. Americans have taken the quick train to crazy town.