Who needs science anyway...
 

Two of my favourite products on sale are vitamins for morons and speshul people.



1. Centrium balanced vitamins. Of course as we know full well, unless your vitamin intake is (gawdelpus) 'balanced' you can't possibly survive. I think your head will fall off or something. There is proof. We will draw a veil over the salient fact that if you eat anything with vitamins in, then this will unbalance the balanced vitamins you get from centrium. Presumably when taking them you have to eat only food that does not contain vitamins. We will of course try and avoid the fact that the average Western diet contains far more of all the vitamins that you actually need.



An additional advertised fact is that these will allow all the energy in the food you eat to be released. Personally I think that if they could produce a brand of vitamins that could prevent most of the food energy from being released then they would be onto a world beating product.



2. Well Women vitamins. As we know, women are fragile little creatures who can only survive with their own 'speshul' mix of vitamins that have been properly crafted for them, unlike the bog standard vitamins that men seem to get by on.



If anyone can explain how, for the last few thousand years we have more or less managed to survive as a species without our speshul balanced wellwhatsit vitaminies I would be delighted to hear it.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Actually a lot of people are low in vitamin D, especially darker-skinned people living away from the equator.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

D isn't strictly a vitamin, its a hormone and its production is through a process of the sun converting cholesterol on the skin and is then reabsorbed into the body as the D complex of hormones.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Correct, it was erroneously named, however it is also found in some foodstuffs and you can take an oral supplement form.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Yeah, they also say its one of the only ones that actually does any good. The really funny one is vitamin C, there is almost no evidence that it helps in any way to combat colds... its one of those things where people take it, they get better and they put it down to the Vitamin C... when in truth if they had done nothing, they would have got better.... There is a lot of that sort of false science in Horticulture.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

I think it's also little short of a miracle how the female of the species especially, has survived for tens of thousands of years before Boots the Chemists,Timothy White,the Body Shop,the Cosmetic companies with Fancy French names and all the rest came on the scene with their magic potions and lotions to stop them ageing, make their skin younger and much more beautiful etc.etc.
Just a pity that virtually none of it works, whilst the companies have a licence to print money and laugh all the way to the bank after duping millions of naive women worldwide.
I recall the bbc doing a series of programmes involving controlled tests using a wide variety of very expensive famous brand skin-creams on a number of women for several weeks under strict professional medical supervision to evaluate the products.
At the end of the day,virtually none of them showed any improvement in their skin condition, but almost all of them showed exactly the reverse, strangely enough the most expensive products actually causing the most damage and the cheaper ones,the least.
What they refer to as the anti ageing component was the only thing that served any purpose and in fact is actually the ultra violet protection that can be found in most cheap brands of sun lotion.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Has someone taken over rugbymatt's profile?

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

:rofl::rofl:

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

How about the shameful way in which homeopathy products are sold in Boots and other outlets?

Paul Bennett, professional standards director for Boots says there is no evidence they work - "We sell them because people want to buy them - not because they work."

Scandalous.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

They sell them because consumers are dumb enough to buy them, whilst they can get away with fixing scandalous mark up margins, as with virtually all of the stuff they turn over, much of which is totally useless anyway.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Because of my wife’s special diet, our fridge is packed full of fresh fruit and vegetables, with not a sausage or beef burger in sight, sadly.

If she took vitamin supplements on top of that lot, she’d explode.

I’ve had strawberries and kiwi fruit for breakfast, but she’s out this morning and I’m tempted to walk down to the English fry-up place to have a fried breakfast for two, just for me. If I need to I can get some ‘well man’ vitamins from the chemist opposite.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

My heart bleeds for you old son, you have my deepest sympathy. :(

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Spot on. If you could give clear, demonstrable proof that homeopathy worked, you'd be a famous and wealthy man.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

When my eldest daughter was 4 or 5 years old I thought that I was being a good mum by giving her childrens vitamins. She came out in a huge cold sore that covered the whole lip and part of her nose. Took her to the doctor who said that she was not having enough vitamins in her diet. We talked about what she was eating which was excellent as she was a good eater of good foods and then I said that I had given her the vitamins. Diagnoses....too many vitamins. Stopped the tablets and all was well within days.

Rosemary

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

I've said it before. The western diet contains a superabundance of vitamins, and for the average person to take vitamin supplements is to actually court health problems.

Don't do it!

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

You would indeed be richer by one million dollars in one fell swoop.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Mrs Fred made me a couple of rounds of BLT for lunch :)

I now feel well balanced :thumbup:

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Name more than a few overpackaged overprocessed products that comment doesn't apply to;)

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Well there are some folk with illnesses where their body can not absorb as many vitamins as a normal person from food such as Chrons and Collitis A vitamin supplement can help these folk. Some vitamins can also help your body absorb other vitamins easier, such as Vitamin C, which helps with Iron Absorption.

If you don't need them they are a waste of money, yes.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Which of course is why I say 'for the average person' they are a waste of time, money and in addition a positive threat to your health.

It's such a shame that more people just aren't taught science and enough critical reasoning to work it out for themselves

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Yes and that sometimes over dosing on vitamins can have the reverse affect or in fact could be fatal, as is with Iron for one.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

An excess of vitamin D does more damage than rickets.

Stupidity is still the one condition that carried the death penalty.

How many times have you heard some dipshit saying 'I don't eat that because it's full of chemicals. (eg water, a very dangerous chemical.)

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

OMG I am agreeing with you all...again:rofl:

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Shocking. I may have to go and lie down.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Well Done:thumbsup:

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

"It's OK because it's natural".

"It's OK because it doesn't contain chemicals".

Both drive me bonkers:frown:

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

'Organic' is the other one. Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon and it's molecules.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

I know stuff you know.... none of it interesting but I still know stuff.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Renaissance man hallmark. A mind full of wierd crap. ;)

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

It would be extremely difficult, almost impossible, to take too much vitamin D.

While there is certainly an industry cashing in on vitamins, your statement in this case shows a lack of knowledge of the subject.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

I was basing it on at least one case of vitamin D poisoning where a worried mother fearful of rickets had dosed her children with high levels.

Vitamin D is, like some other fat based, and as such it can build up in the body to toxic levels. I'd also point out that quite a small vitamin excess has be accused of causing problems.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Alpha D3 is a extremely potent form of Vitamin D, helps folks with osteoporosis, I bet you could OD, if you over did that?

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

How much vitamin D do you think you get if you spend every day at the beach for a couple of weeks?

Obviously don't give children mega-doses of anything.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Not sure Nor could I measure it, I would guess though that it is more possible to overdose if you had this exposure everyday and take something like Alpha D3.

It probably is, as you say, quite difficult to overdose on it, but I bet people do.

Re: Who needs science anyway...
 

Well let's just step back here. I'm not saying that an OD of every vitamin causes instant and agonising death. It's effectively impossible to poison yourself with B & C because these are water soluable vits, and are flushed out of the body with great speed.

A;D; & E are all fat soluable, and there is clear evidence that it is possible to poison yourself with fat soluable vits, even if it does require a bit of effort.

The point I am trying to make here is that the average person in the west has absolutely no need to take vitamins, there is evidence that even small regular overdoses can cause health problems, so based on that alone, why in god's name would anyone rational ever take them again?

Ah yes, of course the word is 'rational' Were people rational, there would be a whole lot less problems in the world.

Were people rational, there would be no way you could sell them 'balanced' vitamins, because anyone can see (if they actually think) that the minute you took them your 'vitamin content' would instantly be unbalanced.