Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Fuzzy,

Yup, the Juice Man was here....and the crazed woman who took over the juicing infomercials after Jay Kordich mysteriously disappeared. Was it just me or was he totally orange from too many carrots? Isn't Vitamin A toxic at too high doses? It could explain a few things...

I guess if we all ate the recommended foods (8 fruits & veggies/day etc) there would be no need for supplements.

Sometimes I feel like I have more energy after I down my Metagenics supplements -- placebo effect???

Carey,

Probably he was. And yes, it is toxic in high doses. What the new study suggests is that it may be toxic in low overdoses as well, and that even the US RDA might be too high.

And guess what one vitamin Americans get too much of, regularly?

I was under the impression (not data driven here, intuition based on fuzzy things in the back of the brain) that vitamin C was the king of OD. They actually get too much of something else, in spite of the generally awful state of nutrition?

Paul,

There's no evidence yet that an OD of vitamin C causes you to do anything but pee a lot. And there's weak evidence that it helps you recover from a cold.

But according to press reports, the one vitamin the average American gets more than the US RDA of is beta carotene. The reason for this is that vitamin is one of the few which can survive cooking, dehydrating and time on the shelf ... it's largely indestructable ... so packaged food makers use it to make various foods "high in antioxidants".

I can't find the articles just at the moment, but I'll search for them later.

Yah, after reading about numerous studies where C basically did zero for colds/flu, I've long since given up dosing on it, even naturally, and just try to keep some variety in my diet.

I'm pretty sure that there's plenty of Vit. C in a properly made Harvey Wallbanger!

Paul,

Actually, according to the Snake Oil Visualization, there have been a couple studies which suggest that larger quantities of vitamin C (i.e. 300% of US RDA) do help make colds shorter (i.e. 3 days instead of 4). The same studies indicated that C does nothing to *prevent* colds though.

C is a water soluble vitamin which means that what the body doesn't use or need will be excreted - it isn't stored.

It's da bomb at preventing scurvy, though.