Readers Digest "Vitamin Scam"
I believe the human body is a healing, self‑regenerating system, designed to repair itself day by day. That’s why a recent Reader’s Digest article (04/10) titled “Vitamin Scam” caught my attention. The piece argues that vitamin supplementation has no place in a health program and that anyone who eats a healthy, varied diet has no need for a multivitamin.
That claim couldn’t be further from the truth. Today, it is virtually impossible to eat a diet that provides all essential nutrients in the proper amounts without consuming far too many calories.
Modern food simply isn’t what it used to be. Our crops contain only a fraction of the nutrient density they held just a few generations ago. As farm yields have increased, concentrations of protein, minerals, and vitamins have dropped sharply. We repeatedly fertilize fields with only nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus—three nutrients that boost yield but do nothing to replace the dozens of other minerals crops pull from the soil. Within a few years, those minerals are depleted, and no one is putting them back. Even natural processes that once helped, such as nutrient‑rich flooding from spring snowmelt, have been interrupted by flood‑control systems.
Layer on top of that the impact of genetically engineered seeds, pesticides, long‑distance food transport, early harvesting, modern processing methods, preservatives, artificial colors, and flavor enhancers. The result is simple: our food no longer carries the nutritional value it once did. Combine this with the pace of modern life, and it becomes clear that we are not getting what we need from diet alone.
Even the animal industry recognized long ago that supplementing livestock feed with balanced vitamin and mineral formulas dramatically reduced disease rates. With that knowledge widely accepted, it borders on irresponsible for the Reader’s Digest article to suggest humans don’t benefit from supplementation.
A healthy, varied diet must be supported with wise, individualized supplementation—tailored to each person’s current state of health and wellness.
If you’d like, I can also help you tighten the tone further or adapt it for a different audience.
