They're added to breakfast cereal, bread, and even Pop-Tarts, giving the sweetest, most processed treats a halo of health. Most people pop an extra dose for good measure, perhaps washing it down with fortified milk. But what are vitamins—and how did their discovery make America's processed food revolution possible? On this episode of Gastropod, author Catherine Price helps us tell the story of vitamins, from Indonesian chickens to Gwyneth Paltrow. (encore) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
We are Flintstones kids, 10 million strong and growing.
It's a big world, and nobody knows more about helping kids grow into it than Flintstones.
10 million star and growing.
Once I get that jingle stuck in my head, I can never get it out.
Those of you who grew up in the US Will probably recognize it.
That song is trying to make sure parents bought and gave us our daily vitamins.
And I'm sorry, pokes, I'm going to say it that way throughout, even if our guests this week did make fun of me for it.
Because that's what we're going to be talking about this episode, Vitamins or vitamins?
We'll forgive you, Nikki, for your British pronunciation.
Either way, we both need them.
We all need them.
But what are they?
And how do we figure out what vitamins are and why we need them?
That story involves chickens, donuts, and, yes, the Flintstones.
Plus some news you can Are we getting enough of them?
All that and more this week on Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
I'm Cynthia Graeber.
And I'm Nicola Twilley.
And this episode, all about vitamins, is an encore presentation supported in part by the Alfred P.
Sloan foundation for our coverage of science, technology and economics, and by the Burrows Welcome Fund for our coverage of biomedical research.