There’s a fascinating article in Slate about vitamins (especially multivitamins) and their efficacy. It’s a question that I’ve long wondered about: just how well do vitamins work? As I briefly mentioned before, Michael Pollan suggests that we should be making sure to eat foods that have important vitamins — but that popping pills of those vitamins might not be so effective. Emily Anthes, in this article, says something along the same lines — maybe we’re not accomplishing as much as we should think, by taking multi-vitamins.

Our flour and water and many of the foods we buy already have extra nutrients embedded within them, thanks to laws in the US, and if we’re eating healthful foods, we’re probably getting many of the rest. I don’t know that I’ll warrant that supplements are bad — not until the evidence builds up a bit more — but I do wonder about the usefulness of taking vitamins every day.

In any case, I definitely recommend giving the article a read. The best part about it? I spent the first half of the article thinking to myself, “Huh. It’s interesting that they’re suggesting that so many of these vitamins can affect the body in a possibly negative way, but what about the placebo effect?”, and then the second half is about the placebo effect. The brain is decidedly able to change the body. It can be undermined anyway, though.