It's an incredible book. The Upside of Irrationality is pretty good too.

Vitamins are talismans. They are a ward against evil spirits. They are a nutriceutical rabbit's foot.

Which is not to say there aren't good vitamins. It's also not to say that there aren't good vitamins that can help you and will do great things for your overall health. But they're hard for you to buy them - on purpose - because if it has an effect, overusing it can have a negative effect.

My wife was a vitamin rep in school. She still sells a lot of vitamins. But she won't give anybody anything until she's done blood tests. She had me on this one that I had to take within about 5 minutes of eating or it'd give me the goddamn dry heaves. They're not-fucking-around vitamins. I prefer not to take them. But they were prescribed me by a doctor who saw my blood and saliva tests and fuckin' a if they didn't change my metabolism.

These are not the vitamins you buy at CVS. By and large, you barely digest those before pooping them out. Take them after a night of binge drinking, though, and they might cut down on the hangover. Take them every day and yeah - as the study says, they probably won't cut down on your risk of heart disease.

But c'mon. In your heart of hearts, you knew that, just like with the lucky rabbit's foot.