THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503220022
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 142 lines
MULTIPLE VITAMINS, plain. With minerals. With iron. With calcium, iron and zinc. Stress-fighting. Stress-fighting with iron. Stress-fighting with zinc .
Talk about stress.
You're standing in front of the wide-as-a-bus vitamin display at your local supermarket, mouth open, eyes bulging, head spinning. You came in wondering whether you and your family should be taking vitamin supplements.
You sure didn't expect all this.
One-A-Day Men's, Women's, Maximum, 55-Plus, Essential, Extras Vitamin C, Extras Vitamin E, Extras Antioxidant . . .
You've heard that some vitamins can stave off heart disease and even cancer. Which ones? How much is enough? And if some is good, isn't a bunch even better?
Vitamin A, A & D, B-1, B-6, B-12, B-50, B-100, B-complex & B-12 . . .
Most experts agree that all the vitamins and minerals your body needs can be found in grocery stores: Just load your cart with an assortment of foods from the bread-and-pasta, produce, dairy and meat sections.
And you say, ``Yeah, right.'' Next to the government's recommended Food Pyramid, your typical day's meals look like the nose-less Sphinx - missing some important parts.
Iron, zinc, calcium, ferrous sulfate, beta carotene, niacin, potassium . .
This is getting complicated. And you haven't even hit the kids' vitamins yet.
Calm down. Take a deep breath. Munch on a carrot - you'll find out why later.
After first saying ``eat right,'' most nutritionists have some common-sense advice.
They know most of us don't eat right. Most of them don't, either. And even balanced diets often contain foods that are heavily processed and have lost necessary vitamins.
So, nutritionists say, go ahead and take a daily multivitamin. And maybe try some ``antioxidants'' - vitamin C or E or beta carotene - because several recent studies point to them as helping fight clogged arteries.
Careful, though: You can get too much of a good thing. Your body can use only so much of each vitamin at a time. Some of the excess is excreted, but some can build up to where they hurt you.
``A multivitamin is good insurance,'' the rest mostly ``a waste of money,'' said Gary W. Elmer, associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. A decade ago he co-wrote ``The Vitamin Book.''
He and other nutritionists particularly object to specially packaged sets of vitamins - found everywhere from pharmacies to the counter of your local convenience store - that claim to fight the effects of stress or other physical problems.
``It's completely marketing, and a disservice to the public,'' Elmer said. ``It's the same thing for specialty vitamins for women, sports vitamins, geriatric vitamins. . . . The main difference is price.''
``The best advice is probably to buy the cheapest brand of one-a-day vitamins you can find,'' said Melvin H. Wiliams, eminent professor of health, physical education and recreation and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
A few basics
Vitamins are organic food compounds essential for many bodily processes. They make sure you get the nutrients out of your food and start all manner of chemical processes down at the cell level, from keeping your heart beating regularly to allowing your eyes to see.
Similarly, minerals such as iron and calcium are necessary components of all cells and body fluids. They also are used in many body functions.
You need only tiny amounts of these vitamins and minerals each day. That's why you can get all you're generally believed to need in one small tablet, called a multivitamin supplement. Or you can take more tablets, capsules or chewables containing megadoses of individual vitamins.
The little pills add up. In 1993, Americans bought $3.1 billion worth of vitamins alone, reports the Council for Responsible Nutrition, an industry trade association. Add in minerals and other nutritional aids - bee pollen, herbs, fish oil, amino acids, weight-loss products and such - and it totals $4.2 billion in supplements.
A council study showed that 43 percent of adults took vitamins. USA Today reported another study by NFO Research of Toledo, Ohio, that showed fully half of us take vitamin or mineral supplements, and 64 percent of those take multivitamins.
Much of that has been fueled by our desire for preventive medicine in these worrisome times of high health costs, said Gail C. Frank, a professor of nutrition at California State University at Long Beach, and a spokeswoman for The American Dietetic Association.
And supplements can work. A study by the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, for example, concluded that a daily multivitamin boosts the immune systems of older people, protecting them from infectious diseases.
But the big news in vitamins today is antioxidants. These are certain vitamins or compounds - C, E and beta carotene, which the body uses to make the needed vitamin A - that fight something called ``free-radical destruction'' in cells, or oxidation. That's what causes the bad kind of cholesterol, or LDL, to clog arteries. It's also thought to contribute to some cancers.
In a study reported last month by The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, researchers found that at least 400 international units a day of vitamin E reduced the risk of clogged arteries and heart disease; the recommended daily allowance now is 8 to 10 IU a day.
Since vitamin E is generally found in high-fat foods like nuts and oils, the researchers suggested that taking a supplement probably was healthier. Still, they recommended it only for high-risk patients, such as those who suffered heart attacks at young ages.
``I think it's a sexy name for something we've known for a long time,'' Frank said of antioxidants. ``I would rather eat 10 baby carrots and maybe get 10 calories and all the vitamin A that I would need at a very low price rather than taking supplements.''
Potatoes, dark-green vegetables, tomatoes - all are ready sources of beta carotene and vitamin A, and you don't miss out on the fiber and other benefits of eating real food, Frank said.
Over-supplementing
Some vitamins, like B and C, are water-soluble, and your body simply eliminates what it doesn't use.
``It's called the most-expensive urine a person can have,'' Frank said.
Still, too much vitamin B, for example, can leave you feeling flushed, irritable and with a headache, fatigue or insomnia.
Vitamins such as A and D are fat-soluble, and excesses are stored in body tissue. They can become toxic at a level of just five to 10 times the recommended daily allowance. Vitamin D, for example, increases the absorption of calcium and can leave deposits in the kidneys.
The University of Washington's Elmer has seen packets of ``energy vitamins'' that contain five times the recommended daily allowance for vitamin A at cash registers of convenience stores.
``The other concern, too,'' California State's Frank said, ``is there is a depleting nature of vitamins and minerals on other vitamins and minerals.'' Too much zinc, for instance, hinders or stops the absorption of calcium and copper.
In the end, Frank said, people who are asking about vitamins probably don't need to be. They're probably eating right, anyway.
``The person who's searching for the answer,'' Frank said, ``probably is doing OK on their own.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Even with shelves of vitamin supplements to choose from, experts say
stick with the basics.
by CNB