How safe is taking food supplements?
'28.08.2017'
Source: The conversation
Recently, all kinds of food additives have become not just popular, but almost an integral part of our diet. About that, how much all these additives are safe for our organism writes The conversation.
Most recently, we wrote that a young woman, 25-year-old bodybuilder from Australia died due to the fact that she sat on a special diet with nutritional supplements.
Megan Hefford suffered from a rare disease she hadn’t even suspected of, and the diet caused an accumulation of ammonia in her body. This case also casts doubt on the safety of food additives.
Nutraceuticals or functional products, as they are called in special literature, are absolutely harmless to healthy people.
But nevertheless, there are rare cases, as in the case of Megan, when the basic parameters of health can hide rare diseases and then dietary supplements or their excessive consumption can lead to serious problems.
The most common dietary supplements are those dietary supplements that contain amino acids in the form of protein, protein hydrolysates, such as whey protein or individual branched chain amino acids, containing leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
Such supplements are mainly taken by athletes who need to build muscle, since amino acids are building blocks for muscle tissue.
In addition to the disease that Megan had, there are still a number of rare genetic disorders that manifest themselves only with the use of these amino acids.
For example, maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) leads to toxic BCAA buildup, which makes their excessive consumption dangerous.
However, MSUD sufferers are usually diagnosed at an early age, so this is unlikely to manifest through excessive protein intake in adulthood.
People with impaired kidneys are advised to avoid high-protein diets, since excessive consumption can cause serious kidney problems.
But there are studies that prove that athletes who consume up to 3 of protein supplements per kilogram of body weight per day do not show any negative effects on kidney health.
L-carnitine and creatine
Both L-carnitine and creatine are natural compounds taken to improve muscle mass, efficiency, or weight loss. (Red meat is especially rich in these substances.)
As with most supplements, these supplements undergo many studies regarding their safety. Today there is minimal evidence that they are harmful to humans, despite early allegations of potential damage to the liver or kidneys, muscle cramps, or electrolyte imbalances.
In addition, there are no known diseases that can make them dangerous.
Conjugated linoleic acid
Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are another popular supplement. CLA is a specific type of fat that is associated with a decrease in fat mass and an increase in muscle mass.
Although generally considered safe, there is evidence of impairment in animals, and in people suggesting that their consumption can lead to adverse changes in the blood, namely an increase in low-density lipoprotein (“bad fats”).
As always, long-term data from controlled trials are not available, so there will always be an element of doubt about their safety.
Vitamin E and Resveratrol
But there are other considerations related to the potentially dangerous effects of additives. A recent example of this is antioxidant supplements such as vitamin E and resvervatrol.
Indeed, while early studies purportedly show that these supplements can improve exercise performance, more recent studies have shown the opposite - these supplements may work against that performance as well.
Contamination
In addition, there is another risk. When the composition of food additives include so-called pollutants that are not labeled. Often, the consumer does not know that they are part of the composition, so they cannot assess the risks.
Recently, news that it was impossible to test for narcotic substances began to appear quite often. And the main reason for such problems is the pollutants of additional substances.
Those additives that are manufactured without proper pharmaceutical control may contain such substances. Most often, these supplements are sold through the Internet.
There are cases when such additives caused acute hepatitis and fulminant liver failure.
Thus, a certain risk when taking food supplements exists. First of all, from the fact that you can not be sure that in fact is part of a particular supplement.
In addition, there is no proven efficacy of many new drugs, since the theory and marketing is taken as the basis of production rather than science.
Some supplements have passed clinical trials and all the necessary studies that prove that they are effective when combined with exercise.
