Are vitamins a marketing ploy of pharmaceutical companies or do they really need to be drunk?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We are discussing whether it is necessary to drink vitamins and how pharmaceutical companies are inadvertently enriched by selling us the dream of a healthy complexion and good skin tone.

The last decade, the country has been captured by a real vitamin hysteria. The Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences speaks of a frightening decrease in vitamins and minerals in food. Pharmacy counters are littered with super-mega-multivitamin complexes that promise us hair like Rapunzel, nails like a working concrete plant, stirring concrete by hand, and enough energy to destroy for three marathons without stopping.

Is it really? To drink or not to drink? That is the question … How real are the benefits of multivitamins and how are pharmaceutical companies enriched by selling us the dream of a healthy complexion and youthful elastic skin?

I will not go into details. You are all well-read and without me you know what vitamins are.

And the main thing is that we cannot do without these vitamins. They can do it without us, but we can't do it without them.

Another important detail: vitamins are not produced by the body, but come from food. Moreover, there is no such plant or animal in nature that would contain all the necessary vitamins and microelements, so we have to beg: extract vitamin C from oranges and sea buckthorn, get vitamin A by picking out the liver from cod, and so on.

And here we come to the first interesting point. Should I drink a magic pill, the label of which says that it contains a daily dose of absolutely all vitamins known to mankind, or spend a little time, money and strain your brain to draw up a balanced diet for yourself? Can the vitamins found in tablets completely replace those that we can get from food?

Answer: hardly.

And it's not even about the structure of the vitamin itself - it is not so difficult to reproduce the structure of a molecule.

Vitamins can do without us, but we cannot do without them.

The fact is that by consuming any natural source of vitamins, you get "in the appendage" a number of substances that contribute to the assimilation of this very vitamin. In addition, obtaining a vitamin with food ensures its gradual intake into the body and a decrease in the "competition" for the absorption and assimilation of various incompatible micronutrients. Whereas, grabbing a tablet with a one and a half daily dose of all vitamins at once, you get a consistent sharp increase in their concentration in the intestine, then in the cells responsible for absorption, and then in the bloodstream.

This, frankly, is not very natural and not quite what your body expects, and it will try to get rid of this unexpected gift. Therefore, a significant part of the vitamins from these complexes is not absorbed, and at the output we get high-quality urine of various shades, enriched with vitamins and minerals.

And one more thing: not a single manufacturer, especially when it comes to dietary supplements, can give you a guarantee that it was during the creation of its complex that all technologies were observed that allow completely excluding the antagonistic effect of vitamins on each other (for example, calcium is incompatible with iron while taking and etc).

Studying the issue of hypovitaminosis, every time I come across the same phrase in different variations:

The Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences conducted a study that showed that in recent years the content of vitamins and minerals in vegetables, fruits, meat, fish has dropped sharply. The researchers took the year 1963 as a starting point and found that since then the vitamin A content in apples and oranges has decreased by 66%. And now, in order for the body to receive the same amount of retinol as our fellow citizens received 50 years ago, it is necessary to eat not one fruit, but three.

I do not in the least question the professionalism and competence of bearded and not so professors at the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, the question just naturally matures: why exactly 1963?What apples and oranges did you take? From which countries and villages? What was the technique? How was the average value of total hypovitaminosis calculated in almost 150 million inhabitants of our country? Just like in the song: “You just believe, and you will understand later” …

And by the way…. Dentists have not seen scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency for many decades, people with night blindness have long ceased to count pillars with their foreheads in the evening, and there are no “beriberic” people in the metro.

And, finally, the third moment, about which you can reflect in a pleasant company in the evening, sipping tea with ginger and eating apples from grandmother's garden. Are you confident in the qualitymultivitamin complex, for which you came to the pharmacy?

The choice is huge now. More than 200 multivitamin preparations are registered in Russia. And dietary supplements can be counted ad infinitum. For pharmaceutical companies, this is a bottomless barrel - to produce multivitamin and mineral complexes in different variations and different boxes. I added sulfur or selenium, and the new product is ready - get it, sign it. Increased the dosage of vitamin E - let's draw a heart on the box, and forward to the masses. So what is it: a profitable business or real patient care?

So still, drink or not drink?

1. If there is a problem, go to the doctor. Healthy people only need vitamin D (for children) and folic acid (for pregnant women). For the rest, go and get a number for an appointment. Now, by the way, there is an online appointment, which is very convenient, they say.
2. If the doctor has identified polyhypo- or vitamin deficiency (by the way, there is no revision of such a diagnosis in the international classification of diseases X), take the multivitamins prescribed by the doctor, or listen to another opinion. In case of proven hypovitaminosis, take a specific vitamin or a group of essential vitamins (for example, iron for iron deficiency anemia, and so on).
3. If in the spring the hand still reaches for the pharmacy counter, the brain has not yet recovered from hibernation and life is not sweet without a magic pill, choose complexes of large proven pharmaceutical companies, preferably with separate intake in two or even three stages, in order to improve absorption and exclude "competitive »Interaction of components. An ordinary healthy person with a "gentleman's set" of two or three colds a year does not need a year-round intake of multivitamins.
4. To drink or not to drink is up to you. Remember: no one else bothers and will not bother your health, except yourself. Do not complain about the poor quality of food and the general lack of vitamins - eat right. Minimize and optimize cooking, eat a variety of foods, regularly consume seasonal fruits and vegetables, and replace white bread and baked goods with healthier grains.

And most importantly, don't self-medicate!