Organico Bantry

Well, from our years of both taking and recommending various vitamin and mineral supplements, we would, as Healthfood Shop owners, say ”No”. And certainly not under normal circumstances. Water, salt, aspirin, the sun… all these can kill, if you drink/eat/swallow/bathe too much. If a person attempted to live on vitamins alone, they would not live very long. That is why all vitamin supplements carry a warning that they are not to be used in place of a varied diet. But when they are used as ‘’supplements”, which they are sold as, and taken in the correct dosage, there is no risk to human life.

Recent news coverage would suggest otherwise. The most recent controversy surrounds a recent “study” led by Serbian scientist and “visiting researcher” at Copenhagen University Hospital, Goran Bjelakovic. His name is now synonymous with vitamin meta-analyses (studies of other studies) which appear to show that vitamin supplements either don’t work or end up increasing your risk of death. Two recent bursts of negative international headlines on vitamins supplements (1 October 2004 and 28 February 2007) followed releases of previous research papers (see asterisked articles in Reference list below).

So how did the researchers come to their conclusion, which was that anti-oxidents increase the risk of heart attacks? how did the Cochrane Library arrive at such a conclusion? According to http://www.laleva.org ”it’s easy: The researchers considered 452 studies on these vitamins, and they threw out the 405 studies where nobody died! That left just 47 studies where subjects died from various causes (one study was conducted on terminal heart patients, for example). From this hand-picked selection of studies, these researchers concluded that antioxidants increase mortality ”.

How does this kind of ‘’science” make it to the front pages, one might ask? 

In the UK there is a groups called The Alliance for Natural Health. Their response to this study can be found on their home page.

I have taken several points of interest from their argument:

1. This is not a new study - it is a rehash of the very same data sets that led to the previous negative studies – and these methodologies tell us nothing about the way in which high quality combinations of nutrient supplements work. This is a re-analysis of studies that have been conducted and reported on previously, by a man at a computer. In this case a group of men with a known axe to grind, who have never produced a study favourable to supplements, which is itself statistically unlikely unless you have a bias.  
 
2. This isn’t meaningful. When you select or reject studies on criteria that only mean something to statisticians, and ignore important things like duration, how long the study ran for — which ranged from 28 days to 14 years — your findings are immediately meaningless. Even the huge difference in dose of supplements between different studies — Vitamin E ranging from 10 to 5000 units daily, for instance — they didn’t deem important.  

3. These studies apply only to synthetic forms of vitamins (as produced by the pharmaceutical industry). The authors of this latest Cochrane review state: “The present review does not assess antioxidant supplements for treatment of specific diseases (tertiary prevention), antioxidant supplements for patients with demonstrated specific needs of antioxidants, or the effects of antioxidants contained in fruits or vegetables.” This shows that the study has no relevance to natural sources of vitamins and minerals or antioxidants sourced from plants (e.g. flavanoids, anthocyanins, sulforaphanes,  salvestrols/resveratrol, etc.), which are included in many of the leading-edge natural health supplements claiming potent antioxidant activity.

As the ANH states, it has to be asked what the Cochrane Collaboration is doing, allowing, endorsing and indeed promoting unscientific, invalid rehashes such as this. Cochrane were supposed to be the only guys you really could trust.

REFERENCES (from the ANH Article):
 
**Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Mortality in randomized trials of antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention: systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2007 Feb 28; 297(8):842-57. Review. 
 
Bjelakovic G, Nagorni A, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Bjelakovic M, Gluud C. Meta-analysis: antioxidant supplements for primary and secondary prevention of colorectal adenoma. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2006 Jul 15;24(2):281-91. Review.
 
Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Antioxidant supplements for preventing gastrointestinal cancers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004 Oct 18;(4):CD004183. Review.
 
*Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Antioxidant supplements for prevention of gastrointestinal cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2004 Oct 2-8;364(9441):1219-28. Review.

** Paper on which latest Cochrane review is based; negative findings created wide media interest
 
* Paper which created extensive media interest and formed basis of Cochrane review published in the same month.

Please leave your responses below and I will publish them. Hannah Dare.

Ingredients

1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped into small lengths
1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and chopped into roughly 3cm cubes
300-400g butternut squash, peeled and chopped to roughly the same size as the sweet potato
350g Passata
100 ml water
1 organic stock cube (Kallo are good)
10-12 dates, chopped
small handful of cashew nuts
1 can chick peas
handful of parsley chopped
1 tbsp olive oil

spices
Cinnamon 1tsp
Cumin ”
Corriander ”
Sweet Paprika ”
Smoked paprika ”
chilli flakes 1/2 tsp

Lightly fry the onion in the olive oil for a few minutes on a low heat till it begins to soften. Then add the garlic, leeks, peppers and spices and sautee unitl the leeks soften. then mix in the sweet potato and butternut squash, stirring for a few minutes to coat in the spices. Add the passata, water, stock, dates and cashew nuts. Bring to the boil then reduce to simmer, put a lid on the pot and leave on a low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionaly – until the sweet potato and squash are soft. Now add the can of chick peas, lemon juice and parsley and set the pot aside with the lid on for at least an hour to let the flavours infuse.
When you are ready to serve reheat for a few minutes.

I like to serve this with a mixture of brown rice and quinoa. Cook 3 cups of brown rice with 2 cups of quinoa. Soak in water then drain, add 8 cups of boiling water and cook on a low heat with a lid on, watching it doesnt stick.

Thanks again Jess!

In season, gluten and dairy free!

250g Wild garlic – mix of leaves and flowers
50g toasted sunflower seeds
50g cashew nuts
3 generous tsps of miso
Olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to season

Toast the sunflower seeds and leave to cool. Roughly chop the wild garlic. put all the ingredients in a blender, starting with 4 tbsps of olive oil and adding further depending on consistency, blend till a dark paste is formed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put into a container and cover with a thin layer of ollive oil to preserve.

Pesto tip – If when making pesto it turns out really bitter and you cant seem to right it add a small bit of boiled potato. It can often be the quality of olive oil, or the nuts being slightly rancid, but the potato rights all!!

Recipe Thanks to Jessica Mason – Cheers Jess!