Nowadays, vitamins have become an idol, the object of universal adoration and worship. All around drink vitamins and dietary supplements. Did you get sick? Keep the vitamin! I'm not sick yet - I'll eat for prophylaxis. But there's something you did not know about exactly. Katherine Price, author of Vitamania, reveals all the secrets of vitamins and supplements.
- Vitamins are made from synthetic raw materials In order to synthesize vitamins in industrial conditions, and then sell them to the public, a variety of harmful substances are taken as a basis. To synthesize vitamin A, acetone and formaldehyde are used, PP and B3 vitamins are produced with nylon 6.6 - it is also used to create seat belts, rubber mats and cable ties. Vitamin B1 is an additive made with coal tar. However, this does not harm health: as a result, an exact molecular copy of the natural vitamin is obtained.
- Vitamin C is not quite a vitamin. Almost all living things on Earth produce vitamin C. Only humans and some relatives of primates (eg guinea pigs) are not able to produce vitamin C. It seems that this ability has been lost in the process of evolution. That's why it can not be considered vitamins in the truest sense of the word.
- The norms of vitamin consumption are invented The report of the American non-governmental commission on nutrition at the Academy of Sciences of the United States says that scientific research has not revealed how much vitamins need a person. We are given average values. And this is not to mention the fact that there are no recommended norms of consumption for any one (!) Of vitamins for newborns and infants of the first year of life.
- There is really a carrot for vision. Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness. If it is not enough, the person first stops seeing in the twilight and darkness, and then can completely lose sight. In African villages you can see a terrible picture: when the sun goes down, the children playing with each other are divided into two groups - one continues to run, and the second ones are hammered into the far corner and sit there until one of their relatives puts food in their hands or takes them sleep. After sunset for them, the world plunges into impenetrable darkness. To overcome this condition, you need vitamin A. As an option - carrots: the beta-carotene contained in it is processed into vitamin A. But if it is enough in your body, it is better to not see carrots in any way.
- There are only 13 vitamins Today, science knows only 13 varieties of vitamins. However, many companies sell the most common biologically active additives (or dietary supplements) called "vitamins". For example, a well-known American store sells as many as 18,000 drugs that contain the word "vitamin" in the name. Advertising slogans and do promise a wonderful healing.
- Scientists can not determine the content of vitamins in the body. Surprisingly, there is no single standard and general opinion about what values for the content of vitamins are considered minimal. So, the concept of "avitaminosis" is very fuzzy: no one knows exactly how much vitamin is not enough, but how much - a lot. Moreover, in the human body, organisms are deposited in the most unexpected places: for example, in order to obtain reliable data on vitamin A, it is necessary to make a complicated procedure for liver biopsy, and then to take into account diurnal and corresponding to the season fluctuations in the level of vitamins in the body.
- Vitamins at all are not enough According to statistics, to date in the world, about two billion people receive less vitamins. For this reason, from time to time, epidemics of diseases associated with avitaminosis erupt. For example, over the past 20 years, scintillations of scurvy, a fatal disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, have been recorded for four times - and millions of people suffer from blindness and even die because of a lack of vitamin A.
- Vitamins are a means for redemption of guilt. People are so confident in the miraculous vitamins that they allow themselves too much to eat or, conversely, do not eat healthy foods, believing that they will make up everything with the help of magic tablets. In fact, vitamins can not correct our nutritional errors by 100% - they are just an addition to the diet, but not a substitute for fresh vegetables, fruits and other regular foods.
- The body can store vitamins. But not all and in different amounts. Vitamin C can last from 2 to 6 weeks, vitamin B1 can last from 4 to 10 days. But vitamin A, which is deposited in the liver, can last for a year, but only on condition that a person normally eats.
- Vitamins and dietary supplements - not the same If you consider the chemical composition of substances and still take into account the technology of production, it turns out that absolutely all vitamins are biologically active additives (dietary supplements). But dietary supplements are not always vitamins: there are still amino acids, enzymes and even artificially grown tissues and glands.