SThey are supposed to support the immune system or strengthen the bones. Some manufacturers even promise protection against corona – or healing from cancer: According to market studies, vitamin preparations are experiencing a boom. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more and more people have been turning to such products.
A third of the population takes vitamins as food supplements at least once a week, as a representative survey by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) shows. One or one in six even takes pills or powders with vitamins every day. It’s not always just a waste of money – it can also be dangerous.
Because the intake is usually completely unnecessary: ”With a balanced and varied diet, the body receives almost all vitamins in sufficient quantities. Dietary supplements are unnecessary for most people,” says BfR President Andreas Hensel. “Anyone who takes high doses of vitamins without it being necessary risks oversupply and thus undesirable health effects.”
Risk of contamination and interactions
In the best case, you produce “expensive urine” by taking vitamins unnecessarily, says nutritionist Wiebke Franz from the Hesse consumer advice center. In the worst case, you damage your health. The authorities do not test food supplements – such as vitamin preparations – for their safety and quality before they are placed on the market, as they do with pharmaceuticals. So it comes with these pills and powders again and again to contamination.
You also have to keep an eye on possible drug interactions: beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, can increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Even an overdose is “not harmless”, says Franz. Too much vitamin D can lead to headaches, nausea and kidney calcification. A very long, too high dose of vitamin C can lead to bladder and kidney stones.
Sometimes an overdose is not recognized at all, explains Franz: Because in addition to the pills and powders, there are also the amounts that we naturally ingest through food or that are found in conventional foods enriched with vitamins. Consumer advocates have been criticizing for years that no maximum amounts have been defined for this.
Additional intake only recommended in exceptional cases
“Germany is not a vitamin-deficient country. The majority of people in this country are adequately supplied with vitamins,” emphasizes the German Society for Nutrition. Dietary supplements are only recommended in exceptional cases, for example during pregnancy, after chemotherapy, in very old people or with an exclusively vegan diet.
But the market is booming: In pharmacies alone, customers spent almost 2.3 billion euros on dietary supplements in 2020, according to the market research and consulting company IQVIA. Minerals and vitamins accounted for more than half of this. In 2020, eleven percent more were sold than in 2019. Immune stimulants recorded the highest growth with a plus of twelve percent. Other vitamin categories such as combinations of vitamins A and D or vitamin C combination products also saw double-digit growth.
“The fact that some dietary supplements, such as products made from combinations of vitamins A and D or vitamin C, experienced a boom in 2020 is probably related to the Covid 19 pandemic,” says Thomas Heil, Vice President Consumer Health at IQVIA. “Consumers expected a certain protection against infection by taking the preparations.”
Experts decline: “There are no known studies that prove that taking vitamin D preparations protects against infection with this virus or against triggering the disease,” according to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. “In people with an adequate vitamin D status, it has not yet been proven that taking a vitamin D preparation has an additional benefit in this regard,” says the Robert Koch Institute.
Skepticism is particularly appropriate for providers from the Internet
Wiebke Franz from the Hesse consumer advice center warns against believing the health and healing promises made by manufacturers and distributors. Especially on the Internet and direct sales, vitamins are touted as supposed miracle cures. “The providers promise a health effect or even healing – they are deceiving the consumer.”
A big problem is marketing via social media channels, says Christiane Seidel, consultant for the food team at the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations. Inadmissible health promises are often made there – including “helps against cancer”. However, suppliers can only promise what the product actually delivers: “Vitamins can contribute to normal bodily functions. Dietary supplements are not intended to treat diseases,” says Seidel.
Vitamin supplements are “a super lucrative business”. Direct sales on the Internet is difficult to deal with. The illegal advertising often runs through influencers who advertise or resell the products for commission. Many companies are based abroad, there is often no imprint, the pages only pop up for a short time, “that’s a huge problem for law enforcement”. According to the consumer advice centers, such transactions have increased enormously since Corona.
It remains to be seen whether the vitamin boom will abate as the pandemic subsides. The latest data from the market research institute IQVIA show that the development only partially continued in 2021: Sales of vitamin A+D preparations from pharmacies increased by almost 17 percent. However, there have also been negative developments, for example with pure vitamin C products.