Antioxidant vitamins and nutrients

Abstract Antioxidant defences rely heavily on vitamins and minerals from the diet (see Table 1). Indeed, research in Jamaica has shown that the problems suffered by children with kwashiorkor, a disease caused by lack of suitable dietary protein, arise not only from the deficiency in protein itself, but also from inadequate levels of antioxidants (including caeruloplasmin, tocopherols, and GSH) and from failure to make enough albumin, or sufficient transferrin to ensure safe binding of iron in the plasma. Would people in ‘ advanced’ countries gain any benefit from consuming ‘supplements’ of these nutrients, in addition to those absorbed from the diet? The companies that manufacture ‘ vitamin E’, ‘vitamin C’, ‘fl-carotene’, ‘selenium’, ‘multivitamin tablets’, and SOD capsules (with or without added catalase) would like us to think so. This is a multi-million dollar business in the USA and is growing to a similar size in other parts of the world. Some claims are unlikely to be true. SOD and catalase are proteins— in the gut, they will be digested by enzymes into amino acids and peptides. Little, if any, will be absorbed intact. No more will be absorbed from SOD/ catalase tablets than from uncooked foodstuffs (most of which contain these enzymes). Some of the other claims deserve careful attention, however.