In her January/February editorial, Dr Caitlin Dunne points out that there is no good evidence for adding vitamins or supplements to most people’s diet [BCMJ 2023;65:4 [10]]. People are misled to believe there is a benefit and fall victim to the relentless power of advertising.

I would like to add a suggestion that we encourage adequate intake of omega-3 fatty acids from healthy food and not from proprietary products. Most of us already have good intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish, oils, nuts, and vegetables, and we could suggest redirecting the high cost of these supplements to pay for wild fish and organic vegetables available from local providers across BC to those who do not eat enough of these foods.

The vitamin and supplement industry, in my opinion, is an unnecessary and highly successful scam that wastes the precious income of too many people. People would be healthier with a better unsupplemented diet.

Finally, pelagic krill should be left in the ocean for natural predators, who deliver all the benefits to us when we eat wild fish. There is a risk of overfishing krill in Antarctica, which could further advance the demise of wild fish stocks. Humanity should do better than to cause that completely unnecessary loss.
—Rick Potter-Cogan, MB BCh BAO
Comox

This letter was submitted in response to “Are vitamins a complete waste of money?” [10]

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