This article was analyzed by Serge, MSc. Leveraging expertise in Biochemistry and Chemical Quality Control, I share insights and recommendations backed by research and clinical evidence to ensure you find safe and effective supplement solutions.
The other day, I was sitting with a friend, and we started talking about vitamins and supplements. You know, those little pills, powders, or gummies we pop every day.
We started joking about how we take them without thinking, just swallow, wash down with water, done. Then somehow, the conversation shifted, and we began wondering where the idea of supplements even came from.
My friend laughed and said, “Our ancestors didn’t need any of this stuff. They were getting everything from real food without even knowing what vitamins were.” I nodded, and we started thinking about how nutrition has evolved from natural foods to the concentrated supplements we see today.
Are Vitamins Really Effective?
We kicked off the conversation by questioning whether vitamins really do what they claim.
I said, “Sure, if someone has a deficiency, vitamins obviously help. But for most healthy people, I’m not sure popping a daily multivitamin does much.”
My friend added, “Yeah, I read some studies where regular multivitamins didn’t improve lifespan or prevent diseases for people who already eat well.” It’s true. Supplements can prevent serious deficiencies, like scurvy, rickets, or beriberi, but their effect on otherwise healthy individuals is less clear.
We dug a little deeper. Vitamin D and calcium, for example, can support bone health, especially in older adults. Antioxidants, like vitamin E or zinc, may reduce risks for certain conditions, but usually only in specific cases.
And for people who already eat a balanced diet, taking multivitamins often doesn’t show measurable improvements in overall health. After thinking about it, we realized that vitamins are really tools for prevention or correction, not magic bullets.
They’re most effective when someone’s diet lacks certain nutrients or in particular medical situations.
Where Did Supplements Come From?
Our chat naturally turned to history. “How did anyone even think of isolating vitamins and making pills?” my friend asked.
I explained that humans didn’t always know about vitamins. In fact, our ancestors survived without ever opening a supplement bottle. They relied on a variety of whole foods, fruits, vegetables, meat, grains and herbs for medicine or general health. They got all the nutrients they needed naturally, often without realizing it.
We started giving examples. A long time ago, sailors got scurvy on long trips at sea, until someone noticed that eating citrus fruits, like lemons and oranges, helped prevent it. They didn’t know about vitamin C, they just saw that these fruits worked.
In cold places where there wasn’t much sunlight, people who didn’t eat enough fish sometimes got rickets because they weren’t getting enough vitamin D.
In areas where people mostly ate white rice, beriberi was a problem because they didn’t get enough vitamin B1. Our ancestors didn’t understand the science; they just noticed which foods kept them healthy.
It wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that scientists began isolating vitamins and studying their roles.
Researchers like Nikolai Lunin experimented with mice and realized there were essential factors in food beyond protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
Later, a scientist named Casimir Funk came up with the word “vitamine.” He thought these nutrients were special chemical compounds called amines that were essential for life. Scientists eventually learned how to isolate vitamins and make them into concentrated forms like pills, powders, and gummies.
This allowed people to get the nutrients they needed more reliably, especially if their diets were limited or lacked variety. The discovery of vitamins changed how people thought about nutrition and made it possible to prevent deficiency diseases much more effectively.
Our Ancestors and Natural Sources
We agreed that humans used to get all their nutrients directly from nature. Pills weren’t necessary because diets were seasonal, diverse, and full of whole foods. Fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, fish, meat, and grains provided almost everything people needed.
Herbs also played an important role. We joked about how today people pay hundreds for capsules, while our ancestors just chewed leaves or brewed plants for general wellness. Herbs like garlic, turmeric, or nettle were used for energy, immunity, or other minor health boosts, even if nobody understood the chemistry behind them.
The more we talked, the more obvious it became that supplements are really a modern solution to modern problems. Back then, food was less processed, nutrients were intact, and people naturally balanced their diets through seasonal eating. Deficiency diseases were rare, except during famine or when preservation methods were poor.
The Birth of Supplements
While vitamins are essential nutrients, supplements are the modern products designed to deliver these nutrients in convenient forms. Supplements emerged as scientists discovered that people could suffer from deficiency diseases if their diets lacked certain vitamins.
Once vitamins were identified, researchers developed pills, powders, and later gummies to provide nutrients in concentrated forms. This made it possible for individuals to obtain essential vitamins even if their daily diet did not provide enough.
During World War II, soldiers received vitamin supplements to prevent deficiencies during long campaigns. After the war, commercial supplements became widely available to the public, making vitamins accessible in households around the world.
Supplements are not the same as vitamins. A vitamin is a nutrient required for proper body function, whereas a supplement is a product designed to provide one or more of these nutrients in a measured dose. Supplements were developed to fill gaps in nutrition, particularly in cases where natural foods were insufficient, unavailable, or difficult to consume in adequate amounts.
Modern supplements are produced under strict quality controls. Vitamins may come from natural sources, such as plants or minerals, or they can be synthesized in laboratories to ensure stability and precise dosing.
Depending on the formulation, supplements are manufactured as tablets, capsules, powders, or gummies. Factories follow rigorous hygiene standards, and packaging protects the products from moisture, air, and light, all of which could reduce potency over time.
Research continues to support the use of supplements for preventing or correcting nutrient deficiencies. Vitamin C is known to prevent scurvy, vitamin D supports normal bone development, and vitamin B1 is used to treat beriberi. These effects have been observed for decades and are well supported by scientific research.
At the same time, evidence suggests that routine multivitamin use does not provide the same benefits for healthy adults who already eat balanced diets. A large study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA Network Open in June 2024 followed nearly 400,000 generally healthy U.S. adults for more than twenty years.
The analysis found no association between daily multivitamin use and a lower risk of death, including deaths related to cancer or heart disease.
These findings support the idea that supplements work best as targeted tools to address specific nutritional gaps, rather than as universal products for everyday health in people who already meet their nutrient needs through food.
Modern Trends
We laughed talking about how supplements have evolved. Today, vitamins are available in nearly every imaginable form: gummies shaped like bears or fruits, fizzy powders that dissolve in water, plant-based capsules, and even formulas targeted for sleep, energy, or stress.
It is convenient, sure, but it also made us a little nostalgic for the simplicity of the past, whole foods, herbs, and seasonal eating.
FAQs
Q: What is the difference between vitamins and supplements?
A: Vitamins are nutrients required for bodily functions, such as vitamin C, vitamin D, and B vitamins. Supplements are products, such as pills, powders, or gummies, designed to provide these nutrients in concentrated, measured doses.
Q: How are supplements made?
A: Supplements can be derived from natural sources, such as plants or minerals, or synthesized in laboratories for consistency and stability. They are manufactured in forms such as tablets, capsules, powders, or gummies under strict hygiene and quality controls.
Q: Do supplements improve health for everyone?
A: Supplements prevent or correct deficiencies and are helpful in specific medical situations. For healthy individuals with a balanced diet, multivitamins may not significantly improve overall health, lifespan, or disease prevention.
Q: Were supplements used by our ancestors?
A: No. Ancestors relied on natural foods and herbs to meet their nutritional needs. Deficiency diseases were uncommon in communities with varied diets, and herbs were used for minor health benefits or wellness.
Q: Why do people take supplements today?
A: People use supplements to fill nutritional gaps when diets are insufficient, to support specific health goals, or in situations where natural foods are unavailable, limited, or lacking essential nutrients.
Summary
By the end of our chat, we agreed on a few things. Supplements are modern solutions to nutritional gaps, not replacements for food. They are most effective for preventing deficiencies or in specific health situations, not as daily insurance for everyone. Our ancestors thrived without them, thanks to whole foods, variety, and herbs.
It is fascinating to think about. Those little pills and gummies we take casually today have a long history rooted in observation, experimentation, and discovery.
The next time you pop a vitamin or chew a gummy, it is worth thinking about where that idea even came from, and how nutrition has evolved from herbs and fresh foods to the scientific supplements we see today.
