The French don’t pop supplement pills every day. These healthy people don’t need to because they’re getting their nutrition from food. “But what’s the harm,” purr the marketers, “in taking one vitamin pill? It’s just like having a little in reserve.” I’ll go over the science below, but there’s a principle you need to hold on to and remember.
Pills are for sick people.
If you have an illness, you need medicine. If your physiology is normal, you should get your nutrition from the same source your body has always relied on … food. So if you’re sick, please take a pill for your condition. But you can overdo anything, including vitamin supplementation, which can lead to serious health problems. If you’re basically healthy, get your nutrient needs filled by food.
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine before Big Pharma, told us that food is your medicine. Whatever happened to that idea?
An Apple a Day, Not a Pill a Day
“It is sensible and harmless to take a multivitamin and mineral pill for people in risk groups, e.g., people eating very little or who have an unbalanced diet (children, old people, patients).
“Except for these groups it is poorly documented that vitamins and minerals in large doses have a preventive or therapeutic potential. The largest health potential lies in a healthy diet” (Meltzer, 2004).
Supplements Gone Wrong
A few years ago, the U.K. food watchdog group the Food Standards Agency pointed out the needless use of vitamin supplements: “Most people … do not need to take vitamins or dietary supplements because many foods are naturally high in vitamins or have been fortified with them.” And in 2003, an article in the British Medical Journal pointed out that vitamins can even be harmful.
Sir John Krebs, former chairman of the agency, was quoted as saying, “While in most cases you can get all the nutrients you need from a balanced diet, many people choose to take supplements. But taking some high dose supplements over a longer period of time could be harmful.”
Here are some key examples, but if you’re concerned about getting the best nutrition, be sure to look up the list of food sources for vitamins and minerals in our reference section.
Vitamin A, Carotene, and Cancer
Beta-carotene is a building block of vitamin A and is found in many green and yellow fruits and veggies. In the context of foods, it has been found to fight diseases from breast cancer to the recurrence of polyps. Yet supplements of synthetic beta-carotene do not. In the massive Women’s Health Study sponsored by the NIH, 19,939 women took beta-carotene supplements and 19,937 women took a placebo. Of the women who took beta-carotene, 378 got cancer (369 for placebo takers), 42 had heart attacks (50 for placebo takers), and 14 had other cardiovascular-related deaths (12 for the placebo takers).
In other words, beta-carotene does not work as a cancer fighter when you abstract it into a pill. In fact, for smokers, it can even increase the risk of lung cancer! In two exhaustive studies by the National Cancer Institute with more than fifty thousand participants (the Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study and the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial), beta-carotene supplements increased the likelihood of lung cancer in smokers by about 15 percent in one case and 28 percent in the other.
That’s a lot of work to confirm a simple message: Get your carotenes from food.
Vitamin C and Cardiovascular Disease
Vitamin C is an important water-soluble vitamin also known as ascorbic acid, and can be found in a variety of fruits and vegetables (we can’t make our own vitamin C, so it must come from food sources). Citrus fruits, tomatoes, broccoli, and all varieties of peppers contain an absolute trove of this potent antioxidant.
Because of these healthful properties, vitamin C supplements were assumed to aid in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. But the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently reported that they simply couldn’t recommend these supplements. Another research group found the exact same nonresult—vitamin C supplements did not improve the blood markers for heart disease.
And listen to this. Aaron Folsum, in a 2004 study, found that a high vitamin C intake from supplements is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality in postmenopausal women with diabetes. It’s not a problem with oranges, or with broccoli and peppers, but with concentrated molecules abstracted and eaten as pills every day.
Vitamin E, Stroke, and Heart Disease
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin found in nuts such as almonds, peanuts, and hazelnuts, as well as in spinach and broccoli. These foods have been repeatedly associated with a reduced risk of stroke.
But a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association from the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) trial of nearly ten thousand people concluded that there is no benefit at all from vitamin E supplementation. In fact, “patients in the vitamin E group had a higher risk of heart failure … and hospitalization for heart failure.” Maybe that’s because a pill of four hundred international units (IU) of vitamin E should give you more than twelve times the recommended daily allowance (RDA), but actually only changes its blood levels by 3 percent. Between your mouth and your bloodstream, something else is happening.
As noted Harvard Medical School researcher Michael Gaziano pointed out in 2004, “Currently, the American Heart Association maintains that there are insufficient efficacy data from completed randomized trials to justify population-wide recommendations for use of vitamin E supplements in disease prevention.”
Calcium and Weight Control
This is a new angle for the dairy industry. It used to be “Milk, it does the body good.” Now it’s all about the link between food sources of calcium and weight loss. Researchers are now finding that a diet high in calcium also may help prevent the weight regain and yo-yoing we’re so familiar with.
What do the French finish their meals with? Cheese after lunch, cheese after dinner. They eat yogurt for breakfast, too. Now another piece of the French paradox makes sense!
But it’s not about the calcium alone—the health benefits of these dairy foods do not materialize when the active ingredient is abstracted into a pill. In one exhaustive review, seventeen studies were assessed and only one of them showed any effect of weight loss with the use of calcium supplements.
As stated by Dr. Zemel, the lead author of many of these studies: “These findings are further supported by … data demonstrating a profound reduction in the odds of being obese associated with increasing dietary calcium intake. Notably, dairy sources of calcium exert a significantly greater anti-obesity effect than supplemental sources in each of these studies.”
Calcium and Kidney Stones
I was floored at this one. Dr. Walter Willett and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed the data from the massive Nurses’ Health Study to see the effect of calcium supplements on bone health. But do you know what they found?
Calcium consumed in food helps prevent kidney stones, but taking supplements actually increases one’s risk! I never saw that published study on the supplement commercials, but here’s what Dr. Gary Curhan at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital concluded in the Annals of Internal Medicine: “High intake of dietary calcium appears to decrease risk for symptomatic kidney stones, whereas intake of supplemental calcium may increase risk.”
Debunking the Supplement Myth
Vitamin companies want you to believe you’re prone to nutritional deficiencies, even if you eat bushels of fruits and vegetables all day, every day. That’s because, the thinking goes, our conventional methods of agriculture produce crops that are nutritionally vacuous. They look nice, but contain little of value inside. That’s the rationale, anyway, and it’s amazing to me how many people believe they should exchange food for pills. But think for just a second about why exactly that is.
Why do we recommend an aspirin to prevent heart disease, but not a glass of wine? Why do doctors overwhelmingly prescribe Ritalin to our children for behavioral problems, when behaviora
l therapy is a viable option? Why do doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs, even though a modified diet and exercise produce the same desired effects? We know drugs can be lifesavers and are critically important to health, but why do we treat them as the first resort instead of the last?
We do all these things because there’s a steady demand. When it comes to weight loss, our pill culture has Alzheimer’s disease. We don’t seem to remember suffering through the trauma of phen-fen heart valve problems and ephedra-related deaths. All this has happened and much more, and yet we keep coming back for more pills to outsmart our bodies—for the promise of a quick-fix miracle.
We also do all these things because there’s a steady supply. I coach my kids—and I’m sure you do, too—to please not believe the drugpusher “friend” who tells them how great they’ll feel once they try pot, or meth, or crack, or cocaine. What he says is not true. He’s selling something. But we need to be aware that the same motivation is true for the beautiful ads for legal drugs: the television commercials sparkling with playful actors with perfect white teeth and the magazine ads showing happy people living the kind of life they know you want.
Okay, marketers are certainly not crack dealers, but they are all selling something, trying to find the best possible way to present their pills so you’ll fund their enterprise. That’s why you can’t believe even what legitimate drug companies say just because they say it. It’s their job to find out what you need to hear, and then say it to you. In fact, if they say it, their conflict of interest gives you far more reason to doubt than to believe.
Are Our Veggies Nutritionally Vacuous?
After reviewing studies comparing foods grown organically (without pesticides and fertilizers) to those grown using conventional modern methods, the results are mixed—evidence can be found to support either side. Nothing’s ever easy, is it?
First, there really are differences in the nutrient content of organically grown produce, as compared to the mass-produced varieties. Here are the examples, and please refer to the original articles found in the selected bibliography (Nutrition and Our Food Sources).
Organic tomatoes have slightly more vitamin C, carotenoids, and polyphenols.
Organic plums have more antioxidant vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, total polyphenols, phenolic acids, and flavonols.
Organic leafy veggies and potatoes have more vitamin C.
And another study didn’t say what veggies they measured, only that organic produce contained significantly more vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus and significantly fewer nitrates than conventional crops.
That’s why people buy foods at farmers’ markets, because they are more healthful. The problem is that the studies to date haven’t shown nutrient differences in the bloodstream. For example, Dr. Caris-Veyrat and his research team from Avignon, France, tested subjects who ate either organic tomatoes or conventional tomatoes for three solid weeks, to see if they could detect changes in their blood levels of the antioxidants vitamin C and lycopene. However, there were no differences between the two groups at all.
Thus, the nutritional difference between organic and conventional foods is there, but it’s small—and it certainly doesn’t justify the claims that you should take vitamin supplements. Actually, the bigger issue may not be what’s missing from conventional produce (the nutrients) but what’s added to them (the residue levels of pesticides still in the produce that you and your kids are eating).
My guess is that conventional fruits and veggies are only slightly less healthful, but may be a great deal more harmful, and popping supplement pills isn’t going to help with that. Practically speaking, you have to do the best you can with the local grocery stores where you shop. Buy organic whenever possible. If you can’t, get conventional fruits and veggies so you don’t have to resort to faux foods.
Troubleshooting Faux Foods
So how did cleaning out your kitchen go? Below are some of the most common problems people run into when getting rid of faux-food products.
Problem: What am I going to eat now?
Solution: Get the right resources.
Without frozen pizza and microwave popcorn, how can you survive?!
Most people want to eat healthfully, but just don’t know what to do. The first solution is to get a cookbook that makes it super simple. We have more than fifty real foods recipes in the back of this book, and these are just things I throw together at my house, in the middle of my crazy life. Other alternatives include great cookbooks for everyday meals in thirty minutes or less from Mark Bittman and Rachael Ray.
Decent grocery stores will have prepared meats and sides near their deli section made from great materials, all marinated and spiced and ready for you to just cart them home and stick them in the oven! These make delicious quickie dinners, and they normally have a wide variety to choose from. So you can have sushi one night, crab-stuffed salmon another, and Cajun pork chops the next.
Problem: What am I going to drink now?
Solution: Keep it simple.
We’ve become so inured to the presence of soda in our lives that many people honestly don’t know what the alternatives are (read more about these in Step 6).
Water is the drink of choice. Pour a small glass of water with dinner, even if you don’t plan on drinking it—you’ll end up having some, getting used to it, and soon you’ll be asking for it specifically, even when you go out to eat! Throw a cut lemon wedge in for a little added tang.
Tea and milk are great options, as are modest levels of beer and wine. Juice is okay when the glass is kept small, but you could also spruce it up a bit with carbonated water—especially if you miss your fizzy drink. Coffee in moderation (one to three cups per day) helps stabilizes insulin levels.
Problem: What if I don’t have enough time to cook?
Solution: Use simple timesaving techniques.
First, you have to remember the difference between a cook and a chef. A chef is a trained professional who can spend hours and hours laboring over a dish to perfect the precise flavors. Great. But no one has time for this in the real world, and if you think you have to be a chef to eat well, you’re just going to resort to prepackaged boxes of preservative-laced food. So you have to think like a cook, one who can get a great meal on the table in just about thirty minutes.
The broiler or grill is your friend. Pork chops, fish fillets, and chicken cutlets need just a little seasoning and they’re done in fifteen minutes flat. Start with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Branch out from there later on, but you can just begin with those to make just about anything taste good.
Don’t be afraid of the frying pan. Just sauté (read, fry) your veggies in a healthy oil like extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper, and they’re done in ten minutes. Green beans are great sautéed, as are the combination of onions and mushrooms. Very simple.
Problem: What if I have concerns about carbs and blood sugar?
Solution: Balance carbs with a little fat, fiber, or protein.
If you have insulin instabilities, you might be worried about maintaining your glucose levels between meals. These fears are fed by the most recent dietary fad, which coaches you to eat throughout the day. As always, please consult your doctor related to any medical conditions.
But from my point of view, your first step is to stay away from overt sugar sources, such as regular sodas or overly sugared food products. Beyond this obvious starting point, the key to keeping your insulin on an even keel is to eat small and eat with balance. That is, have your carbs with a little fat, fiber, or protein: a piece of whole-grain bread with a little peanut butter is fantastic, as are peaches with a little cream, macaroni with a little cheese, and so on. When you eat with balance, your insulin and blood sugar stay balanced as well.
Don’t Forget, Don’t Diet
Most run-of-the-mill diets have you do a start-up detox phase. In this portion of each plan, you’re told to cleanse your system of the toxins that have built up by eating whatever n
ovel foods the diet says are bad for you (carbs, fats, you name it). This stage is short because the foods you are allowed to eat are practically impossible to eat for very long.
But when you simply jettison the chemistry cabinet in favor of real foods, your body is released to clear any toxins quite naturally. Your own physiology knows what to do, and how to maintain itself with optimal health when you simply give it real food. This is such an easy rule to remember, and will become completely intuitive after the first few delicious weeks.
Now that you’re resolved to avoid eating inventions, the next step—choosing real foods—will give your body back its health.
CHEAT SHEET: EATING FAUX FOOD-FREE
Get out the junk. Give your body the real food it’s asking for and you’ll provide it with everything it needs for optimal weight, a healthy heart, and longer life.
Finding the Faux
Eliminate all low-carb, faux-carb food products, such as those that contain sorbitol and aspartame.
Eliminate all low-fat, faux-fat food products, such as those that contain hydrogenated oils and olestra.
Throw out all soda.
The French Don't Diet Plan Page 5
