In a message dated 3/5/2007 5:57:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:

On Feb 28, 2007, at 2:03 pm, Adrienne Smith wrote:
> ...
> I still believe that all food supplements are a waste of time.
> Anything that is essential to human life must be easily obtainable
> from a natural diet.  

In the natural world this would be the case, but some of us have systems
damaged by modern foods that for whatever reason appear to need higher
levels of some nutrients than those found in foods. For example, before
going Paleo I had sometimes-painful cystic acne that required Px medicines
to keep in check. There was never a day that my skin was close to totally
clear, except when I was taking the short-term internal medication, Acutane,
but the acne returned as soon as I stopped taking it and I even had
occasional breakouts while using it. I had tried alternative remedies, such
as zinc supplements and avoiding chocolate and fatty foods, but none of them
did anything for me. About 3 1/2 weeks after going gluten-free my skin
cleared up dramatically. Going Paleo resulted in the complete clearing of my
skin. Some months later I started to get a little bit of acne again, though
nowhere near as bad as before. I found that zinc now worked to clear up the
remaining breakouts. If I go a single day without the zinc I get minor
breakouts of acne the next day. If I then take the zinc again it clears up
within a day or two. So for me, the combination of a Paleo diet and
supplements did the trick, but neither alone was sufficient in the long run.

Nutritional deficiencies and malabsorption are common symptoms of autoimmune
disorders that are not necessarily corrected completely in the short term by
a Paleo diet. Coverage of this topic is something that is sorely missing
from the books, NeanderThin and The Paleo Diet.

You've mistakenly attributed a quote to me that  I didn't write-- what you 
quoted was someone else's response to me.  I started the thread on February 28 
by asking what people thought of the recent news item about the purported 
dangers of supplements and the critics of the antioxidant/free radical theory of 
aging.  I myself take plenty of supplements.  PS: Michael Eades MD posted a 
terrific response to that anti-supplement article on his Blog.
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