Multiple Vitamin Need

A healthy diet will help prevent the complications of vitamin A deficiency.  Foods rich in vitamin A include milk, cheese, liver, kidney, cod oil, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, cantaloupe, pink grapefruit, and most leafy green vegetables.

An interesting study showed significantly decreased levels of anxiety among a group of alcoholics treated with megavitamins.  Over a 21-day period, the group took approximately 3gm of vitamin C, 3gm of niacin, 600mg of B6, and 600 IU of vitamin E per day.  A comparison group received only inert gelatin capsules.  None of the subjects in either group took antidepressants or antianxiety drugs.  Anxiety levels among both groups were measured three times over the 21 days.  They fell dramatically only in the group on megavitamin therapy.

Atkins followers risk a number of serious nutrient deficiencies [Journal of the American Dietetics Association 86 (1985): p.460].  When cutting calories, it's especially important to eat nutrient-dense diets, but the Atkins Diet presents a double whammy; it restricts the healthiest foods like fruit and unrestricts some of the unhealthiest.  The American Heart Association states: "Individuals who follow these diets are therefore at risk for compromised vitamin and mineral intake..." [Circulation 104 (2001): p.1869]

Diets such as Atkins' maximize the consumption of disease-promoting substances like the cholesterol and saturated fat, and industrial pollutants and carcinogens in meat, yet restrict one's intake of fiber and the literally thousands of antioxidants and phytochemicals found exclusively in the plant kingdom (like the carotenoids, lycopenes, bioflavonoids, phytic acid, indoles, isothiocyanates, and so on) that have "anti-aging, anti-cancer and anti-heart disease properties" [Obesity Research 9 (2001): p.1S].  As a 2004 medical review concluded, the Atkins Diet is so "seriously deficient" in nutrition that "there is real danger of malnutrition in the long term." [Journal of the American College of Cardiology 43 (2004): p.725]

Realizing that this diet is so deficient in nutrients, Atkins prescribes no fewer than 65 nutritional supplements to help fill the nutritional gaps created by this diet – available on the Atkins web site.  "Who needs orange juice," Atkins wrote, "when a Vitamin C tablet is so handy?"  [Atkins, RC. Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution. David McKay Company, Inc., 1972]

Research has shown that drinking coffee causes a significant loss of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamins B and C, calcium, iron, and zinc.

Major nutritional deficiencies may best be corrected prior to the start of a lengthy fast.  Supplementation during a fast is also a possibility.