Many of us may wonder how food helps in giving us the protection we need for a healthy life. Contrary to beliefs that food supplements may be useless is the fact that a significant amount of resources are spent on studying plants such as fruits and vegetables. Take for example the amount of scientific information that are published in journals. One these is quercetin, published in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal, which suggests that the bioactive substance found in apple skins, onions, tea, red wine, leafy green vegetables and berries support the body’s defenses that “sensitize†cancer cells (in this case melanoma cells – or cells responsible for skin cancer) to make more receptive to chemotherapy. (Ref: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/282/abstract) Assuming perhaps that the body has the natural attack mechanisms against cancer, this implies that we have enough basis not to negate the value of anti-oxidants.
What is the relevance of food supplements in this case? In one of the respected websites, the University of Maryland Medical Center, people are given information and choices about supplements and let us quote: “One advantage of buying a supplement is ; Quercetin is available in higher amounts in dietary supplements than would typically be found in food sources. I guess you would need to eat a basket of Apples just to get the same amount of quercetin in a tablet.â€
We post this so the public may know that food supplements have value in health and to balance the view about food supplements. What we really need to pursue is for the public to be protected against poor quality products that have dubious value.
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