Supplements that work

[tiermat]

Sorry, my mis-remembering, the WHO don't specify number of portions, but quantity.

http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/fruit/en/

400g/day, which the UK govt. translated to 5 portions to make it easier to understand.

[Pedal Castro]

This article you may find interesting:

This cynical five-a-day myth

[citoyen]

What is the evidence for 5, or 9?

I've always looked on it as more a user-friendly quantification of the general idea that we could all do with eating more fresh veg to provide the essential nutrients we need. I don't think the arbitrary number is as important as the underlying principle.

[citoyen]

This article you may find interesting:

This cynical five-a-day myth

Stupid, unhelpful article. Her downer on dietitians seems to stem largely from the fact that she's a "nutritionist".

[Andrew]

What is the evidence for 5, or 9?

I've always looked on it as more a user-friendly quantification of the general idea that we could all do with eating more fresh veg to provide the essential nutrients we need. I don't think the arbitrary number is as important as the underlying principle.

Yep, I think exactly the same thing. It's just a generalisation, a simple way to remember to eat fruit and veg. There's a few 'rules of thumb' bits of advice like that floating around.

Edit: posted the above before reading the article, before realising the author meant 5 should be 0!

[geraldc]

Well I've started with coconut oil too. I have a teaspoon of it in my coffee in the morning. It tastes really nice, so I'm not to bothered if the reported benefits aren't there. Have found some reports saying it's a saturated fat, and therefore bad, but what the hell.

[Sergeant Pluck]

This article you may find interesting:

This cynical five-a-day myth

Is she seriously doing a PhD in nutrition? Where? She's just another diet-flogger.

But the real culprit there is the DM. It's unspeakable that they give free rein to columnists like this with no effort at all to critically analyse what is being said.

[Ham]

In my experience glucosamine does work. Whether it's the placebo effect or not I don't know , but I don't really care if it is.
Although one thing that suggests it isn't is that I find the glucosamine and chondroitin mixed in one capsule to be markedly better than taking separate tablets for each.

I agree.  Despite the lack of any conclusive evidence, I started taking it. This was more to accompany Mrs Ham than any real need, in a time when she was taking a number of dietary supplements while being treated for a serious condition. I discovered without really noticing it happen that my knees which had been getting all rather creaky were more comfortably flexible. I have carried on taking it.

[Pickled Onion]

This article you may find interesting:

This cynical five-a-day myth

Is she seriously doing a PhD in nutrition? Where? She's just another diet-flogger.

But the real culprit there is the DM. It's unspeakable that they give free rein to columnists like this with no effort at all to critically analyse what is being said.

From a couple of years ago:

Zoe boasts in the Mail that she is “studying for a PhD in nutrition” but she admitted to me, tediously, inevitably, that she’s not registered for a PhD anywhere (although she is thinking about doing one in the future).

source

She has a Maths w/Economics degree from Cambridge, and she claims to have a couple of diplomas in diet/nutrition/weight management but will not reveal where from. (Now where have we heard this before?)

[hellymedic]

Zoe Harcombe state that potassium is found in water.
This is a very new one on me.
Why did I not know?

[Sergeant Pluck]

From a couple of years ago:

Zoe boasts in the Mail that she is “studying for a PhD in nutrition” but she admitted to me, tediously, inevitably, that she’s not registered for a PhD anywhere (although she is thinking about doing one in the future).

source

Thanks!

[Kim]

Zoe Harcombe state that potassium is found in water.
This is a very new one on me.
Why did I not know?

I'm baffled.  Would have thought you'd have noticed the explosion...

[citoyen]

Is she seriously doing a PhD in nutrition?

http://www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk/content/dietitians-nutritionists-and-nutritional-therapists.html

But the real culprit there is the DM. It's unspeakable that they give free rein to columnists like this with no effort at all to critically analyse what is being said.

It's the DM. This is what they do.

[geraldc]

Been supplementing Vitamin B complex/B12 for a week. Found I've more energy, and better focus. Not sure if it's placebo or not, but everytime I go for wee, and find a bright yellow stream shining back at me, it reinforces that feel good feeling. The Holland & Barrett pills I'm on are 1000% of the RDA, and you can take up to 6 a day. Always amuses me when you can take 6000% of the the RDA. I'm playing it safe and only having 2000%.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Just think how yellow your piss could be if you took 60x the RDA instead of just 20x.

[Chris S]

Do you chew them, and enjoy that Marmitey twang?

I too take a Big B every morning - almost entirely because I drink a lot, and booze mullers your Vitamin Bs.

I also take 1000mg Vitamin C (and have done daily, ever since I read Linus Pauling's book, back in the 80s), occasionally Milk Thistle (see above) and a daily Omega 3 fish oil tab, because Salmon has bonus heavy metals.

[Pickled Onion]

I also take 1000mg Vitamin C (and have done daily, ever since I read Linus Pauling's book...

Which one? The one that incorrectly claims Vitamin C is effective against colds & flu? Or the one that incorrectly claims it's effective against cancer?

 
 

[Chris S]

I also take 1000mg Vitamin C (and have done daily, ever since I read Linus Pauling's book...

Which one? The one that incorrectly claims Vitamin C is effective against colds & flu? Or the one that incorrectly claims it's effective against cancer?

 
 

I think it's beneficial to me, so nyaah 

[Pickled Onion]

  Fair enough - at least it tastes nice.

My admission/anecdata is that I take zinc at twice the rated dose fairly regularly and (with no suggestion of causality)
(a) I've not had a cold for 25 years
and (NSFW):

(click to show/hide)

when I take it I wank every day, when I don't that figure reduces, and that by itself has been scientifically proven to protect against prostate cancer.

Anyway, given the title of the thread, have we come to the general conclusion "none of them"?

[hellymedic]

Discussing placebo effects in this thread may be futile.
ICnBA.

[Sergeant Pluck]

(click to show/hide)

when I take it I wank every day, when I don't that figure reduces, and that by itself has been scientifically proven to protect against prostate cancer.

Many thanks for that additional information.