Stylish supplements, according to a renowned scientist, simply serve to increase sales.
Professor Tim Spector, a specialist in genetic epidemiology, recommended that we purchase “real food” instead and consume little to no ultra-processed food.
Food For Life: The New Science Of Eating’s author It’s true that supplements turn their purchasers into “total mugs.”
He declared: “These supplements are powered by the same companies…they will become the next giant food companies of the future” when speaking at the Welsh literary festival, Hay.
They have large budgets. The makers of an amazing organic supplement aren’t these little artisans in Somerset’s back barn.
Health expert Professor Tim Spector (pictured) said people should spend money on “real food” rather than supplements
“They are all made in huge factories in China and you have no control over them [over] which it is – and 99 percent of them turned out not to work at all.
“So we’re total mugs paying all that money for supplements when we should be spending it on real food.” He said the only supplement with any benefit is B12 for vegans who don’t eat as many iron-rich foods as they should.
TV doctor Chris van Tulleken, 44, added: ‘The last time I looked at the large meta-analysis my reading was that there is no supplement or extract of any food that confers any health benefit in a healthy person with the possible exception of vitamin D, or B12 in a vegan.’
Professor Spector, 64, said he recognizes it is ‘impossible to completely do away with all unhealthy foods’ but said people need to learn how to recognize this.
“We could vastly increase the life expectancy of the poor and our health span,” he said. ‘It [the UK] is officially the sickest country in Europe.’
The scientist said the available supplements are made in “massive factories in China,” as he says “99 percent of them don’t work at all.”
The scientist, who advocates for “personalized nutrition” and co-founder of Zoe, a personalized nutrition program, follows a plant-based diet, eats a lot of fermented foods, does intermittent fasting and is “weaned off milk chocolate.”
But he says he is “addicted” to nuts and chips that he trades in for “a small bowl of high-quality peanuts or cashews.”
Professor Spector also said that switching to a plant-based diet will benefit the planet, claiming that giving up meat is more effective than not driving and not taking flights for holidays abroad.
He said: ‘The single most important thing we can all do if we are concerned about climate change is to reduce our meat and dairy intake, especially beef, lamb and milk.
‘[This is] much more important than not flying to Spain during your holiday or not using your car that often.
‘It has been proven that environmentally friendly food is good for your health and vice versa. You don’t have to give up completely.’
Asked about the impact of milk on our health, he added: ‘We drink a lot less milk than we did in the 1970s…the evidence is that we as adults don’t get any benefit from drinking milk. It’s fairly neutral.
“And there is some evidence that overconsumption of milk in children can cause early puberty problems.”