The Vitamin Hype in America

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Beep! Beep! Beep! Her day begins. She fights the early morning fatigue and goes through her normal daily routine. She tugs on her clothes, brushes her hair, applies as much makeup as she dares, and makes herself breakfast. After gathering everything she needs for school that day, she is ready to go. As she is walking out the door, a thought popped into her head. She forgot her vitamin! She drops her bag at the door and races to the kitchen cabinet. She takes out a bottle and pops one of the multivitamins into her mouth. She does not know that bottle was a waste of a few dollars and she, along with many other Americans, have fallen under the vitamin company’s trick. Not only are multivitamins taken by over half of the population of America, but Americans also spend a whopping $23.7 billion on supplements. Vitamins and nutrients are essential for human beings to intake because the body cannot produce those substances on its own. As it is needed, it is only needed in small amounts and supplements are not the way to go. Vitamin supplements have proven to be much more of a hype than a help because they hold potential harm, food is more effective, and they have many false claims.
Many people take their vitamins in the morning thinking they will help them stay healthy, but most do not realize that they can do the exact opposite. Many multivitamins contain levels of vitamins that “double, triple, or even upwards of 1,000 to 2,000 percent” of the FDA’s Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) (Megadoses of Vitamins). While the RDA is only a bare minimum of the amount of vitamins to intake, the ‘more is better’ concept does not always apply to vitamins. For example, excessive doses of Vitamin A can cause nausea, scaling skin, and headaches, Vita...

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...ous diet, anyways, whatever is in that piece of fruit is definitely better than the unknown substances in that vitamin.

Works Cited

Cadman, Brie. “Megadoses of Vitamins: Healthy or Hype?” Divine Caroline. N.p., n.d. Web. 4
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Shelton, C. D. Vitamins, Minerals, & Supplements - Essential or Over-Hyped. N.p.: Choice PH,
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"What Are Phytonutrients? Types and Food Sources." WebMD. Ed. Kimball Johnson, MD.
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Yadegaran, Jessica. “Researchers expose myths behind multivitamin hype.” Columbia Daily
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