The Hype and Hope: Beta Carotene.

Created March 19th, 1997. Updated May 31st, 1997. Copyright 1997 by Duane Hewitt

An example from the 1980's of a compound that
has fallen well short of the lofty claims that had
been made for it is Beta Carotene. When the antioxidant
properties of Beta carotene were being hyped it was
touted as the "Miracle Antioxidant" in a manner similar
to melatonin today. Megadoses of 10,000 to 25,000 IU were
recommended by some (US RDA 30 IU).

The studies that initially identified Beta Carotene
established that consumption of fruits and vegetables
high in carotenoids was associated with reduced cancer
and heart disease risk. It was proposed that Beta Carotene
was one of the compounds responsible for these positive
health effects. However, recent large scale studies have
shown that megadose Beta Carotene supplementation has
little effect upon cancer incidence and may cause an
increase in some forms of cancer in smokers.

Therefore Beta Carotene alone is not the
cause of the health benefits of carotenoid containing
fruits and vegetables. In this case
the proponents of Beta Carotene were guilty of greedy
reductionism which caused them to attribute the effects
in a complex interaction to a single simple cause that
could be packaged and sold. However this case does not
mean that supplementation of vitamins cannot have a significant health effect as in the case of vitamin E.