Vitamin pills in the test
The testers have found: especially people who eat consciously and healthy, appreciate synthetically produced vitamins and minerals. And they just need the extra nutrients least.
Nevertheless, the demand is high: In the cold period especially vitamin C is in demand. Many hope that their immune system will be strengthened when they take synthetically produced vitamin C. A balanced diet provides us with sufficient nutrition: Even those who do not make the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day usually do not suffer from vitamin C deficiency. We recommend 100 mg of vitamin C for adults and 150 mg for pregnant women, nursing mothers, smokers and athletes. 100 grams of paprika already contain 140 mg of vitamin C.
"You can neither shorten nor prevent a cold by consuming large amounts of synthetically produced vitamin C," says Annette Dohrmann, editor at Öko-Test and responsible for the vitamin tests. An extra dose of vitamin C is only recommended for extreme endurance athletes, such as marathon runners and those who spend a lot of time out in the cold. However, only natural vitamin C.
Does the vitamin C pill harm?
Why only natural vitamin C? Apart from the fact that they are rarely needed - does anything else speak against synthetically manufactured preparations? "One can not foresee how these isolated artificially produced vitamins will permanently affect the body of rules," says Annette Dohrmann.
Professor Hans Konrad Biesalski contradicts. The managing director of the Institute for Biological Chemistry and Nutrition Science at the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart) and author of numerous publications on vitamins, says: "The body does not differentiate between synthetically produced and natural vitamins, it does not matter if the vitamins come from BASF or from a paprika, the chemical structure is the same". Professor Biesalski also claims to have participated in projects funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Nevertheless, he sees himself as an independent scientist.
How do multivitamin supplements in the test?
He agrees with the eco-test editor that peppers or apples in addition to vitamin C contain other valuable phytochemicals - in contrast to dietary supplements. Therefore, he recommends supplementing vitamin C in pill form only for people who can not absorb enough from their diet; for example, older people who eat very little. The problem: "Vitamin C can not be stored, you need the quantities daily and you can not make up for what you missed during the week on Saturday".
While Professor Biesalski recommends multivitamin preparations (justification: "One does not know which micro-nutrient is currently missing"), the multivitamin preparations performed particularly poorly at Öko-Test. They are often distributed as A-Z products. Three preparations managed "sufficient", all others got "poor" or "insufficient". The criticisms of the eco-testers: over- or under-dosing, addition of trace elements that can adversely affect the body (for example, manganese, copper) or in which long-term experience is completely absent (for example, selenium).
Is the vitamin kick from the glass better?
Then maybe the daily glass of ACE juice as an alternative? ACE juices contain vitamins A, C and E. They too have been tested by Öko-Test. But the vitamin juices have rated the testers mostly bad. Above all, they warn against artificially added beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. Beta-carotene is known to have led to increased lung cancer rates among smokers and increased mortality in people with heart disease at doses of 20 mg / day or more.
Those who want to be sure and buy juice without artificial vitamin supplements should switch to orange juice, There vitamins are rarely added, advises Öko-Test editor Annette Dohrmann. The alternative: a critical look at the ingredients. "The best is 100 percent fruit juice, then no vitamins are added," says Annette Dohrmann. If, on the other hand, terms such as "Vitamin C" are added, they are always added vitamins.
Conclusion
Opinions differ on synthetic nutrients. Anyone who relies on healthy mixed food is always on the safe side - and saves money for supplements.
