Over the river and through the woods. It’s time for the holidays and the gathering of family and friends. All the generations get together and celebrate making our holidays merry and bright. I have one piece of advice for you this year — listen to Grandma. Every time I turn around there she is, right again. Remember how she said to eat good healthy food? (I know you hid your peas in your napkin.) No dessert unless you eat your vegetables? Imagine telling Grandma that these days you get your nutrition from pills and powders rather than the earth or the sea? Can you see her eyes roll? Oh deary me darling, what are you thinking!!! Well guess what? Even the scientists at Harvard think she is right..

There were some large-scale human studies published recently suggesting that getting our nutrition from supplements and vitamin pills might not be the best medicine (see Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?). The bottom line they were reporting was that vitamins and supplements do not always have the health benefits we think they do and sometimes even cause harm. The problems begin to occur when we take our essential nutrients, which we need in small doses, and feed ourselves very large pill doses. In theory this becomes similar to taking a drug. Some examples are: the Sloan-Kettering cancer study that revealed that Vitamin C actually protects cancer cells more that normal cells. The Iowa Women’s Health Study, 38,000 strong, showed that statistically women who took multivitamins had a higher risk of mortality. And how about the “SELECT Trial” published this month studying Vitamin E for the decreased risk of prostate cancer that proved it did just the opposite?

“The Iowa Women’s Health Study, 38,000 strong, showed that statistically women who took multivitamins had a higher risk of mortality.”

Enough already with all this fake stuff we put in our bodies. Apparently it isn’t such a great idea. But HELLO, Grandma already told us that. (Let me please throw in a caveat here that if you are told by your doctor you need a nutritional supplement be sure to follow that advice.) Remember when we were all told to eat margarine for our health? Now it causes cancer. We were told to not eat fat, then we were told to not eat carbohydrates. Grandma never wasted time on any of this dizzying nonsense. Let’s not chase rainbows for the easy way out when there really isn’t one. Yes, deary, you do need to eat healthfully if you want to lead a long healthy life.

The wisest advice is to eat good food for our nutrition, real gosh darn grown in the ground, harvested from the sea, raised on the land food. Let’s eat it as fresh, local and natural as possible, prepared deliciously and nutritiously. And by all means, be sure to invite Grandma!