There is no time of the year when the gap between the advertisement’s fictional life and real life is greater. The commercials create images of peaceful gingerbread-smelling winter wonderlands, where children behave like little angels because they know that Santa Claus’ Big Brother is watching. In the real world, kids are constantly begging for this and that. People get stressed out organising pre-Christmas parties and are frantic about the time-consuming Christmas shopping. Finding the right presents is a challenge. But there is a way out.

As a professed multivitamin-pill user I was shocked by the new studies about nutrition supplements. I am not alone. About a third of the adult population in welfare states take vitamin supplements on a regular base. The pills’ overnight Kafkaesque metamorphosis from valuable to harmful is not easy to cope with. Not only are most of the supplements virtually superfluous. They also may be a serious health risk.