Are vitamins starting to get treated like a replacement for eating well?

Supplements can help with a particular deficiency or need, but they do not replace enough food, energy, protein, or the mix of nutrients a varied diet provides. A routine promoted to everyone is worth questioning. Iron especially is not something to take casually, since too much can be harmful. If there is a health concern, a clinician or dietitian can help decide whether a supplement makes sense.

Short version: vitamins are not a shortcut around meals. But eating perfectly fresh food every day is not realistic for everyone, either. Frozen and canned produce, beans, eggs, and other affordable staples can still be nutritious. The useful question is what you can regularly manage, not whether your groceries look like an influencer's.

I’d separate the marketing from the bigger body-image concern. A paid supplement post is an ad, not proof that someone needs those products or that they can stand in for food. And polished images are a poor guide to what healthy bodies should look like. It is fair to criticize those messages without assuming every supplement recommendation is part of a coordinated effort to make people eat less.