It depends on how you look at it; some vitamin supplements are essential for healthy living.

Supplements claiming to contain massive levels of a particular vitamin and claiming to be high strength is utterly useless because if the vitamins are water soluble the body will use them as it needs and excrete the ‘extra’ so you’re no better off, and the fat soluble ones actually build up in your body and can lead to toxicity symptoms; vitamin A being a case in point.

Supplements geared directly towards body builders help by increasing the protein intake to a level which would be unrealistic with food but then of course there is the issue of how much the body can use and so the rest is up to the individuals in question.

Iron and Calcium supplements are useful for women during pregnancy and women in general because they routienely lose these through menstruation and other processes.

Vitamin D, although it is naturally synthesized in the skin by contact with sunlight was not classed as a vitamin until quite recently, because vitamins are defined generally as essential nutrients the body is not capable of producing on it’s own - since the industrial revolution, with more people working indoors and wearing more layers of clothes, contact with sunlight has been reduced and Vitamin D related defficiency diseases became very prevalent, it was found that by artificial supplementation these could be reversed and so vitamin D was called a ‘vitamin’ and added to the growing list of vitals.

It’s important to be well-informed and responsible, realistic and remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Though I have to agree, there is a load of crap out there.

Recent studies on vitamin supplements fail to show any fall in cancers or increase in life span for example.

I have always understood shops like Holland and Barrett selling things however ineffective they are, to people who want them, and we can all be tempted by promises of better health, skin, weight loss and virility, even Rhianna and myself, with above average IQs, are not immune.

However I do object violently to pharmacies selling such drivel, when they pretend in other areas to give evidence based advice.

I once fell victim to it all, at one point my kitchen cupboards looked like a Holland and Barret outlet. I also used to buy Berroca etc. I spent a fortune on these supplements until it suddenly occurred to me that they were not making any difference! The more I study the more I feel the need to trust only things that are supported by scientific evidence.

Diet pills are by far the worse con out there. All of them claim to help people lose x amount of weight and in small print it says ‘for best results combine with a healthy reduced calorie diet + exercise’. People are spending thousands on Hoodia, Alli and the pink patch etc and still they can’t see that if any of it actually worked, no one would ever be overweight!

I do still however drink protein shakes in the morning as breakfast is a meal I regularly miss, so its definitely worth having instead of nothing.

I hoped I helped in a small way
~Unknown Soldier~

But I don’t think it’s right to say the same about all health foods such as fruits and whole wheat products. Those products are more natural and in the past people didn’t process their food due to lack of technology, so they avoided many of the deficiencies that we are susceptible to.

Also it is common knowledge that certain vitamins and minerals are actually necessary to your well-being. Lack of them poses a real threat to your health. Take, for example, osteoporosis brought upon by lack of calcium, or scurvy, brought upon by lack of vitamin C, and salts are essential for brain activity. It’s just that vitamin pills don’t cut it.