Friday, February 22, 2008

synthetic vitamins and carbs bad....fat good....

Here is just a quick couple of tit-bits for the weekend:


Serious Dangers of Synthetic & Unnatural Vitamins (pdf) - Phil Maffetone looks at the same issue that I have pointed to recently. I really like Dr Maffetone. While I do not always agree with him, especially with respect to exercise, I think he was ahead of his time on things like shoes (simple, cheap and flat) and diet (low carb, higher fat).

Animal foods linked with reduced risk of breast cancer, while starch found to be associated with enhanced risk - Dr Briffa highlights "a piece of research which supports the notion that animal foods, even those rich in saturated fat, are not the dietary spectres they are so often made out to be. In addition, and I do think this is very important, it again supports the notion that the oh-so-health starchy carbs we are generally encouraged to have are fill of may have serious negative consequences for our health."


3 comments:

Stephan Guyenet said...

I agree with Dr. Maffetone on this. Synthetic and isolated nutrients are just as unnatural to our metabolism as refined carb.

We just don't know the long-term effects of these things because no one's ever looked. And no one ever will, because you can't study every single different multivitamin to see how these things act in concert over a long period of time.

The same goes for non-vitamin antioxidants. At least we know vitamins can cure deficiencies. There's no good evidence in humans to support taking antioxidant supplements that I know of. There's not even any reason to seek out antioxidant-rich food. Most of those compounds get broken down in a hurry anyway.

Chris said...

Thanks for the comment. From what I'm reading I would agree with every word!

Dr. B G said...

I just discovered your blog from Heartcipher and Hyperlipid... you ROCK! I totally agree on the fake synthetic analogue vitamins (and other hormones horse-estrogen, provera, etc).
THank you for sharing your insights on articles and fitness. I've been doing mini-tri's and gonna do a real tri this summer. I think your advice will help my performance!

Have you ever had your vitamin D level checked? deficiency is a lot more common (even in athletes outdoors) than imagined.
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search?q=athlete

Respect, G