I decided to pick an article that related to vitamin/mineral supplements for this week’s blog. Therefore I read the article Vitamin/mineral supplements: of questionable benefit for the general population written by Donald B McCormick. This article basically asked the question: do we as people truly need all these vitamin and mineral supplements that are out in the world today? The article also mentioned that a lot of vitamins/minerals that we need during the course of the day come from much of the food we eat. Even processed foods now have special vitamins/minerals that allow for ourselves and our bodies to have a successful day even though we would not be eating healthy. The article basically went along the lines that most people in fact do not need to take vitamin/mineral supplements because of the amount of them that are present in our foods and other things. The only people that truly need to take those supplements are people that may be lacking a certain vitamin or mineral because of a problem with their bodies or have a certain disease that requires more of a certain vitamin or mineral. Lastly the article basically mentioned that buying vitamins/minerals and taking them every day is unnecessary for us unless we are lacking something.
Then the article discussed actually how much money has been spent on such supplements such as vitamins and minerals that people buy and also the cost to make them. The amount of money that people spend and manufacturers spend to buy and produce these supplements is amazing in the 21-25 billion dollars per year range which was absolutely surprising to me. I figured that the sum of people buying and the manufacturing costs would be in the millions, but not the billions. This tells me that obviously there is quite a demand for mineral and vitamin supplements and that people are definitely going out and buying these products at a very good rate.
As the article went on it then focused on the reason for such of a demand of these products by many consumers, and the detailed answer was simple to the author. The author stated that many companies of products that make vitamin and mineral supplements advertise or label their products as being “natural” or have phrases like “stay young” meaning that there product will keep you looking young and fresh if a person takes there supplement. To me this is obviously smart advertising for the product because most people seem to be looking for products that constantly mention that they are “natural” or they keep a person looking younger than their age. People definitely need to look at labels better or ask a professional about what the product really is instead of just believing an ad or what is said on a label of a product.
Another factor that the article mentioned is a top reason for people believing that they need vitamin and mineral supplements is because of what is stated by a person promoting the product either on the label or from advertisement. The author mentioned that too many people believe instantly in what they are told, especially from a so-called expert for the product. My opinion of this is that people just need to really check with someone who honestly knows the answers to these supplements and see if what they are being told is true. I cannot even imagine how much money people blow every year from buying products that they believe will help them with their health because of advertisement and the belief from the so-called experts that say things on their products label.
Lastly the article went over about how a lot of vitamin and mineral products do not give people that much benefit if at all, unless a person truly needs them because of an illness or a disease that they have. Then the article briefly mentioned that taking vitamins and minerals could even cause harm to a person if taking them excessively.
I thought this article was very good. I never honestly realized that taking vitamins and minerals are basically unnecessary unless someone has a problem and could even be harmful to a person if taken excessively. I liked that the author was very unbiased in my opinion. I thought he did a good job stating the facts, but also telling us the good and the bad. I also never realized that these products actually have so called experts that really are not experts or doctors that try and get people to buy the product. That to me is pretty sad, but a definite reality in our society. I will definitely pay more attention to products like these if I’m ever looking to buy some and seek out a person that will give me an honest answer.
Joe Stevens
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