Vitamania: Vitamins in American Culture

by Rima D. Apple

"Have you taken your vitamins today?" That question echoes daily through American households. Thanks to intensive research in nutrition and medicine, the importance of vitamins to health is undisputed. But millions of Americans believe that the vitamins they get in their food are not enough. Vitamin supplements have become a multibillion-dollar industry. At the same time, many scientists, consumer advocacy groups, and the federal Food and Drug Administration doubt that most people need to take vitamin pills. Vitamania tells how and why vitamins have become so important to so many Americans. Rima Apple examines the claims and counterclaims of scientists, manufacturers, retailers, politicians, and consumers from the discovery of vitamins in the early twentieth century to the present. She reveals the complicated interests--scientific, professional, financial--that have propelled the vitamin industry and its would-be regulators. From early advertisements linking motherhood and vitamin D, to Linus Pauling's claims for vitamin C, to recent congressional debates about restricting vitamin products, Apple's insightful history shows the ambivalence of Americans toward the authority of science. She also documents how consumers have insisted on their right to make their own decisions about their health and their vitamins. Vitamania makes fascinating reading for anyone who takes--or refuses to take--vitamins. It will be of special interest to students, scholars, and professionals in public health, the biomedical sciences, history of medicine and science, twentieth-century history, nutrition, marketing, and consumer studies.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

　本書的原名是「Vitamania」，不論是從字意還是從內容來看，譯成「維他命狂熱」都會是比較恰當的選擇。其內容想要講述的是自從1921年維他命被發現的這幾十年以來，美國社會因應維他命在定位上的模糊所衍生出來的一些弔詭現象。作者分別從廣告面、學術界、產業界、政府、消費者等各個不同的角度來解讀這波維他命的熱潮，然而命名為「健康的騙局」，或許是為了延續同系列另一本書--「知識的騙局」吧！然而這僅呈現了書中某個角度的看法，所謂「健康的騙局」不過是食品暨藥物管理局官員片面的認定，以此為名未免偏頗，畢竟從頭到尾作者並沒有證實其中究竟是否存在騙局。這種利用聳動標題刺激銷售量的作法，很諷刺地恰似書中所指摘維他命廣告利用事實的誇大來進行促銷的手法。