In the new web series Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover sheds light on the myth that shoveling tons of vitamins in your body every morning makes you the picture of health (video above).
It turns out, like most health crazes, vitamin supplements are generally a waste of money that make you feel better because of the placebo effect. Yes, of course there are circumstances where you may have a major deficiency of a certain vitamin, like D, meaning you need to get out in the sun a bit more, and taking large amounts of that supplement over a short period of time will help correct that.
But, in general, taking your cocktail of supplements everyday is about as useless as the overpriced “wellness pills” your super green, totally vegan, tantric yoga instructor takes with his wheat grass shots while not vaccinating his kids because he’s an “expert in health, you guys.”
Adam explains that this became a cultural truth in the 70’s when a media rockstar of a chemist named Linus Pauling—the only man to win solo Nobel Prizes twice—decided that vitamins were the secret to everything, including cancer and eternal life. Ironically, Pauling went 0 for 2 in both of those departments by renouncing his faith and then dying of cancer.
Exit thought by field reporter Pat Churdooksup…
