Supplements not 'nutrition insurance'

Taking vitamins and minerals won’t prolong your life, and some may even shorten it, according to a new research review.

“The findings of our review show that if anything, people in trial groups given the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E showed increased rates of mortality. There was no indication that vitamin C and selenium may have positive or negative effects. So regarding these antioxidants we need more data from randomised trials,” said Goran Bjelakovic, the lead researcher who performed the systematic review. “The bottom line is that current evidence does not support the use of antioxidant supplements in the general healthy population or in patients with certain diseases.”

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international not-for-profit organisation, providing up-to-date information about health. They used data from 67 randomised trials involving just under a quarter of a million people in this review.

Source: www.thecochranelibrary.com