Believe it or not, there is a debate surrounding the effects of supplemental vitamins. Can a good thing actually be bad for you? How are people persuaded into believing the beneficial or harmful effects of vitamin supplements?
Many take vitamin supplements on a daily or weekly basis. Doctors, trainers, nutritionists, and the average person are not only taking their own daily vitamins, but also convince their friends and family members and total strangers to do it as well. Yes, vitamins are found in food, but it seems to be common knowledge that the recommended vitamin intake is not a part of the average diet, thus the reason for supplemental vitamins to become a normal part of a person’s diet. Vitamin supplements can range from vitamin A (skin supplement), vitamin B (energy, skin, and hair supplement), vitamin C (antioxidant), vitamin D (calcium supplement), vitamin E (antioxidant and immune system supplement), etc. There seems to be a vitamin supplement a person can digest for every issue that can come up in a person’s health; it has become a daily ritual in order to keep a constant, healthy lifestyle. But has anyone ever wondered when the supplemental vitamin phenomenon started? Where did the idea that supplemental vitamins can benefit a person’s health originate? What rhetorical strategies do scientists and doctors use to make their arguments valid among the general public?
Dr. Pray, in his article, “The FDA, Vitamins, and the Dietary Supplement Industry”, reviews the history of review and regulation of vitamin supplements. He explains the many acts that were put into law but one stands out the most: the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act. Lobbyists pushed for this act to pass in order to allow vitamin supplements and other similar supplements to be exempt from the Food & Drug Administration’s regulations and laws. The act passed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and consequently, “the necessary controls that the FDA was legally able to exert over prescription products were completely invalidated for dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and amino acids” (Pray). After this act passed, companies created and advertised even more dietary supplements, as there was no overhead power or authority to validate health claims. (To read about the full history of the vitamin industry in regards to the FDA, click HERE.) The public is not usually aware of these acts, and many when they are, may not know what they mean. Therefore, supplements spread like wildfire and the public believed vitamin supplements would boost their overall health and prevent sickness. The urgency to take vitamin supplements was misinterpretation notion of Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift concept, as companies treated this opportunity to sell to the market as a revolutionary one. It was a false paradigm shift as it was not an answer to a problem and also not based on science, but rather on business strategies with the goal of employing high profits from feeding off of the public’s biggest fear: dying from sicknesses. (To read more about Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts within the scientific world, click HERE.) It is not to say that there aren’t scientists and doctors that do not support vitamin supplements, because there are. There has been research and clinical trials revolving around the different benefits of vitamin supplements in the time since the Act passed, as well as ones that have shown the ineffectiveness and even the harmfulness of them as well. Now, let us get into the rhetorics surrounding both sides of the supplemental vitamin debate.
Dr. Pray, in his article, “The FDA, Vitamins, and the Dietary Supplement Industry”, reviews the history of review and regulation of vitamin supplements. He explains the many acts that were put into law but one stands out the most: the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act. Lobbyists pushed for this act to pass in order to allow vitamin supplements and other similar supplements to be exempt from the Food & Drug Administration’s regulations and laws. The act passed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and consequently, “the necessary controls that the FDA was legally able to exert over prescription products were completely invalidated for dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and amino acids” (Pray). After this act passed, companies created and advertised even more dietary supplements, as there was no overhead power or authority to validate health claims. (To read about the full history of the vitamin industry in regards to the FDA, click HERE.) The public is not usually aware of these acts, and many when they are, may not know what they mean. Therefore, supplements spread like wildfire and the public believed vitamin supplements would boost their overall health and prevent sickness. The urgency to take vitamin supplements was misinterpretation notion of Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift concept, as companies treated this opportunity to sell to the market as a revolutionary one. It was a false paradigm shift as it was not an answer to a problem and also not based on science, but rather on business strategies with the goal of employing high profits from feeding off of the public’s biggest fear: dying from sicknesses. (To read more about Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts within the scientific world, click HERE.) It is not to say that there aren’t scientists and doctors that do not support vitamin supplements, because there are. There has been research and clinical trials revolving around the different benefits of vitamin supplements in the time since the Act passed, as well as ones that have shown the ineffectiveness and even the harmfulness of them as well. Now, let us get into the rhetorics surrounding both sides of the supplemental vitamin debate.