Being a personal trainer and someone who has worked at a GNC, I will tell you right now that the average person knows NOTHING about nutrition. Omnivores buy themselves all kinds of food supplements because they think that’s what they need. Fish oil pills, CoQ10, multivitamins, calcium pills…pretty much anything you’d find in a GNC or Vitamin Shoppe. If people just ate a well-rounded diet, the entire supplement industry would collapse, I’m being perfectly honest. The weirdest part is that they don’t typically even know why they’re taking them. I used to have people coming into the store and ask for things because they heard about it on Oprah, The Doctors, Dr. Oz, email, spam advertisements, and the radio…but they didn’t actually know what they were for, how a person could be shown to be deficient, etc..

It’s not just general health supplements, either. I get all kinds of questions about workout supplements, of course. Now, I thought that if a person wanted to workout and improve their physique, they’d do a little research on what to do. Instead, not only do most people have no idea what to eat, but they just take any old supplement they either see in a magazine or see someone drinking at the gym…and they don’t understand anything about it. They don’t know why they’re taking it, they don’t know what it does, how it’s supposed to work, nothing. They just go into a supplement store or order it online, spend their money, and don’t know why. Hell, some don’t even read the label, so they don’t even take the supplement PROPERLY. It…it boggles my mind. Seriously. I have no idea why people do this.

Now that you know this, is it any surprise that people are telling you that you need to take supplements? They think that their "normal" diet REQUIRES supplements, so your "crazy hippie diet" must need them…so they think.

Hell, Allison’s comment talks about how vegans should "worry" about calcium because they don’t get dairy, when there are hosts and hosts of research supported by cancer societies and Harvard’s research facility that show milk is not only incredibly bad for you, but it also makes your body more prone to osteoporosis. WebMD isn’t an authority, so please, please don’t listen to the drivel that they spout with no research to back it up.

Just eat a well-rounded diet, you’re fine.

Chronic B12 deficiency causes appaling neurological damage, however it can take up to five years for this to take effect. The Vegan Society recommends either taking a weekly B12 supplement, or eating a fortified breakfast cerial.

If you can get enough B-12, calcium, zinc and iron, I think you should be fine. Cereals are easy way to get B-12, zinc and iron. As for calcium and protein, tofu or beans. Unless you lack certain nutritions in your diet, vitamin pills is not be a must. Monks and nuns have lived healthily for hundreds of years before the discovery of vitamin supplements.

It doubt it is a scientific fact. Just a recommendation.