The rise of nutraceuticals: how the ‘placebo-driven’ industry has got us hooked

Each time you visit the supermarket you’re likely to notice a new product promising good health and renewal. Water is enhanced, and conveniently sold in bottles. Fibre is tucked into yogurts and cereals. And antioxidants are injected into just about everything. We’re told on a daily basis that such products are essential for our wellbeing. Plain old whole fruits and vegetables appear archaic in a supermarket stuffed to the brim with nutraceuticals promising to make us fitter, faster and younger. And on top of the ‘functional foods’ we consume, we continue to swallow daily doses of dietary supplements, a market worth £674.6 million in the UK in 2009, with multivitamins and fish oils topping the list, according to the NHS.

But the companies behind such nutraceuticals may surprise you. From PepsiCo to Kellogg’s to Monsanto, big businesses appear to be scrambling to get in on the health food craze and capitalise on our insecurities. Many of these companies market sugar-laden products to us as kids and promise to reverse the damage done with nutraceuticals when we’re older. We down Mountain Dew as teens...

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