EVERYONE HAS their own version of a healthy breakfast: eight-treasure congee, soy milk, wholemeal toast and fruit - the list goes on. For advertising agent Simmy S.M. Yim, the standard menu is one tablet each of vitamin C and calcium chased with a cup of antioxidant green-tea essence, washed down with a bowl of grain-based meal replacement.
Yim, 40, is a great believer in dietary supplements and often substitutes them for regular meals, for instance eating a packaged 'energy' porridge for lunch. She says regular food is prone to contamination and is less nutritious. 'That's why we need additional nutrients from different supplements to maintain good health,' she says.
The health-conscious Yim is among an estimated 22.8 per cent of adults in Hong Kong who take health supplements regularly. But dietitians and physicians say many people overrate their value, and are consuming so much it's becoming a health problem. Their concern was highlighted by the sudden death last month of a 30-year-old financial consultant who skipped proper meals and relied instead on dietary supplements.
One in four people who sought diet consultations at the Chinese University over the past year was found to have overused health supplements, says Mandy Sea Man-mei, manager of the university's centre for nutritional studies. That's more than double the rate registered six years ago, when 10 per cent of patients were consuming excessive amounts. Almost all were women.
One patient went to such extremes she took more than 10 mineral, vitamin and herbal capsules every morning to replace breakfast, says Sea. 'Besides vitamins and minerals, she also took lingzhi pills, omega-3 and flaxseed oils, as well as garlic, gingko and blueberry extracts, which she believed would help her stay young and healthy.'
But health supplements are generally superfluous in an affluent city like Hong Kong, says Sea. Healthy people can get all the nutrients they need in a balanced diet.