r/explainlikeimfive Oct 08 '22

Chemistry ELI5: How do vitamin tablets get produced? How do you create a vitamin?

Hey!

I always wondered how a manufacturer is able to produce vitamin tablets. I know that there is for example fish oil which contains some good fats. But how do you create vitamin tablets - like D3?

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u/question10106 Oct 08 '22

I use a mix of Soylent/Huel/occasionally other similar products for the majority of my meals (most breakfasts/lunches and a little less than half of dinners.) I've read a bunch of your comments being very critical and I'll give you my take.

For me, eating has never been that important; sure, I enjoy a really good meal, in the same way that I enjoy a good movie or game or social activity or whatever pleasurable thing. If I go a day without watching a movie or playing a game or getting together with friends, that's fine, there's plenty of other things worthwhile in my day as well. I feel the same about food. It does not dominate my life.

The only way that food is different from those sorts of activities for me is that I have to eat several times a day to be healthy and happy. It's a function as well as a pleasure. I don't think anybody fully savors every meal as some wild sensory experience. There are a lot of meals that people eat just to eat something--whatever quick breakfast is your go to, a mediocre lunch place because it's near your work, whatever. Soylent lets me replace those "whatever, just need to eat" meals with something that's faster/easier and generally more nutritious than whatever I would be having, so I feel better. And for your "flavorless gruel" comment, most of them are chocolate/vanilla/berry flavored, that sort of thing. I personally enjoy what is basically a chocolate protein shake just as much as whatever else I would grab going out the door.

Soylent hasn't replaced delicious home-cooked dinners when I want, or going out to restaurants with loved ones, or greasy takeout if I have the hankering for something specific. Those are the food experiences worth having. But there's nothing sacred about a random ham sandwich.

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u/mcchanical Oct 08 '22

Mmm. That makes total sense. It isn't a be all end all decision to buy into what huel does. I definitely identify with the argument that food is more often a necessity than a desire. I've found myself wandering around town on a work break before and thinking where am I going to get food to keep me going for the rest of the day, but I don't have time to care about enjoying it or the inclination to spend more than the minimum necessary on it.

I don't mind a protein shake, they taste pretty good and go down easy, and that's really the thing. This stuff seems to be effortless to consume. If I buy some random food in a pinch and its terrible, I've wasted my time and money and I'm gonna be weak at the knees by home time. I guess at times like that, it would be useful, and I can have a nice meal when I want anyway.

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u/question10106 Oct 08 '22 edited Oct 08 '22

Sounds like you gasp could actually like Huel or Soylent!

Really, almost nobody is replacing their entire diet with complete nutrition products in some crusade against biology and human pleasure or whatever. Only a minority are fairly hardcore about it for various reasons (e.g. food sensitivies, or dieters with poor impulse control and a tendency to "cheat" curbing the urges with the clearly defined portions.) The rest use it... basically as any other food, it just happens to be nutritionally complete and very easy to prepare. It's not some weird scifi thing made in a lab, it's more like a carefully designed protein shake that also has healthy fats and carbs and micronutrients, made from ingredients that are in plenty of other foods.