Q&A with Dr. Fogarty: Two trending supplements—worth it, or don't bother?
Dr. Fogarty, a nutrition and exercise expert from the UK, talks to Spinaca on the science behind how eating a vegetable-heavy rainbow diet can help you live a longer, healthier life.
Mark Fogarty earned a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom where he has been researching, publishing and lecturing on natural nutritional intervention in the context of exercise stress for over a decade.
Spinaca Farms: There has been some recent literature about the benefits of sulforaphane. Can you elaborate if there is an actual benefit to it?
Dr. Fogarty: Sulforaphane is a chemical they’ve found in foods we already know are really good for you like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, watercress, etc. In our search for wonder drugs, we obliterate these foods in test tubes and isolate their contents on a molecular level to see what they’re made of.
We then try to isolate and concentrate these compounds for their medical benefits—this is basically where penicillin came from so we (scientists) have been at it for years. Every so often a paper comes out on promising compounds as having the most wonderful effects. And because these compounds are not drugs, it's quite easy to sell these compounds as natural supplements and link them to health benefits because of one research paper—even if that research was done in test tubes.
The way nutritional supplements are handled in the marketplace is a flaw in the legislation, to be honest, as food supplements are not required to pass the same sort of testing that drugs have to. But that is not to say they can’t be as potent.
As for the effects of sulforaphane, I’d say the jury is out and there isn’t enough data to sing its praises. I would say there is plenty of data showing the vegetables that contain it are really beneficial regardless, though, so I just tend to eat them anyway.
Spinaca Farms: Consuming anthocyanin as part of a healthy diet has been purported to reduce cell oxidation and fight free radicals in the body. Is there any proven science to back these claims?
Dr. Fogarty: Consuming foods high in anthocyanin is known to increase antioxidant defenses—and yes, their benefits are pretty well established now. Anthocyanins are found in red, purple and blue foods. Like the answer above, anthocyanin is one of 1000’s of compounds that scientists have investigated for their health potential. As I always say, keep your diet rainbow! The more colour you have in your diet the wider variety of these compounds you can capture and hopefully boost your overall defense system.