Secondly, food is the more logical option. The formulation of most nutrient supplements appears to be based on very approximate, rough or even speculative rationale at best. So even if we knew mother nature's logic in formulating food, there are few supplements which could claim to mimic it. Even if the nutrient doses were formulated with impeccable logic, there is the question of how many important nutrients and co-factors there may be in food that we do not yet know about. Such complexity may perhaps explain some of the difficulty that researchers have had in recent times in duplicating the early epidemiological evidence of the benefits of antioxidant nutrients in cancer with controlled clinical trials of supplements.
Thirdly food is the safer option.
There is much that we do not yet know about nutrition, but what we do know tells us that the totality of what nature provides in a balanced diet is incredibly complex. By giving repeated artificial doses of specific nutrients we are treading for the large part in unknown waters. A and vitamin B 6 toxicity. We do not know whether there might also be some more subtle toxicity syndromes as yet undiscovered. Mineral supplements have greater toxicity potential than vitamins.