We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A HEALTH WARNING has been issued by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) against taking too many vitamins.
This follows research undertaken by scientists at the University of Colorado in the United States.
This research, unveiled at a forum for the American Association for Cancer Research two weeks ago, found that over-the-counter supplements could increase a person’s cancer risk if taken in excess of the recommended doses.
FSAI Warning
On foot of this research, The FSAI has said that it feels EU wide regulation should be introduced to tackle this issue.
Individuals are also warned not to consume more than the recommended dosage laid out on the packaging of supplements.
It aims to have maximum safe levels introduced which bodies at a European level have already made preparations for.
These levels would be lower than the ‘tolerable upper intake level’ (a measurement used internationally to define the maximum amount of a nutrient a person can take long-term before it becomes harmful to them) but potentially higher than the recommended daily allowance (RDA).
People in Ireland receive vitamins through supplements and also through ‘fortified foods’ – foods which have additional nutrients artificially added to them.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Dr Mary Flynn, the FSAI’s chief specialist in public health nutrition, explained that people, “could be getting too much from different sources” and that any new regulation “has to look at supplements and fortified foods together.”
What does the research show?
The research was conducted after observing that individuals who eat more fruit and vegetables are less likely to contract cancer. They then wanted to find out if taking additional vitamins supplements would reduce a person’s chances of contracting cancer further.
It was found in a study that looked at patients over a 10-year period that some vitamins led to subjects getting more cancer over the course of the study.
Speaking about the trial, Byers, associate director for cancer prevention and control at the University of Colorado Cancer Centre, said, “this is not to say that people need to be afraid of taking vitamins and minerals… if taken at the correct dosage, multivitamins can be good for you. But there is no substitute for good, nutritional food.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
All the vitamins we need are provided in fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish. Get a bit of cabbage into ya and you’ll be grand! Some of my friends have enough ‘vitamins’ in their cupboards to stock a small pharmacy and they still look and feel like sh#te!
No as simple as that. There are reasons to take vitamins that go beyond basic dietary needs. For example, those of us who have the eye condition Retinitis Pigmentosa are currently advised to take a very high dose of Vitamin A, because there’s no other treatment and it’s believed to give us a few years extra of useful vision. Like with any medicine, you make an educated choice as to risks and side effects.
If there’s a medical reason to take vitamins then take them. The vast majority of people take them on the assumption that they’re some kind of magic pill.
@Neal, your reason to take a certain vitamin is completely different to those who take vitamins to compensate for lack of a good diet.
There’s almost no Vitamin D in food. You need sunshine. We don’t have enough in Ireland. We evolved in Africa and since we left and came to northern Europe we haven’t had enough Vitamin D. They think that red hair and very light skin evolved to try and allow us make more Vitamin D but probably most people, especially children, are deficient.
” They think that red hair and very light skin evolved to try and allow us make more Vitamin D ”
surely that would be the opposite as above mentioned have problems in sunlight., we needed more sun so we evolved to react badly to it. hmmmmm
William, excellent and informative post.
Vitamin D3 is crucial to good health and very many Irish people are deficient in their D3 levels for the reasons which you allude to. Supplementing with D3 may be appropriate in many cases as dietary intake is likely to be insufficient for most of us, as you rightly say.
Only unprotected sun from about 12 noon to 3.00 PM, from April to October, is sufficient to give adequate D£ but the beneficial effect can be lost by early showering with hot water and soap products.
Testing for D3 levels can be expensive. I pushed for tests on the suggestion of a nutritionist. It happened that I had very low levels in the past at the time of testing. Getting my level up has transformed my health and even improved my general mood.
All other vitamins and trace minerals I get from food. Vitamin D3 is the only supplement that I take.
I avoid the supplement when I get enough uncovered and unprotected sunlight. You don’t get enough from just uncovering your face. Arms and legs should be exposed for short periods and stopped pre burn.
Denis. Hunter gatherers would have been protected better than us by their tan. Skin Cancer like most Cancers is mostly in old age. They didn’t live to an old age. It’s quite likely that Cancer hasn’t evolved away for similar reasons.
@William Grogan – Which evolved first William – the heart or the blood?
There is no evidence that most types of vitamin tablet do any good at all. D3 is an exception, pop that one till your heart is content.
It all depends on what type you are taking.
When you create a vitamin in a lab you will get 50% molecules that refract light to the left and 50% that refract light to the right. In nature, they all refract to the right.
The bioavailability of vitamins is greatly affected by this simple fact, it acts a little like a lock and key. Hence the way to get some insight into the quality of your supplement is to read the ingredients and see which form of vitamin E they are using.
Vitamin E is a very expensive vitamin to produce for supplements.
D-alpha tocopherol is the vitamin E you find in food, with all the molecules refracting the correct way. The lab synthesised version is called dl-alpha tocopherol, and has the 50/50 left and right. As a result, you only absorb half of however much vitamin E it says there is, eg, the supplement says it’s got 200iu of dl-alpha tocopherol, you will only absorb 100iu.
If they skimped on the vitamin E, they’ve likely skimped on other things too. Like using vitamin D2 rather than D3. Or sodium selenate rather than selenomethionine. The crucial point in this is that the clinical outcomes for different vitamin forms can show wide variances (eg, beta carotene is beneficial as an antioxidant, synthetic beta carotene is toxic to smokers and asbestos workers, selenium is a trace mineral that has limited protective capabilities against cancer, sodium selenite can be carcinogen in large doses)
@selfsustainable Obviously. It was meant an illustrative example, and chosen only because it’s the one I’m intimately familiar with. However there are many people who through malnutrition, lack of sufficient vitamins or food poverty (or whatever they’re calling it nowadays), end up with (for example) avoidable deterioration in their sight.
Vitamin C in high doses can help prevent flues but other vitamins can be risky…
Vitamin D increases Testosterone production as can Quercetin, Quercetin is found in red wine and boiled onions and it keeps your arteries clean.
Vitamin D in mushrooms I believe.
I understood that one Brazil,nut per day gives good selenium cover.
Too much of anything is bad for you, even water
High levels of Vitamin C can keep bad cholesterol from sticking to your arteries.
Nothing new in that…. big study from BMJ about 10 years ago showed 6% higher mortality in those taking vitamins long-term. Smokers be warned…. the combination of smoking and vitamins had a 20% increased mortality. It was a study of 10000 people over 10 years.
I think that was only certain vitamins that were fat soluble, A and E. For example vitamin C, which is water soluble, and others are depleted in smokers so probably should be encouraged. never a simple vitamins are bad as they cover such a broad spectrum. I would say vitamin d for winter supplement is important but stop once you can get exposure to the sunshine of late. in general though all studies show fruit and vegetables at higher intake led to better lifespan, this is usually contradicted by the cohort which usually are higher income and education. Very little studies that can be agreed upon. keep the beetroot intake up and ya be fine
@Rory, I think you should read that study before you apply your own bias. It was a study of multivitamins. They could not explain the findings in smokers, but theorised about immunomodulation. As for Vitamin D – 10 mins of sunlight is enough per day, so even winter is usually fine. Though one of our own pediatric cardiologists in Crumlin did a great study some years back on Vit D deficiency in Muslim children in London. Quite the problem it seems amongst mothers who always wear burka.
I fairly sure I read it at the time not my bias. Although I got my informed reply on it from Patrick Holford, who has a biased interest in the area but he does compile some good sources for his information.
Do you mean Patrick Holford the pill shill, subject of a chapter in Ben Goldacre’s ”Bad Science” and the man who said in his book, New Optimum Nutrition Bible that “AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful and proving less effective than vitamin C.”
Hum.
@Sarah – Goldacre’s writing style is purposely aggressive for the entertainment factor. I think that implying that people like holford, (who promotes good nutrition) are quacks is rather unfair.
Yes Sarah, Patrick Holford has some very well written books. He sells supplements also but his books promote the food as the preferential intake of certain sources. He lists the foods which promotes this along with herbs etc. The book “food is better medicine than drugs” highlights the issues of the pharmaceutical industry very well also. I would promote his books as good advice and science but not so much the supplements as opposed to get it from a good diet.
Most of what is sold in “Health Food” stores are a con.
In the states last year so called “natural” medicine outsold real medicines.
In the states that could have a lot to do with the cost of proper treatment.
A good healthy diet and one doesn’t need over the counter vitamin supplements. It’s just ploy by companies selling you something you don’t actually need. :)
Except that Europe – being the first place to introduce large scale industrial agriculture greatly reduced the selenium levels in our soil.
A lot of people run low on this trace mineral and don’t realise.
Likewise with magnesium, which is far more crucial (it’s required for over 2000 processes within the body), it’s usually in the top soil so depending on farm practices, it’s another one foods can run low on.
Vitamin C preserves the food it is present in, and depletes quickly. Unless you picked the fruit yourself, the vitamin C will be a lot lower (up to 40% lost in the first 24 hours).
Our food literally ain’t what it used to be.
There is so much misinformation around about food and nutrition these days. These supplements are big business and many people are being exploited in their wish to be healthy. Salt is another thing that many people are misinformed about. The recommended daily intake of salt is 3-6g. Depending on what type of food they eat, those who cook all their own food from scratch for example, people can often eat less than this. this in turn can lead to health complications and even death.
Now I just don’t know! So many different stories and opinions… And victim an supplements are so expensive as well..
“Vitamins’
coffee’s bad for you , coffee’s good for you
red wine bad , white wine good
white wine bad , red wine good
all wine is bad for you
alcohol is bad for you
alcohol is good for you
sex is good for you
Coffee can cause pancreatic and bladder cancer, rise blood pressure but coffee plants are soaked in pesticide as are grapes and wine has more additives to them than it had a 100 years ago. So is it coffee or wine that is bad for you or the traces of herbicides, pesticides as well as additives that are bad for you really?
Been saying this for years. I never take supplements unless I am deficient in something.
I don’t give supplements to the kids either.
With regards to vitamin D, there is a deficit here in Ireland. The idea that 15 minutes of sun exposure per day only applies to people with little or no skin pigment. And you need 15 minutes every day, not just once a weak.
It’s very important for infants and children. In the U.S. All milk has added Vit D. I know of only one dairy here in Ireland that does– Avenmore. But it’s not widely available.
Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) should now look at banning Trans Fats like Denmark and Switzerland. Diabetes type 2 can be completely reversed by avoiding all foods that contain Trans Fats. No easy to identify!
Vitamin C certainly doesn’t prevent the flu. A vaccine probably will.
It has been shown that 2000 mg a day will and can prevent flues in some individuals…
Actually vitamin D3 is far more beneficial than vitamin C for flu.
As for the vaccine, only if they strain match well. And even then the meta analysis says they have a modest effect on working days lost and no effect on transmission or complications.
I am a GP and I recommend individualised doses of vitamins and minerals for many conditions.
Here are some examples: My analysis of hundreds of Irish women with anxiety shows very high levels of copper. These women tend to suffer from several of these symptoms: panic attacks, insomnia, low libido, poor reaction to the contraceptive pill and post-natal depression. Using zinc and other appropriate nutrients these women will generally be well in a few months. The standard SSRI drugs like Prozac will occasionally help but more often than not will make them worse. From the point of view of the brain chemistry these women are usually overmethylated – too many CH3 molecules in the brain. Very high copper is common in people with paranoid schizophrenia. Generally speaking using appropriate nutrients including zinc, Vit B6, Vit C, Vit E and Vit B3 these people can be quite well in about a year with no paranoia and no voices. They will generally manage on about a quarter of the medication they have been using . Hospital admissions are rarely needed. Those people with very severe depression will need antidepressants in the long term but again using appropriate nutrients they will need a lot less medication, will have less side effects and generally will have a much better quality of life. This group – undermethylated- tend to be the high achievers of society and we seem to have a lot less of them compared to Norway, America and Australia. It is relatively common in south east Dublin.
Vit B12 is found only in meat as a rule and if it gets very low the spinal cord in the back can disintegrate. Folic acid is very important in pregnancy and a daily dose of 400 mcg is recommended for any sexually active woman who is not using proper contraceptive cover. Spina Bifida is the problem there.
I could go on all day but remember that we are basically made of vitamins, minerals and amino acids (from protein) and essential fatty acids. A proper diet will be enough for most people but individualised doses of vitamins are essential for quite a large part of the population .
But in the U.S. they have GM crops being used in food when mRNA has been found in gut bacteria as well as plant mRNA found in liver cells even after cooking, hormones in meat that are used to bulk up muscle mass and can cause cancer, as well as hormones put into cows to make them produce more milk that has now been shown to cause bone cancer?
It would be the B Vitamins I guess that would cause the harm as a daily amount of Zinc can prevent prostrate cancer, so not all vitamins or minerals are bad. People say vegetables will give you all you need but the fact is, if the minerals are not in the soil then how can you get them from the veg then. What is in a plant will only be from what is in the soil and some plants are fed with fertilizers made from crude oil and rock to make them grow and then some are just sprayed with herbicides and pesticides linked to cancers. It is crazy to say vegetables are good for you when you do not know where they came from?
B vits are water soluble and only harmful in extreme doses. Some of them are extremely crucial too, you wouldn’t wanna be without B12, that’s for sure.
Shanti
Are you a herbalist or nutritionist at all?
I understand that a spoon or two of nutritional yeast gives good vit.b cover including vit b12 – flavour enhancing too!
Studied nutrition, I presume you mean brewers yeast? Yes, good source of B vits, as is vegimite / marmite. Not great for everyone, if you’re prone to Candida / yeast infections you should avoid it :-)
Thankfully the amount of B12 you need is very low, but without it you die (this is why people with pernicious anaemia have to get shots, they lose the ability to absorb B12 from food due to the loss of intrinsic factor – be warned, antacids can cause you to lose intrinsic factor!!)
B1 is dangerous to your liver in high doses, B6 can speed up cell replication and Niacin with statin can remove plague from your arteries but will also weakens blood vessels and can increase the risk of strokes.
Check out examine.com
Very informative website about which vitamins and supplements have been tested.
Also non biased I believe
I find it hard to believe anything is not biased but I will look at the site, thank you.
I do try to find nutrition via foods rather than fits but limited income means but. C sometimes during the week with zinc too included as I am no miracle cook,nor nutritionist.
I do read and learn what I can.
Expensive urine is the best you can hope for with vitamins.
have your say