Turns out taking those vitamins might not be the equivalent of having an apple a day. A study found that after time antioxidants like the ones lining the shelves in CVS (vitamin A, E, C, and beta-carotene, for example) actually lose their antioxidant qualities.
The Cochrane Collaboration is a network of volunteers supported by a small staff, dedicated to improving health-care decision making all over the world. Their study included thousands of individuals over many trials, making their information well-tested and legitimate, as least it's quite enough to scare me. They have recently found some startling results, and I found this statement to be cause of alarm: "Vitamin A, beta-carotene, and vitamin E may increase mortality." Allowing these supplements to sit on the shelves in stores decreases their ability to improve health, and in some cases increases risk of other implications.
A similar study was done with tea, known and praised for its antioxidant abilities. Tea doesn't spoil once packaged, therefore leading many to believe that its always still good. However Mendel Friedman and colleagues from the Albany, Calif.-based Western Regional Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture found "that among the teas we looked at there seems to be a progressive decrease in the amount of antioxidants as a function of time." After the longest period they tested, 6 months, up to 32% of the benefits had been stripped, and considering that the tea that you purchase at the grocery store has probably been sitting there for much longer than just 6 months, you are fooling yourself thinking that its so good for you.
This issue seems kind of shocking to me, and obviously more research is still needed, though I still feel its pertinent. Check out some of those sites and read more about the studies, they're pretty interesting.
I don't see that as a shock to be honest. Tea is a leaf from the tea plant, and just like evry other fruits and vegetabbles. the fresh ones always taste better than the packaged and/or frozen ones. That's why you buy fresh produce. Especially if you have a farm, or orange grove nearby. I swear, whenever we're in orange season, I go by this orange grove down the street from my house. They have the best tasting orange juice.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot of sense, most foods or medicines have a shelf life. However, I am shocked that the shelve lives of the products you mentioned are so low. Tea, only six months, and vitamins that are comparably low, wow. Such information should lead to quicker production and distribution of low life products.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how so many vitamins break down in such a short time. I have not been big on trying to care about what I eat and apparently every blog seems to confirm more and more that I am actually better off with the foods I eat.
ReplyDeleteI've been taking a Centrum multivitamin everyday for the past few years just to make sure I'm getting the vitamins I need that aren't in my diet. I eat pretty healthy most of the time and get a lot of exercise. I understand that vitamins have a shelf life, but most of the time multivitamins contain well over the daily recommended amount of each supplement. People who think just taking vitamins will make them healthy need to consider cardiovascular exercise, It's hard to be healthy if your body is not in shape.
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