Outline- Nutrition in a Pill Bethany West

* Introduce what nutraceuticals are and the history of these vitamins * What vitamins do for our bodies and which ones are seen to help * Key ideas of the article and explanation of John Cloud’s hypothesis (how many vitamins he took, what he took) * Doctor’s viewpoints on nutraceuticals * John Cloud’s viewpoint on nutraceuticals * How John Cloud began his experiment and his results of the experiment * His health before the experiment and his health after his experiment * My viewpoint on vitamins * Which vitamins I take on a daily basis * How vitamins affect my health and everyday life * My reaction to John Cloud’s experiment and his results * How/if my viewpoint has changed and if I will continue taking vitamins on a daily basis

Nutrition in a Pill
By: Bethany West

Nutraceuticals, by definition, are a food containing additives which provide extra nutritional value. Most people take nutraceuticals in pill form, called vitamins. In 1912, a man by the name of Casimir Funk developed the concept of vitamins. These vitamins contained vitamin C and were bought by the people that believed they didn’t get enough vitamin C in their daily diet. By 1934, the multivitamin was developed and had rising sales despite the harsh criticism they were receiving. Since then, nutraceuticals have come a long way and now many people take them daily to fill the lack of nutrition in their diets. Now, there are even breakfast bars and other foods that are enriched with the daily nutrition that you need. Nutraceuticals are used to improve health in various ways and to put the nutrients in your body that you don’t get regularly. Our body needs nutrients such as vitamin A,B,C, etc and specifics like omega 3 and vitamin d. Each nutrient has its own pill that many people take. But whether they improve your health or not is a debate that many people have. To prove whether or not these nutraceuticals improve health, John Cloud endured a 5 month period where he took 22 pills a day. He also ate protein bars, drank powder drinks and took enough fiber to “regulate an elephant.” But before he could do this he took a blood test. And after the 5 month period he would get another blood test done to examine his results. He had to talk to a specialist to figure out what vitamins he would take based on his diet and lack thereof. He would take eight pills in the morning, eight pills at night and another six throughout the day. Among these, the nutrients he was receiving were Procosa, Mega Antioxidants, Chelated Minerals and many others. His results were interesting; only two of the values on his blood report had changed significantly. One, there was a 75% increase in his vitamin D level which attributed from the vitamin D supplements he took. Two, his lipoprotein had jumped from 61 milligrams to 89 milligrams. This was an increase of about 46%. John Cloud explained his health before the experiment as “late-night Rice Krispie Treats, sun exposure” and his exercise routine as “vigorous to the point of obsessive.” And after his experiment he commented that he will “make better food choices.” But perhaps one of his biggest conclusions, he realized that he was gaining weight. He gained 10 pounds over the time span. He concluded that “the licensing effect” was occurring; the nutraceuticals made him believe that he didn’t need to eat healthy because the health factor was being brought in by the 22 vitamins he was taking on a daily basis. This caused a problem.

As for my view point on nutraceuticals (vitamins), I believe that they can help you realize that health is a big factor in life. If there is some type of food that provides certain nutrients that you don’t eat, you need to take a vitamin as a supply of that nutrient. But as for taking 22 various