Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

This is a 1968 advertisement for Rexall Drugs’ Super Plenamin vitamins. If you look closely at the label, you can see that they were “selected for use by the U.S. Olympic Team.” It feels almost sacrilegious to say anything negative about vitamins. We need them to stay healthy, right? We’ll get rickets and stuff if we don’t take our vitamins, won’t we?

Well, I don’t know too much about that. I’ve heard nutritionists say that if you eat a healthy well-balanced diet, that you shouldn’t need vitamins. I’ve also heard them say that they won’t hurt you if you take them just in case. Case in point:

• Ask the Dietitian – by Joanne Larsen MS RD LD – Supplements – Vitamin

What I DO know is that the sale of vitamins is a business. Not only do legitimate companies like Rexall tap into the vitamin business, multi-level marketing (MLM) and social marketing companies have noticed how much money they can make. From a business standpoint, you can’t lose. You can say that vitamin supplements can improve your health and no one will argue with you. They cure scurvy and stuff, right?

It’s easy for me to look at that old bottle of Plenamins and think to myself, “Those pills didn’t do anything.” The bottle looks so old that they look like snake oil. Rexall is STILL selling Plenamins, though.

When I look at this bottle of Plenamins Plus from Rexall, it looks like something I would take every day after I brush my teeth. They’re from a big company like Rexall Drug, so they help me, right?

I’m almost to the point that I want to experiment. What if I STOP taking a multi-vitamin? How long before I develop rickets or scurvy? What if I make sure I eat a well-balanced diet? Am I safe then? How long until I realize that I was just peeing out expensive urine?

Via: Found in Mom’s Basement: Bottle of Super Plenamins vitamins from 1968