Monthly Archive for "May 2007"



Micronutrients & Vitamins & Minerals Baste on 09 May 2007

“Great Taste Has Its Benefits”

In March this year Coca Cola announced in a press release the launch of Diet Coke Plus. This new member of the Coke beverage family will provide the consumer with 15% Daily Value of the vitamins B3, B6 and B12 as well as with 10% Daily Value of zinc and magnesium (calculated per eight-ounce serving).
Well, maybe this offers a great opportunity for a prospective, large scale health trial - considering the 1.4 billion servings Coke sells each day. I just worry somewhat about the data collection………

Out of interest I quickly searched Pubmed and here’s what I found (selection):

Belpoggi F et al.:
Results of long-term carcinogenicity bioassays on Coca-Cola administered to
Sprague-Dawley rats.

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006, 1076:736-52

Ladas SD et al.:
Gastric phytobezoars may be treated by nasogastric Coca-Cola lavage.
Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2002, 14:801-3

Malhotra S et al.:
Effect of an acidic beverage (Coca-Cola) on the pharmacokinetics of carbamazepine in healthy volunteers.
Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol. 2002, 24:31-3

Ellertson C:
History and efficacy of emergency contraception: beyond Coca-Cola.
Fam Plann Perspect. 1996, 28:44-8

Image taken from: wikimedia.org

Antioxidants & Cognition & Vitamins & Minerals Baste on 08 May 2007

Multivitamin/-mineral Supplementation Fails Again

Source: Nutrition Journal (2007), 6:10
Article Type: Original Research
Authors: G McNeill et al.


Image taken from: http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/431619-54med.jpg

Just recently, I discussed the possibility of mutivitamin supplementation negatively affecting mortality. And there’s more bad news.
In their randomised controlled trial, Mc Neill and colleagues again confirm the inefficiency of multivitamin/-mineral supplementation (duration: 12 months) for the improvement of cognitive function in elderly (>65 years of age) subjects. As the article is freely available I will leave it to you to read the details.
I just wonder if we ever will have the chance to read the report of a prospective study assessing the impact of at least 15-20 years of multivitamin/-mineral supplementation starting well before (!) ongoing biological havoc prevents any possible health-beneficial effect of such intervention.