This is the first of a two-part series on vitamins—which most of us have taken at one time or another. In part one, we look at their origin story—and how they rose to dizzying popularity. Part two looks for answers for the big Q: Do they actually work?
First, wtf are vitamins?
They are organic compounds we need to help facilitate very important chemical reactions inside our body—the kind that keep us alive. So they are not burned as fuel—like those three macronutrients: fats, carbs and proteins.
These are micronutrients—essential but needed only in very teeny amounts. How teeny? The Recommended Daily Allowance for B12 is 2.4 micrograms—that’s 1/67th of a grain of salt. Thanks to evolution, we’ve lost the ability to produce these compounds—so we have to consume them in our food.
Fat- vs water-soluble: There are thirteen vitamins—of which four are fat-soluble—A, D, E and K. This means they dissolve in fat—and need fat in order to be absorbed. The other nine are water-soluble: Vitamin C plus eight that are clubbed together as B complex.
Discovering deficiency: We humans first discovered that some diseases are caused by a deficiency in our diet—not by bugs or bacteria. These epidemics, interestingly, were triggered by the advancement of technology.
Scurvy: Take, for instance, scurvy—caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C. It killed millions of sailors on transatlantic voyages—from Columbus to Magellan. The reason: We invented ships that could travel great distances—keeping malnourished sailors away from land for months on end. In 1753, a naval surgeon discovered merely feeding them citrus fruits made a huge difference—but he was still puzzled as to the reason why.
Beri beri: Another example is polished rice—made possible by steam-powered mills—that removed the Vitamin B1-rich husk from the grains. That single innovation resulted in the horrific rise of beri beri, which caused people to lose ability in their legs—making it hard to walk.
Naming vitamins: Finally, in 1912, a biochemist named Casimir Funk was the first to realise that these terrible epidemics were caused by the absence of something—not the presence of a bug:
“Diseases of deficiency” were the basis of early research on vitamins. When Funk proved that beriberi, a disease that affects the heart and nervous system, was caused by a vitamin deficiency, he surmised that other diseases such as scurvy and rickets were also caused by missing nutrients.
He named these mysterious compounds ‘vitamines’—“vita” means life, and “amine” is taken from the thiamine he isolated from rice husk.
Curious fact to note: The term ‘vitamins’ itself is a spurious category:
In terms of the chemical definition of a vitamin, there actually isn’t one. [Most of those 13] were discovered around the same time, and the word was coined before any of them had been isolated, and it just ended up being such a great word that it stuck around, even after scientists found out that the vitamins actually weren’t all chemically in the same family.
The great vitamin-selling machine
After World War II, companies figured out how to synthesise vitamins in a lab—at a very cheap price. Not coincidentally, this is when vitamins went from a proven cure to magical elixir—able to prevent all sorts of diseases. We entered the era of health supplements—specifically, multivitamins:
Mastin’s Vitamon Tablets, containing all three discovered vitamins and iron, calcium, and phosphorus, claimed to solve everything and nothing at the same time. Developed by Francis B. Mastin, who wasn’t a doctor, Mastin’s Vitamon Tablets were some of the first vitamins advertised in any significant way to the public. In less than a year, Mastin grew his business to $1 million per month in revenue, mostly through full page magazine ads that promised his supplements could “improve the appetite, aid indigestion, correct constipation, clear the skin, and increase energy.”
For example, this awesome ad:
The first brand ambassador for vitamins: Frank Sinatra—who sang the praises of Vimm's vitamins on his greatly popular radio show.
Fast forward to Linus Pauling: The man who deserved full credit for our present-day ‘Vitamania’ was considered “a colossus of 20th Century science, whose work laid the foundations of modern chemistry.” By 1966, he had revolutionised the field by marrying quantum physics with chemistry—which earned him the Nobel prize at the tender age of 30. His later work on proteins became the basis for the discovery of the structure of DNA.
In his golden years—at the age of 65—Pauling started adding Vitamin C to his orange juice. And he instantly became an evangelist:
In 1970, Pauling published Vitamin C and the Common Cold, urging the public to take 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C every day (about 50 times the recommended daily allowance). Pauling believed that the common cold would soon be a historical footnote.
In the coming decades, Pauling would claim that Vitamin C could also cure AIDS, cardiovascular diseases, cataracts, and even cancer. A 1992 TIME magazine cover story peddled his gospel under the headline: “The Real Power of Vitamins.” It also contained this ominous line: “Even more provocative are glimmerings that vitamins can stave off the normal ravages of ageing.” Hello, antioxidants! (more on that in part two)
The health supplement empire: Long after Pauling died of prostate cancer, vitamins continued to rule the roost. Author Catherine Price describes them as “gateway drugs” that paved the way for the emergence of a health supplement industry that today racks up $30.55 billion in sales—selling everything from Omega 3 to probiotics.
Say hello to Insta health: Vitamins are cool again. These days, companies bundle every supplement known to humans in one handy scoop. Just last year, the New York Times did a long piece debunking the claims of “superfood powders”—that throw in probiotics, ground up kale, chia seeds and ashwagandha. A promise that you can get “all of the vitamins and minerals you need for the day, as well as added health benefits like a stronger immune system, less stress, better digestion and more energy.”
Recent years have seen the rise of well-funded startups peddling vitamin subscription services—so you never run out! Unlike the tired old multivitamins, these tabs are bespoke—tailored just for you. Care/of, for example, offers a “standard multi for men or women and add-ons for focus or energy or immunity. You can buy a multivitamin, and then build your own multivitamin, perhaps unwittingly, to take on top of it.”
Vitamins be so pretty: More amusingly, the capsules themselves are Insta-friendly. For example, Ritual’s multivitamins that has “tiny beads of yellow inside a clear capsule, designed to be ‘super-shareable.’” Or look at these beauties from Care/of—packaged in a pretty bag with your name on it:
Today, vitamins are sold right next to your fave lipstick in Sephora—promising far more than those Vitamon tablets:
What the supplement industry has done most subtly and beautifully over the past few years is to arrange nutritional imperatives and vague beauty aspirations in the same basket. Supplements are for your body and your mind. The health of your bones and the glow of your cheeks. They fit perfectly in the heart of the wellness industry, which has so gracefully erased the line between self-care and medicine. It’s all about buying things to make yourself better. The care and maintenance of the human body — once disgusting, as bodies are — is now a delight.
Mother Nature in a pill! We started with the basic fact that human beings get their vitamins from food—leafy spinach, tomatoes, oranges and more. Today, that ‘basic fact’ has become mere packaging—where fruits and vegetables are used to sell vitamins in a pill—as one expert points out:
The first thing he pointed to was the pictures of fruits and leaves on the bottle, the emphasis on plant-based ingredients and the focus on naturalness. “Think about the names medicines have,” he said. Atorvastatin! Tramadol! “They sound like alien space lords. Then look at supplements with names like Nature’s Way.”
Remember Ritual? Their Instagram is filled with images of luscious fruits:
The bottomline: In part two, we will look at what medical research says about everyone’s fave version of vitamins—antioxidants—and their effects on health and ageing. Wtf is an antioxidant? Do they work at all? And what’s their link with cancer?
For now, we leave you with this brilliant quote from author Catherine Price:
If you give someone vitamin A and they’re suffering from nutritional blindness, which is a stage of vitamin A deficiency, they will regain their sight, often within days. And that’s crazy. It’s like a miracle drug. But it doesn’t translate into the idea that we seem to want to have, which is that if you can cure nutritional blindness with vitamin A, then if you take 17 times that amount in a pill, you’ll be able to see in the dark. The idea that more is better, and more gives you superpowers, is not true.
Reading list
The Atlantic (splainer gift link) has an excellent interview with author Catherine Price on the commodification of vitamins. Hashtag Paid looks at how they have been marketed throughout history. Vox has a good read on the evolution of Insta-friendly “subscription vitamin services”. New York Times (splainer gift link) debunks myths around ‘superfood powders’. Also in The Atlantic: a look at what is actually inside these multivitamins.
