1.2.2009 7:11 AM

2009: Vitamins Out, Healthy Diets In

Landmark studies in 2008 debunked the notion that popular vitamin supplements prevent cancer. Get your vitamins naturally with these highly nutritious foods.

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Photo: Nina Shannon / Istock

By Dan Shapley

Vitamin supplements had a bad year in 2008, with landmark studies finding that vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, did nothing to prevent cancer in women, and that vitamins C and E did nothing to prevent cancer in men. Both studies were considered the most thorough, long-term and definitive studies of their kind.

(In another mostly overlooked study, the Food and Drug Administration also found in 2008 traces of toxic lead in hundreds of vitamins marketed for babies, kids and pregnant women.)

But none of these studies indicted a healthy diet, or the vitamins and antioxidants packed into healthy, whole foods.

The Daily Green in 2008 published a series of simple guides to nutrition, highlighting those ingredients that pack the most nutrition per serving, along with recipes you can use to incorporate them into your diet. (See related links at right.) Look for more of these in 2009, as the benefits of a healthy diet — preferably filled with locally grown and organic foods, to maximize the benefit for the environment— continue to win support over engineered versions.

These guides will help readers of The Daily Green apply Michael Pollan's maxim: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

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