Should you take beta-carotene supplements?

And you don’t have to just stick to orange foods. Leafy greens (kale, spinach, broccoli) are also a great source of beta-carotene, says Candy Tsourounis, a pharmacist, professor and

supplements expert at the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy. One reason it’s better to start with food is because “diet is, by definition, more balanced,” says

Emanuela Taioli, M.D., director of the Institute for Translational Epidemiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Fruits and vegetables contain a whole host of

nutrients that “probably act synergistically to deliver health benefits,” the authors of an editorial accompanying the task force recommendations write. And the feeling of being full will

kick in before you can consume too much of any one vitamin or mineral, Taioli adds. Small supplements, on the other hand, can be particularly potent. Amounts of vitamin A crammed into pill

form vary widely, but 3,000 micrograms — that’s 333 percent of the recommended daily value — is common, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements. And if

you take that alongside other supplements, like a multivitamin, it’s easy to overdo it. Tsourounis sees this all the time, especially among older adults. “When I have them bring in all the

supplements that they’re taking, it is so common to see that they may be taking three different supplements. And they may be unrelated — maybe one they’re taking for overall health, one

could be for knee pain, one could be for sleep — but yet they may share similar vitamins or similar ingredients. And when taken together, it may exceed what they should be ingesting on a

daily basis,” she says. One study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that almost 30 percent of older adults in the U.S. take four or more supplements. High doses of certain

supplements, including vitamin A, can be downright dangerous because they’re not soluble in water and the body can’t flush the excess away. But since the body converts only as much vitamin A

from beta-carotene as it needs, beta-carotene supplementation comes with fewer potential side effects, like yellowing of the skin, dizziness, diarrhea and joint pain. Still, it’s important

to be cautious. Beta-carotene supplements can also interact with a few medications, including some statins and some cholesterol-lowering drugs, as well as the weight-loss drug orlistat

(Alli, Xenical). “And again, if [someone] has a history of smoking or asbestos exposure, I might be a little more cautious now,” Shepherd says. Before starting any supplement, it’s always a

good idea to talk to a doctor to discuss the benefits and potential harms, says Taioli, who adds that “there is no harm to a healthy diet.” And if you’re interested in lowering your risks

for heart disease and cancer, don’t neglect the everyday actions that experts say can help: Exercise regularly, limit your alcohol intake, avoid smoking and eat plenty of healthy foods. “If

somebody was on a tight budget, I think they could make better choices about spending their money on things that are going to be much more helpful for them than a supplement, unless their

physician prescribed it for some reason,” Shepherd says.