Sarah Gonzalez

I would like to sleep better at night and have more energy during the day.

Frank says he also gets requests all the time to like jam pack supplements with so much of one ingredient that it becomes unsafe.

And he will say no to that, too.

It's hard to say exactly why supplements are so popular right now.

And then there's also just like a lot of distrust in institutions and the government and the pharmaceutical industry right now.

And even though supplement makers are companies too, people feel like they're this more natural anti-establishment alternative.

And there's a long history of people in the United States trying to test the limits of the free market and sell you some magic pill.

Sounds lovely.

In the 1920s and 30s, people were tinkering with yeast, trying to supercharge it with vitamins, claiming it would solve a bunch of things, including something called furry tongue, which is what it sounds like.

Just completely disintegrated.

By the 50s, doctors are calling all of this medical quackery.

Wonder why.

But it was really hard to do anything about it.

Yeah, the growth of the industry isn't just about how badly Americans want a magic pill.

It's also thanks to years of lax regulations.

When the Food and Drug Administration was created in 1906, there was no mention of supplements.

But over the years, the FDA has tried to regulate them many times.

Like in 1966, the FDA proposed a disclaimer, be displayed in prominent type, like right there on the supplement bottle, basically saying that you can get your vitamins and minerals from the foods we eat and that there is no scientific basis for routine use of supplements.

Yeah, didn't go through.

In the 70s, the FDA's official position was still that supplements are, quote, nutritionally irrational.