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Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food
“[An] absorbing and meticulously researched history of the beginnings and causes of our obsession with vitamins and nutrition.” —The New York Times Most of us know nothing about vitamins. What’s more, what we think we know is harming both our personal nutrition and our national health. By focusing on vitamins at the expense of everything else, we’ve become blind to the bigger despite our belief that vitamins are an absolute good—and the more of them, the better—vitamins are actually small and surprisingly mysterious pieces of a much larger nutritional puzzle. In Vitamania, award-winning journalist Catherine Price offers a lucid and lively journey through our cherished yet misguided beliefs about vitamins, and reveals a straightforward, blessedly anxiety-free path to enjoyable eating and good health. When vitamins were discovered a mere century ago, they changed the destiny of the human species by preventing and curing many terrifying diseases. Yet it wasn’t long before vitamins spread from labs of scientists into the realm of food marketers and began to take on a life of their own. The era of “vitamania,” as one 1940s journalist called it, had begun. Though we’ve gained much from our embrace of vitamins, what we’ve lost is a crucial sense of perspective. By buying into a century of hype and advertising, we have accepted the false idea that particular dietary chemicals can be used as shortcuts to health—whether they be antioxidants or omega-3s or, yes, vitamins. And it’s our vitamin-inspired desire for effortless shortcuts that created today’s dietary supplement industry, a veritable Wild West of overpromising “miracle” substances that can be legally sold without any proof that they are effective or safe. Price’s travels to vitamin manufacturers and food laboratories and military testing kitchens—along with her deep dive into the history of nutritional science— provide a witty and dynamic narrative arc that binds Vitamania together. The result is a page-turning exploration of the history, science, hype, and future of nutrition. And her ultimate message is both inspiring and given all that we don’t know about vitamins and nutrition, the best way to decide what to eat is to stop obsessing and simply embrace this uncertainty head-on. Praise for “Measured, funny, and fascinating. The only thing that Catherine Price is selling here is good reporting, engaging storytelling, and more than you thought you could possibly learn about vitamins. If you need vitamins to survive (you do), you should read this book.” —Scientific American
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
106 people are currently reading
2785 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Price
30 books293 followersCatherine Price is passionate about learning and experiencing new things, understanding first principles, and using her background as a science journalist to help people question their assumptions and make positive changes in their lives.
Her journalistic work has appeared in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Parade, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Self, Mother Jones, Health Magazine, and Outside, among others.
Her journalistic work has appeared in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Parade, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Self, Mother Jones, Health Magazine, and Outside, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
January 21, 2015
When I first read the description for this book, I had mixed expectations. For some reason, the word "vitamin" caused red flags to go up in my mind, and interestingly enough, by the time I finished reading, the book actually helped me to establish a better understanding of *why* that word can have that effect on me and many others. For that alone, I would consider it a job well done, but I found this book full of many other fascinating explorations as well.
The author was smart to start with history, because by grounding this book in the past, she is able to present much more than just a run-down of scientific studies and facts, which would be pretty dry on their own. She is an excellent storyteller, humorous when appropriate to the narrative, and retains an eye for the big picture. Vitamins are tiny things - she explores them both on that level, and on a global, historical one.
I love reading about history, but I also find nutrition fascinating, so the combination of the two kept me picking this book up after I'd set it down. While this book is scientific, the author gives explanations and reminders at the right times - I don't think it would be too deep or confusing for anyone who's taken high-school-level biology and chemistry.
We're given stories of the individuals and discoveries that helped to shape our modern understanding of what vitamins are and what they do. These help to build the "pictures" of what the word "vitamin" means to us in modern times - pictures fed by stories of scientists from history, vitamin-deficiency diseases, the history of the FDA, synthetic vitamins and the fortification of food, the utter lack of regulation in the US supplement industry today and some of the politics involved, how food could possibly even affect our genetics, and the need to acknowledge just how much we still *don't* know about vitamins, food, and nutrition.
One of the things I appreciated the most about this book and author was the level-headed handling of the subject matter. To me, "vitamins," as they are portrayed in media reports and blog posts, tend to go hand-in-hand with alarmism, or big, drastic health claims. That's probably why I'm wary of them (in forms besides food, that is). But Catherine Price manages to side-step, and even counteract that sort of representation - she appears to be a thorough, nuanced journalist who's good at asking questions and not afraid of philosophical ones either.
This book was fascinating to me, not because it made bold, drastic, earth-shattering claims (indeed, its most applicable conclusion as far as nutrition goes is that whole foods are better, which is hardly new information) but because it thoroughly explored why it is that our idea of "vitamins" seems to be so wedded not only to the idea of "health" in general, but to disease prevention to the point of miracles. While counteracting this notion with evidence-based information, the author is not afraid to point out the limitations of our current knowledge, and use examples from history about the dangers of arrogance when it comes to figuring out just how food components work in our bodies.
She also gives us a lot to think about when it comes to how we react to health information, and how much faith we put in what we read about it.
From the concluding chapter:
"...we continue to accept the idea that anything that contains vitamins must be good, despite the fact that we viscerally know that marketers are using this assumption to manipulate us into buying their products. We don't ask where the synthetic vitamins in these foods come from, or why our food supply requires so much reverse engineering to begin with. Instead, we allow our capacity for rational thought to be hijacked by a word. And, despite the fact that more than half of us take vitamins as pills (and nearly all of us associate them with health), nearly *none* of us stop to wonder why--out of all of the thousands of chemicals in food--we revere these particular thirteen, why we regard them not just with appreciation, but with what often resembles religious faith... In the case of religion, we put our faith in gods. And in nutrition, we have vitamins."
(In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through GoodReads' First Reads. I was not required to write a positive review.)
The author was smart to start with history, because by grounding this book in the past, she is able to present much more than just a run-down of scientific studies and facts, which would be pretty dry on their own. She is an excellent storyteller, humorous when appropriate to the narrative, and retains an eye for the big picture. Vitamins are tiny things - she explores them both on that level, and on a global, historical one.
I love reading about history, but I also find nutrition fascinating, so the combination of the two kept me picking this book up after I'd set it down. While this book is scientific, the author gives explanations and reminders at the right times - I don't think it would be too deep or confusing for anyone who's taken high-school-level biology and chemistry.
We're given stories of the individuals and discoveries that helped to shape our modern understanding of what vitamins are and what they do. These help to build the "pictures" of what the word "vitamin" means to us in modern times - pictures fed by stories of scientists from history, vitamin-deficiency diseases, the history of the FDA, synthetic vitamins and the fortification of food, the utter lack of regulation in the US supplement industry today and some of the politics involved, how food could possibly even affect our genetics, and the need to acknowledge just how much we still *don't* know about vitamins, food, and nutrition.
One of the things I appreciated the most about this book and author was the level-headed handling of the subject matter. To me, "vitamins," as they are portrayed in media reports and blog posts, tend to go hand-in-hand with alarmism, or big, drastic health claims. That's probably why I'm wary of them (in forms besides food, that is). But Catherine Price manages to side-step, and even counteract that sort of representation - she appears to be a thorough, nuanced journalist who's good at asking questions and not afraid of philosophical ones either.
This book was fascinating to me, not because it made bold, drastic, earth-shattering claims (indeed, its most applicable conclusion as far as nutrition goes is that whole foods are better, which is hardly new information) but because it thoroughly explored why it is that our idea of "vitamins" seems to be so wedded not only to the idea of "health" in general, but to disease prevention to the point of miracles. While counteracting this notion with evidence-based information, the author is not afraid to point out the limitations of our current knowledge, and use examples from history about the dangers of arrogance when it comes to figuring out just how food components work in our bodies.
She also gives us a lot to think about when it comes to how we react to health information, and how much faith we put in what we read about it.
From the concluding chapter:
"...we continue to accept the idea that anything that contains vitamins must be good, despite the fact that we viscerally know that marketers are using this assumption to manipulate us into buying their products. We don't ask where the synthetic vitamins in these foods come from, or why our food supply requires so much reverse engineering to begin with. Instead, we allow our capacity for rational thought to be hijacked by a word. And, despite the fact that more than half of us take vitamins as pills (and nearly all of us associate them with health), nearly *none* of us stop to wonder why--out of all of the thousands of chemicals in food--we revere these particular thirteen, why we regard them not just with appreciation, but with what often resembles religious faith... In the case of religion, we put our faith in gods. And in nutrition, we have vitamins."
(In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through GoodReads' First Reads. I was not required to write a positive review.)
January 17, 2022
I decided to knock this off my reading list because lately my dad has been saying that if he survives Covid it'll be because of some super-C super-immune supplement he's taking. And I needed to have better information, examples, and explanations to explain to him exactly why that's bs.
I already knew most of what's covered here, I think mainly from Paul Offit's books (he's quoted here as well) so I think is best if you haven't read much on the subject before. My biggest issue with it is that it's somehow both readable and dry. I guess when she finds a compelling way to make a point it works, and when it feels too data-heavy I lost interest.
But it's not bad by any means, and very eye opening on exactly how much caution you should be approaching the supplement industry with (spoiler alert: all the caution, it's total nonsense, just eat your fruits and vegetables and you've got all the vitamins you need; the rest of nutrition remains more complex but it's still not found in a bottle at GNC).
I already knew most of what's covered here, I think mainly from Paul Offit's books (he's quoted here as well) so I think is best if you haven't read much on the subject before. My biggest issue with it is that it's somehow both readable and dry. I guess when she finds a compelling way to make a point it works, and when it feels too data-heavy I lost interest.
But it's not bad by any means, and very eye opening on exactly how much caution you should be approaching the supplement industry with (spoiler alert: all the caution, it's total nonsense, just eat your fruits and vegetables and you've got all the vitamins you need; the rest of nutrition remains more complex but it's still not found in a bottle at GNC).
May 25, 2025
Writer Catherine Price's 2015 book Vitamania is a well-researched, accessible-to-laypeople popular science/medicine book about Western society's enduring obsession with vitamins and nutritional supplements. I don't think I was the target audience for this book (I'm an MD practicing physician with a PhD in biochemistry, and generally a supplement skeptic, so not much was new or surprising for me), but the right audience would certainly find this educational and compelling.
Price nicely blends science history, sociology, and a heavy dose of science policy/regulatory elements in her narrative. TL;DR: the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't approve or regulate the manufacturing, efficacy, or product claims of nutritional supplements, and there's a billion dollar lobbying market that ensures that will likely never change.
Further reading: nutrition
Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken, MD, PhD
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Way We Eat Now: Strategies for Eating in a World of Change by Bee Wilson
Further reading: the FDA
The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum
The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It by Jeanne Lenzer
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims by Jennifer Vanderbes
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
My statistics:
Book 156 for 2025
Book 2082 cumulatively
Price nicely blends science history, sociology, and a heavy dose of science policy/regulatory elements in her narrative. TL;DR: the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't approve or regulate the manufacturing, efficacy, or product claims of nutritional supplements, and there's a billion dollar lobbying market that ensures that will likely never change.
Further reading: nutrition
Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken, MD, PhD
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Way We Eat Now: Strategies for Eating in a World of Change by Bee Wilson
Further reading: the FDA
The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum
The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It by Jeanne Lenzer
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims by Jennifer Vanderbes
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
My statistics:
Book 156 for 2025
Book 2082 cumulatively
February 16, 2015
Vitamins are so simple -- take a multivitamin once a day and forget about it. If you're happy with that no-brainer regimen, then don't read Vitamania. Whether you swear by supplements or are a supplement skeptic, you are bound to learn a lot from this book.
Vitamania reminded me of Pandora's Lunchbox in its disarmingly conversational style while digging up all the dirt on processed foods. But don't get the idea that Catherine Price isn't keeping her eye on the story -- she has done the research, the interviews, the follow-ups, and you come away realizing that we know an awful lot about vitamins. It's we don't know (and what we think we know, but don't) that could be hurting us.
You may already know that the Food and Drug Administration is not responsible for certifying the safety of vitamins or supplements, which are neither food nor drug. There is no federal agency that tests the safety or effectiveness of vitamin supplements. Recent news stories reveal that many supplements are incorrectly labeled, containing fillers that are not listed on the bottle, and containing none of the advertised ingredients. While manufacturers are responsible for correctly labeling their products, they do not have to ensure the ingredients are effective or even safe. And they don't have to warn consumers that their products may interact with prescription and over-the-counter drugs to diminish the effect of the drug or to cause side effects.
We do know a lot about vitamins and Price has included a history of the discovery of many of the vitamins we know about and has included a handy chart in the appendix that lists the vitamins and their uses.
But herre's what else we don't know or know only partially -- we know how much of each vitamin we need, roughly, we don't always know if a vitamin that occurs naturally in food acts the same way in our bodies if it is taken synthetically or in combination with other foods. Even vitamins in fresh food can differ widely in its absorption rate depending on whether the food is eaten raw or cooked or even if its cooked with water or with oil.
Vitamania is packed with these kinds of questions and just as much that we do know. Price also has a lot of entertaining and informative encounters with people in the vitamin business. One of my favorites was when she visited the U.S. Army lab that develops MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Let's just say that the soldiers who eat that stuff deserve a medal of some kind.
Vitamania reminded me of Pandora's Lunchbox in its disarmingly conversational style while digging up all the dirt on processed foods. But don't get the idea that Catherine Price isn't keeping her eye on the story -- she has done the research, the interviews, the follow-ups, and you come away realizing that we know an awful lot about vitamins. It's we don't know (and what we think we know, but don't) that could be hurting us.
You may already know that the Food and Drug Administration is not responsible for certifying the safety of vitamins or supplements, which are neither food nor drug. There is no federal agency that tests the safety or effectiveness of vitamin supplements. Recent news stories reveal that many supplements are incorrectly labeled, containing fillers that are not listed on the bottle, and containing none of the advertised ingredients. While manufacturers are responsible for correctly labeling their products, they do not have to ensure the ingredients are effective or even safe. And they don't have to warn consumers that their products may interact with prescription and over-the-counter drugs to diminish the effect of the drug or to cause side effects.
We do know a lot about vitamins and Price has included a history of the discovery of many of the vitamins we know about and has included a handy chart in the appendix that lists the vitamins and their uses.
But herre's what else we don't know or know only partially -- we know how much of each vitamin we need, roughly, we don't always know if a vitamin that occurs naturally in food acts the same way in our bodies if it is taken synthetically or in combination with other foods. Even vitamins in fresh food can differ widely in its absorption rate depending on whether the food is eaten raw or cooked or even if its cooked with water or with oil.
Vitamania is packed with these kinds of questions and just as much that we do know. Price also has a lot of entertaining and informative encounters with people in the vitamin business. One of my favorites was when she visited the U.S. Army lab that develops MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Let's just say that the soldiers who eat that stuff deserve a medal of some kind.
July 23, 2020
This is an eye-opening book about our relationship with vitamins and how their discovery influenced our nutritional thinking over the past 100 years. It is a book that covers history, science, politics, marketing, and misinformation surrounding the vitamin and supplement industry.
Author Catherine Price begins with the history of vitamins, how they were named, their discovery, and the diseases that result from vitamin deficiencies. She then details the political and regulatory battles in the US between the vitamin industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and covers important pieces of legislation regarding the (minimal) regulatory oversight of vitamins. As price broadens the scope of her book, she moves on to the wider supplement industry, other plant products, and phytochemicals. Near the end, the author explains the field of nutritional genomics (the relationship between nutrition and genes) and discusses the current unknowns of nutrition.
Nutrition is a very complex subject, and there’s a lot yet to be figured out about the relationship between nutrition and health. This book clearly depicts the extent of this complexity and conveys our lack of knowledge about what exactly vitamins do in our bodies and the difficulty in understanding the "synergy" between substances found in natural food and imitating this synergy into synthetic pills and supplements. Because of this, the book will leave you with more questions than answers.
In an engaging storytelling style, the author combines history and science and narrates her encounters and visits to several places including the U.S. Army lab that develops MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for soldiers on missions. Although I felt the author didn’t dig deep enough into more recent science and research, this book is a worthwhile and an eye-opening read that contains a wealth of information about our understanding of vitamins and how that understanding has unfolded over time.
Author Catherine Price begins with the history of vitamins, how they were named, their discovery, and the diseases that result from vitamin deficiencies. She then details the political and regulatory battles in the US between the vitamin industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and covers important pieces of legislation regarding the (minimal) regulatory oversight of vitamins. As price broadens the scope of her book, she moves on to the wider supplement industry, other plant products, and phytochemicals. Near the end, the author explains the field of nutritional genomics (the relationship between nutrition and genes) and discusses the current unknowns of nutrition.
Nutrition is a very complex subject, and there’s a lot yet to be figured out about the relationship between nutrition and health. This book clearly depicts the extent of this complexity and conveys our lack of knowledge about what exactly vitamins do in our bodies and the difficulty in understanding the "synergy" between substances found in natural food and imitating this synergy into synthetic pills and supplements. Because of this, the book will leave you with more questions than answers.
In an engaging storytelling style, the author combines history and science and narrates her encounters and visits to several places including the U.S. Army lab that develops MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for soldiers on missions. Although I felt the author didn’t dig deep enough into more recent science and research, this book is a worthwhile and an eye-opening read that contains a wealth of information about our understanding of vitamins and how that understanding has unfolded over time.
January 25, 2015
Got this from FirstReads for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this well-researched and well-written book by Catherine Price. If you're looking for some amazing nutritional advice that will change your world and save your life, this isn't it. Her advice is: don't isolate your micronutrients, eat real food (not processed). Not exactly new advice. But that wasn't what she set out to do.
Price answers a lot of basic questions about vitamins. What are these things? What do they do for us? How were they discovered? How do they show up in our lives now, in our foods and elsewhere?
She also takes a few chapters to take a look at the supplement industry, an industry she claims (rightfully so, I think) the very idea of vitamins gave birth to. Without the idea of micronutrients that do unexpected things for our health, the supplement industry wouldn't exist. But she takes the time to explain that the supplement industry is unregulated for the most part, examine the political history of why that is (how it came to be), and the consequences of the lack of oversight. The supplement industry part of this book included details I hadn't known before, even though I knew some of the basic facts, and I appreciate learning about that history.
The most interesting and new part of the book for me was near the end, when Price discusses the unknowns of nutrition as they stand today. There's a heck of a lot we don't know. She gives some examples of how we know that our knowledge is incomplete, which I relished. For example, an apple's antioxidant activity is far higher than is possible with the antioxidants we've isolated and analyzed from the apple. So there's more going on there than we know of. Whole foods include nutrients, molecules, and interactions that are still far beyond our understanding. We do know that fruits and vegetables and meat are good for us, and we know that what they do as whole foods is greater than the sum of the parts we've figured out. So we should keep eating whole foods and not rely on pills for our nutrition.
In the end, it's an easy, chatty read with good info, even if there are no earth-shattering new truths in here. Basically, Price is telling us that there's a lot we don't know, and we should get comfortable with our uncertainty, and not pretend that we have it all figured out and take our pills. Good central thesis, reasonable arguments.
I really enjoyed this well-researched and well-written book by Catherine Price. If you're looking for some amazing nutritional advice that will change your world and save your life, this isn't it. Her advice is: don't isolate your micronutrients, eat real food (not processed). Not exactly new advice. But that wasn't what she set out to do.
Price answers a lot of basic questions about vitamins. What are these things? What do they do for us? How were they discovered? How do they show up in our lives now, in our foods and elsewhere?
She also takes a few chapters to take a look at the supplement industry, an industry she claims (rightfully so, I think) the very idea of vitamins gave birth to. Without the idea of micronutrients that do unexpected things for our health, the supplement industry wouldn't exist. But she takes the time to explain that the supplement industry is unregulated for the most part, examine the political history of why that is (how it came to be), and the consequences of the lack of oversight. The supplement industry part of this book included details I hadn't known before, even though I knew some of the basic facts, and I appreciate learning about that history.
The most interesting and new part of the book for me was near the end, when Price discusses the unknowns of nutrition as they stand today. There's a heck of a lot we don't know. She gives some examples of how we know that our knowledge is incomplete, which I relished. For example, an apple's antioxidant activity is far higher than is possible with the antioxidants we've isolated and analyzed from the apple. So there's more going on there than we know of. Whole foods include nutrients, molecules, and interactions that are still far beyond our understanding. We do know that fruits and vegetables and meat are good for us, and we know that what they do as whole foods is greater than the sum of the parts we've figured out. So we should keep eating whole foods and not rely on pills for our nutrition.
In the end, it's an easy, chatty read with good info, even if there are no earth-shattering new truths in here. Basically, Price is telling us that there's a lot we don't know, and we should get comfortable with our uncertainty, and not pretend that we have it all figured out and take our pills. Good central thesis, reasonable arguments.
January 2, 2015
First, I received an ARC copy of this e-book for my enjoyment and review from First-To-Read(Penguin Random House).
Being a health-care professional (RN, Nurse Practitioner) and long-distance runner, I found this title intriguing, and looked forward to this author's experience and opinion.
First and foremost – I found this author to be very credible not only with her credentials as a nutritionist but also as a Type I diabetic early in life, making her very aware of her daily intakes of food/nutrition just to maintain life.
What all started as an innocent venture into a health food store in search of something to help her rash of unknown cause/cure, the author was launched into a journey of vitamin supplement regulations. A very detailed history of vitamins and their growth in the American food culture ensues, along with discussions of why we are fine with vitamin pill supplements, no matter what their composition. This begins the history of how vitamins have been and continue to be painfully marketed to the consumer throughout history.
As the author so eloquently discussed, “are we okay with the fact that dietary supplements are not required to be tested for safety or efficacy before being sold?” Some are even being spiked with pharmaceutical drugs, which we are unaware of. “Does it make sense to assume that everything 'natural' is harmless, regardless of dose?” Our supermarket shelves are packed with energy-enhanced sports drinks and vitamin-fortified snacks, and do we as consumers really need all this to have a healthier, longer life? Can we easily exist on good food to provide vitamins alone, without pill supplements? This entire book fascinated me from beginning to end – job so very well done by the author. How little we are told, as consumers, so depend on authors like Catherine Price to keep us informed and thinking.
Being a health-care professional (RN, Nurse Practitioner) and long-distance runner, I found this title intriguing, and looked forward to this author's experience and opinion.
First and foremost – I found this author to be very credible not only with her credentials as a nutritionist but also as a Type I diabetic early in life, making her very aware of her daily intakes of food/nutrition just to maintain life.
What all started as an innocent venture into a health food store in search of something to help her rash of unknown cause/cure, the author was launched into a journey of vitamin supplement regulations. A very detailed history of vitamins and their growth in the American food culture ensues, along with discussions of why we are fine with vitamin pill supplements, no matter what their composition. This begins the history of how vitamins have been and continue to be painfully marketed to the consumer throughout history.
As the author so eloquently discussed, “are we okay with the fact that dietary supplements are not required to be tested for safety or efficacy before being sold?” Some are even being spiked with pharmaceutical drugs, which we are unaware of. “Does it make sense to assume that everything 'natural' is harmless, regardless of dose?” Our supermarket shelves are packed with energy-enhanced sports drinks and vitamin-fortified snacks, and do we as consumers really need all this to have a healthier, longer life? Can we easily exist on good food to provide vitamins alone, without pill supplements? This entire book fascinated me from beginning to end – job so very well done by the author. How little we are told, as consumers, so depend on authors like Catherine Price to keep us informed and thinking.
June 27, 2021
This is a fascinating and entertaining overview of the American obsession with vitamins and supplements as a proxy for healthy eating. It's a quick and fun read with lots of information, but it did lead something to be desired.
Price is a good writer, her style is breezy but also gives you enough detail (most of the time) that you don't feel like you're getting only surface-level information about a very complicated topic. Occasionally she is laugh-out-loud funny, which is also nice. She does a good job balancing journalistic visits to various locations with history. The best thing about how she writes and how the book is written is that she is willing to accept uncertainty - you might say that the book is really about how little we know about nutrition.
I do feel like the book could have been a little more detailed. I know that the point is that we still don't know very much about this. And I understand that nutritional science is a, um, inaccessible field, but I do think a little more detail as to the "how" and "why" would have helped. For example, the valuable first appendix should have been in the body of the text, in my opinion. I needed to read it, it turns out. Also, am I wrong in thinking she never actually explains why B became B1, B2, B3 etc. Maybe somehow I missed it but honestly I don't recall her saying why. There were some other moments too where I wondered why she didn't go into more detail. It's not exactly a long book.
At the end, it felt a little bit too much like "one woman's journey..." to me than a thorough investigation into vitamins and supplements. Mostly, she does a good balancing act between the two, but I would have liked a little more history and science, even if it meant a few more "I went to see Dr. so and so at..."
But I still learned a whole bunch. And I laughed out loud a few times (which I can't always say about these types of books). And I found my nutrition beliefs pretty much confirmed, which is always a pleasant experience.
Price is a good writer, her style is breezy but also gives you enough detail (most of the time) that you don't feel like you're getting only surface-level information about a very complicated topic. Occasionally she is laugh-out-loud funny, which is also nice. She does a good job balancing journalistic visits to various locations with history. The best thing about how she writes and how the book is written is that she is willing to accept uncertainty - you might say that the book is really about how little we know about nutrition.
I do feel like the book could have been a little more detailed. I know that the point is that we still don't know very much about this. And I understand that nutritional science is a, um, inaccessible field, but I do think a little more detail as to the "how" and "why" would have helped. For example, the valuable first appendix should have been in the body of the text, in my opinion. I needed to read it, it turns out. Also, am I wrong in thinking she never actually explains why B became B1, B2, B3 etc. Maybe somehow I missed it but honestly I don't recall her saying why. There were some other moments too where I wondered why she didn't go into more detail. It's not exactly a long book.
At the end, it felt a little bit too much like "one woman's journey..." to me than a thorough investigation into vitamins and supplements. Mostly, she does a good balancing act between the two, but I would have liked a little more history and science, even if it meant a few more "I went to see Dr. so and so at..."
But I still learned a whole bunch. And I laughed out loud a few times (which I can't always say about these types of books). And I found my nutrition beliefs pretty much confirmed, which is always a pleasant experience.
June 15, 2025
Did not know I was going to LOL frequently reading a book about vitamins!
Did suspect I'd get more soap boxes to supplement my stance regarding the Wellness world, the duping of ppl just trying to be healthy, and that really rich corporations are kind of evil.
Did know I was going to tell people who didn't want to hear about vitamins about vitamins -- done!
Did suspect I'd get more soap boxes to supplement my stance regarding the Wellness world, the duping of ppl just trying to be healthy, and that really rich corporations are kind of evil.
Did know I was going to tell people who didn't want to hear about vitamins about vitamins -- done!
December 31, 2024
Read this very early in the year, while I was still reading basically everything I could get my hands on about metabolism and the development of the biochemical sciences. This is a popular science book, and it was enjoyable but not my favourite mode of writing, though its prose is very accessible and engaging and it had some excellent stuff laced throughout it. There was a rather great little summary of what metabolism is and how vitamins relate to it:
“Despite their chemical differences, all vitamins play crucial roles in our metabolism, a term that refers to the series of chemical reactions that occur in our cells. Though we are rarely aware of these metabolic chemical reactions, our lives depend on them. Walking down the street requires them. Reading a book requires them. So does forming scar tissue, developing a baby, or creating any type of new cell. Chemical reactions build and break down muscle, regulate body temperature, filter toxins, excrete waste, support our immune systems, and affect (or indeed cause) our moods. They generate the energy we need in order to breathe, and use the oxygen that we breathe to pull energy from food. They allow us to feel and see and taste and touch and hear. Our metabolisms aren’t just a facet of our lives—they are our lives. Without these metabolic chemical reactions, we would be as inert and inanimate as stone.
The problem with many of these reactions, however, is that they’re way too slow—if they were left to run at their own speed, life would grind to a halt. Our bodies get around this issue with the help of enzymes, which are large protein molecules that kick-start and speed up specific chemical reactions, often making them occur millions of times faster than they would on their own. But our bodies sometimes need help making enzymes, and enzymes sometimes need help doing their jobs. That’s where vitamins come in: two of their primary functions are to help our bodies create enzymes and to aid enzymes in their work. While enzymes speed up chemical reactions without being destroyed, most of the chemical reactions that depend on vitamins actually use up the vitamins. That’s why we need a continuous external supply.
It makes sense, then, that vitamin deficiencies cause problems, because without adequate vitamins, every enzymatic process that depends on those vitamins will come screeching to a stop. In the case of scurvy, the issue is collagen, a primary structural protein in our muscles, skin, bones, blood vessels, cartilage, scars, and other connective tissues that makes up some 30 percent of the protein in the human body. Collagen holds our tissues together; the word itself is derived from the Greek word for “glue.” Without collagen, our bodies would come apart from within—hence the hemorrhaging, broken bones, and loose teeth of scurvy. We make collagen from its precursor, procollagen, with the help of enzymes. But those enzymatic reactions can’t happen—and thus collagen cannot be formed—without vitamin C.”
Chapter 4 discusses Liebig extensively (for those interested in one of the most influential metabolic scientists for Marx). Price writes:
"“The concept of macronutrients was first proposed in 1827 by a British physician-turned-chemist named William Prout, who suggested that food contained three energy-providing “staminal principles,” which we now know as carbohydrate, protein, and fat. A French physiologist, François Magendie, then proposed that perhaps Prout’s staminal principles each had different purposes in the body, and in 1843 the great German chemist Justus von Liebig proclaimed in a book called Animal Chemistry that he had those purposes all figured out.”
Liebig was an extremely influential chemist and oversize personality, whose accomplishments ranged from the recognition that nitrogen was an essential plant nutrient (leading to his development of the first nitrogen-based plant fertilizers) to the creation of what eventually became Oxo beef bouillon. Liebig never performed human nutritional experiments himself, but this did not stop him from coming up with theories based on what he had observed in plants. Since nitrogen is critical for plants, and protein is the only macronutrient to contain nitrogen, Liebig decided that protein must be the most important nutrient for humans (the word is derived from the Greek proteios, meaning “first quality”); he believed it was necessary for building and maintaining tissues and that it was the sole source of energy for our muscles. As for carbohydrate and fat, Liebig claimed that their calories could only be used to create body heat; they couldn’t be used as fuel for muscular work…
While Liebig was correct that our bodies need protein to build and maintain tissues, his theories on energy sources were not—it would be as if a car required one type of fuel to move forward and another type of fuel to keep its engine hot. We now know that carbohydrate is actually a common fuel source for our muscles (protein is used for energy if nothing else is available), and that body heat is produced regardless of which macronutrient is being burned. Whereas Liebig assumed that the forms of each macronutrient were interchangeable (that is, a protein is a protein, regardless of source), we also now know that protein, carbohydrate, and fat can themselves be broken down into subcategories (essential and nonessential amino acids, for example, or starch and sugar, or saturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids), and that these forms have different subtle effects in our bodies that we still don’t entirely understand.
But despite their errors, Liebig’s theories had a net positive effect: they helped jumpstart the field of nutritional chemistry, a result that he claimed, in the preface to Animal Chemistry, had been his goal in writing the book.
‘My object . . . has been to direct attention to the points of intersection of chemistry with physiology, and to point out those parts in which the sciences become, as it were, mixed up together,” he wrote. “[I]f, among the results which I have developed or indicated in this work, one alone shall admit of useful application, I shall consider the object for which it was written fully attained. The path which has led to it shall open up other paths; and this I consider as the most important object to be gained.’
New paths did indeed open up—in fact, the intersection of chemistry and physiology that he describes is what the study of nutrition is all about. And in the late 1880s, a Liebig-inspired cast of German nutritional scientists began pioneering work that both further established Germany as the nutritional research capital of the world, and eventually led to the discovery of the vitamins.”
Price tells the story of how ““a Polish biochemist named Casimir Funk” came up with the word vitamin in reference to a novel idea that he had, that four known diseases, were caused by some type of nutritional deficiency:
“In the fall of 1910, Funk joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, and was assigned the task of trying to isolate the substance in rice polishings that prevented beriberi. Working with colleagues, Funk figured out that the mystery substance wasn’t an amino acid (his boss’s pet hypothesis), and he also disproved the theory that it was caused by a toxin in the polished white rice. Next, he began to fractionate the rice polishings, using a series of chemical reactions to try to isolate the precise substance that was curing the birds. And I mean a small fraction—we now know that a ton of rice bran contains only about a teaspoon’s worth of pure thiamin.
Eventually, Funk was able to isolate a few tiny samples of a crystalline substance that—at least in a couple of cases—cured pigeons with polyneuritis. So far, so good. In December 1911, he published a paper in the Journal of Physiology stating that avian polyneuritis was caused by a lack of an essential substance in the birds’ diet that was necessary in only tiny amounts. The substance, he guessed, was an amine—a type of nitrogen-containing organic compound…
“ Recognizing that the crystals, by preventing beriberi, were essential for life, he took the Latin word for life—vita—and combined it with the term for what he believed would be the common chemical structure of other similar yet-to-be-discovered molecules—“amine.” Vitamine. It was the first public use of the word.
No one got to see it, however, because the Lister Institute’s staff and the editorial board of the journal didn’t approve of Funk’s creativity. Instead, they gave his paper, which was published in 1911, the title “On the Chemical Nature of the Substance Which Cures Polyneuritis in Birds When Subjected to a Diet of Polished Rice,” and called the mystery compound a “curative substance” rather than a vitamine.”
“Funk’s most famous statement is undoubtedly this:
‘It is now known that all these diseases . . . can be prevented or cured by the addition of certain preventative substances,” he wrote. “[T]he deficient substances, which are of the nature of organic bases, we will call ‘vitamines’; and we will speak of a beriberi or scurvy vitamine, which means, a substance preventing the special disease.” Funk then went on to use the word “vitamine” repeatedly throughout his twenty-seven-page article, dropping it casually into his discussion as if it hadn’t made its print debut just several pages before.’”
“…the substances that cured them were not all amines—the nitrogen-containing organic compounds that originally gave Funk the “amine” part of vitamine. This meant that the word (at least as it was originally spelled) was chemically misleading.”
“Nonetheless, by 1920, four of the substances we now call vitamins had been identified (if not chemically isolated), and a decision had to be made about what to call them. While the term “vitamine” was known by scientists and beginning to be used by food marketers, the four substances themselves were also often identified by letters: A, B (which at that point referred to only one substance), C, and D. To clarify things, the British biochemist Jack Drummond proposed in 1920 that the final “e” of “vitamine” be dropped in acknowledgment that not all vitamins were amines. He also suggested that scientists do away with all the “somewhat cumbrous nomenclature” in use at the time, and just call them “vitamin A,” “vitamin B,” et cetera.”
“chemically speaking, there’s no precise definition of what a vitamin actually is. But despite this lack of specificity, the word “vitamin” obviously did not fall into disuse—far from it. Instead, it has taken on a life of its own, used and abused by advertisers to such an extent that it can be seen as one of the most brilliant marketing terms of all time.”
Anyway, for anyone interested in Marxist social metabolism, engaging in accessible treatments of contemporary metabolic sciences like this helps a lot in my view, for understanding how conceptions of materials flowing through the bodies of organisms, transforming, and depending upon other materials (like vitamins in the body) to make those transformations possible, is very intricately connected with environmental changes and the movement of commodities and the deployment of other commodities and infrastructures to make all that transformation and movement possible.
“Despite their chemical differences, all vitamins play crucial roles in our metabolism, a term that refers to the series of chemical reactions that occur in our cells. Though we are rarely aware of these metabolic chemical reactions, our lives depend on them. Walking down the street requires them. Reading a book requires them. So does forming scar tissue, developing a baby, or creating any type of new cell. Chemical reactions build and break down muscle, regulate body temperature, filter toxins, excrete waste, support our immune systems, and affect (or indeed cause) our moods. They generate the energy we need in order to breathe, and use the oxygen that we breathe to pull energy from food. They allow us to feel and see and taste and touch and hear. Our metabolisms aren’t just a facet of our lives—they are our lives. Without these metabolic chemical reactions, we would be as inert and inanimate as stone.
The problem with many of these reactions, however, is that they’re way too slow—if they were left to run at their own speed, life would grind to a halt. Our bodies get around this issue with the help of enzymes, which are large protein molecules that kick-start and speed up specific chemical reactions, often making them occur millions of times faster than they would on their own. But our bodies sometimes need help making enzymes, and enzymes sometimes need help doing their jobs. That’s where vitamins come in: two of their primary functions are to help our bodies create enzymes and to aid enzymes in their work. While enzymes speed up chemical reactions without being destroyed, most of the chemical reactions that depend on vitamins actually use up the vitamins. That’s why we need a continuous external supply.
It makes sense, then, that vitamin deficiencies cause problems, because without adequate vitamins, every enzymatic process that depends on those vitamins will come screeching to a stop. In the case of scurvy, the issue is collagen, a primary structural protein in our muscles, skin, bones, blood vessels, cartilage, scars, and other connective tissues that makes up some 30 percent of the protein in the human body. Collagen holds our tissues together; the word itself is derived from the Greek word for “glue.” Without collagen, our bodies would come apart from within—hence the hemorrhaging, broken bones, and loose teeth of scurvy. We make collagen from its precursor, procollagen, with the help of enzymes. But those enzymatic reactions can’t happen—and thus collagen cannot be formed—without vitamin C.”
Chapter 4 discusses Liebig extensively (for those interested in one of the most influential metabolic scientists for Marx). Price writes:
"“The concept of macronutrients was first proposed in 1827 by a British physician-turned-chemist named William Prout, who suggested that food contained three energy-providing “staminal principles,” which we now know as carbohydrate, protein, and fat. A French physiologist, François Magendie, then proposed that perhaps Prout’s staminal principles each had different purposes in the body, and in 1843 the great German chemist Justus von Liebig proclaimed in a book called Animal Chemistry that he had those purposes all figured out.”
Liebig was an extremely influential chemist and oversize personality, whose accomplishments ranged from the recognition that nitrogen was an essential plant nutrient (leading to his development of the first nitrogen-based plant fertilizers) to the creation of what eventually became Oxo beef bouillon. Liebig never performed human nutritional experiments himself, but this did not stop him from coming up with theories based on what he had observed in plants. Since nitrogen is critical for plants, and protein is the only macronutrient to contain nitrogen, Liebig decided that protein must be the most important nutrient for humans (the word is derived from the Greek proteios, meaning “first quality”); he believed it was necessary for building and maintaining tissues and that it was the sole source of energy for our muscles. As for carbohydrate and fat, Liebig claimed that their calories could only be used to create body heat; they couldn’t be used as fuel for muscular work…
While Liebig was correct that our bodies need protein to build and maintain tissues, his theories on energy sources were not—it would be as if a car required one type of fuel to move forward and another type of fuel to keep its engine hot. We now know that carbohydrate is actually a common fuel source for our muscles (protein is used for energy if nothing else is available), and that body heat is produced regardless of which macronutrient is being burned. Whereas Liebig assumed that the forms of each macronutrient were interchangeable (that is, a protein is a protein, regardless of source), we also now know that protein, carbohydrate, and fat can themselves be broken down into subcategories (essential and nonessential amino acids, for example, or starch and sugar, or saturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids), and that these forms have different subtle effects in our bodies that we still don’t entirely understand.
But despite their errors, Liebig’s theories had a net positive effect: they helped jumpstart the field of nutritional chemistry, a result that he claimed, in the preface to Animal Chemistry, had been his goal in writing the book.
‘My object . . . has been to direct attention to the points of intersection of chemistry with physiology, and to point out those parts in which the sciences become, as it were, mixed up together,” he wrote. “[I]f, among the results which I have developed or indicated in this work, one alone shall admit of useful application, I shall consider the object for which it was written fully attained. The path which has led to it shall open up other paths; and this I consider as the most important object to be gained.’
New paths did indeed open up—in fact, the intersection of chemistry and physiology that he describes is what the study of nutrition is all about. And in the late 1880s, a Liebig-inspired cast of German nutritional scientists began pioneering work that both further established Germany as the nutritional research capital of the world, and eventually led to the discovery of the vitamins.”
Price tells the story of how ““a Polish biochemist named Casimir Funk” came up with the word vitamin in reference to a novel idea that he had, that four known diseases, were caused by some type of nutritional deficiency:
“In the fall of 1910, Funk joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, and was assigned the task of trying to isolate the substance in rice polishings that prevented beriberi. Working with colleagues, Funk figured out that the mystery substance wasn’t an amino acid (his boss’s pet hypothesis), and he also disproved the theory that it was caused by a toxin in the polished white rice. Next, he began to fractionate the rice polishings, using a series of chemical reactions to try to isolate the precise substance that was curing the birds. And I mean a small fraction—we now know that a ton of rice bran contains only about a teaspoon’s worth of pure thiamin.
Eventually, Funk was able to isolate a few tiny samples of a crystalline substance that—at least in a couple of cases—cured pigeons with polyneuritis. So far, so good. In December 1911, he published a paper in the Journal of Physiology stating that avian polyneuritis was caused by a lack of an essential substance in the birds’ diet that was necessary in only tiny amounts. The substance, he guessed, was an amine—a type of nitrogen-containing organic compound…
“ Recognizing that the crystals, by preventing beriberi, were essential for life, he took the Latin word for life—vita—and combined it with the term for what he believed would be the common chemical structure of other similar yet-to-be-discovered molecules—“amine.” Vitamine. It was the first public use of the word.
No one got to see it, however, because the Lister Institute’s staff and the editorial board of the journal didn’t approve of Funk’s creativity. Instead, they gave his paper, which was published in 1911, the title “On the Chemical Nature of the Substance Which Cures Polyneuritis in Birds When Subjected to a Diet of Polished Rice,” and called the mystery compound a “curative substance” rather than a vitamine.”
“Funk’s most famous statement is undoubtedly this:
‘It is now known that all these diseases . . . can be prevented or cured by the addition of certain preventative substances,” he wrote. “[T]he deficient substances, which are of the nature of organic bases, we will call ‘vitamines’; and we will speak of a beriberi or scurvy vitamine, which means, a substance preventing the special disease.” Funk then went on to use the word “vitamine” repeatedly throughout his twenty-seven-page article, dropping it casually into his discussion as if it hadn’t made its print debut just several pages before.’”
“…the substances that cured them were not all amines—the nitrogen-containing organic compounds that originally gave Funk the “amine” part of vitamine. This meant that the word (at least as it was originally spelled) was chemically misleading.”
“Nonetheless, by 1920, four of the substances we now call vitamins had been identified (if not chemically isolated), and a decision had to be made about what to call them. While the term “vitamine” was known by scientists and beginning to be used by food marketers, the four substances themselves were also often identified by letters: A, B (which at that point referred to only one substance), C, and D. To clarify things, the British biochemist Jack Drummond proposed in 1920 that the final “e” of “vitamine” be dropped in acknowledgment that not all vitamins were amines. He also suggested that scientists do away with all the “somewhat cumbrous nomenclature” in use at the time, and just call them “vitamin A,” “vitamin B,” et cetera.”
“chemically speaking, there’s no precise definition of what a vitamin actually is. But despite this lack of specificity, the word “vitamin” obviously did not fall into disuse—far from it. Instead, it has taken on a life of its own, used and abused by advertisers to such an extent that it can be seen as one of the most brilliant marketing terms of all time.”
Anyway, for anyone interested in Marxist social metabolism, engaging in accessible treatments of contemporary metabolic sciences like this helps a lot in my view, for understanding how conceptions of materials flowing through the bodies of organisms, transforming, and depending upon other materials (like vitamins in the body) to make those transformations possible, is very intricately connected with environmental changes and the movement of commodities and the deployment of other commodities and infrastructures to make all that transformation and movement possible.
June 18, 2018
Интересная книга про витамины и манию, охватившую западный мир. Много интересных фактов из истории открытия витаминов и о болезных связанных с их дефицитом. автор жестко отзывается о БАДах, которые не регулируются государством и при этом активно поддерживает ГМО.
May 30, 2016
The subject of vitamins is one that you do not see being tackled that often nowadays, and thus one could leave from the same premise that I previously did, that all vitamins must be good for our health.
Brilliant pieces of information are being posted as we go along with the reading, such as the source of synthetic vitamin D, that humans cannot make their own vitamin C, and probably most notably being the fact that vitamins as dietary supplements are not required to be tested for safety or efficacy before being sold. The latter should raise quite a number of questions by now.
The second half of the book introduces an interesting term, phytochemicals. In short we are being informed about the vitamins and their synergy when eating whole foods. Substances are being shown to be working differently when they are together than they do when they are on their own. Researches are still underway, and you could probably understand why such a delicate matter is rather slow in showing new results as it is not in the interest of business.
Brilliant pieces of information are being posted as we go along with the reading, such as the source of synthetic vitamin D, that humans cannot make their own vitamin C, and probably most notably being the fact that vitamins as dietary supplements are not required to be tested for safety or efficacy before being sold. The latter should raise quite a number of questions by now.
The second half of the book introduces an interesting term, phytochemicals. In short we are being informed about the vitamins and their synergy when eating whole foods. Substances are being shown to be working differently when they are together than they do when they are on their own. Researches are still underway, and you could probably understand why such a delicate matter is rather slow in showing new results as it is not in the interest of business.
March 8, 2017
This book is absolutely excellent! Please consider taking the time to read this well-researched book before starting ANY supplements. Much of the information included is the same information we get as Dietetics students but put in such a precise and simple format, that one does not have to be in school to understand.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
December 27, 2020
The conclusions the author draws about vitamins are nothing new to me, so I didn't feel the need to slowly trudge through the details of hundreds of years of history of diseases and science and politics surrounding the issue of synthetic vitamins. I ended up skimming quite a bit but it was well researched and written.
March 31, 2015
It's always fun to read a book that shares your values, but this does more. It brings to light the science of nutrition, it's relative immaturity to other sciences and the bastardization of health claims and reports prompted by the magical word.
April 16, 2017
This book has given me a lot to consider. I thought I knew a lot about health and vitamins, and now I see there are some things I missed.
December 1, 2020
This was one of those rare non-fiction science books that manages to be both fascinating and useful. Vitamania digs into the history of vitamins – how they were each discovered, isolated, and the perils of deficiency – but also maps out our bizarre and often contradictory relationship with nutrition in respect to vitamins and supplements.
Vitamins help us facilitate chemical reactions in our bodies and keep us alive, and this leads to an assumption that vitamins are always good for us, in any quantity, in any form, and by extension, when included synthetically in products and supplements.
Vitamins are indeed essential to prevent deficiency diseases like beriberi, scurvy, or pellagra, and this wide recognition fosters an obsession with having more and capitalizes on the idea of ‘taking’ vitamins. More than fifty percent of Americans, or a third of the British public take a daily multivitamin, almost as a kind of insurance policy for what we might not be eating. However, there’s little evidence that multivitamins confer additional benefits that can’t be obtained through simply eating a healthy diet. Particularly given the amount of enrichment and fortification in so many products (cereal, milk, bread) on the market, we’re all essentially already taking daily multivitamins.
There’s a real danger in conflating vitamins and supplements, and that warning is at the core of this book. Despite the fact that there are only thirteen vitamins, the misleadingly named ‘Vitamin Shoppe’ sells more than eighteen thousand largely unregulated products which claim to support health, but don’t have to prove their efficacy or safety. There is no FDA approval process, even though there are many instances where supplements have interacted or interfered with other chemicals taken – including prescription medication – or other biochemical reactions. Often, consumers may take an array of pills, which all react with each other, too.
‘Vitamin’ is a term with a strange history and has no real scientific definition. Originally coined ‘vitamine’ in 1912, the term was a combination of ‘vita’, or life, and ‘amines’ which are essential to life. But vitamins aren’t all the same. What they have in common is that they’re required in extremely small doses through diet as they can’t be synthesized in us (the organism) sufficiently for survival. The framework doesn’t have the elegance of other scientific systems (see: the periodic table), and you might have noticed that we seem to skip around the alphabet from A, B, C, D, E to … K. It’s essentially just a marketing term, really.
It’s really wild to think about how carefully controlled the prescription drug industry is, as well as our food, but how a misleading campaign in the ‘90s pressured congress to essentially give free reign to the dietary supplements industry, driven by public misperception. Marketers and supplement makers use synthetic vitamins to add a veneer of health to somewise unhealthy products, and because there’s no FDA approval process before putting these products to market, there’s no control over the standards or requirements for them.
I came across this book after listening to a podcast that asked the question: “should I be taking a multivitamin?” Essentially, the answer is: focus on getting vitamins through a healthy diet of unprocessed foods instead. For most, it’s unlikely beneficial (and probably a waste of money) to take a multivitamin given the amount of enrichment and fortification in our products anyway, with the rare exception (folic acid during early pregnancy, B12 for vegans, or vitamin D above a certain latitude, though even that is a heated scientific debate).
Above all else, don’t conflate vitamins and supplements. Even if the multivitamin or supplement is largely harmless, getting vitamins from unprocessed foods with natural chemicals will confer many other health benefits that can’t be replicated by the standalone vitamin, and it’s virtually impossible to overdose on vitamins through eating well.
Vitamins help us facilitate chemical reactions in our bodies and keep us alive, and this leads to an assumption that vitamins are always good for us, in any quantity, in any form, and by extension, when included synthetically in products and supplements.
Vitamins are indeed essential to prevent deficiency diseases like beriberi, scurvy, or pellagra, and this wide recognition fosters an obsession with having more and capitalizes on the idea of ‘taking’ vitamins. More than fifty percent of Americans, or a third of the British public take a daily multivitamin, almost as a kind of insurance policy for what we might not be eating. However, there’s little evidence that multivitamins confer additional benefits that can’t be obtained through simply eating a healthy diet. Particularly given the amount of enrichment and fortification in so many products (cereal, milk, bread) on the market, we’re all essentially already taking daily multivitamins.
There’s a real danger in conflating vitamins and supplements, and that warning is at the core of this book. Despite the fact that there are only thirteen vitamins, the misleadingly named ‘Vitamin Shoppe’ sells more than eighteen thousand largely unregulated products which claim to support health, but don’t have to prove their efficacy or safety. There is no FDA approval process, even though there are many instances where supplements have interacted or interfered with other chemicals taken – including prescription medication – or other biochemical reactions. Often, consumers may take an array of pills, which all react with each other, too.
‘Vitamin’ is a term with a strange history and has no real scientific definition. Originally coined ‘vitamine’ in 1912, the term was a combination of ‘vita’, or life, and ‘amines’ which are essential to life. But vitamins aren’t all the same. What they have in common is that they’re required in extremely small doses through diet as they can’t be synthesized in us (the organism) sufficiently for survival. The framework doesn’t have the elegance of other scientific systems (see: the periodic table), and you might have noticed that we seem to skip around the alphabet from A, B, C, D, E to … K. It’s essentially just a marketing term, really.
It’s really wild to think about how carefully controlled the prescription drug industry is, as well as our food, but how a misleading campaign in the ‘90s pressured congress to essentially give free reign to the dietary supplements industry, driven by public misperception. Marketers and supplement makers use synthetic vitamins to add a veneer of health to somewise unhealthy products, and because there’s no FDA approval process before putting these products to market, there’s no control over the standards or requirements for them.
I came across this book after listening to a podcast that asked the question: “should I be taking a multivitamin?” Essentially, the answer is: focus on getting vitamins through a healthy diet of unprocessed foods instead. For most, it’s unlikely beneficial (and probably a waste of money) to take a multivitamin given the amount of enrichment and fortification in our products anyway, with the rare exception (folic acid during early pregnancy, B12 for vegans, or vitamin D above a certain latitude, though even that is a heated scientific debate).
Above all else, don’t conflate vitamins and supplements. Even if the multivitamin or supplement is largely harmless, getting vitamins from unprocessed foods with natural chemicals will confer many other health benefits that can’t be replicated by the standalone vitamin, and it’s virtually impossible to overdose on vitamins through eating well.
August 7, 2018
Piąteczka choćby za ten cytat „Humans hate the unknown. We chafe against it; it makes us feel powerless and paralyzed. So we assign names to chemicals; we count calories and classify food types; we look for advice on food labels and in the news; we do whatever we can to maintain a sense of control over our bodies and the world. In a high-stakes situation like health, where explanations often are incomplete and guarantees are impossible, we soothe our discomfort by finding something to believe in, something that will make us feel safe. In the case of religion, we put our faith in gods. And in nutrition, we have vitamins.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2021
118 out of 336 pages read.
While interesting, this book was not a page turner, and it felt like it was preaching to the choir for me. I'm already convinced that for the normal population, supplementing with vitamins isn't necessary unless a deficiency is proven. It was interesting to learn the history of vitamin discoveries as well as the history and treatment of various diseases caused by deficiencies. I may return to it later.
While interesting, this book was not a page turner, and it felt like it was preaching to the choir for me. I'm already convinced that for the normal population, supplementing with vitamins isn't necessary unless a deficiency is proven. It was interesting to learn the history of vitamin discoveries as well as the history and treatment of various diseases caused by deficiencies. I may return to it later.
January 26, 2023
The writing style was not engaging enough for the length of this book. Would have rated higher if it was shorter with the same writing style. Thorough history of how "vitamins" came to be, brief on the contemporary understanding and implications. Absolutely gruesome case studies. Interesting background given the current/pending legislation around supplements in the United States. Feeling somewhat more cautious about trying anything new without research but honestly I'm not sure how much it will actually change my behavior.
EDIT: Oh -- I did switch to brown rice over white rice, haha.
EDIT: Oh -- I did switch to brown rice over white rice, haha.
August 9, 2025
This is a great read for the MAHA era…
Price details the history of vitamins, how we discovered them and the consequences of their deficiencies, as well as the conflict over regulating supplements and vitamins. I found this book to be well-researched, easy to understand, and surprisingly grounded in the current wellness climate. I did listen to it which might have made it easier to enjoy, as I can see how reading might have gotten tedious. The TLDR of the book is if a medical provider hasn’t told you that you have a vitamin deficiency, there is absolutely no reason to take dietary supplements. We are better off eating a balanced diet and avoiding the dirty industry of dietary supplants and vitamin “enriched” foods whenever possible.
Price details the history of vitamins, how we discovered them and the consequences of their deficiencies, as well as the conflict over regulating supplements and vitamins. I found this book to be well-researched, easy to understand, and surprisingly grounded in the current wellness climate. I did listen to it which might have made it easier to enjoy, as I can see how reading might have gotten tedious. The TLDR of the book is if a medical provider hasn’t told you that you have a vitamin deficiency, there is absolutely no reason to take dietary supplements. We are better off eating a balanced diet and avoiding the dirty industry of dietary supplants and vitamin “enriched” foods whenever possible.
September 17, 2025
Interesting book, but I think it will be hard for non science people to grasp. Still left with questions such as even thought I consume a lot of dairy, I’m still vitamin D deficient, I also spend a lot of time outside. So what do in that case? Because vitamin d deficiency causes a lot of health issues. Also I’m a huge believer in personalized medicine to begin with so I’ve never liked the idea of multivitamins because you don’t know what you are lacking but it’s all we got.
September 2, 2024
We buy into this aspect of vitamins’ mystique every time we treat a cold with a vitamin-enhanced throat lozenge, assume that the addition of vitamins makes a product “healthy”, or take a daily multivitamin “just in case.”
April 11, 2017
I bought this on Amazon. I thought if it convinced me to stop taking vitamins, it might save me a lot of money in the long run.
January 19, 2020
Good news for people who love science, wellness, and bad news.
March 4, 2020
Fantastic book about the history of vitamins and America's quick acceptance of these unregulated products. The book also gets into how little we know about nutrition and how important it is to ask questions about what we eat and why.
November 19, 2020
Eat good, healthy food. Don’t buy junk vitamins.
March 9, 2021
This should be part of introductory nutrition course curricula. She does a great job interweaving history with nutrition science on putting things into social context.
February 4, 2023
I suppose it's unrealistic expectations for a book on vitamins to be a thrilling page-turner, but I can't say this was especially riveting. That said, I do get a kick out of picking up random books in libraries on wildly niche topics and becoming an all-informed oracle until a couple weeks down the line where I inevitably forgot everything I read aside from a few random bits of trivia I can throw in should some future impassioned and high-stakes argument on vitamins occur. So now I am prepared for that I suppose. The all important spoiler: assuming a varied diet vitamin supplements are a waste of time (except maybe folic acid for preganancy) (B12 for vegans) (and maybe a lil vitamin D)
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