AROUND three weeks ago, several editors in New 杏吧原创鈥檚 London office received large and enticing-looking packages through the post. They came from a PR firm and contained free samples of a new food supplement, along with a glossy brochure touting the health-giving properties of its main ingredient 鈥� a plant extract that shall remain nameless.
Far be it for us to dispute the claims of the PR company, though a search of the medical literature failed to turn up any randomised, placebo-controlled trial of the supplement鈥檚 effectiveness, so we cannot say whether it works or not. There was, however, a certain irony about us receiving this free gift, for at the time we were putting the finishing touches to the article on page 40 which concludes that one of the most popular types of food supplement 鈥� antioxidant pills 鈥� are useless at staving off disease.
Many antioxidant pills contain plant extracts or synthetic versions of antioxidant compounds found in plants. There seems little doubt that swallowing these compounds in their natural state 鈥� in fruits and vegetables 鈥� promotes good health and reduces the chances of suffering from certain diseases. This is why it was a good idea to run the clinical trials on antioxidant supplements that have been going on for the past 15 years or so. The verdict is now in: if you purify these compounds and stick them in a pill, they lose their oomph.
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What does this mean for the lucrative supplements industry? In truth, almost nothing. The idea that antioxidant pills are a short cut to good health is too appealing and too ingrained in popular consciousness to be dislodged overnight by mere evidence. If people want to take pills that don鈥檛 do them any harm, then why stop them?
There are two important points here. First, some of these pills may not be as harmless as they seem. Beta-carotene, once recommended to smokers to help protect them against lung cancer, has been found to have the opposite effect, actually increasing their risk of lung cancer. Secondly, consumers are not getting the full picture. Too many journalists are overly eager to trumpet the virtues of supplements without checking the scientific literature first. No doubt they are no strangers to unsolicited packages and glossy PR brochures. Indeed, the promotional food supplement that landed on our desks has already received at least one glowing write-up in a British newspaper.
It would be great if the hype over food supplements were justified; it would make healthy living a whole lot easier. But we can鈥檛 help recalling the old adage: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
