Everything you need to know about vitamins

Natural Health, July-August, 1998 by Jack Challem

Do antioxidants really work? Are capsules better than tablets? Should vitamins be taken on an empty stomach? We answer your questions about supplements, whether you want to offset an imperfect diet or prevent disease.

Starbucks may brew a great cup of coffee, but the giant bean seller has turned ordering into a trying task, with choices of short or tall, skinny or fat, with or without whipped cream, ad nauseam. Buying vitamins, I'm afraid, can be equally trying. On a recent trip to a natural food store to pick up some vitamin C, I found myself inching along at least three feet of shelf space devoted to this one vitamin. Would I buy the nondescript store brand of C or the pharmaceutical-sounding ascorbic acid (the vitamin's chemical name)? The one with sodium ascorbate or calcium ascorbate, both buffered forms that reduce the acidity of C? Esterified vitamin C (made up of "chains" of C), rose hip C (made partly from the seed pods of roses), or acerola C (drawn partly from acerola berries)? Vitamin C with bioflavonoids, biologically active plant chemicals? C in liquid, chewable, or time-release form? 100 mg? 500 mg? 1,000? Tablets or capsules? How about those foil packets with fizzy vitamin C?

It shouldn't be this hard to buy a vitamin pill, but it is. Every month new products hit the market with assorted health claims, and new studies proclaim or warn against supplements. We can do one of two things--not buy vitamins, or get informed. Many Americans are deciding on the latter, because it appears, from a fast-growing body of evidence, that taking vitamins and other micronutrients supports good health and prevents disease.

Following are answers to people's most often asked questions, including why I still feel confident taking 10,000 mg of vitamin C a day, despite the recent study that concluded that taking more than 500 mg could be dangerous. Want to know something as basic as what a vitamin is? Or maybe which antioxidants to take to prevent cancer? Or perhaps you puzzle over when you should take your vitamins, and with what foods, if any. For answers to these and other questions, read on.

THE ABCs OF SUPPLEMENTS

Remind me, what are vitamins and minerals?

The basic definitions are pretty simple. Vitamins are organic compounds essential for health (in this sense, organic means they contain at least one carbon atom). Minerals are inorganic elements also essential for health; they're almost always consumed a; mineral-containing compounds, whether in food or supplements. Both vitamins and minerals function as coenzymes and cofactors that initiate and promote virtually all biochemical processes in the body, and recent research shows that many vitamins also influence the behavior of genes. Basically, you need vitamins and minerals to grow, produce energy, fight disease, repair injured tissue--and maintain normal health.

The 13 essential vitamins are divided into two groups: water-soluble vitamins that need to be replenished daily (vitamin C and the B vitamins) and fat-soluble vitamins you may need less frequently because the body can store them (vitamins A, D , E, and K). The essential minerals include calcium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc. In coming years, it's possible that the National Academy of Sciences, the nonprofit group that sets the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), may officially recognize the mineral vanadium and the carotenoid lutein (related to beta-carotene) as essential nutrients.

Although bacteria in your body can make trace amounts of some vitamins, most have to come from the diet, as do minerals.

I've been eating a good vegetarian diet with lots of organic foods for 20 years and I'm healthy. So why should I bother with supplements?

As a group, vegetarians certainly enjoy better health than meat eaters. One stud published in the Sept. 28, 1996, issue of the British Medical journal, found that vegetarians were far less likely than meat eaters to die from heart disease, stroke and cancer. There are probably two reasons for this. One is that fruits and vegetables provide large amounts of protective antioxidants (such as vitamin C and carotenoids). The other is that Vegetarians tend to avoid junk foods loaded with fats and sugars, which increase vitamin requirements; most vegetable oils, for example, boost the need for vitamin E.

However, vegetarians may be lacking in some nutrients, such as calcium, iron, and vitamin [B.sub.12]. A study in the February 199 5 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reported that female ale vegetarians tended to have lower levels of vitamins [B.sub.2] (riboflavin), [B.sub.3] (niacin), [B.sub.12], sodium, and zinc.

Whether or not you eat animal products, there are three reasons why you may want to supplement:

* Without analyzing the foods you eat, you can't be sure they contain reasonable amounts of vitamins and minerals. Growing, preparation, and cooking techniques can all affect nutrient levels. In the southeastern United States, for example, soils are typically deficient in selenium, a mineral that has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer.