Food Better Than Pills and Vitamin C Dangers

Food Over Pills & Vitamin C Dangers
"Epidemiological data firmly linking high fruit and vegetable consumption to health benefits have prompted efforts to reproduce these effects 'to within a single manufactured product,"] observed Italian scientists* recently. The problem is that the desired effect is not realized when tested in humans.

They point out that large doses of vitamin C given to healthy volunteers for 4-6 weeks ".... causes substantial ...DNA damage...."

There are other components in foods that are not present in manufactured supplements. And "whole apple.... exert's] much greater total antioxidant activity and stronger inhibitory effects on growth of colon and liver cancer.... than does synthetic ascorbic acid 'vitamin C,] presumably because of their high content of nutrients and 'plant] chemicals.

"One 50 gram serving of apple, for example, contains about 219 mg 'milligrams] of phyto 'plant] chemicals, including around 145 mg phenolic compounds, 71 mg flavenoids and 2.85 mg 'vitamin C.]

They point out that the natural combination of plant substances may very well have a different effect than taking a few substances separately.

*Drs. Paolini, Bauer, et al, Dept. of Phamacology, U. of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy & Biochemistry Unit, U. of Pisa, Italy, The Lancet, vol. 358, 2001

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