Frankly, I am more than a little bored with the “you can get all the vitamins and minerals you need from a balanced diet” chant, oft repeated by those who have never given the matter any serious consideration.
This ‘balanced diet’ requires definition. The best approach is to examine the natural human diet – the Palaeolithic diet – as consumed by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. And what an eye-opener that is, being so much more nutrient-dense than anything we consume today. Just look at vitamin C: it is estimated that our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed around 600 mg of vitamin C a day. The current UK daily recommendation is a mere 60mg, and even that’s ambitious, despite the fact that our nutritional requirements have not changed since we were running around in skins, clubbing small animals. Vitamin C levels start to diminish in plant foods as soon as they are picked – and how many of us now eat freshly picked plant foods on a daily basis. Instead, days, weeks and even months can pass as what appears to be fresh produce languishes in cold storage, or on shelves, its vitamin content steadily dwindling.
Then there is the matter of soil, from which we obtain minerals. Artificial fertilisers, intensive farming and soil erosion have resulted in plant foods containing much poorer levels of minerals than ever. Selenium levels have been falling for years – as long ago as 1997 the British Medical Journal claimed it was ‘time to act’ on the every decreasing levels in soil throughout the world, including Europe. Lack of selenium in the diet is linked to cancer (it plays an essential role in the immune system), cardiovascular disease, thyroid disruption and infertility. Thanks to soil erosion, Iodine deficiency is a major cause of hypothyroidism worldwide with around 2 billion people with insufficient intake. Zinc deficiency in soil is also common: recent estimates suggest that nearly half of world population is zinc deficient, thanks to our obsession with cereal crops such as wheat which are inherently low in this element, especially when grown on zinc deficient soil.
The problem doesn’t stop at soil. We bring deficiency on ourselves, to a certain extent. Drinking alcohol destroys vitamins – in particular the water soluble B complex and vitamin C. Alcoholism can cause a dementia-type illness called as a result of alcohol-induced vitamin B1 deficiency. Smoking can result in low levels of antioxidants like vitamins A and C It is also well known that, at any quantity, coffee can inhibit the absorption of iron and zinc. Stress depletes B vitamins and vit C, which are rapidly used up by the adrenal glands. If you’re vegetarian, you may be especially vulnerable. Plant foods such as spinach may contain some iron, but only about 1.4 per cent of the iron in spinach is absorbable, compared to 20 per cent of the iron in meat. Vitamin D deficiency is now recognised as common in the UK. Lack of sunlight, fear of fat (butter and other dairy products, as well as declining intake of oily fish) and the trend for slathering ourselves in sunscreen before any hope of a ray hitting the skin, mean that vitamin D deficiency is almost inevitable.
Food processing also puts the kibosh on nutrient levels. Breakfast cereal advertising often makes much of the fact that cereals are fortified with vitamins and iron. Indeed they may be, but the heat treatment and refining process required to manufacture cereals means that most of the original nutrients of the natural whole grain are lost. Vitamin B1 content decreases by 77%, B2 by 80%, vitamin E by 86%, calcium by 60%. Magnesium decreases by 84%, iron by 76%, and zinc 78%. For this reason breakfast cereals are usually fortified with some B vitamins as well as iron, but to a lesser extent than the amount lost.
I could go on, and on. The point I’m making is that the modern diet is grossly inadequate compared to the diet of our hunter gatherer ancestors, so to talk of a ‘balanced diet’ is nonsense. So I worry that under the EU Food Supplements Directive, The EU is to set Maximum Permitted Levels (MPLs) of supplemental vitamins and minerals. It is widely believed by proponents of food supplements that the pressure comes from Big Pharma who prefer not to have any form of competition. Manufacturers of food supplements will be forced out of business and the big pharmaceuticals will move in and corner the market in low dose vitamins. Job done.
It may be unnatural to take vitamins and minerals, but our unnatural diets and lifestyles mean that you’d be mad not to. Join the campaign to save our supplements. http://www.consumersforhealthchoice.com
References
Nestle, M. (2000) Palaeolithic diets: a sceptical view. Nutrition Bulletin, 25:43-47.
Rayman, M.P. (1997) Dietary selenium: Time to act. British Medical Journal, I314:387-88.
White, J.P. & Broadley, M.R.(2005) Biofortifying crops with essential mineral elements. Trends in Plant Science, 10(12):586-593.
Guerinot, M.L. & Yi, Y. (1994) Iron: nutritious, noxious, and not readily available. Plant Physiology, 104:815-820