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[chaoticag]

Speaking of vitamins, there is a vitamin salesman that argues that AIDS is not in fact caused by viruses, but an imbalanced diet. Sadly, people in South Africa believe him. More to the point though, you need vitamins to live, since they work as the building blocks for organic matter, and various chemical properties are needed to sustain biological life. The thing is though, that all these needed vitamins are present in nature, and unless you live as a vegetarian or a vegan, it's unlikely that you'll ever need to ingest vitamin pills. They won't make you into super people or anything, and it is possible to get yourself poisoned by getting too many vitamins.

[Shade-o]

Pssh, everyone knows that AIDS is caused by condoms.

[chaoticag]

And cured by african potatoes.

[Bauglir]

Speaking of vitamins, there is a vitamin salesman that argues that AIDS is not in fact caused by viruses, but an imbalanced diet. Sadly, people in South Africa believe him. More to the point though, you need vitamins to live, since they work as the building blocks for organic matter, and various chemical properties are needed to sustain biological life. The thing is though, that all these needed vitamins are present in nature, and unless you live as a vegetarian or a vegan, it's unlikely that you'll ever need to ingest vitamin pills. They won't make you into super people or anything, and it is possible to get yourself poisoned by getting too many vitamins.

Pssh, that's just SCIENCE. It's not like it has any more inherent validity than the belief that a balanced diet consists entirely of buttery pasta and mountain dew.

[KaguroDraven]

Pssh, everyone knows that AIDS is caused by condoms.

LIES! According to my Health Teacher(and this is sadly true) AIDS is caused by masturbation!

[Bauglir]

Pssh, everyone knows that AIDS is caused by condoms.

LIES! According to my Health Teacher(and this is sadly true) AIDS is caused by masturbation!

Clearly the solution is to wear a condom while masturbating, thus causing them to cancel.

[The Doctor]

OR, YOU KNOW, NOT BE IDIOTS


BUT HEY, WHATEVER WORKS


I'M JUST GONNA GO OVER HERE AND NOT-BE-AN-IDIOT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah I got the joke, but I wanted to say this

[Leafsnail]

Speaking of vitamins, there is a vitamin salesman that argues that AIDS is not in fact caused by viruses, but an imbalanced diet. Sadly, people in South Africa believe him.

He tried to sue a science journalist I read quite a lot... and lost, spectacularly.  That was the best piece of news I've heard for ages.

Vitamins... do seem a bit worrying to me, to be honest.  It's one of these "Miracle cure!" things.  I mean, yes, you do need these vitamins to live, but you already have more than enough of them.  The living yoghurt products ("Boost your digestive system's good bacteria") are basically the equivalent of throwing a teaspoon of water into a lake.

LIES! According to my Health Teacher(and this is sadly true) AIDS is caused by masturbation!

Clearly people must turn to prostitutes to avoid getting AIDS!

[eerr]

It was proven somewhere that stomach bacteria are to blame for heartburn.
If yogurt and stomach bacteria kill each other, it's not so unreasonable.

(Though I can't tell, honest)

[Leafsnail]

Nah, these are the "vital" gut bacteria.  And yeah, they are vital, but you've got plenty of them already.  You don't really need any more, and the amount in live yoghurt is negligible compared to what you've already got.

[Siquo]

I thought so, too, but a lot of them actually survive the stomach acids, and get into the bowels. A lot of research is being done, and results vary: Some cultures do nothing, others can even be harmful to already weakened individuals, and some of them have actual benign effects.

So it's about 80% BS and 20% real, and I had to re-adjust my opinion of them.

[Andir]

When I "eat" yogurt, I like to skip the whole stomach process.  Ok, that was bad:

[Leafsnail]

I thought so, too, but a lot of them actually survive the stomach acids, and get into the bowels. A lot of research is being done, and results vary: Some cultures do nothing, others can even be harmful to already weakened individuals, and some of them have actual benign effects.

I'm curious to see these studies, considering most of the stuff I've seen calls it unmitigated bullshit (unless it's one of those pieces of "research" done by the company, I guess).

[Bauglir]

No, vitamins are a pretty important thing. Your gut bacteria produce tons of shit you need to live, but vitamins are the things they don't produce any of or don't produce enough of. So you actually do need to ensure your diet's got decent vitamin content (seriously, as far as I can tell, vitamins and Omega-3 oils are about the only health-food trends that aren't COMPLETE bullshit, but are merely overhyped). Generally, though, as long as you're eating actual food (as opposed to fast food or Ramen or anything else that's basically just a source of calories), you're probably doing just fine unless your diet has no variation whatsoever, in which case you need to make sure it's got everything.

Still, it helps to pay attention to make sure you're getting around the right amount in a day (and making sure you're not getting too much of the fat-soluble ones, because chronic vitamin A excess is not fun times).

[Leafsnail]

No, vitamins are a pretty important thing. Your gut bacteria produce tons of shit you need to live, but vitamins are the things they don't produce any of or don't produce enough of.

Gut bacteria aren't really related that much to vitamins, except that people try to sell you crap through them too.

 So you actually do need to ensure your diet's got decent vitamin content (seriously, as far as I can tell, vitamins and Omega-3 oils are about the only health-food trends that aren't COMPLETE bullshit, but are merely overhyped). Generally, though, as long as you're eating actual food (as opposed to fast food or Ramen or anything else that's basically just a source of calories), you're probably doing just fine unless your diet has no variation whatsoever, in which case you need to make sure it's got everything.
[/quote]
Which is pretty much what most dieticians will tell you - "Everything in moderation, make sure it's varied, eat your fruit and vegetables".  On the other hand, if you want to hawk a product, you need to tell people they will DIE PAINFULLY if they don't eat your vitamin B-12 supplements.

It's not so much that you don't need vitamins - they are indeed essential.  It's just that you're not all that likely to be short of most of them.