An interesting post on diet from another forum...

holybinch

Simon E wrote:

I couldn't be bothered to read the quote article, and the comments seem more interesting. BTW putting large paragraphs in italics hurts my eyes

holybinch wrote:

I'd doubt you find "good" food supplements in supermarket too.
Try proper health shops, where you can get "proper" supplements.

Why are they any better because they are branded? Where is the evidence for that assertion? How do you know Tesco, Asda or the cheap online supp. sources (e.g. Healthy Direct, Zipvit) aren't as good?

Supplements are mostly a con trick anyway. Most of the time they are synethetic replacements for real food. I'm not saying Glucosamine never works, just that it seems that it has been shown to help those with specific conditions, and not as a preventative for otherwise healthy people.

I'll just stop there.
That's the biggest different between generic/supermarket supplements and "branded" supplements.
Their origin, and the exact composition of the supplement you're taking.
Most of the stuff you'll find in "cheap" supplements are synthetic, and generally one "compound" (for lack of a better word, ie: magnesium oxide, vs mg oxide& citrate)
They're not as easily assimilated as the proper complexes, so yeah, you end up peeing most of it.

Then, on the "superfoods" (hate the word), of course, you shouldn't be only eating such and such berry, but making sure to incorporate them in your diet is something we should strive for.
I completely agree on the no magic bullet, and on trying to eat as little processed food as possible.

Finally, on the fish oil, once again, it depends on the origin and the quantities you're taking.
Parents turn to capsules to try and get their kids to take them.
In order to get the "recommended" dose, you'd need to take 9 capsules a day.
I've since gone back to the lovely tasting oil, one spoonful a day, yuk.

My conclusion (for now at least): I take supplements because the food I eat (and don't get me wrong I have a pretty balanced diet) can't give my body what it needs.
I don't use supplement as a palliative for a healthy diet, just as what they are. Supplements. They're not in my diet to "heal/cure" anything, just to help me attain a right balance.
On a side note, and I know it might have nothing to do, I haven't caught a cold in years.

Edited: to try and fix that blooming quoting

Edwin

holybinch wrote:

Most of the stuff you'll find in "cheap" supplements are synthetic, and generally one "compound" (for lack of a better word, ie: magnesium oxide, vs mg oxide& citrate)
They're not as easily assimilated as the proper complexes, so yeah, you end up peeing most of it.

Bad example, magnesium citrate is a laxative so you won't be peeing it out!

Obviously I'm having a laugh, it's a supplement as well in smaller doses but I still don't accept your point. How do you know your body needs these superior supplements? How do you know what you are lacking from your diet, have you analysed it?

kieranb

Escargot wrote:

Try fruit smoothies. Choc full of sugar due to the massively high concentration of fruit in one glass.

Drink one a day (to get your supposed 5 a day) and you'll soon gain weight.

But you're right, you'd have to eat a lot of fruit to put weight on (although you'll be losing it pretty quick out the other end if you ate that much!)

funny, I've been doing this for about 2 years now, and had no weight gain?

They are not massively high concentrations, they are just pulped fruit and take up roughly the same volume as the unpulped fruit.

Maybe you're buying the wrong type, just as P&G tried to position Sunny D as a fruit juice!

holybinch

Edwin wrote:

holybinch wrote:

Most of the stuff you'll find in "cheap" supplements are synthetic, and generally one "compound" (for lack of a better word, ie: magnesium oxide, vs mg oxide& citrate)
They're not as easily assimilated as the proper complexes, so yeah, you end up peeing most of it.

Bad example, magnesium citrate is a laxative so you won't be peeing it out!

It was the other way around.
I'd take a compound vs a single molecule (in that case, magnesium oxide)
Magnesium citrate is a laxative, only if you take a dose high enough.

Edwin wrote:

Obviously I'm having a laugh, it's a supplement as well in smaller doses but I still don't accept your point. How do you know your body needs these superior supplements? How do you know what you are lacking from your diet, have you analysed it?

I'll take an example.
I used to suffer from jaw itch/cramps, probably stress induced. I was grinding my teeth at night.
Magnesium supplements have helped, and I rarely have the symptoms anymore.
If I could get that much magnesium in my diet, that would be great, but the evidence is, I can't.

I could take other example, some vitamins and minerals aren't easy to get through your diet (zinc for instance, except if you eat oysters everyday; vitamin B12 is also hard to get if you don't eat much meat, etc...)

keef66

Organic fruit and veg is nutritionally indistinguishable from the conventionally grown equivalents. And if you think organic means the crops aren't sprayed then you know nothing about commercial organic production. Buy organic stuff if you like the vague warm fuzzy feeling it gives you, but don't go kidding yourself it's in any way nutritionally better.

Supermarket fruit and veg often gets to the store quicker and in better condition than it would reach the consumer via the traditional wholesaler / market / greengrocer route. I do have an issue with the lack of care it subsequently receives at the hands of the zero hour shelf stackers though.

Today's varieties are much higher yielding than those grown in the 50's; which is a good thing since we are trying to feed a much larger population from less cultivated land. For inherently watery things like fruit and veg this probably does mean that they are less nutritionally dense, but we can generally afford to eat more of them today so it's not an issue.

With a couple of exceptions, supplements are a complete waste of money for the vast majority of the population eating a balanced diet. And if you think that Holland and Barret sell "proper" supplements and Tesco something inferior, then you've been hoodwinked by the multi billion supplements industry. In one of Dr. Chris Van Tulleken's 'The Truth About..' series they looked at supplements and some of those tested contained none of the ingredients they claimed, and more worryingly others that weren't. And price was no indicator of quality.

Occasionally an individual will develop a genuine deficiency which produces clinical symptoms. Despite a varied diet I've twice become anaemic and needed to take iron in the form of ferrous sulphate tablets.
And at UK lattitudes there is always the possibility of vitamin D deficiency; we don't spend as much time outdoors as we used to and as we age our ability to synthesise vit D in sunlight declines. My wife was diagnosed with very low levels and put on a course of high dose tablets which seemed to alleviate the symptoms, but 2 years later it was low again. She'll now likely stay on a maintenance dose indefinitely, and current advice is that the over 65's should take a daily vitamin D supplement so I might be joining her soon...

napoleond

Impressive thread resurrection!

keef66

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19727118#p19727118]NapoleonD[/url] wrote:

Impressive thread resurrection!

Bugger! Never looked at the date of the OP. I feel duped...

Wonder if the organic veg eating Holland & Barret contributors are still alive / healthy??

meanredspider

Whilst it's resurrected, the article quoted is TOTAL bollox from the very beginning. One of the symptoms of diabetes is unexpected weight LOSS because your body can't regulate blood sugars - which causes several of the other symptoms: tiredness, excess urination and heavy thirst (flushing the kidneys). It is also fully documented that excessive weight is a clear RISK indicator (ie it precedes diabetes not follows it). I'm not going to bother listing all the other errors in the article/post but it's full of crap.