In Britain, more than a third of us try to improve our wellness by taking a daily supplement, but there used to be a lot more interest in healthy pill-popping. 41% of Brits were loading up on vitamins and minerals in 2008, but last year this figure fell to 35% – so what changed?
In recent years, more and more scientists have been dispelling the myth that supplements are the be-all and end-all of wellness, while other, equally-respected, researchers have extolled the health benefits of supplements. A good case in point comes from scientists at both the University of Glasgow and the University of Aberdeen whose first study showed that vitamin supplements helped boost the lifespans of mice. However, earlier this month in scientific journal Biology Letters, the same researchers detected the opposite effect in voles – rodents which resemble mice but have bigger bodies.
Dr Paul Offit, head of the infectious diseases unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has caused quite a stir in the US over his views on the subject. In his new book, Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, he not only dismisses the benefits of many supplements, but also warns that high doses of vitamin supplements are bad for your health. He commented, ‘Vitamins live under this notion that you can’t possibly hurt yourself, but you can, by challenging Mother Nature and taking these vitamins and concentrating them to these exceptionally large quantities that you would never normally eat.’
However, according to Simon Bandy, general manager at supplement supplier Health Plus, ‘People do take supplements because they want to make sure they’re getting the nutrients their bodies require. They’re not really a replacement for food – they act as an insurance policy to make sure your body’s getting the right number of nutrients. We’re not yet at the stage where people could take a pill and live on that.’ He added, with diet alone, it’s just not possible to get all the vitamins and minerals you need to ensure your well-being. ‘It’s a lovely philosophy and it would be nice if we could get them all from our food, but unfortunately the way stuff is having to be forced grown to feed an ever-growing population, there just aren’t the nutrients in there.’
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