Tag Archives: vitamins
FSA’s Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey: Some Snippets
The Eating within recommended dietary guidelines and on a budget project is having some difficulties. Not, oddly, on the actual shopping, cooking or budgeting fronts but the dietary analysis that I want to perform. On the upside, I have located … Continue reading
Filed under health
How To Compile an Affordable Diet that Includes Recommended Vitamins and Minerals
Experienced Registered Dietitians can find it difficult to createa diet that meets all the dietary guidelines for vitamins and minerals within a day’s worth of calories. However, perhaps the message is to balance the calculation of nutrients over the week, rather than the day? Continue reading
Filed under dietitian, nutrition, supplements, vitamins
Richard Asher: Straight and Crooked Thinking In Medicine
Richard Asher made some substantial contributions to the development of critical thinking and the importance of evidence in medicine in the UK. We quote from Straight and Crooked Thinking in Medicine and Talking Sense. Continue reading
Filed under supplements
Polypills or Vitamins for Homocysteine and Cardiovascular Risks: the Hype is Ahead of the Evidence
There is renewed interest in the benefits of polypills for the over-55s. The claim is that each of the proposed components of this combination pill has already been clinically validated so it would only require small-scale trials to validate that it behaves in the same way so this product may come to market quite quickly. One of the components is folic acid to reduce homocysteine (Hcy) levels. However, the findings from recent trials concerned with primary prevention report that although vitamin supplements successfully reduce Hcy levels, there is no strong evidence of related clinical benefits such as a reduction in major cardiovascular events. Continue reading
Filed under Holford, homocysteine, patrick holford, supplements, vitamins
Dear Terence Kealey, About Natural v. Synthetic Vitamins
Vice-Chancellor Terence Kealey has some general comments about the short-comings of peer-review and some surprising criticisms of science. Fortunately, his perspective is placed into a useful context when he attacks the Cochrane Review using sadly familiar bogus arguments. Continue reading
Filed under antioxidants, supplements
Irish Association of Nutritional Therapy: Giving the Facts About the Cochrane Review of Antioxidant Supplements
The Irish Association of Nutritional Therapy (IANT) has posted a response to the Cochrane Review of Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. IANT claims that the review is “best completely flawed and at its worst seriously damaging and misleading”. However, from our reading, IANT distorts the review, mis-reports some of the study criteria and attributes some statements to the authors that do not appear in the review. Continue reading
Filed under antioxidants, nutrition, nutritionists, supplements
Irish Association of Nutritional Therapy on the Cochrane Review of Antioxidant Supplements
The Irish Association of Nutritional Therapy (IANT) has posted a response to the Cochrane Review of Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. IANT claims that the review is “best completely flawed and at its worst seriously damaging and misleading”. However, from our reading, IANT distorts the review, mis-reports some of the study criteria and attributes some statements to the authors that do not appear in the review. We invite readers to spot the obvious canards. Continue reading
Filed under antioxidants, supplements, vitamins
Patrick Holford and Contriving a Controversy: the Cochrane review of antioxidant supplements
Professor Patrick Holford has been ubiquitous in his media appearances to criticise the Cochrane Review of Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. Along with other industry spokespeople, this seems to have been an interesting exercise in manufacturing controversy rather than taking an opportunity to educate the public on the merits of this form of systematic review or the importance of its findings for public health. Continue reading
Filed under antioxidants, Holford, patrick holford, supplements
Catherine Collins: “Patrick has [given] an absolutely perfect example of why one should be wary of nutritional therapists.”
Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University dons his hat as speaker for the vitamin pill industry and makes some ill-founded criticisms of the Cochrane Review of antioxidant supplements. Radio 5′s Victoria Derbyshire gives him a fair hearing and manages to get him to acknowledge that he has greater conflicts of interest than the researchers whom he criticises. Catherine Collins puts up a spirited performance in defence of commonsense for nutrition. Continue reading
Filed under patrick holford, supplements
Patrick Holford and Berthelot’s Food Dispensary
Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University and Head of Science and Education at Biocare may be still living out a boyish enthusiasm for the space race of his youth, or part of a tradition of thinking that adequate or appropriate … Continue reading
Filed under patrick holford, supplements, vitamins
