Through the Eyes of a Stranger: Vitamins and Pills

~ Clarissa

I have always associated the word “vitamins” with fruit, vegetables, and the sun. Only after moving to the US did I discover that, for many people, vitamins are colorful pills that are somehow preferable to an apple or a tomato. Of course, these pills are not simply useless. They can also be dangerous:

Multivitamins and some dietary supplements, used regularly by an estimated 234 million U.S. adults, may do more harm than good, according to a study that tied their use to higher death rates among older women. The use of multivitamins was associated with a 2.4 per cent increased risk of death, according to the study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. . .

While people typically use supplements in the hope of maintaining or improving health, the study adds to evidence that some vitamins and supplements may be harmful, said Goran Bjelakovic, a doctor at the University of Nis in Serbia, and Cristian Gluud, a doctor at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, in an accompanying editorial. The research also raises a concern that long-term use of supplements may not be safe, the researchers said.

“We see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements,” wrote the authors, led by Jaakko Mursu, a nutritionist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

In spite of this, half of American adults take these vitamin pills. Most of the pill-takers are the same people who wouldn’t eat delicious fresh broccoli if you paid them to do it.

I have a feeling that for many vitamin addicts some sort of a prestige attaches to vitamin pill taking. You see something akin to self-righteousness in a person who is absolutely convinced s/he is being health-conscious by gulping down yet another set of pills.

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Published by Clarissa

20 thoughts on “Through the Eyes of a Stranger: Vitamins and Pills”

  1. I remember a chart that stated how overdosed you get on Vitamin C and the like by just eating ‘normal’ meals of processed foods. I can’t find it right now, but the chart stated that you consume about 300% of what is considered the normal amount of Vitamin C per day, because producers need catchy phrases so sell their stuff. And that is without supplemental pills, by the way.

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  2. At least with an overdose of C, you only have very expensive urine. Some vitamins, such as A, are harmful if overdosed.

    Anyone who does not spend time in the sun (and there are some who should not!) should supplement with D3, any woman who has heavy periods may need extra iron, and women who can’t tolerate dairy products most likely should have extra calcium.

    If you eat spinach, especially uncooked, add oranges or lemon juice to it, because otherwise you won’t be able to metabolize the iron in the spinach.

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    1. “Some vitamins, such as A, are harmful if overdosed.”

      Yes next time I eat my sled dogs in the antarctic I will remember not to eat their livers.

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  3. Just so you know many of our fruits and vegetables are lacking in much of their vitamins because of the way we grow our foods. Supplementary vitamins help many people with these deficiencies. Remember, life is not a “one size fits all”.

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    1. What’s a “Flinstones vitamin tablet”?

      I see I haven’t been nearly as Americanized as I thought. I think I need to force myself into a pair of jeans to expedite the process of integration. 🙂

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      1. I don’t know if they still exist but when I was little they were these very sweet and tart colorful little vitamin C tabs molded in the shape of characters from the Flintstones cartoon show. Basically, candy. In my house, until you hit puberty you took one at breakfast with your sugary marshmallow cereal and your toast slathered with cinammon and butter. Ah, America!

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  6. I take selenium and vitamin D with my breakfast, because I have seasonal affective disorder and need them to avoid falling into it when the winter comes. The only “natural” sources of selenium and D are fish/seafood, and the sun. I don’t eat fish, and sunlight’s very scarce in Victoria from November to May.
    But you probably would have freaked out if you saw how many vitamins I took when I was a vegetarian/vegan. 😛 I’m amazed I managed to swallow them all.

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    1. I’m so unused to taking medication that when I got sick this year and had to take antibiotics, it would take me at least a half-hour to swallow each pill. 🙂 There were only eight pills over the course of six days but I remember each and every one of them because I just couldn’t get them to go down. 🙂 I had to get N. to hold me and stuff them down my throat. Which he hated doing because he finds the idea of inflicting any sort of violence on a woman abhorrent. 🙂

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  8. Any second an explanation of what a Flinstones vitamin is is going to pop up, probably under “anonymous.” That’s me.

    “Absolutely!!!!! Not only does it NOT make you blind but actually regular orgasmic activity improves eye-sight.”

    See that’s what I tell my opthamologist but he still says I can’t claim vibrators on my vision insurance.

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  9. It is impossible to get your daily dose of all the nutrients you need without vitamins. Don’t believe me? Try designing 3 meals that grant a person 90% of the iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, protein, and fiber they need without going over 2000 calories.

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    1. Just eat fresh food, lots of fruit and vegetables and forget about counting calories and vitamins. That’s my strategy.

      Those who want to make pharmaceutical companies rich at the cost of their health should, of course, feel free.

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