Jim Gaffigan says he takes vitamins. “I take them out of the cupboard and put them in the drawer.” He also notes, “Vitamins….they may be expensive but at least there’s no proof they work. There’s vitamins and then there’s herbal supplements which are not FDA approved and to put that in perspective…the Twinkie is. I don’t even know who herbal supplements are for…it’s like ‘Hey…if you’re not wasting enough money on vitamins that don’t work you should check out this stuff that’s kind of the horoscope of vitamins.'”

I confess in my time as a fitness person I have bought, tried, and peed away all sorts of vitamins and supplements. Logically, I know most of the ads are fake – that supermodel, bodybuilder, actor didn’t get that way taking the product they are selling you. Besides being based on shoddy science, or no science at all, I also know that many supplements don’t even contain the product they are promoting. And yet, there is that part of my brain that says, “Yeah, but maybe this one is different; maybe this one will really work.” It’s like hoping a spider bite will give you super powers… probably note but just maybe.

If you are counting on that product you spent a lot of money having some affect, even if it’s just a placebo, do not, I repeat click on the link below. It’s a weird, interactive, display of what things actually do what they claim to do. (SPOILER ALERT: Most stuff does not do what it claims to do.) On the other hand, if you want to have data so you can save your friend who wastes money on vitamins and supplements, this is a great site to check out.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-supplements/