This is particularly true when you have big agri-business and pharmaceutical companies commissioning all the scientists to prove the theories they want to be proven in order to have a stamp of assurance for consumers.

With all the pollution our wise and wonderful corporations pump into the air, land and water, it pretty much makes an extended life time a moot point. Considering all the ways one can meet death when one steps out of the house and goes somewhere makes extended life times iffy at best. And to say all the vitamins will not extend your life time is just as ludicrous.
I have been taking optimum amounts of vitamins since 1985 when I read Linus Pauling’s book ‘How to Live Longer and Feel Better’. His 20 year of study in molecular biology brought him to declare that taking optimum amounts of vitamins would boost the immune system thus making it stronger and able to handle the bodily invasions it has to cope with all the time. And since that time I have experienced a very major reduction in common illnesses such as the common cold, the flu, and whatever else I could have been made sick by. Didn’t stop me from passing a kidney stone a while back but I have been healthier and I feel better even if I am taking more vitamins than what my body needs which I would say I am taking what my body needs. It works. Of course, I may go to the store tomorrow and get run over by a train but that’s life and I should be alert enough to jump out of way anyway.
The best advice I could give is not to take vitamin D unless a doctor says you need to because you get all the vitamin D you need from the sun and in about 15 minutes exposure on just your face and hands every day. And I would say don’t take vitamin A but beta carotene.

Regarding diet, what more people should be concerned about are genetically modified foods.  The research on the latest GM foods is really quite alarming.  Laboratory rats which were fed on GM potatoes had damaged immune systems, smaller hearts, livers, and brains.  These results were seen in as little as ten days.  Ten days in the life of a rat is roughly the human equivalent of one year.  It can be taken for granted that all produce sold in American grocery stores has been genetically modified unless it is labled as a non-GM food.  Included are all grains, legumes, and dairy products.  The best book on the subject is, SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION: THE HIDDEN AGENDA OF GENETIC MANIPULATION by F. William Engdahl.

Someone here dismissed raw foods diets as nonsense but I would like to say that my experience of eating only organic raw foods and juices for about 6 or 7 months was a totally positive one.  As a result of an
accident I have severe arthritis in my knees.  After about three weeks on raw organic foods the pain dissappeared completely and never returned for the entire time that I stayed on the diet. I would recommend it to anyone who has any kind of chronic pain.  It is a very energising diet and one of the best benefits is that one requires much less sleep and waking up in the morning is a completely different experience.  I return to the diet several times a year but have never been able to do so permenently.

There’s actually very strong evidence that humans evolved on beer and jerky.

Regarding the “how many eggs will kill you” theory, I remember a story some time ago (I don’t have a link at this point, but I’m sure it can be found) about a hermit/hippie type who lived in the back country raising chickens. His diet consisted almost entirely of berries in season, an occasional chicken, and lots and lots and lots of eggs (I recall he averaged something like a dozen eggs a day).

When researchers found out about this chap, they assumed his cholesterol would just have to be off the charts, what with each egg containing 300 mg or so of cholesterol. When they took blood samples, however, they found his cholesterol level was optimal.

I have heard that studies that showed a “link” between egg consumption and high cholesterol used (you guessed it) POWDERED eggs, which lack the natural enzymes of raw or slightly-cooked eggs.

Although I deeply admire science, I have to admit that, sometimes, scientists can commit really egregious oversights.

My main point is rather philosophical: since humans evolved eating raw foods, it is natural to assume that the human body is well-adapted to absorb nutrients from raw foods. Some people call this the paleolithic approach to human diet. 

Certainly, cooking food has its advantages, especially in ridding food sources of possible parasitic organisms. Cooking is probably more beneficial with meats than with vegetables and fruits. However, cooking does indisputably destroy certain natural enzymes in the foods themselves, making them more difficult to digest.

One of the problems with substantiating claims of the advantages of raw food is the fact that many of the mechanisms governing nutrient absorption are subtle and long-term, which makes them difficult to study in a classic scientific way--especially over long periods of time. A further complication rests in the fact that comparing those who take supplements with those who don’t is probably unscientific, as other factors naturally intrude on the study (for example, health food users may also be less likely to smoke or drink).

Clearly our diet is killing us. And the drugs the pharmeceutical companies are offering seem to be killers in their own right.

The pharmeceutical companies have wanted to get rid of supplements and vitamins for years, because that’s the competition.

This is clearly another episode of “ for every expert there is an equal and opposite anti expert “.

There are plenty of scientists who say just the oppostie,that vitamins and supplements are good for you and promote health.

I remember a generation ago when the medical profession said eating vegtables and carrots and whole foods was usless, now their the biggest promoters of eating healthy, and we are bombared daily with commericals urging us to do just that.

Didn’t the WHO and Codex Alimentarius declare food and vitamins to be poisions anyway, Aegrus?

I suspect you’re already on heavy sedation, DC. Believe me, if I could have a tequila drip, I would.. oh I would!

......UNDER your couch, perhaps, Aegrus......

Wow, that is REAL SCIENCE, TD.........

Don’t tell me you believe the doctrine of raw-food theory. It’s a pretty skeptical claim, and since humans have been cooking food for thousands of years… seems unsubstantiated by our anthropological footprint. A good mix of raw and cooked is all which is needed.

Really, the studies regarding bio-availability of nutrients from food combinations is what will lead nutrition science to the next level. It’s good to see how all these polyphenols, anti-oxidants, vitamins and other phyto-chemicals work in the body, it’s another thing to watch how they are absorbed. So, you’re on the right path with most of your comment, but I really don’t think raw foods are always a better source of nourishment. It’s a claim which hasn’t been substantiated by sound science at this time.

Sure there is a lot of controversy about vitamins.
Many doctors claim that vitamin supplements are just uselessly excreted.
But look at it this way.
If you were stranded on a desert island, dying of thirst, would you rather drink the pee of a vitaminer or a non-vitaminer?
I rest my case.

Vitamin pills may be useful, or may not, depending on how they are made. The best way to get vitamins is by eating whole, preferably uncooked and unprocessed, foods. Look at it this way: the human body and digestive system have been developed, over thousands (or millions) of years to metabolize vitamins in natural food. Our ancestors, thousands of years ago, ate raw vegetables, roots, berries, and meat. Raw foods tend to have natural enzymes in them that assist the body in breaking down the food into forms that can be absorbed.

A simple example is that the body can readily absorb calcium from raw, green, leafy vegetables. Studies have shown that the body has a very difficult time absorbing calcium from pills. Similarly, the body easily absorbs vitamin C from raw citrus fruits. But artificial vitamin C pills (often made by filtering acid through cornstarch) have been shown in studies to be almost useless.

Unfortunately, with so much of our “food” supply now consisting of over-processed, over-cooked junk, we don’t get the vitamins and minerals we need. For some people, vitamin pills (if made from natural sources to improve bio-availability) may be a helpful supplement.

I have a theory that the incredible increase in obesity in Americans may be due, ironically, to malnutrition. Bodies fed junk day in and day out begin to crave the minerals and vitamins they are missing. The person lacking these vitamins and minerals begins to eat more to satisfy the craving, but the craving returns quickly because the body still doesn’t get any real nutrition from processed foods. Hence, the vicious circle of poor nutrition and overeating.

Well, then, it seems that the best way to stay alive while taking vitamins would be to have a chaser of morphine and oxycontin after every dosage. That way you can live forever under heavy sedation on your couch. };>

Several pertinent factors were overlooked in the ‘Beware of Vitamins’ studies.
No mention was made of the cause of death for those who died ‘prematurely’. Therein lies the rub.
For folks who take vitamins are healthier, more alert, more aware, more vigorous, more intelligent, more enthusiastic, more concerned than non-vitaminers.
So vitaminers are more likely to die of falling from mountain peaks, crashing F-1 automobiles at 200+ MPH, inadvertent errors in parachute-packing, mistakenly landing hang gliders in the top of redwoods on moonless midnight flights, or being executed for assassinating amoral politicos.
So each of us has a choice: Take your vitamins and LIVE!, or be sentenced to attempting satisfaction with the same spouse for a lifetime, raising 2 1/4 ingrates, scrambling to outpace the rising mortgage payment by selling more crap on E-Bay, and setting aside enough money ‘so others won’t have to bear your final expense’.
Careful now, choose wisely.

This isn’t surprising. I never understood how purifying and refining organic compounds for ingestion could possibly be beneficiary for the user. Food is the only way to adequately get solid nutrition grounding. There are other compounds in foods which increase bio-availability of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fats and acids required by our body.

Furthermore, nutrition science is not a well-established field yet. Hell, doctors and scientists can’t even determine how many eggs will kill you! Six eggs = death? There has to be a lot more research in the field before we can really trust any study.

I would recommend people be active in reading up on recent studies and people like Michael Pollan, who have practical ideas as to what nutrition is. Stop giving private corporations license on your health!