Experts: Lack of NutrientsInadequate Consumption
of Fruits and Vegetables Can be Damaging Our DNA
Each day we read reports about new causes of cancer such as cell telephones,
and chemicals in our foods and water. According to experts at a conference
partially sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Sciences
(NIEHS), the real culprit may be a lack of the vitamins and phytochemicals
found in fruits and vegetables.
Experts at the conference suggested that the diets of Americans, especially
those in the lower income bracket, are not eating an adequate amount
of fruits and vegetables and this could be damaging people's DNA, causing
the damage associated with cancer.
Researchers told the conference, held at the Children's Hospital Oakland
Research Institute, Americans are failing to eat the minimum recommended
five servings a day of fruits and vegetables
"Wherever you turn around ... the poor are eating such poor diets
I think they are battering their DNA, causing cancer and maybe damaging
their brains," Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley,
said in a telephone interview at the close of last week's conference.
Katherine Tucker of Tufts University in Boston cited U.S. Department
of Agriculture studies that showed Americans with the lowest incomes
ate as much as richer people, but their diets were lower in vitamins.
She told the conference a study of Hispanic elders in Massachusetts
found "blood measurements confirmed the high prevalence of poor
vitamin B status."
A California study found that only one in three residents of the state
reported eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day
-- the minimum recommended amount. This translates into vitamin deficiencies
which, in turn, mean altered DNA, Ames said. "What is becoming
clear is that there is a tremendous amount of DNA damage in people from
not having their vitamins and minerals," said Ames, a professor
of biochemistry and director of the NIEHS center.
According to Russell L. Blaylock, MD, board certified neurosurgeon,
clinical assistant professor at the Medical University of Mississippi
and member of the ANA Medical Advisory Council, many vitamins act as
antioxidants, preventing the damage, known as oxidation, that changes
DNA and allows cells to become cancerous. "If you don't get your
vitamins C and E, it is like irradiating yourself," Blaylock said.
According to Blaylock, folic acid, a B vitamin, may be particularly
important.
Christine Skibola and Martyn Smith of Berkeley found one gene involved
in a person's susceptibility to leukemia helps process folate. "Our
results suggest that folate metabolism may play a key role in the development
of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)," they wrote.
Ames's team has shown in past studies that cells from people deficient
in folic acid contained specific genetic mistakes. "Now we have
shown that B6 deficiency does the same thing," Ames said. Australian
researchers told the conference they found vitamin B12 deficiency can
damage chromosomes, and other research suggested that people deficient
in zinc and iron may also suffer genetic damage.
According to Bernd Wollschlaeger, MD, a board certified family physician
and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine at
the University of Miami, "you cannot solve all these problems with
a multivitamin pill." Regardless of their economic status, it's
very hard to get people to change their diets and they are just not
doing it. I am persistently telling my patients that they should eat
five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and complement their vitamin
intake with supplements ."
According to Wollschlaeger, associate editor of the Journal of the American
Nutraceutical Association (JANA), "people should try to get their
vitamins from food, but unfortunately we are a society that relies to
heavily on "fast food" and this simply does not provide us
with the nutrients that could be protecting our bodies from diseases
such as cancer. This problem is compounded by the fact that people who
are poor simply don't have access to the proper number of servings of
fruits and vegetables on a daily basis," observed Dr. Wollschlaeger.
"A vitamin and mineral tablet should not be viewed as a replacement
to good nutrition, but rather a supplement."
The Institute of Medicine recommended for the first time in 1997 and
1998 that people take supplements -- of calcium, to prevent osteoporosis,
and of folic acid, shown to reduce the risk of birth defects.
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