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Vitamins with a Side of Vitamins Fortified foods can lead to too much of a good thing - especially in light of recent findings about the efficacy of vitamins in disease prevention 
Getting all of your vitamins from food is getting easier as more everyday products hit store shelves with added nutrition. You'll find some fortified foods, such as cereals with added folic acid, on supermarket shelves. These may have a place in your diet, says Roberta Anding, MS, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. If you can't consume enough of a particular vitamin or mineral, say you have a milk allergy or lactose intolerance that prevents you from getting adequate calcium, a supplement may be the best alternative. But don't use a fortified food as an excuse to skip a healthful diet. "You eat a fortified [breakfast] cereal, then don't eat as well the rest of the day. That thinking may have gotten us into a whole lot of trouble," Anding says. Also be aware of how many nutrients you're consuming in fortified foods, nutrition advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research, Washington, D.C. "You may be looking at all the extra vitamins in a breakfast cereal, then adding a multivitamin to that. You can end the day with three times the vitamins you need. It may not do any harm, but may be a waste. But for vulnerable people it can be a problem of overdosing," Collins says. Especially in light of recent studies, some of which are disproving the efficacy of some long-held beliefs about vitamins and supplements. Giving a high dose of a mix of vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid to patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease didn't slow their rate of cognitive decline. During an 18-month trial at the University of California, San Diego, 202 patients were given the vitamin B boost. Their rate of decline was no different from that of 138 patients who received a placebo. However, symptoms of depression were higher in the vitamin B group, according to an article in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Neither vitamins C nor E are shown to reduce the risk of prostate or other cancers, according to the results of a long-term study of nearly 15,000 middle-aged male physicians. Blood levels of vitamins E and C have been associated with reduced risk for certain cancers. But when scientists conducted a randomized, controlled experiment, with a follow-up after eight years, they found no cancer-prevention benefit for the vitamins, according to an article in the Jan. 7, 2009 issue of JAMA. Another study in the same Jan. 7 issue of JAMA reports that supplementing with vitamin E or selenium, alone or in combination, isn't associated with prostate or other cancer prevention among relatively healthy men.
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Bev Bennett, a veteran food writer and editor, is the author of "Dinner for Two: A Cookbook for Couples" and "30-Minute Meals for Dummies"
