Five Reasons Not To Take Dietary Supplements

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Friday, April 28. 2017

Five Reasons Not To Take Dietary Supplements

Despite this, I do take a Vit D a couple of times weekly during the winter. Maybe it's magical thinking, as are most nutritional fads and theories.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Medical at 12:23 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

For most people who have a more or less healthy diet and lifestyle, they're snake oil.

For some people, with chronic deficiencies in certain vitamins or other things in their body, they can be great.

Vitamin D indeed. I'm chronically seriously deficient in that. Was either get it from the doctor or get it at the supermarket at 1/10 the cost.

Vitamin C supplements too. I'm diabetic, so most natural sources of vitamin C are unavailable to me in the quantities I'd need to consume (especially in winter). Tablets are a substitute for oranges for me...

#1 JTW on 2017-04-28 12:59 (Reply)

Creatine helps build muscle mass (of you do strength training). https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

There may be cognitive benefits to creatine supplementation as well. This stuff is relevant for the (I assume) mostly older crowd that reads Maggie's.

#2 GU on 2017-04-28 13:24 (Reply)

Amusingly, that video cites other untested claims, that the benefit of vegetables is from the vitamins and minerals, as part of their argument against supplements. There are competing theories.

QUOTE:

Some researchers hold that the benefits of vegetables may not be so much in what we call the “vitamins” or some other rationalizing theories (that is, ideas that seem to make sense in narrative form but have not been subjected to rigorous empirical testing), but in the following: plants protect themselves from harm and fend off predators with poisonous substances that, ingested by us in the right quantities, may stimulate our organisms— or so goes the story. Again, limited, low-dose poisoning triggers healthy benefits.

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2012-11-27). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

#3 JK Brown on 2017-04-29 00:16 (Reply)

Maybe it's magical thinking, as are most nutritional fads and theories.

Does 'most' mean that there are valid fads? Maybe I just don't take your meaning.

Oh wait; here's a popular rightist diet veracity that's just been adopted by Left Coast leftists.

I bet now it's a fad.

#4 Ten on 2017-04-29 20:25 (Reply)

Poor logic arguments.

So some cases of mislabeling or spiking are to put us off ALL supplements? Or just be a more informed consumer and stick with trusted brands?

Unsubstantiated health claims? Some truth there as there are many, many fads about. But note that most "studies" deal with statistical averages. If 30% report improvements and 70% don't, the verdict is usually "unsubstantiated." What really happens is that human variability allows SOME people to benefit but not ALL (or a majority) to benefit.

I could go on with my rhetorical criticisms.

The best advice is don't be stupid about supplements. People are trying to sell you something. Sometimes it is to your advantage and sometimes not. Don't believe everything you read and be careful about what you put in your mouth.

#5 Whitehall on 2017-04-30 02:42 (Reply)

A fad is something other people do that offends our own lifestyle predilections. We ourselves are incapable of subscribing to fads.

I'll demonstrate: If a leftist is a vegan - typically for personal moral reasons - it's automatically a fad. If a rightist therefore purposefully isn't a vegan and believes in the health benefits of ingesting liquified saturated porcine triglycerides and congealed blended hormoned industrial chicken embryos, it's 'real' food and by definition not a fad. And because it's not a fad, it's also a lifestyle imperative, highly advertisable as such, and akin to moral goodness.

A fad is something other people do that offends our own lifestyle predilections. We ourselves are incapable of subscribing to fads.

#6 Ten on 2017-04-30 07:09 (Reply)

Sorry, Ten's definition is incorrect.

A fad is something that suddenly comes into fashion or use but then quickly fads from popularity.

Vegetarianism is not a fad as it has been around for centuries. It does wax and wane.

Hula Hoops were a fad. Went was the last time you saw on in non-ironic action?

But yes, fads are often adopted as a status symbol or for moral posturing, or both.

#7 Whitehall on 2017-04-30 12:35 (Reply)

I'm not Websters, Whitehall, but I am a reasonably keen, occasionally sarcastic observer of human fallacy. Being such, it is my duty to cross-signal when and where signalling rightists mislabel their fads.

Both are increasingly common phenomena.

#7.1 Ten on 2017-04-30 14:18 (Reply)

http://turningcircles-hk.com/performance/

Whitehall: Because you describe hula hoops as a fad, I wanted to share the above link to a hula hoop performance. I have 20-something children, and some of their peers practice hula hoops as dance. Hula hoops classes are happening right here in my small town in Maine as an exercise class, but if you check out the above, Turning Circles link, you'll see that they're a legit performance art, where Emma actually makes her living.

#7.2 LP on 2017-04-30 21:32 (Reply)

http://turningcircles-hk.com/performance/

Whitehall: Because you describe hula hoops as a fad, I wanted to share the above link. Hula hoops classes are happening right here in my small town in Maine as an exercise class, but if you check out the above, Turning Circles link, you'll see that they're a legit performance art, where Emma actually makes her living.

#7.3 LP on 2017-04-30 21:33 (Reply)

As a teenager I worked as a cashier in a Whole Foods-type grocery store, and I recall many times seeing customers spend significant amounts of cash on the nutritional supplements while using food stamps to purchase their produce and other basics. I always thought they must have a better use for that $40 than on bottles of shark cartilage and echinacea.

#8 stinkfoot on 2017-04-30 16:47 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Friday, April 28. 2017

Five Reasons Not To Take Dietary Supplements