Which Kills Smokers: "Camels" or Carrots?
Are Smokers Getting Lung Cancer From Beta-Carotene?
Source: Reprinted with permission from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS, November 18, 2008)
Critical analysis examining whether beta-carotene supplements truly harm smokers or if the real culprit remains tobacco itself.
🚨 The Beta-Carotene Controversy
Reuters Report Claims
Recent headlines suggest that carotene is a killer, specifically claiming that "High-dose beta-carotene supplementation appears to increase the risk of lung cancer among current smokers."
Study Limitations
"High doses" defined as only 20-30 mg per day - equivalent to just 4-6 carrots
Limited analysis: Only 4 studies selected from Medline database
Exclusion of nutritional medicine journals like Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
🔥 How Smoking Destroys Antioxidants
The Oxidation Process
Smoking is Fast Oxidation
Smoking burns tobacco, which is essentially fast oxidation. This process also oxidizes essential substances in the body, including carotenes and other antioxidants.
Vulnerable Molecular Structure
Carotene molecules have many carbon-carbon double bonds that are particularly vulnerable to free radical attack from smoking-induced oxidative stress.
Antioxidant Depletion
A smoker's antioxidants are consumed trying to protect against tobacco toxins. As smokers persist, they need more antioxidants, not less.
🩺 Medical Precedent: Vitamin C
"Smoking just one single cigarette neutralizes approximately 25 mg of ascorbic acid in the body. That's 500 mg of vitamin C deficit per pack."
Dr. R.F. Cathcart found that when vitamin C is oxidized into dehydroascorbate, patients need more of it, not less. Vitamin C is a "non-rate-limited free radical scavenger."
🔬 Research Evidence
✅ Positive Research Findings
Immune System Enhancement
High-dose beta-carotene (180 mg/day - equivalent to 3 dozen carrots) strengthens the immune system by increasing helper T cells.
Cancer Prevention
"Numerous animal and laboratory studies have substantiated beta-carotene's ability to inhibit tumor cell growth and the progression of carcinogenesis."
Longevity Benefits
Men consuming beta-carotene equivalent to just one carrot daily over 25 years had a 28% lower risk of death from all causes.
🛡️ Safety Record
Zero Deaths
Searching decades of medical literature and American Association of Poison Control Centers data reveals zero deaths from beta-carotene. None. Zip. Nada.
Harmless Side Effects:
- • Hypercarotenosis: Slightly orange skin (like artificial suntan)
- • Hypercarotenemia: Elevated blood carotene levels
- • Both conditions are completely harmless
📏 Dosage Reality Check
"High Dose" vs. Real Food
Study's "dangerous" dose
Equivalent carrots per day
Sweet potatoes per day
🥕 Food Source Equivalents
• 1 medium carrot: ~6-7 mg beta-carotene (30 calories, zero fat)
• 1 medium sweet potato: ~10 mg beta-carotene
• Research dose (180mg): Nearly 3 dozen carrots daily - and nobody died
🤔 Logical Questions
• Do you think 2-3 sweet potatoes daily are harmful?
• Do you think 6 carrots per day are bad for you?
• Does spinach kill smokers?
• Where are all the carrot-eating corpses?
🍎 Food vs. Supplements
🥗 Food Sources Are Universally Accepted
"Keep eating beta carotene-rich foods. Nobody disputes that the beta carotene in food is healthful and safe."
Rich Food Sources:
Orange fruits & vegetables:
- • Pumpkin
- • Squash
- • Apricots
- • Sweet potatoes
- • Carrots
Dark green leafy vegetables:
- • Spinach
- • Kale
- • Broccoli
- • Collard greens
😢 The Dietary Reality
American Dietary Statistics
- • 9 out of 10 Americans don't meet the low US RDA of 5 servings of fruits/vegetables daily
- • 1 in 4 Americans don't eat even one serving of fruit or vegetable per day
- • 1 in 4 adults are smokers with typically poor diets
- • Most diets are generally devoid of carrots and other carotene sources
For smokers, the stakes are higher. Six carrots or their supplemental equivalent of 20-30 mg carotene daily may be too little, too late. Cigarette smoking is "significantly related to lower beta-carotene concentrations even after supplementation."
🎯 The Real Culprit
Wrong Plant, Wrong Blame
The authors found fault with the wrong plant. The "national brands" they should have been examining are "Marlboro," "Winston," and "Camel" - not carrots.
It's not carrots that hurt smokers; it's tobacco.
✅ Proof in Ex-Smokers
The study found that ex-smokers were not negatively affected by beta-carotene at all. Why? Because they stopped smoking.
The preeminent danger is smoking itself
Stop smoking today
Then have plenty of carotene
🤔 Alternative Perspective
Reinterpreting the Data
What the Study Actually Shows:
One might say that the analysis actually demonstrates that smoking probably destroys at least 20-30 mg of beta-carotene daily. To conclude that smokers need less seems counterintuitive.
Logical question: What other antioxidant nutrients do smokers need less of? Certainly they cannot do with less vitamin C, vitamin E, or selenium.
📚 References
[1] Harding A. Vision vitamins may be harmful for smokers. Reuters, Thu Jul 10, 2008.
[2] Tanvetyanon T, Bepler G. Beta-carotene in multivitamins and the possible risk of lung cancer among smokers versus former smokers: a meta-analysis and evaluation of national brands. Cancer. 2008 Jul 1;113(1):150-7.
[8] Alexander, M et al: "Oral Beta-carotene Can Increase the Number of OKT4 Cells in Human Blood," Immunology Letters, 9:221-224, 1985.
[10] Pandey DK, Shekelle R, Selwyn BJ, Tangney C, Stamler J. Dietary vitamin C and beta-carotene and risk of death in middle-aged men. The Western Electric Study. Am J Epidemiol. 1995 Dec 15;142(12):1269-78.
👥 Orthomolecular Medicine Editorial Board
Editorial Review Board
• Damien Downing, M.D.
• Harold D. Foster, Ph.D.
• Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
• Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.
• James A. Jackson, PhD
• Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
• Erik Paterson, M.D.
About Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editor: Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D.