Lutein Vitamin benefit

Many people think lutein is a vitamin but it is not. It belongs to the class of carotenoids which are compounds found in fruits and vegetables. Other carotenoids include zeaxanthin, lycopene, and beta carotene. Lutein would not be classified as a vitamin, but rather as a beneficial plant substance. Lutein is required to be ingested through the diet since it it found in high amounts in the retina and helps in providing optimal vision.

Lutein vitamin questions
Q. I take lutein 10 mg a day, can I take vitamin C, and vitamin E. What would the dosages be of lutein if I take it with vitamins?
   A. Each person is different in their lutein requirement depending on their diet, age, lifestyle, and genetics. As a general guideline, a person can take 2 to 5 mg a day of lutein, 5-0 to 300 mg of vitamin C, and 10 to 100 units of vitamin E complex, the natural form.

Dietary intake of selected micronutrients and gastric cancer risk: an Italian case-control study.
Ann Oncol. 2009; Pelucchi C, Tramacere I, Bertuccio P, Tavani A, Negri E, La Vecchia C.Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan, Italy.
A high consumption of non-starchy vegetables and fruits likely decreases the risk of gastric cancer, but no specific constituent of plant foods has been consistently identified to explain this association. We considered several micronutrients and minerals in an Italian case-control study conducted between 1997 and 2007, including 230 patients with incident, histologically confirmed gastric cancer and 547 matched controls, admitted with acute conditions. Micronutrients computation was based on a validated and reproducible food frequency questionnaire, through an Italian food composition database. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) using conditional logistic regression, adjusted for energy intake and selected covariates. We found decreased ORs for the highest versus lowest quartile of vitamin E (OR=0.50), alpha-carotene (OR=0.52) and beta-carotene (OR=0.42) intake. Gastric cancer was directly associated with sodium, with ORs of 2.22 for the second, 2.56 for the third and 2.46 for the fourth quartile of intake. No significant relation emerged with iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin D, retinol, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein plus zeaxanthin. Our data support a favourable effect on gastric cancer of vitamin E and selected carotenoids and a detrimental effect of sodium even at intermediate levels of intake.