Heard of Beta-Carotene? How About Alpha-Carotene?

Bright yellow fruits and vegetables, as well as carrots, provide an antioxidant called beta-carotene.

It's well-known that eating a lot of fruits and vegetables results in lower rates of death from almost everything; heart disease, many forms of cancer, etc.

Nonetheless, taking beta-carotene as a supplement does not appear to be of any health benefit. So scientists have wondered whether some other carotene may be more responsible for the health benefit of the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables.

Now a large study has shown that people with higher alpha-carotene levels have a lower risk of dying from heart disease and cancer both.

This is just a preliminary result. It's reliable, as they followed around 15,000 people for 15 years, but it does not prove that alpha-carotene supplements will help. Nutrition is complicated and nutrients often work in tandem. Isolating our nutrition into pills is just not the direction to go. Supplements are only advised where we know that there is a tendency to deficiency.