As hunter gatherers, how much saw palmetto did we evolve to need?
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ETpro (
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June 4th, 2013
Super Beta Prostate claims I’d have to take 100 saw palmetto capsules to get the same amount of beta sitosterol as I can get from just one SBP capsule. OK, if true, that proves that SBP is a much better source of beta sitosterol than saw palmetto. But evolving as hunter gatherers, how much saw palmetto did we evolve to need? And if we don’t need saw palmetto, how come we need one of its ingredients in 100 times the concentrations we’d get from a natural source?
That’s not to say that Super Beta Prostate is a lousy product. I have no idea how effective it is. I am just looking at how incredibly dysfunctional the logic supporting its value in its advertising is. And yet, the advertising clearly works to sell the stuff, because the so many people in the viewing audience have a grasp of logic that is even more dysfunctional.
So as hunter gatherers, what did we evolve to need that we are failing to get in our modern diet? Is there some missing dietary supplement we should all be taking to support rational thought?
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Seriously, I think the vitamin industry is overrated. Sure, if you’re actually deficient in certain compounds, you should take supplements, and I’m not going to argue against your daily Centrum, but I have a friend who spends GOBS of money on Resveratrol capsules. Because it gives them 10,000 times (or something) the amount of resveratrol that’s in a glass of red wine, and if a little is good for helping to prevent cancer, a LOT must make you invincible!
But then, for the vast majority of our existence, men rarely got old enough for prostrate problems to become a concern, right? I’m thinking that how much saw palmetto our distant ancestors got would have had little impact on survival.
Isn’t the saw palmetto range the southern US (Florida and such), perhaps down into Central America. That would seem to indicate that at some point evolution of the human species occurred here wouldn’t it?
Well, @rojo, that’s not really true, because beta sitosterol is produced in a great many plants, including rice, wheat, corn, and soy. So, even if it is evolutionarily necessary, it probably wouldn’t be from saw palmetto. Which, of course, leads back to @ETpro‘s point that use the amount of it in a random, American continent based plant as a point of comparison is just silly.
And yeah, to go along with @Seek_Kolinahr, the vitamin industry is a ridiculous mess of unfounded claims (thanks, DSHEA!). In general, your opinion is that of the vast majority of health professionals: vitamin supplementation is needed only when specifically indicated. And that actually includes multivitamins, though they do become more generally useful in older age, if my memory serves.
@Seek_Kolinahr Actually, the only cogent argument for Manganese comes from Centrum. What an interesting, interconnected world we live in.
@thorninmud How often you have to pee generally has little impact on survival too—unless, of course, your job is third-rail inspector for a subway system. It’s unlikely any cavemen were in that profession, as well. :-)
@Rarebear And to think I didn’t even know that. :-)
@rojo This would have been 4 million years ago, but 13,000 years ago. Maybe, but somehow it seems more likely that supplement advertisers are lying yet again. Evidence to that effect? They are speaking.
@BhacSsylan Thank you. Great answer. And amen to the limp wristed “protection” from the DSHEA. If you took everything Dr. Oz recommend for a significant kickback, you’d have a big UPS tractor trailer pulling up to your door daily.
This article in Mother Jones gives a much more honest accounting of the “natural” food and supplement industry and what’s behing their often grandiose claims that we’re likely to hear from the marketers trying to sell us the stuff.
“Doctor” Oz needs to be stripped of his title.
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