Corn by Sasakei on flickr
In the past I considered vitamins at worse a waste of a few dollars and at best insurance against a deficiency in my diet. As I learned how our bodies often require other components of the food that contain vitamins to properly absorb them I leaned more towards a waste of a few dollars. However before now I never considered that mainstream vitamins could be harmful. Especially the prenatal vitamins like folic acid which are considered necessary to prevent all sorts of neural tube defects. However the Austin American Statesman has reported that a recent study by researchers at National Jewish Health and Duke University shows that supplementing with folic acid may not be as clear cut as people thought. According to the article mice given supplements high in methyl-donors like folic acid where much more likely to have babies with severe allergic airway disease, higher levels of IgE and more T-cells that were associated with allergies.
While the article deals with asthma and not food allergies it really makes me wonder. High IgE levels are directly related to food allergies. It sounds like the same problems that increase asthma could easily increase food allergies. Did the prenatal vitamins I took to prevent my daughter from having life long problems actually cause her to have a possible life long problem? Did my attempt to do good actually cause harm? Maybe if I’d been eating foods with folic acid spread out during the day instead of depending on single high dose vitamins to cover any nutritional deficiencies corn wouldn’t have to be evil in our household.
The number one rule of parenting is don’t blame yourself for the past, learn from it. I can’t fix any harm was done but this is firming up my opinion that vitamins should come from food and not little pills. We can’t fix how we’re eating by popping a supplement. Our bodies have spend tens of thousands of years fine tuning getting nutrition in certain packages. We can’t go mess with the delivery system and expect it to be as efficient or even safe in the long run. More and stronger isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes the best way is the way that has worked for ever. My lesson from this is to firm my resolve to drop my last dependency on supplements. It’s time to kick the calcium pill habit and get my calcium from natural sources. Cause who knows what the next study is going to say about women and calcium pills.
So what do you think? Do you think vitamins are safe, a waste of money or out right harmful? What do you depend on to make sure you’re getting proper nutrition?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
This really makes me think too. While I was not religious w/ taking my prenatals, my son has eczema and some (random) food & environmental allergies. Now, allergies are in my personal history too, but, I do think it must be better to eat a well rounded diet instead of the high dose of vitamin in one shot. It’s so hard to do that, though, I kind of doubt the folic acid will be taken out of the prenatals anytime soon, with the brain -boosting benefits and all.
It’s so hard to have any clue if you are doing the right thing as a parent! And like you said, you try and you hope and you move on. I too am trying to go green and eat more natural. I guess ‘bring on the spinach!’ and all that!!
Larissa, I’m glad you found it interesting. Great job on trying to go green and more natural. I always consider that the silver lining on my daughters allergy. It made me so much more aware of exactly what we were eating.
Rose, I have mixed reactions to this. My husband is asthmatic and also has many allergies – one of them being corn, the same as your daughter. Having known several people with pretty severe asthma over the years, I’ve noticed that many of them do have a lot of allergies to foods (corn, shellfish) as well as plants, trees and weeds. I’m not a doctor and certainly don’t understand the link thoroughly, but I can see that there is one there.
Secondly, I was on a daily mega-dose of folic acid while pregnant with my son so that I could sustain the pregnancy. Needless to say, with an asthmatic dad and grandmother, and now this, it seems more and more certain that he too is likely to be asthmatic.
It’s just another one of those things that makes me think that ten thousand years ago women weren’t taking a daily multi vitamin. They ate lots of fruits and veggies – grown without the use of pesticides. They didn’t have uber processed junk food, it was all organic good-for-you stuff. Maybe if we threw medicine aside and did it the old fashioned way we’d be better off.
(off to build my commune now…)
Kellie, yeah, I remember my great grandmother complaining that she couldn’t go to a farm down the street and just buy good food to cook. At the time I thought she just didn’t get the advances of modernness. Now I wish I could tell her that her old fashioned ways were pretty smart.
I am newly expecting and having this very argument with my doctor. She prescribed prenatal vitamins at my first visit, before I was even 3 weeks along. I told her that I am quite positive that I do a great job getting my vitaimins, including folic acid, from food, and she cut the conversation with a very stern “you need a prenatal.” The prenatal she gave me was loaded with iron — 156 percent the recommended value for a *pregnant* woman. Not only have I been constipated ever since, I got a phone call from her after 2 weeks of taking these things to tell me that my iron levels were a little bit high (before the iron supplement was started) so she would be changing me to a low-iron vitamin until later in the pregnancy when I will be sure to need the megadose again. I feel like I’m over a barrel — I don’t want to cause any lack to my unborn child, but at the same time, I’m resentful that the medical community (and my doctor is one of the better ones out there) does not listen up when I say I prefer my nutrients the natural way. I’m not throwing up, not sick enough to eat too little to be healthy, so I’m thinking of throwing my prenatals in the wastebasket. If only I could be sure it was the right thing to do…
I have just finally tracked down the reason why I had to endure pretty horrific allergies, hives, rashes and itching during my pregnancy. I took prenatal vitamins (several different Rx brands) throughout. No Dr could tell me why I had these symptoms – it was lumped in as PUPP. After I stopped breastfeeding I stopped the vitamins for a bit, and my skin issues went away. Then I started vitamins again for next baby and my exact skin issues came back with a flourish. My Dr had only prescribed me several strong steroid creams but would never agree to let me stop taking both the vitamin plus the extra iron supplement. I am amazed that this is the cause – must be a binder or filler in these things. Tried to research this – not much info. I hope my son won’t be saddled with allergies but I am on the lookout! I agree with your philosophy on food giving us what we need. It is safer, more natural and logical, and no one will ever write an article warning us of a healthy diet!