Research be damned, multivitamins are here to stay!

Now that research tells us multivitamins neither boost health nor prevent deterioration, will people stop popping pills?

I don't think so.

The pill popping culture may seem to be prompted by a belief of better-health on the surface, but what's hidden underneath is a psychological urge to 'correct' what we see as our lousy (read, vitamin-deficient) eating habits. We've always felt we don't eat right. If we are parents we even feel we aren't feeding our kids proper. What makes up for our lousy eating and feeding habits are vitamin pills. Its out and out 'negative motivation' at play. We are trying prevent the 'bad' from happening to us, and to our kids. We suspect the 'bad' will happen, given the way our eating habits are. Too much junk, too less vitamins. So we build a defense against deterioration. It doesn't matter if research proves our efforts worthless, we will keep at it so in our heads we feel better.

Psychological value is a far cry from what's gets paraded as functional value. The latter is what we are supposed to consider while making consumption decisions, yet the former is probably what drives most of what we do as consumers. Plus as we grow older, worries (read, negative motivation) turn out to be the bigger drivers. We most often try to prevent, rather than take risks.

Research be damned, our 'desire to prevent' is what will keep multivitamins in the reckoning.

Funny. 

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