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Nutrition's dynamic duos By Harvard Health Letter
Nutrition guidelines and labels sometimes seem to have been written one nutrient at a time. We're advised to get this amount of that vitamin and that amount of this mineral. Separating out nutrients this way makes the guidelines relatively easy to understand and probably does help us avoid the classic diseases of nutritional deficiency, such as scurvy (not enough vitamin C) or pellagra (not enough niacin).
But good nutrition — and the way in which in our bodies absorb and process nutrients — is a much bigger puzzle than a nutrient-by-nutrient tally sheet suggests. Most nutrients don't fly solo: they interact, join forces, cancel each other, jockey for position on metabolic pathways. One reason food is so often nutritionally preferable to pills or supplements is that food contains a mixture of nutrients, so we benefit from their interactions with each mouthful.
The following is a list of nutrients that work in pairs. It's just a sampler, and far from a complete catalog. Even so, it may help inform some food choices — and give just a taste of the cruel complexity of the nutrition lurking behind guidelines and easy-to-read labels.
VITAMIN D AND CALCIUM
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There's debate these days about whether to revise the recommendations to reduce the goal for calcium intake (or at least de-emphasize it) and raise the goal for vitamin D (to 1,000 IU or even more).
SODIUM AND POTASSIUM
According to the current guidelines, American adults are supposed to get 4,700 mg of potassium and 1,200 to 1,500 mg of sodium daily, which works out to a ratio of somewhere between four-to-one and three-to-one. The average American intake is about half that amount of potassium (2,500 mg) and at least double that amount of sodium (2,500-7,500 mg).
But time for a reality check: how many people are going to do the math and keep track of their potassium-sodium ratio for the day? It's enough for most of us just to count calories.
Fortunately, the take-home message is simpler. Almost all of us need to have more potassium in our diets and a whole lot less sodium. And the best way to do that is consistent with the standard good nutrition playbook: load up on fruits and vegetables (prime sources of potassium) and cut back on cookies, salty snacks, fast foods, and ready-made lunches and dinners (prime sources of sodium).
VITAMIN B12 AND FOLATE
Strict vegans, who shun all animal-based products, may sometimes struggle to get enough B12. But for the most part, it isn't for lack of intake that B12 deficiency develops. It typically occurs because of shortages of substances inside the digestive system. Some people lack intrinsic factor, a protein made by stomach cells that's needed for B12 to be absorbed further down the pike, in the ileum, the end portion of the small intestine. And many older people secrete fewer of the gastric juices that break down B12-containing compounds because they have atrophic gastritis, an inflammatory condition that affects the lining of the stomach.
Folate deficiencies occur for a number of reasons, including poor diet, too much alcohol (alcohol interferes with the absorption of folate), and B12 deficiency, because folate needs B12 to be metabolized.
Deficiency in either or both vitamins may cause macrocytic anemia, a form of anemia that results in enlarged red blood cells.
Remedying a B12 deficiency can be pretty straightforward. You can get injections every few months or take a pill daily. Even if you're low on intrinsic factor or have atrophic gastritis, the dose in the pills is often large enough (1 mg) that an adequate amount of the vitamin gets absorbed.
Folate deficiencies can be corrected with multivitamins or folic acid pills. In fact, folate from fortified food or a pill is absorbed and metabolized almost twice as well as folate found naturally in food. Similar to the B12-intrinsic factor dynamic, if you ingest large amounts of folate, some manages to get absorbed even if levels of its B12 partner are low.
There is an interesting twist to the B12-folate story. Doctors often stumble upon the existence of a B12 deficiency by finding macrocytic anemia after ordering a routine blood test. Tests for folate and B12aren't usually ordered. When someone with a B12 deficiency takes folic acid supplements, those supplements can make the macrocytic anemia go away — or prevent it from happening. But that eliminates the most common clue to B12 deficiency, and the deficiency itself may continue. B12 deficiencies cause neurological problems, which range from mild tingling sensations to memory loss, in addition to anemia. So people live with neurological problems that might have been easily and inexpensively treated with some extra B12.
ZINC AND COPPER
Copper and zinc compete for absorption sites in the small intestine. If there's a lot of zinc around, copper tends to lose out and a copper deficiency may develop.
Some people in the early stages of macular degeneration, an eye condition that can lead to blindness, are prescribed a special vitamin-mineral combination, called AREDS, which has been shown to slow down progression of the disease. The AREDS pills include 80 mg of zinc, enough to cause a copper deficiency, so 2 mg of copper were added to the pills.
Another possible source of zinc overload is, of all things, denture cream. A report published in 2008 in Neurology described four cases of denture wearers with neurologic abnormalities. Their problems were ascribed to a copper deficiency from zinc exposure that came from using very large amounts of denture creams. A neurologist at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center diagnosed a similar case of denture cream-induced neurologic abnormality in 2009.
NIACIN AND TRYPTOPHAN
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and tryptophan is one of nine that we need to ingest because the body doesn't synthesize them on its own. Tryptophan is important for several reasons, but chief among them is its role as a supplier of niacin, courtesy of some rather complicated metabolism. So one way to avoid niacin shortfalls is to eat foods that contain a lot of tryptophan. Chicken and turkey are high on that list.
Pellagra, now held up as the classic disease of niacin deficiency, was once thought to be caused by a tryptophan deficiency. The disease, which causes a bad rash, diarrhea, and dementia, was common in the American South in the early 20th century. How researchers traced it back to a niacin deficiency and a corn-based diet is one of the great tales of nutritional epidemiology.
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© 2012, PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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