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As far as America is concerned, most people don't even come close. A mere 9% of adults manage to consume five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. By and large, Americans simply don't like vegetables. The most prominent example: President Bush, who once admitted he detested broccoli, now has taken to deriding carrots as "orange broccoli."
Nonetheless, failing to match daily dietary guidelines is no reason to go running for the vitamin bottle. "What you do one day or one week isn't the whole story," stresses Jeanne Goldberg, assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts. "It's what your general eating patterns are." Blitzing on junk food for a day or two is no problem if over the long haul a diet regularly contains fruits and veggies. If it does not, popping pills is a good insurance policy, especially important for those who reject greens outright. Supplements are also useful to people with special conditions, including shut-ins, alcoholics and those on very restrictive diets, who tend to be poorly nourished.
Virtually all experts agree that a daily multivitamin won't hurt anybody. Opinion is divided, however, about whether people should be taking high doses of vitamins to prevent chronic disease or delay aging. Some argue that enough evidence is in to justify taking moderately high amounts of antioxidants. Several researchers admit they are already doing so.
Others believe it is too soon to be making recommendations to the public. The long-term effects of high-dose supplements are still unknown, and doctors warn of dangers even in the short term. Too much vitamin D, for example, can cause damaging calcium deposits in muscle tissue, including the heart.
Last February the FDA rejected as premature applications by vitamin makers to promote folic acid as a means of preventing neural-tube birth defects, antioxidants as a hedge against cancer, and zinc as a booster of aging immune systems. Both federal and state regulatory agencies have been cracking down on nutrient health claims. The FDA says it will hold label claims to standards similar to those applied to drugs. Advises Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health: "At this time I say don't take megadoses, but I'm not ruling out that in two or three years we might change our mind."
The wisest strategy right now may be to redouble those efforts to eat more broccoli and carrots, spinach and squash. And to follow the familiar exhortations: get up and get moving, cut down fat and cut out smoking. No matter how powerful antioxidants and the other nutrients turn out to be, they will never be a substitute for salutary habits. But stay tuned. Vitamins promise to continue to unfold as one of the great and hopeful health stories of our day.