While awaiting the beginning of the end (the final lecture in Managerial Economics), I ran across this article on antioxidants.
Adding to a growing scientific consensus, results of a large Danish study released Tuesday found that vitamin E and other antioxidant supplements provide no health benefits and may even produce a small increase in the risk of death.
The report in the Journal of the American Medical Association was immediately criticized by vitamin makers and some researchers, but its findings are similar to other studies suggesting that supplements are not as quick and easy a way to improve health as their promoters claim.
The red flag that immediately came to mind was that antioxidant supplements, when taken, would not cause an increased risk of death. Instead what may cause the increased risk of death would be poorer eating habits - a kind of Peltzman effect - of those who take supplements. They think that by eating supplements, they do not have to get the antioxidants through "real" sources. But those who take them should realize that they are called "supplements", not "substitutes."