We are all vitamin girlies* now
I bet many of you have implemented chugging down vitamins in your morning routines. Caring about your wellbeing is great, but do you really need those vitamins, though?
Content warning: this piece mentions my experience with an eating disorder, if that is something that can trigger you, please proceed with caution. It is nothing graphic, but it is worth a warning ❤️🩹
It has become almost impossible to watch a morning routine on whatever social media platform without catching the influencer ingurgitating a cocktail of pills to be fuelled for the day. I understand the appeal, and it falls under the self-care umbrella. But again, do you guys really need those vitamins or are you just being sold a lifestyle?
I am a vitamin girly. Every morning after brushing my teeth, doing my toiletry and getting dressed for the day, I head to the kitchen, pour myself a glass of water, grab my zinc and iron pills to chug them down my throat. Finally, the day can carry on. If I need to be out, or sat at my desk for work, I can do it with some peace of mind. My vitamins are in and ready to do their necessary work for my body to keep going like it should.
Content warning: next chapter mentions my experience with an eating disorder ❤️🩹
Supplementing life
I had the misfortune to fall into a dark spiral of an eating disorder from 12 to 19 years old. I was not sustaining my body properly, I was quite literally destroying myself to fit into beauty standards that 1. were mostly unattainable, and 2. did not have people like me in mind in the first place (curse to the colonised mind!). Instead of hoping to make myself look like one of those gorgeous blonde-haired, light-eyed, thigh-gapped and flat tummy girly, I just inflicted more harm to my already frail body. One of those harms was mineral deficiencies. I was feeding myself so little, that my body was fighting for its life (literally!) to keep me going, drawing from the very little fuel I had given it. Add to that, the slight anaemia I was diagnosed with when I was like 7… a real recipe for disaster!
In my recovery journey, as I was building a better and healthier relationship with food, I had to supplement daily to make up for the many deficiencies that were plaguing my body. And to make sure I was staying on the right track, the monthly checkups spaced out to every 3 months until only a yearly checkup was enough. My annual checkup consists of a blood test to monitor my deficiencies. When my body is finally producing enough of whatever mineral on its own, my doctor puts me out of the supplement supplementing me for the mineral I was deficient of (that was a slight mouthful, lol). Over the years, my supplement list shrunk significantly. Yet, for some reason, iron and zinc couldn’t keep themselves at a healthy level to work as intended.
For many years, those two were always scarily low. And they are important minerals! Iron, makes sense because of my anaemia, my blood has a low amount of red blood cells carrying oxygen in my entire body and iron is the mineral necessary to make those red blood cells. As for my zinc, in general, the human body can’t produce or store zinc, so we have to implement zinc-rich food in our diet as zinc is essential for our immune system and metabolism. My doctor believes the reason my zinc is constantly low is because of my eating disorder that left significant irreparable damages. For instance, because zinc is also responsible for the production of enzymes that help you digest your food, I have found myself losing some of them, resulting in not being able to eat some specific raw fruits anymore. You know that saying that goes: “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away”? Well, my apple needs to be cooked, or the doctor not far removed. Not being able to enjoy some fruits peacefully is the worst nightmare for a girly who happens to have a sweet tooth! So, because of situations that are out of my control, I have to keep supplementing my iron and zinc daily to enjoy life without much of a worry that my body is going to collapse on me. Thinking of it, I am due for my yearly checkup in a couple of weeks!
Care of buying into repackaged wellness?
It never crossed my mind to take vitamins without the green light of a physician first and foremost. And we have wellness gurus now? Random people are fearmongering teenage and young adult girlies on TikTok to start their 14-steps skincare and vitamins routine as early as 14 so they can prevent aging — mind you, they still have 11 years for their brain to fully develop but yeah, preventing inevitable wrinkles they might get in 30-40 years’ time is the main priority. Don’t worry, boys and men are not exempt! They are being told that eating raw meat and living like a cave men is what is going to keep them youthful and ripped to the gods. You might be shaking your heads but when you think of it, the role of an influencer is to sell you a lifestyle. I mean if they managed to reach glasskin through swallowing down I don’t know how many vitamin pills every morning, it should work for you, shouldn’t it?
Like many social media phenomenon, everything that is picking up some steam is going to be capitalised. Look, your favourite influencer has this amazing physic and poreless clear skin as well as a lot of energy for the day and she has achieved it all, partially through taking vitamins. You saw it with your own eyes! After taking her vitamins, she either works out or sits down to write in her journal. She even uploaded multiple Get ready with me (GRWM) and morning routine videos where she says everytime how amazing her skin and body feel ever since she has been gulping down her vitamins. So when she tells you that she has a promo code for you to use for a brand that will custom make you the vitamins you need (uhm, want!) and deliver them to you every month (what is not subscription-based these days???😭) of course you seize the importunity! All you need is to fill in a quizz and you will get custom sachets with your daily vitamins in them. Bonus point: every sachet has your name on it in bold F37 Ginger font.
If you are an avid YouTube watcher, you already knew which brand I was referring to (hope you got some hints in the subtitle of this chapter). All the fashion and commentary girlies were sponsored by that brand. I mean, great you get to skip a doctor appointment and directly order vitamins that will drop every month at your doorstep. A sort of win-win, if you will, as you are sparing yourself from being in debt with exorbitant medical bills (I am thinking of you, my US girlies) and you are saving yourself the hassle to have to go to the chemist and buy very likely overpriced vitamins. Ever since care/of made its debut to the general public, other subscription-based companies hopped onto the bandwagon, such as rituals and vitable. And they all love to let you know that they run on science-based information, to which, thank you very much, but I bloody hope that you do!
The illusion of wellness
Capitalism likes to have its tentacles everywhere. So much so, it needs to keep making our lives a misery so it ensures a market will come to the rescue and make our lives less miserable. I know I speak from a place of privilege stating that I never took any vitamins without the green light of a professional, because I know I can go to the doctor or hospital any time without risking indebting myself. Insurance is compulsory in Europe and paid for by our taxes. My yearly checkup costs me $130 maximum and it is because they are drawing my blood and sending it to a lab to do the testing for all the vitamins and minerals. But the reason there is a market in a country like the US is mostly because they know that healthcare is so unaffordable that people need alternatives that will still allow them to maintain good health without having to sell a kidney. I mean it is not secret that the US has little to no regards to its own citizens and just cares about them when it comes to milking money off of them. What worries me, though is that I feel like many people are taking vitamins for the sake of it but don’t necesseraly need them.
I asked my doctor what she thought about those subscription-based vitamins and she told me that even though it sounds great, people are being a bit too careless about them because if not advised properly, you can actually damage your body. Just like the lack of good nutrients leads to deficiency, the excessive intake of nutrients can lead to a surplus which can then cause harm. Our bodies need balance to function well. If you already have a great diet, chances are that you don’t need to top up with supplements. Unless you are a vegan, vegetarian or any other diet that involves excluding certain food groups, or have medical issues that require a little bit of help, your diet is giving you all the supplements your body needs to be well.
You have no idea the amount of eyebrow frowning I have caught myself in whilst watching wellness content and the girly has one of the most balanced diet out there yet she still tops it up with vitamin supplements. I ain’t no medical or dietician professional but it does look quite absurd watching people with already great food habits taking xyz pills for the sake of showing how well they are taking care of themselves? Honey, if anything, I am worried you might have a surplus of vitamin C! You are out there chugging down freshly pressed orange juice, snacking on strawberries, turning potatoes into every form we can eat them in and saying how broccolis are your favourite veggies. Girly, how do I tell you that you are set with that vitamin C? I beg, give the supplements to someone who actually needs them? This is what I feel like, girlies are taking vitamins because it has become trendy to do so. We keep being told that this is self-care and the only way we can better ourselves in a collapsing society.
Even though Europe is not yet heavily plagued with people taking vitamins left and right because they were told so by some random influencers on the internet promoting you this cool subscription-based vitamins service. I am already seeing it slowly creeping in… because if capitalism loves something, it is to manufacture problems that can be easily solved, but makes you believe that you can only solve it by buying the product they need you to consume. We all want to take care of ourselves but let’s be mindful: what you need is a diet that has you covered; don’t supplement for the sake of supplementing; and if you can and I BEG, do a blood test! Have some peace of mind about how your body is doing, what it needs and what it does not need. We have all become vitamin girlies and truthfully, I don’t think it is the flex we all thought it would be.
*girlies is a gender neutral term, it is internet lingo I love to use to talk about everything that majorily affects cis and women presenting but is applicable to everyone!
I never gave this topic much thought until I read this. With the way it’s advertised as ‘caring for your body’, we think, what harm can it cause? Apparently a lot! A lot of the time, we go along with anything we see on social media without putting in our own research and finding out if the new trend is necessary, safe, or even something we really desire. Btw, I like the collages you make.
I really enjoy your take on this! Ugh, I’m in the US and have noticed this vitamin trend you are referring too. It’s really just gotten absurd, people are taking supplements for everything! I’ve struggled with an eating disorder since I was 11, sending you sympathy that you had to go through that ❤️