Author: Katherine Williams
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When I had stomach pain, I went to two specialists for their opinions. I was told by both, a medical doctor and a naturopathic doctor that I should limit or abstain from certain foods, notably high acid foods such as alcohol and coffee, as well as dairy products because these can be hard to digest. I was concerned about limiting dairy which I feel contributes to the benefit of calcium in bone growth and bone density. The MD told me that we have so many good supplements on the market, that we don’t actually need to consume the whole product in order to get the benefit of one or more of the elements in that product, in this case, calcium.
Although there are many studies that tease apart a food in order to research the properties of individual components, there are also many studies that refer to the benefits of eating whole foods. The studies cite that even if we could comprehend the effects of each individual component, it is extremely difficult to understand how these neutraceuticals interact with each other in the whole food and in our bodies as we digest them.
Extracting the best a food has to offer is not without merit. In my situation, I was able to eliminate some foods from my diet that were causing me problems, but through the use of calcium and multivitamin supplements, I felt that I did not compromise my short or long term health.
Unfortunately, the provision of prophylactic supplements to combat vitamin deficiencies in nutrient-poor populations has become common practice, and in some cases, has displaced promoting a good diet.
People who have vision problems and live in poorer countries often lack enough vitamin A in their diets. Vitamin A deficiency is the major cause of xerophthalmia, an tragic cause of blindness of children in many developing countries, affecting preschool children from poor income groups more frequently than other groups (Oomen et al. 1964). Xerophthalmia ranks as the leading cause of pediatric blindness in the world today (Sommer et al. 1981). If proper nutrition was available at an appropriate time in an individual’s life, the blindness that affects several hundreds of thousands of people in India could be prevented because the lack of vitamin A in the diet is the most common cause of preventable blindness (Gopalan et al. 1980).
While researching xerophthalmia, I read many papers that detailed vitamin A supplementation programs. I recently came across a study that acknowledged that many of the affected communities had access to fresh vegetables and the conditions to grow their own leafy greens. -carotene, the natural precursor to vitamin A, is found in high quantities in green leafy vegetables (GLV).
The three major approaches that have been used to control vitamin A deficiency are periodic distribution of large doses (200,000 IU) of vitamin A, fortification of a commonly consumed dietary item such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), and nutrition education (Muhilal et al. 1988). Supplementation programs that provide large doses must include careful monitoring because vitamin A is potentially toxic in high doses (Rahmathullah et al. 1990). In addition, single large doses of vitamin A supplement will raise serum levels only for a period of 1-2 months (Sommer et al. 1986).
Adding vitamin A as a supplement to MSG is an extra processing step that will likely increase the cost of the food, a deterrent to purchase the food by the very poor, the group most affected by vitamin A deficiency.
The most logical approach to the prevention of vitamin A deficiency is to ensure that adequate amounts of vitamin A are included in the diet (Vijayaraghavan et al. 1975). It has been found that inclusion of GLV in school lunch programs for a period of over one year was more effective than a massive dose of synthetic vitamin A in raising serum vitamin A levels (Devadas 1992).
The paradoxical feature of the epidemiology of vitamin A deficiency in Asia is that those countries where vitamin A deficiency has become endemic are the same countries that have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables rich in -carotene (Gopalan et al. 1992).
Unfortunately, GLV do not command much social prestige in India and do not figure prominently in the diets of children and infants. Studies of families in Punjab, India showed that caregivers/mothers made no attempt to include GLV in the diet of their children, nor were they aware of the nutritional importance of GLV (Gopalan et al. 1992). Infants may also experience difficulty masticating high fiber foods and dislike the taste of GLV, due in part to the foods’ bitterness.
Gopalan et al. (1992) advocate community gardens, education, and participation as an effective program to combat the negative affects of vitamin deficiencies. An important message to affected communities is that cultivated fruits and vegetables will not only be relieving symptoms associated with one nutrient deficiency (hypovitaminosis A), but contribute to optimal overall nutrition because they also contain rich sources of vitamin C, folic acid, iron and calcium.
Research into the minutiae of food is valuable, for without it we would not know of the prevalence of vitamins and their necessary roles in good health. However, in areas where access to supplements is not viable, because of either availability or expense, it would be best to encourage reliance on a variety of whole foods.
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