Taking too many supplements poses health risks?

Host - Azmina, you're going to be talking to us about the whole thing to do with vitamins and what we can do to improve our life, if you like. Do vitamins work - you know, do they shorten the lifespan, do they increase the lifespan, do they make you feel better?

Azmina - Yes, interesting studies have been coming out, and you may have seen the reports in the newspapers particularly about vitamin A, beta carotene and vitamin E, showing that actually by having so much you could shorten your life. And dieticians have always said eat fruit, get your vitamins, get your minerals from a variety of food, you shouldn't actually need to pop a vitamin pill. And if you think about it, this is the way that Mother Nature intended us to eat. There is so much there that we haven't even discovered. You cannot possibly take everything from fruit and vegetables, put it into a pill and expect to get the same benefits.

Azmina - So we've always maintained, if you can, make sure you get everything from food, but if you feel you're on a strict diet, which is when your nutrition intake might be lower, then perhaps having an all-round supplement that offers you 100 per cent of the recommended daily amount - that's a safeguard, it's an insurance policy if you like. But there's no need to go thinking, as we often do, you know, one's good for me, two must be even better. Don't go there, because actually you could be storing these nutrients which in larger amounts could even be toxic.

Host - We read and hear on the radio and the television that Omega-3s, fish oils - all these different supplements - I mean, if you line them all up on the table you'll be popping pills all day long. How do you differentiate what is best, what is worse for you?

Azmina - Well, I do worry about that and I think that people who are watching all of that will start thinking, "So I've got to have my Omega-3, I've got to have my evening primrose oil, got to have my beta-carotene, got to have vitamin E etc." And when you do that you're not aware of all the cumulative effects that can have. There's some really impressive research around on Omega-3 - you know, reading age for children, memory in the elderly and enhancing memory and stopping memory loss - so I think that Omega-3 might be one of those that I might make an exception for, as there's good research there. But with the others, I tend to feel that an all-round supplement providing no more than 100 per cent RDA [recommended daily allowance] is all you need, and that's only if you think you're not eating so well.