Vitamins, Minerals, new RDAs and OPCs

The procurement of long-term health and longevity has become the 21st century driver in the science of nutrition and health. The "micronutrient" focus must shift towards setting new RDAs that go well beyond the "classic" ones. Other "bioactive substances" such as OPCs must be given a firm and lasting place in the quest for long-term health and wider Healthspan.
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Settled nutritional science tells us that when our food lacks sufficient amounts of micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, we invariably and inevitably develop serious and lifethreatening diseases, such as scurvy in case of a vitamin C deficiency. Avoiding the "classic" micronutrient deficiency diseases, such as rickets, pellagra, beri-beri and scurvy, through adequate diet was the 20th century driver to gain factual scientific knowledge about nutritional requirements. Focusing on micronutrients, the overarching research efforts culminated in setting official Recommended Dietary Allowance values (RDAs) for vitamins and minerals. Now that the procurement of long-term health and longevity has become the 21st century driver in the science of nutrition and health, the "micronutrient" focus must inevitably follow and shift towards setting new RDAs that go well beyond the "classic" ones. At the same time, we must give other "bioactive substances" such as OPCs a firm and lasting place in the quest for long-term health and wider Healthspan.

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The original concept of RDAs or Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) as they are called in Europe, was a ‘goal’ or ‘baseline’ for minimum intake below which risks of inadequacy begin to significantly increase. RDAs, based on a specific criterion of adequacy, were and still are designed to serve as dietary standards for the planning of food supplies for population groups. They were originally formulated as reference standards for use by qualified individuals who have the responsibility for assuring that food, distributed to large groups of people, would be nutritionally adequate. Subsequent policies based on the scientific findings that spawned the RDAs were aimed to prevent major health problems that affect the majority of the population from early on in life, and quite succesfully so.

Official RDAs don't cover long-term health

These classic RDAs, however, do not take into account needs arising from infections, metabolic disorders or degenerative diseases that take a long time to "subclinically" evolve while an individual is still apparently healthy. Due to their limited focus, official RDAs fail to define an optimal level of any nutrient required to minimize the "unseen" onset of degenerative diseases. In view of the developing science of nutrition, detecting the risk factors involved in the onset of degenerative diseases has become an important research focus. The focal point thereby has shifted from current and apparent, to long-term and enduring health. This not only affects the way we view and understand the physiological workings of vitamins and minerals but also brings into view other "bioactive substances", such as e.g. botanicals, digestive enzymes and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, that add to human health, even though classical deficiencies have not been demonstrated for these classes of foodstuffs.

Long-term health and degenerative diseases related to micronutrients and ‘other substances’ have come to the fore roughly the last four decades. In 1994, the American Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) for instance "believes that the science of nutrition has advanced significantly, and the next edition of the RDAs will need to reflect this progress. One consideration is expanding the RDA concept to include reducing the risk of chronic disease." (i) Despite advancing knowledge concerning the role of food components in the prevention of more subtle, subclinical metabolic changes resulting over time in noticeable symptoms of degenerative diseases, current RDAs are absolutely inadequate since they do not yet reflect this progress. 

Nevertheless, diet and dietary ingredients are now regarded as a key factor in reducing risk of disease especially by maintaining cellular integrity and genomic integrity, i.e. protecting our DNA from deleterious damage through cellular mechanisms such as prevention, repair or apoptosis (removal of deficient cells). Degenerative diseases such as cancer as well as the process of aging are partly related to DNA damage. There is accumulating scientific evidence that higher levels of some micronutrients and other bioactive substances are necessary for various DNA maintenance reactions, and that the current RDAs for some micronutrients seem inadequate to protect against genomic instability. 

As stated above, this new and much needed approach should also include other bioactive substances for which there is accumulating evidence that they add to a healthy lifespan, such as the polyphenolic antioxidants that have, in scientific studies, been implicated to contribute notably to healthy ageing. Expanding RDAs beyond their original intent, both in terms of degenerative diseases and range of food components, highlights the issue of uncertainty in the existing RDAs, currently offered in single numbers as a seemingly conclusive expression of comprehensive scientific insight. In the absence of the upgrading of the current RDAs, the regular intake of other bioactive substances' may very well provide a safety net in supporting long-term health. Polyphenols come to mind. They are not regarded as essential for human health, because no defiency diseases have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, the group as a whole is characterized by a wide range of biological effects including antioxidant, anti–mutagenic and anti–inflammatory properties. Polyphenols are the most abundantly present antioxidants in the diet and are widespread constituents of fruits, vegetables, cereals, dry legumes, chocolate, and beverages, such as tea, coffee, and red wine. 

Epidemiological studies associating the intake of various dietary sources of polyphenols (e.g. single [monomeric] flavanols from green tea and slightly polymerized [oligomeric] flavanols [OPCs] from red wine) have been, in the main, indicative of protection against a variety of diseases. Experimental studies on animals and cultured human cell lines corroborate a role of polyphenols in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and etceteras. Indeed, there are multiple lines of evidence from different scientific fields supportive of the argument that frequent consumption of for instance green tea is inversely associated with the risk of degenerative human diseases. The chemopreventive and chemoprotective effects of green tea have been largely attributed to anti–oxidative and anti–inflammatory activities of its polyphenolic compounds. Equally, polyphenols from red wine (OPCs), for instance, inhibit the process of colon carcinogenesis (induced by chemicals) in rodents, and reduce colonic mucosa DNA oxidation.

It goes without saying that the Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPCs) that match the specifications of the authentic extracts produced by applying Dr. Masquelier's method are at the forefront of the modern approach to positively influence short- and long-term health. This is because his extracts, made from Vitis vinifera seeds and French Maritime Pine bark comprise the Monomeric Flavanols (a.k.a. catechins) as well as the Oligomeric Flavanols (OPCs). Together, they are identified in scientific research as "MOFs". According to Masquelier, the monomeric flavanols (catechins) may be seen as the "bricks" that nature uses to construct the oligomeric forms of flavanols (OPCs) that, by definition, contain 2 to 5 of these "bricks". When extracting OPCs from Vitis vinifera seeds or Maritime Pine bark, the "bricks" are co-extracted and it is thus that Masquelier's MOFs combine the health benefits attributed to green tea and red wine. Please note that OPCs cannot be extracted from green tea leaves, because they only contain catechins. For this reason, MOFs can only be extracted from plants that contain catechins as well as OPCs. While the scientific pedigree of Masquelier's Flavanols goes back to the late 1940s, their relevance in human nutrition has grown over time. Together with the essential micronutrients, they will remain the cornerstone in disease risk reduction, longevity and long-term health.

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(i) How Should the Recommended Dietary Allowances be Revised? 1994. Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of
Medicine. National Academy Press, Washington D.C.