News article:

[Guest guest]

Eat Your Veggies<br>Mom was right, and now the

government's got proof<br><br>By Neil Sherman<br>HealthSCOUT

Reporter <br><br>TUESDAY, April 11 (HealthSCOUT) -- Toss

the mega-supplements and break out the carrots; a new

study says massive doses of antioxidant vitamins won't

help your health and may even harm it and further says

that eating right is your best bet to fight off

disease and the ills of old age. <br><br>Years of

research have not confirmed antioxidants' health benefits,

says a study from the Institute of Medicine. In fact,

large doses of the dietary supplements, selenium,

vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene could even harm your

health. <br><br> " This establishes for the first time the

idea that you can take too much of these purified

nutrients, " says Maret Traber, an associate professor of

nutrition at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. " We

looked at what happens when you eat enormous amount of

an antioxidant and for the first time set upper

limits. " <br><br>Traber and 40 other scientists from the

United States and Canada, working under the Institute of

Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board, spent two years

exploring all available literature on antioxidants and

humans. <br><br> " The data remains conflicting on

antioxidants, " Traber says. " Some of the studies say that

antioxidants are beneficial, and there is other evidence

showing that they are not. " <br><br>Antioxidants are

supposed to cleanse the body of damaging oxygen molecules

known as " free radicals, " a byproduct of how body uses

oxygen. Free radicals disrupt molecules and damage cells.

That damage is thought to contribute to aging and

cancer and other health problems. <br> <br>(cont.)