28 Billion Dollar Misconception
Multivitamins are a 28 billion dollar business and it is expanding every year. Millions of people all around the world consume multivitamin supplements everyday whether to just live a healthier life or because people think that they need the extra vitamins in their system. Multivitamin companies have been telling people for years that it is healthy to consume their products with no negative repercussions. Most people do not even realize what they are consuming and think every multivitamin is healthy to take because they are sold on grocery and supplement store shelves all across the country. They companies consistently push their products on people by telling them that taking the multivitamins will lead to a healthier lifestyle. These companies fail to tell their customers the negative effects that these vitamins have on a normal human body. Multivitamins are meant for people who have vitamin deficient diets and should not be taken by someone who has a steady nutritional diet.
Being healthy is the state of being free from illness and injury. The supplement industry feeds false information into these people’s brains every day. Vitamin companies claim that their products can make a person live a healthier lifestyle. They make false statements such as “you will have more stamina” or “this multivitamin will make you stronger and healthier.” It is sad considering how many people believe this despite how much information there is to why multivitamin supplements are not healthy. People make arguments saying they eat too much junk food and they need a multivitamin to help keep them healthy. NBC journal deputy editor Dr. Cynthia Mulrow said “Even junk foods often are fortified with vitamins, while the main nutrition problem in the U.S. is too much fat and calories.” Dr. Howard Sesso of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston stated that “Still, there’s no substitute for preaching a healthy diet and good behaviors such as exercise.”
What these companies fail to tell customers is that taking multivitamins could lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. If a so called healthy person took multivitamins, they would just be doing more damage to themselves than if they did not take a multivitamin supplement. Another common mistake people make is that they think consuming more than the recommended amount is more beneficial because in their minds more is always better which is false. The saying if “one is good, more is better” does not apply to this subject.
Most people live a “healthy” lifestyle just by eating a balanced diet. Foods have every vitamin the body needs to live an illness and injury free life. Taking multivitamins on top of having a balanced diet is extremely unhealthy and could even be toxic. Some effects of taking too much of a vitamin are birth defects, hemorrhaging, blood clotting, kidney stones, liver failure and many more. These are all results of what attempting to live a healthy lifestyle can do. According to livescience.com three recent studies have shown that multivitamins are ineffective at reducing risk of disease and could be harmful to the body. Another study posted in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that multivitamin supplements do not slow down or prevents chronic diseases.
They are meant for people who have serious vitamin disorders which are rare. There have been multiple studies published in respected journals that show these vitamins do absolutely nothing in preventing disease and death.
Taking too much of a certain vitamin can lead to a vitamin overdose. Most vitamin overdoses are accidental because people think they are actually helping their bodies function at a more efficient level. These overdoses can lead to toxic symptoms which can range from cracking lips to liver and kidney failure. Many people are unaware when these symptoms occur and fail to do anything about it because no one thinks that the multivitamin supplement they take every morning is causing their eye irritation which eventually will kill them. An example of taking too much of a vitamin is folic acid. Most multivitamins contain folic acid which is good for the body but mostly everyone gets the recommended amount of folic acid in the food they eat throughout the day. Harvard’s Men Health Watch published a study in 2008 that showed most foods we eat have enough folic acid in them and if a person is taking a multivitamin, they could be getting to much folic acid which is linked to prostate and colorectal cancers. Another recent study conducted by Webmd.com showed that excess folic acid can be linked with many different types of cancers.
Another problem people face with multivitamin supplements is that they might not even be getting the correct amount of a certain vitamin that they actually need. A large portion of actual vitamin deficient people think any multivitamin they take will do the job. Most doctors recommend getting tested to see what vitamins people are not getting enough of and then they will be prescribed a certain multivitamin or will be recommended to eat more of a certain food which is the healthiest way to fix vitamin deficiency. On December 16, 2013 a study was conducted by three doctors at Johns Hopkins University that found there is absolutely no benefit from multivitamins on a well-nourished body and taking them actually could harm people. They also found that these vitamins can be taxing on the liver and other organs when there are excess amounts in the body. These doctors strongly recommend staying away from these dangerous multivitamins and sticking to the way our bodies are supposed to get nutrients which is simply eating food.
There have been multiple studies that prove multivitamins are a waste of money and do not do anything. Many people consume them on a daily basis with barely any knowledge of what they actually do. People will continue to believe that what they are doing is good for their bodies until this information is well advertised and supplement companies stop feeding people false information.
Neergaard, Lauren, “Two New Studies Debunk Benefits of Multivitamins”, NBCnews.com, December 16, 2013, April 9, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-health/two-new-studies-debunk-benefits-multivitamins-f2D11757314
Bryant, Charles W, “Are Multivitamins Really Good for Me”, August 12, 2012, April 9, 2014, http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/vitamin-supplements/multivitamins-good-for-me2.htm
Nierenberg, Cari, “Getting Too Many Vitamins and Minerals”, April 2, 2014, April 8, 2014, http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/effects-of-taking-too-many-vitamins?page=2
Jaslow, Ryan, “Multivitamin Reasearchers Say “Case is Closed” After Studies Find No Health Benefits”, December 16, 2013, April 8, 2014, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/multivitamin-researchers-say-case-is-closed-supplements-dont-boost-health/
Perez, Eric, “Multiple Vitamin Overdose”, December 15, 2011, April 8, 2014, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002596.htm
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
Could I get some feedback on this argument. Thank you
Feedback provided. —DSH
I was all set to do this work this morning when PSE&G cut the power on my street to trim trees, Erik. Sorry for the delay.
Two thematic observations that occur to me early, Erik. You miss an important rhetorical opportunity by your constant reference to “people.” At least times you seem to be talking about someone other than your reader. Why be so impersonal? Substitute “us” for all those people and see how much more the paragraph “matters.”
I won’t make this recommendation again, so look through your entire essay for chances to make this important change.
The pace of your first paragraph is glacial. We don’t know vitamins are dangerous until the very end. We should know that from the start. “Built on dubious claims that they will improve our health, multivitamins are a 28 billion dollar business . . . ” Look at that! Now I want to read the second sentence!
P2. No. No. No. If you haven’t taken my advice yet (how did you get into your second semester with me without knowing not to talk about “these people”?) PLEASE for your own sake, substitute US immediately. If only some of us fall prey to certain lies, then “those of us”! Is there any question this is better, less judgmental, friendlier to your audience?
Example: It is sad to consider how many of us believe these claims, despite the evidence to the contrary. OK?
P3. Sigh. All the old lessons I thought were learned. Eliminate the unnecessary if/thens and overpopulated sentences, Erik. And figure out what your real subject is. Here it’s the vitamins, not the person:
Trimmed to:
Do the same exercise on the second half of this flabby paragraph and you’ll have two taut sentences.
I’m going to cease the paragraph-by-paragraph approach now, Erik. I hope the big thematic recommendations will help when you’ve applied them to the entire essay (and to the other arguments in your portfolio).
In an editorial where space is limited, your citation of “multiple studies” saying “categorical things” would be OK, to send readers looking further for the details. But you have as much room as you need here to cite actual results of actual studies. It’s not enough to know they exist. Some of them must make dramatic conclusions you could quote. Where are those persuasive conclusions? (Too much water at one time could kill me, but I don’t stop drinking water, or call it dangerous, because of that.)
Most readers distrust the “linked to” claim. I’m among them. You make two at the end of your otherwise pretty persuasive folic acid paragraph. I’ll bet cancers could be linked to Netflix too on the grounds that a sedentary lifestyle leads to ill-health in general and binge TV watching pins many of us to our chairs for days at a time. But nobody—yet!—is condemning Netflix for causing cancer. And your reader wouldn’t accept the “linkage” as evidence enough to do so.
The JHU example is good, but just a few words in quotation marks would add SO much credibility.
Separate your Works Cited with a title at the bottom, Erik, and be sure to hyperlink your titles to the original sources to facilitate accessing them. Overall this reads well and seems sound. It fails to persuade because its evidence is too generic, but it does raise strong suggestions that there might exist sufficient evidence to worry about multivitamins (or at least to wonder if they’re at all beneficial).
Grade recorded. Improvable until I read through your entire Portfolio, whenever that occurs.