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Comment by ramesh31 | Hacker News Reader

Supplements are easily the biggest single scam against consumers in existence. Just walked out of a CVS where I saw a large bottle of Vitamin C pills for $42. That's easily a 10,000% markup or more on the raw ascorbic acid in those pills. Not to even mention the lack of health benefits.

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It's like a lot of things: A lot of dietary supplements are scams, but a lot of them are legitimate. The core issue for people who take dietary supplements is that a) they probably don't need it, b) they may be taking too much, and c) unless they are getting a mineral and metabolic panel, etc. they have no idea if they even need the supplement.

IMO before taking any supplements one should get a panel done to see if you even need it.

I don’t know. I buy caffeine pills, whey powder, and a few other supplements. They are certainly marked up but simultaneously the nest efficient way to get caffeine, protein, etc per dollar.

Gotta have my creatine

You think that's bad, just wait till you hear about bottled water! Or maybe it's a convenience thing and that's worth something to some people.

Do people really not get that you’re paying for the shipping, not the water?

> "Just walked out of a CVS"

Well, there's your problem. CVS and Walgreens are the two best places to go if you don't care about your money. Otherwise, at a grocer, Walmart, or Amazon, a bottle of a decent brand of VitC can be had for $7.5.

Depends on the supplement.

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