On April 20, 2012 hanna said...

Vegetarianism is NOT more healthy than a low-carb diet if you’re more likely to eat sugar and processed grains while rationalizing that it’s vegetarian. At least I admit that is true for myself!

On April 23, 2012 Amelie said...

This is a hot topic these days along with sustainable growing (wish people would learn about multicrop and canopy / shade methods)! I have a few questions that no one seems able to answer, I would appreciate some insight:

1. What do the recent studies show is harming people (or mice) who take supplements? What I heard was the concentration (for example, beta carotene) can be carcinogenic but no mention of food based ones like fish oil or beets in iron pills. Is it that simple? Is that why people who take supplements live a shorter life - cancer or toxicity?

2. I was a vegetarian for 20 years before I developed a wheat allergy and began eating meat again. I did hear there is a substance in red meat not found anywhere else; have you heard of this? I know nutrients in meat are more absorbable; is there anything besides B12 that is not bioavailable in plants? I heard that algae has more Omega 3s than flax seed, but some people say you still need fish to get enough.

On April 24, 2012 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said...

@hanna: Exactly! A vegetarian diet that consists of processed foods, fake meat, imitation foods, and Carbage (carbohydrate garbage) is much less healthy than a plant-based diet with carefully selected meat.

On April 24, 2012 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said...

@Amelie:

1. The most recent study that demonstrated the risks of supplements like multi-vitamins was the Iowa Women’s Health Study (http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/171/18/1625), that found an increased risk of dying correlated with supplements such as iron, folic acid, copper, and vitamin B6. The shorter life could be caused by cancer or heart disease, but these studies are designed to find a correlation, but we don’t know the causation.  Whether a supplement is food-based or not probably doesn’t make a huge difference, but to my knowledge that has not been tested. The studies linking beta-carotene to an increased risk of cancer were reviewed here (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.23527/full), but the take home is that beta-carotene supplements increased the risk of lung cancer by 24%.

2. I don’t know of a nutrient that is exclusively in red meat. It has the highest concentration of heme-iron, the form most absorbable by your body, but it is found in other meat as well. B12 is only found in meat and animal products like eggs and dairy. Algal oils are the only plant source of the long-chained omega-3 fats DHA and EPA (links to the Farmacy entries?), while flax is a concentrated source of ALA, the shorter omega-3 that the body can convert to DHA and EPA. In terms of dosing - you’d need to eat a whole lot of algae (pounds), and both algal and fish oil pills pale in comparison to fatty fish - a 6 ounce piece of wild salmon has approximately 3000mg of omega-3s! Fish is a great brain food as you get DHA and EPA along with many other essential brain nutrients like iodine, B12, vitamin D, selenium, and zinc.

On April 24, 2012 Amelie said...

@Dr. Ramsey dang that is some good information. I wish I could hire you as a nutritonist for a day.

“But we don’t know the causation”

Ah well, that’s too bad. I know some people insist it must be because people who take supplements are unhealthy to begin with, but I doubt that’s it. I’m preparing for a race and am having breathing problems from reflux-induced asthma (my blood is so acidic I feel like a bloody anteater) but I suppose glutamine supplements are a bad idea then. Antacids probably worse. Well, I’m a former vet nurse and work with people who need advice on cat nutrition.  Thanks for the advice and if you’re a cat person let me know if I can return the favor.