As surely as the sun will rise in the east, you can expect to hear some group of doctors loudly announce that vitamins, minerals, and other supplements won’t do a thing for your health.
Of course, the media sucks up stories like that as if it were soda through a straw. These stories don’t require any research, so they’re low-hanging fruit for lazy journalists who want to appear to be doing some kind of public service!
And now, the latest comes from Dr. David Jenkins from the University of Toronto, who jumped up on his soapbox to tell any reporter who would listen how he was “surprised” to find so “few positive effects” from the most commonly taken supplements.
He’s got to be joking, right?
Well, I did some digging around, and I wasn’t one bit surprised to find out just who has been funding Dr. Jenkins…
This professor of nutrition has been getting checks from makers of soft drinks, sweet treats, and snack foods!
But the supplement “study” he authored has gone too far — because should anyone follow his advice, the consequences will be no laughing matter.
Disregarding decades of research
Dr. Jenkins claims that some of the most popular (and some of the most important) vitamin and mineral supplements available provide no health benefits – especially if you’re trying to protect your heart.
But it turns out that anyone who’s a consumer of the foods and drinks made by the companies lining his pockets is going to need more supplements, not fewer!
Some of Dr. Jenkins’ patrons include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo (makers of Lay’s and Doritos) and Unilever (a giant conglomerate that owns Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Popsicle, and Klondike bars), the Soy Foods Association, and the Canola Council of Canada.
Unbelievably, the vitamins the cola professor specifically called out as being worthless included a whole lineup of Bs, as well as C, E, D, along with zinc, magnesium, calcium, and selenium.
Somehow, he’s trying to contradict decades of research proving just how vital it is for you to keep your levels of these necessary nutrients up to par!
So, before you throw everything you thought you knew about the value of supplementing your diet out the window, allow me to poke some holes in these latest “findings.”
For starters, let’s take D. Studies have shown that the majority of Americans – especially seniors – are deficient in this sunshine vitamin.
And that’s no small matter. Because if you come up short on vitamin D, you’re leaving yourself wide open to a whole host of problems ranging from immune deficiencies (making it much more likely that you’ll catch every bug going around) to heart disease to weak bones.
As far as magnesium goes, well, it’s practically the superhero of supplements! And a deficiency in it, according to Dr. George Lundberg, former editor-in-chief of JAMA, “can trigger a range of cardiac-rhythm abnormalities, including some that are potentially lethal.”
In fact, magnesium is so important to the proper functioning of your heart that Dr. Lundberg believes a deficiency in this essential mineral likely caused the sudden, tragic death of actress Carrie Fisher.
But since knowing whether you’re deficient in magnesium requires more than your typical blood test, the simplest thing you can do is what Dr. Lundberg does – take 400 mg of magnesium every day!
Another mineral supplement that Jenkins believes won’t do you a lick of good is zinc. While you don’t need a whole lot of zinc, not having enough can be deadly. And research has found that nearly 40 percent of seniors in the U.S. are deficient.
While you might only think of zinc as a remedy for a cold or flu, this micronutrient can also help repair DNA, banish inflammation, and lower levels of oxidative stress – meaning that you can get the upper hand in steering clear of not only infections but some deadly diseases as well.
Vitamin C, a vital nutrient that Jenkins also put on his hit list, is a powerful antioxidant that not only can help you to stay free of colds and the flu, but it’s well known to protect against a wide variety of cancers.
The trace mineral selenium is another potent antioxidant, and deficiencies in vitamin E have been linked to metabolic syndrome, a condition that can double your risk of heart disease and make you five times more likely to develop diabetes.
Actually, the only vitamin Dr. Jenkins gave a slight nod to was folic acid, part of the B family. But he left the rest of that important group, including B 12, in the dust. Not having sufficient amounts of B vitamins can lead to exhaustion, depression, and even dementia.
And yes, it’s always better to get your nutrients primarily from food sources. But honestly, can you remember the last time you had the recommended 5 to 13 daily servings of fruits and veggies?
Even if you load you plate with a good selection, you may be missing out on such sources as flax and pumpkin seeds, which are high in zinc, or not getting enough dark leafy greens to provide you with an adequate amount of magnesium. And have you spent enough time in the sun (at least 10 minutes a day with no sunscreen) to enable your body to make sufficient amounts of vitamin D?
That’s where high-quality supplements can keep you going strong even when your diet is less than perfect and the sun isn’t shining bringing you vitamin D from above!
“Most popular vitamin and mineral supplements provide no health benefit, study finds” St. Michael’s Hospital, May 28, 2018, EurekAlert!, eurekalert.org
