The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements

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Samarami's picture
Samarami, posted on July 26, 2013

From the article:

    '..."It's been a tough week for vitamins," said Carrie Gann of ABC News...'

And this, coming from a spokesman (oh, forgot: "spokesperson") of state media, is your clue that you are about to be conditioned to naysay supplements -- at least in your mind. Of course, if you've been a STR reader for more than a day or two you already know this.

    '...On October 25, a headline in the Wall Street Journal asked, "Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?" Studies haven't hurt sales. In 2010, the vitamin industry grossed $28 billion, up 4.4 percent from the year before. "The thing to do with [these reports] is just ride them out," said Joseph Fortunato, chief executive of General Nutrition Centers. "We see no impact on our business."...'

Tell me, my friends. Would The Atlantic be low enough to engage in incest with psychopaths of state to produce memes and dominant social themes? Say it ain't so.

    "...Although studies had failed to support him, Pauling believed that vitamins and supplements had one property that made them cure-alls, a property that continues to be hawked on everything from ketchup to pomegranate juice and that rivals words like natural and organic for sales impact: antioxidant..."

"Cure-all" and "hawk" are symptoms, mates. You're being hoodwinked. Valid information is being dissed in your little pea brain. But never mind:

    Dominant Social Theme: You are being well cared for. Corporate food and corporate pharmaceutical are looking out for your best health interests. Trust us.

Thanks, Daily Bell. You will truly be missed.

Sam

Samarami's picture
Samarami, posted on July 26, 2013

Writing essays or articles has never been my forte. Seems I feel overshadowed by the talent and fluency of you root-strikers and libertarian authors. I post responses -- argumentative at times -- without feeling driven to produce essays of my own. The libertarian landscape is strewn with scars of combat. I'm called to peace.

In looking for a fitting tribute to Daily Bell, which bit the dust last week, I googled up Anthony Wile's final article, which ended with a link to "Memento Mori", also written by Wile, and which included this quotation by him:

    "It is your journey and your time to spend doing what you wish. Don't assume your desires are necessarily important for others. But you only get one journey to live. Your perspective is yours and it shapes YOUR reality. You choose which risks you wish to take in order to live your life, according to your time."

That is a poignant summation of my philosophy --or what has become my mindset as a part of my conversion from governmentalism to anarchy. Smacks of Harry Browne, who was one of my first mentors to lead me along this trail (I believe it is a path, or way -- not a destination).

But Anthony's glossary piece, "Memento Mori", is about his (and many libertarians') characteristic urge to "set up a society (with my style of 'freedom')...", but he corrects himself midstream:

    "...Of course, such a society would be a kind of contradiction in terms. Those in the freedom movement (which we've tried to be part of) tend to believe in individual human action. Banding together under a formal platform with a formal organization and a formal logo is somewhat antithetical to that larger concept..."

So there you have it. In a sense I miss the knock-down-drag-out's we once had here at STR, and a few other forums I once frequented. Perhaps Jim Davies needs to get busy and come up with another essay on religion -- I think the last elicited over a hundred responses (I quit counting), some quite quarrelsome and vigorous.

At least Jim kept the fire a-goin'.

Sam

 

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