Brenda Davis and Tom Barnard
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 There is solid evidence to indicate that a diet rich in beta-carotene and other carotenoids protects against lung cancer. However, used as a supplement in two large trials, beta-carotene actually increased risk. One of the reasons for this may be that phytochemicals often work synergistically with one another, and the collaborative action of two or more chemicals is sometimes needed to produce the desired effect. At this time, we just do not know enough about the complicated interactions of these dietary components to be confident about turning them into pills. |
Patrick Holford
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 Those with high dietary intakes of beta-carotene had half the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Supplementing 1,000 mg of vitamin C also reduces blood pressure.55
Antioxidants also help boost your immune system and increase your resistance to infection. In children, regular supplementation of vitamin A significantly reduces respiratory tract infections. Antioxidants have been shown to reduce the symptoms of AIDS and, in a small number of cases, to reverse the condition. |
Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
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 Deep yellow, orange, and dark green vegetables derive their color from carotenoid pigments (including beta-carotene and lycopene) and the acan-thocyanins, a class of flavonoids. These pigments remain stable when cooked and are fat-soluble, so the nutritional content of the veggies is preserved during cooking. Vegetables make it easy to meet the shojin ryori goal of having five colors on our table at every meal. |
Leo Galland
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 They do not serve as precursors of vitamin A, yet their consumption, along with beta-carotene in food, may explain why carotene-rich foods decrease the risk of cancer. The "other" carotenoids exert significant antioxidant effects of their own.781 do not recommend nutritional supplements containing beta-carotene to my patients. Instead, I recommend a diet high in mixed carotenoids, which includes many different varieties of fruits and vegetables: carrots, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, winter squash, and papaya. |
Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
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| Carotenoids, plant compounds found mostly in brightly colored vegetables, are plentiful in Okinawa. The beta-carotene in carrots and orange sweet potatoes and the lycopene in tomatoes, watermelon, and purple sweet potatoes are the best known of the more than six hundred carotenoids.
Flavonoids are antioxidant and hormone-like plant compounds (there are some four thousand of them) found in, among other sources, soy foods, onions, broccoli, red wine, and green, black, and oolong teas. |
| The pumpkin is packed with nutrition too—its bright orange color tells us it's loaded with the antioxidant beta-carotene. Colorful and healrhy—a winning combination!
12 ounces pumpkin, peeled, cored and 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg diced into 1 x 1-inch squares, or 1 cup soymilk, plain
2 cups canned unsweetened 2 free-range, omega-3 eggs, separated, pumpkin or Vi cup egg substitute
3 tablespoons canola oil Vi cup chopped or sliced almonds
2 tablespoons honey Vi cup raisins
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Steam the pumpkin, tightly covered, in a steamer for 15 to 18 minutes, or until tender. |
| A complex carbohydrate food source lower in Gl than regular white potatoes, sweet potatoes also provide carotenoids (e.g., beta-carotene, lycopene), which may be a factor in reducing the risk of certain cancers and are good sources of saponins and flavonoids, healthy compounds also found in tea.3
How to use it. Sweet potatoes, like white potatoes, are always eaten cooked, but their sweetness makes them much more versatile. They can be baked, boiled, broiled, microwaved, canned, frozen, and used in baked desserts, breads, puddings, custards, casseroles, and stews. |
| Grapefruits are also high in vitamin C, potassium, and several carotenoids, including beta-carotene. Their white pith contains pectin and bioflavonoids, which makes them an excellent antioxidant food as well. Cantaloupe and grapefruit together make for an unbeatable antioxidant sorbet.
1 tablespoon agar-agar powder or 1 4 cups cubed cantaloupe envelope gelatin powder, unflavored 1 cup white grapefruit juice with pulp 3 tablespoons turbinado or brown sugar 2 tablespoons honey
Warm Vl cup water in the microwave on low for 1 minute. Stir in the agar-agar powder and turbinado sugar to dissolve. |
Patrick Holford
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| The blood levels of vitamin E and beta-carotene in sufferers are half those of elderly people who do not have Alzheimer's.46 A U.S. study gave 633 disease-free sixty-five-year-olds large amounts of either vitamin E or vitamin C. A small number in each group would have been expected to show the signs of AD five years later. None did.47 Another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the risk of developing AD was 67 percent lower in those with a high dietary intake of vitamin E than in those with a low intake. |
| Half the study volunteers were given a placebo pill and the other half were given a supplement pill containing beta-carotene (20,000 IU), vitamin C (120 mg), vitamin E (45 IU), selenium (100 meg), and zinc (20 mg). The participants were followed over a seven-and-a-half-year period. Over the course of the follow-up, 103 men and 71 women died. Cancer affected 562 people and was the major cause of death. There was a highly significant 31 percent reduction in the risk of all cancers in men, plus the overall death rate in men was 37 percent lower in those taking the supplement. |
| Vitamins
VITAMIN A (RETINOL AND beta-carotene)
What it does Needed for healthy skin, inside and out. Protects against infections. Antioxidant and immune system booster. Protects against many forms of cancer. Essential for night vision.
Deficiency signs Mouth ulcers, poor night vision, acne, frequent colds or infections, dry flaky skin, dandruff, thrush or cystitis, diarrhea.
How much? |
Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
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| They're drier, starchier, longer, and more cylindrical; have rougher skin; take about twice as long to mature; and are much lower in beta-carotene than sweet potatoes.)
Weight and health benefits. Prepared as a main dish or as a dessert, the sweet potato is a nutritional powerhouse as well as an economical food. One medium-size baked sweet potato (114 grams) provides 21,908 IU of vitamin A—about four times your mimimum daily needs—yet contains only 102 calories. That's real value in weight-watching terms. This nutritious vegetable also provides almost half of your daily vitamin C needs. |
Steven G. Pratt, M.D. and Kathy Matthews
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 The antioxidant function of lycopene, combined with the other powerful antioxidants in tomatoes such as vitamin C and beta-carotene, work in the body to neutralize free radicals that could otherwise damage cells and cell membranes. This preservation of cells and their membranes reduces the potential for inflammation and thereby the progression and severity of atherosclerosis. In one study, German scientists compared the lycopene levels in the tissues of men who had suffered heart attacks with those of men who had not. |
Peter Pringle
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 Although beta-carotene is present in the leaves of the rice plant and the husk of the grain, which is removed during milling, the pigment had never found its way into the rice grain. Potrykus and Beyer had spent six years coaxing reluctant rice plants to complete the complex chemical reaction that had not occurred naturally in more than ten thousand years of human cultivation.
The tiny yellow grains in Beyer's laboratory would quickly become the most visible invention of the new transgenic food industry. |
Jack Challem
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 Ohio State University Medical Center, found that respiratory distress syndrome in hospitalized patients had significant improvements after they were fed a low-carbohydrate formula with vitamins E and C, beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, and gamma-linolenic acid.
What Else Might Help?
There is no pill, natural or pharmaceutical, that will protect a person from the health effects of smoking. If you smoke, try your best to stop. Short of that, eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can. Smokers typically eat few fruits and vegetables, a rich and diverse source of antioxidant nutrients. |
| In addition, several studies have found that beta-carotene supplements enhance the protective effects of sunscreen, illustrating the benefits of an inside-out approach to skin care.
Pycnogenol, a complex of antioxidant flavonoids extracted from the bark of French maritime pine trees, has been shown to reduce inflammation and, specifically, protect skin cells. Laboratory experiments have shown that Pcynogenol decreases the activity of two genes, calgranulin A and B, which are overactive in psoriasis and some other skin disorders. |
| Another group of researchers found that both CRP and high white blood cell counts, another marker or inflammation, were associated with low beta-carotene levels. All of the major dietary carotenoids neutralize peroxinitrite, a type of free radical that increases inflammation.
Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)
This supplement consists of about one-third elemental sulfur, a nutrient that exists in nutritional limbo. Sulfur is not considered an essential nutrient, but every indication points to its crucial role in health and life itself. |
Steven G. Pratt, M.D. and Kathy Matthews
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| Iceberg has only 5 percent of the lutein and 6 percent of the beta-carotene that spinach has and 17 percent of the magnesium and 53 percent of the folate. If you're used to iceberg-only salads, try mixing romaine and spinach. I often make a salad of one-half spinach to one-half romaine. You'll get the crispy crunch that you do from iceberg lettuce and lots more nutrients.
SPINACH IN THE KITCHEN
Spinach and many greens are available in markets all year round. |
| Cooking liberates the carotenoids, especially beta-carotene, and makes it more bioavailable. It also boosts lutein. But heat degrades both vitamin C and folate. The best approach? Enjoy greens in both salads and cooked form.
QUICK WAYS TO GET SPINACH AND OTHER GREENS INTO YOUR DIET
¦ Layer cooked spinach or other greens in a lasagne. m Steam spinach and serve sprinkled with fresh lemon juice and grated Parmesan cheese. This keeps for three days in the fridge, so I enjoy it as leftovers or take some to work.
¦ Add a handful of spinach leaves to soups. |
volker schulz and Rudolf Hansel
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 They were given a combination product containing saw palmetto (106 mg), nettle root extract (80 mg), pumpkin seed oil extract (160 mg), bioflavonoids (33 mg) and vitamin A (as beta-carotene, 190 mg) (Nutrilite, Buena Park , California, USA) three times daily, or placebo. The saw palmetto blend group had non-statistically significant improvement versus the placebo in clinical parameters (e.g., IPSS, uroflowmetry, residual urine volume, prostate volume). |
Steven G. Pratt, M.D. and Kathy Matthews
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| Some researchers have come to believe that lycopene could be as powerful an antioxidant as beta-carotene. We do know that lycopene is the most efficient quencher of the free-radical singlet oxygen, a particularly deleterious form of oxygen, and lycopene is also capable of scavenging a large number of free radicals.
Lycopene is a nutrient whose time in the spotlight has come. It's been the subject of great interest lately as more and more researchers have focused on the particular power of this nutrient. |
Patrick Holford
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| The main players are vitamins A, C, and E, plus beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A that is found in fruit and vegetables. Their presence in your diet and levels in your blood may prove to be the best marker yet of your power to delay death and prevent disease.
What is an antioxidant?
Oxygen is the basis of all plant and animal life. It is our most important nutrient, needed by every cell every second of every day. Without it we cannot release the energy in food that drives all body processes. |
Peter Pringle
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| For example, Monsanto had been working on boosting levels of beta-carotene in rapeseed, which produces canola oil. The company had a catchall patent covering "a transgenic plant which produces seed having altered carotenoid levels." Although it was a different experiment, using different genes put into rapeseed, not rice, the patent as written seemed to apply.
The liability for the user was often hard to assess. |
| They gave their slaves yellow corn, not realizing that yellow corn was more nutritious because it contained beta-carotene.
In fact, rice comes in a rich variety of colors. Beer and spirit makers in Myanmar prefer the black rice that ranges in hue from midnight to deep purple. Red rice is quite popular in Madagascar, in Iran and northern Ghana, and was once widely grown in Taiwan. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 No published study has confirmed that the human body could actually convert the beta-carotene in golden rice. Also other nutrients such as fat and protein, often lacking in the diets of malnourished children, are needed in order to absorb Vitamin A. And it is not clear whether the genes from the daffodil, which are used to create golden rice, will transfer known allergens from the flower.31
The biotech proponents also admit that to persuade people to eat yellow rice may require an educational campaign. |
| Or what about handing out vitamin-A supplements to children so severely malnourished their bodies can't metabolize beta-carotene?"27
Distributing supplements is precisely what the Vitamin Angel Alliance is doing. They give children who are at risk a high potency tablet, strong enough so that only two are required per year to prevent blindness. At a cost of only $.05 per tablet, only $25,000 is needed to prevent 500,000 children from going blind per year.32 Contrast this with golden rice, which has cost more than $100 million dollars so far, and is not yet ready. |
Dr Bernard Jenson and Mark Anderson
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 This substance is critical to preventing free radical degeneration in the plant. beta-carotene is also a powerful anti-free-radical agent in the bodies of animals and humans who consume green plants. It is interesting to note that vitamin A in its full form can be toxic in excessive doses, but beta-carotene in its pre-vitamin A form has never been shown to be toxic at any level. That is why grazing animals can consume so much green grass and not develop hypervitaminosis A. But nature did not anticipate current and projected future levels of UV penetration from the sun. |
Patrick Holford
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| Even higher levels of beta-carotene may confer extra benefits.
NUTRIENTS
RDA
Vitamin A (IU)
5000
Vitamin D (IU)
400
Vitamin E (IU)
30
Vitamin C (mg)
60
Vitamin B, (mg)
1.5
Vitamin B2 (mg)
1.7
Vitamin B3 (mg)
20
Vitamin B5 (mg)
10
Vitamin B6 (mg)
2
Folic Acid (meg)
400
Vitamin B12 (meg)
6
Biotin (meg)
300
GLA*
(Omega-6; mg)
-
20 ?
40 ?
{Shortfall 110}
150
EPA/DHA* (Omega-3; mg)
-
60 ?
100> iShortfall 600 ?
700
Calcium (g)
1
(800:good diet)>H iShortfall 200}
1000
Iron (mg)
18
M ¦ ? iShortfall 5 ? |
Steven G. Pratt, M.D. and Kathy Matthews
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| Purslane is a worthy addition to any diet: it's actually the very best source of plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids, and a good source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, and glutathione. Eaten in a salad with some olive oil and a bit of lemon juice, purslane is delicious. If you're interested in trying purslane, check websites or books for photos to identify it, and see if you can find some growing wild. Be sure not to pick any from land that might have been treated with chemicals. Look for purslane at farmers' markets, or try growing your own. |
Marion Nestle
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 Precursor: geranyl geranyl pyrophosphate
Enzyme: phyfoene synthase Precursor: phytoene
^ Enzyme: phytoene desaturase Precursor: zeta(Q-carotene
^ Enzyme: zeta-carotene desaturase
Inactive in endosperm; genetically engineered from daffodils [Narcissus]
Inactive in endosperm; genetically engineered from bacteria [Erwinia]
Lycopene
Enzyme: lycopene cyclase
Beta (8)-carotene
Bran layers
1
IN MAMMALS
^ Enzyme: beta-carotene dioxygenase
Endosperm
Embryo
Vitamin A
FIGURE 1 3. |
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