Vitamins

[Gcart]

Notice that there is a prog pn above BBC 2 tonight .

Be interesting ! I know how much SS advice on vit intake has helped me 😘

[humanbean]

What's the name of this program and when and where is it on?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

Vitamin Pills - Miracle or Myth?

BBC2 9pm in Wales, not sure if time in England will be different.

[humanbean in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you. I was looking for the word "Vitamins" on the Radio Times website and my eyes didn't register the word "Horizon"!

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

You're welcome

This thread reminded me to set the timer on my recorder.

[humanbean]

I had some other things to do so didn't see this programme. Was it any good?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

It was interesting, particularly about antioxidants, also green tea, and the problems they can cause. Briefly:

Mentioned how most of us get enough vitamins and minerals from food.

They took blood samples from 3 people, including the presenter, and tested for Vit D, Vit A, Vit E, Folate and B12. All were in the "normal range" for everything, except for the presenter who was a bit low in Vit D. Too small a study to prove anything I think really, and they were all healthy people as well.

Can you watch it on iplayer?

[humanbean in reply to SeasideSusie]

Yes I can. It's here :

bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b...

I just thought I'd ask whether it was worth it though.

Thanks for the info.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to humanbean]

Do watch it HB, I think you will find it interesting.

I liked the bit about how the packaging has big writing for eg on Feroglobin "tiredness and fatigue" and small writing for "contributes to normal" and what the presenter explains about this. Typical "salesmanship" by companies trying to con people who they think can't work things out for themselves!

[Gcart in reply to SeasideSusie]

I'm afraid I lost interest after 20 minutes or so . Was looking forward to it to be more informative than it was .

[AmandaK in reply to humanbean]

I found it far too simplistic and for the researcher to say that with the modern diet no one should be deficient in vitamins was peculiar, given all the emphasis/media attention on how poor people's diets are these days.

To extrapolate general information based on the results of three volunteers, who had a moderately good diet was disingenuous (I found it hard to believe that one of them, a student, had the worst diet of the three - she was extremely slender, which belies her comment that she lived on chocolate and chips).

Also, with modern farming methods, it's generally accepted that vegetables have fewer nutrients. This wasn't even mentioned.

I would have preferred more emphasis on those who do need to supplement, rather than half of the programme focussing on the history of how the vitamin industry came into being. Though I should imagine Vitabiotics is quaking in its shoes. According to the Dragons' Den website: 'Vitabiotics is the largest vitamin company in the UK by value sales with a current group turnover of over £300 million a year', so the pills we are taking are making Tej Lavani a very wealthy man (well, those taking Vitabiotics; the same can probably be said for other vitamin pill companies).

The information about antioxidants and green tea supplements was, however, illuminating and alarming (antioxidants are shown to be useless and green tea supplements can cause severe liver damage in some cases). Then again, the Acumen Test I have had twice now has shown that my body is not getting rid of toxins adequately, so I'm now taking NAC, a precursor to glutathione, a powerful antioxidant (apparently, people with ME/CFS have 36% less glutathione present than those without ME/CFS) . I'm about to have the test done again to see if there has been an improvement. I have seen an improvement in energy levels since taking NAC, but maybe it's all in my head.