This post is part of a series. You can find all the posts on cultural differences here.
I already wrote about the differences between German and US measurement units a while back, because that is one of those things I am dealing with daily since I started using MyFitnessPal.
Now I want to write about vitamins. To keep it short and sweet, the basic premise of my post can be summarized in two pictures.
Vitamins in the US
Vitamins in Germany
My impression is that in the US it is absolutely normal to take your daily vitamins and minerals in the form of a pill or several. Doctors recommend it and taking a vitamin is the norm. Read an article on living healthily and ‘take your daily vitamin’ is almost sure to be mentioned. No one would question you for taking a vitamin but you would be questioned, maybe even called irresponsible or unhealthy for not taking one. A vitamin pill seems to be part of a healthy diet just as much as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean meat, and EVOO.
In Germany things are a little different. Of course you can buy vitamin pills and all sorts of other nutritional supplements here. So if you just must have your daily vitamin, don’t let that deter you from coming here. I do have a bottle of vitamins, calcium, and magnesium in my pantry.* But here you will not find doctors, magazines, and mothers reminding you to take your daily vitamin. Unless you have an ongoing deficiency of a vitamin or mineral, no one** would recommend a vitamin. The general consensus is that you eat a healthy and varied diet and will get all the vitamins and minerals you need from the food you eat. That is what is recommended by doctors. I would go as far as saying that the majority of the German population has never taken a vitamin pill in their entire life.
Now, of course, that leaves the question, who is right? I think that – as with other cultural differences – there is not really a need to answer this question. I don’t think that the German population is any unhealthier than the US population as a whole for not taking a daily vitamin. I just think this one is one of those things where either way is fine – it doesn’t really make a difference. Do I think that taking a daily vitamin is part of a healthy diet? No. In fact I would even go as far as saying when you are already eating a healthy diet the vitamin is really not needed. But what it really comes down to is cultural norms – and personal preference.
Do you take a daily vitamin or other supplements?
* But I never take them.
** Exceptions prove the rule.
Ha, I’ve never taken a vitamin pill in my life and didn’t know such a thing existed until I got to the US! My little host sister there had to cut things starting with “V” out of magazines for pre-school and I was doing the homework with her, and she wanted to cut out these pills from an ad and when I told her (wrongly, in a way, of course) that those weren’t vitamins (I would’ve pointed her toward images of fruit etc.), my host mom actually got weirdly upset because it seemed just really, really strange to her that I would tell her daughter something so untrue. Haha. Cultural differences!
I think I took a vitamin pill once. Collin doesn’t take any vitamin pills either, so I am not truly exposed to them unless I go to a grocery store. I eat fruits, lots of them: Kiwis, grapefruit, bananas, apples (with PB! YUM!).