No supplements replaces a healthy diet....they only are supplements!!!!

[maria angelica sassone]

No supplement replaces a healthy diet

Digestion would be too quick

LONDON .- Vitamin C is another disappointment. "It improves the damage caused by free radicals unless the case of deficiency in vitamin C," says biochemist Barry Halliwell, National University of Singapore. In fact, the Women s Health Study suggests that vitamin C supplements may accelerate atherosclerosis in diabetics.

A type of antioxidant is still little studied polyphenols. The limited available evidence comes from epidemiological studies, some of which suggest that prevents diseases. But while acting as an antioxidant polyphenols in the lab, it is clear that blood can absorb it or, if it does, is metabolized quickly. For example, the digestive system destroys 95% of the flavonoid resveratrol (red wine) before it enters circulation.

Thus, whatever is behind the benefit of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can not be replicated with vitamin supplements. "For a food with a certain component is beneficial does not mean that a charge [with the same component] so be it," said Paul Coates, National Institutes of Health in the United States.

But the truth is that people who have diets rich in vitamins C and E, polyphenols and carotenoids have a lower risk of heart attack, vascular disease, diabetes and cancer. One explanation is that having a healthy lifestyle. For Halliwell, however, antioxidants are at least partly responsible.

Since the polyphenols, carotenoids and vitamins in fruits and vegetables are hard and fibrous materials, he argues, remain in the stomach and colon, where they can neutralize free radicals. The gastrointestinal tract generates reactive oxygen substances and supplements can not replicate this effect because they are digested too quickly.

Tea, coffee and free radicals

Sources of dietary antioxidants include tea and coffee, and there is evidence that green tea's health benefits by reducing the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Strangely, they are also packed with reactive oxygen species.

But if free radicals are bad for us, how is that tea and coffee can be beneficial? One possibility is to activate our antioxidant system. "It has become quite think what makes free radicals," says Malcolm Jackson, a biochemist at the University of Liverpool in Britain. He believes that adequate amounts can improve health by causing the cells to activate their internal machinery of defense: a battery of enzymes, free radical scavengers. If antioxidants present in food work because they produce free radicals that improve health, it would be ironic twist. But also explain why supplements and extracts do not work or may even be dangerous: the doses are too high and produce too many free radicals.

For now, the advice is simple: "Choose foods rich in flavonoids, drink red wine in moderation and drink tea, fruits and vegetables," says Halliwell. Do not take high doses of supplements or fortified foods until we know more. "

New Scientist Magazine (©) 2006. Distributed by Tribune Media Services

By Lisa Melton
New Scientist

[ayana]

Thank you Maria. The inquiry was about possible alternatives, only if fresh tropical fruits weren't available. Nature reigns supreme; on this we agree. :-)

Namaste