The Vitamin Industry & All Its Lies...

In my experience vitamins are about as useful as the placebo they cause. An industry that began long ago with genuinely good intentions, fast forward to now, doesn't hesitate to blindfold the public with misinformation & deception.

Statistics are a good place to start so let us do just that. A 2018 survey of university students found that consumption was driven by a desire to enhance performance, cognitive function and overall wellbeing (79 percent). Interestingly, very few took supplements for the purpose of addressing perceived dietary deficiencies (2.9 percent)[1]. Since vitamins are derived from whole foods and absorbed through digestion it is easy to assume what intentions the industry would have begun marketing itself with. You guessed it, Vitamin deficiencies. Although your body is indeed able to absorb synthetic vitamins (found in supplements) just as well as vitamins derived from whole foods there are a handful of flaws with the design.

The first flaw would be that the vast majority of supplements that contain a label, do not have proportional dosing in comparison to their label claims...yes, thats 99% of them. What I mean by this is how much each vitamin bottle says it contains regarding individual vitamins(Via the label) and how much it actually contains are two very different things. Even though in Canada our FDA has more rigorous regulations on supplements than other countries (with it being just under a year-long process) they generally focus more on what ingredients or vitamins are allowed to be in the bottle in comparison to the amount. In the United States, it is much less of a process with supplements only getting attention from the FDA because they contain the "deadly list of ingredients". This "deadly list" is essentially made up of ingredients that were previously permitted for public use but resulted in numerous negative health claims. They were pulled as a life-threatening safety standard.

For Example, Aegeline is an ingredient that has been added to some dietary supplements, especially ones marketed for weight loss and muscle building. In 2013 FDA issued a warning letter about aegeline in two dietary supplement products because it was not recognized as a legitimate ingredient for dietary supplements. At the time synthetic aegeline had been associated with 90+ cases of acute liver injury, some even leading to death[2]. Since then, studies with animals have shown that products containing aegeline can result in hepatotoxicity (chemical driven liver damage). This is just one of the hundreds of ingredients that someone learned from the hard way. The companies wow us with ingredient profiles and claims but forget to mention that we are their guinea pigs and lab rats. Feel special and cared about now?

So now we have established that the Canadian FDA could care less about dosing and the American FDA only pulls products when citizens of the country experience health concerns would you think twice about taking your so-called Multi-Vitamin in the morning in the belief it does everything it says it does? Id think twice if i were you!

Once again, I thank you for taking the time out of your day to add to mine by reading this. You are AMAZING and appreciated!!!

~STRIATIONS Fitness