Vitamins & Supplements - Are They Worth It?

Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamins and supplements, but are they worth it? We look at the science behind some of th

Americans spend billions of dollars on vitamins and supplements, but are they worth it? We look at the science behind some of the most popular supplements with nutritional epidemiologist Prof. Katherine Tucker, neuroscientist Dr. Simon Dyall, and medical researcher Dr. Mark Bolland.

Our Sponsors: G Suite | WP Engine

Credits: This episode has been produced by Wendy Zukerman, Heather Rogers, and Shruti Ravindran. Production assistance from Rose Rimler. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. Edited by Blythe Terrell with help from Alex Blumberg. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Sound design by Martin Peralta and Bobby Lord. Music written by Bobby Lord. An extra thanks to the Zukerman Family, Joseph Lavelle Wilson, Chris Giliberti, Jasmine Romero, Matthew Nelson, Stevie Lane, Dr Harri Hemilä, Stephanie from the New York State Library and Dr Rajaprabhakaran Rajarethinam.

Selected Reading:

• The history of fortified foods
• The Institute of Medicine Report on calcium and Vitamin D
• Survey on vitamin shopping habits in the US
• Simon’s paper on Omega 3 and spinal cord injuries in rats
• Mark’s work on calcium
• This whopper of a study on multivitamins

Check out the full transcript here with all the footnotes.

There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet Media that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don't have to. This season we tackle alcohol, fasting diets, DNA tests, race and the fertility cliff.