TL;DR: Supplements are unregulated so make sure yours are approved by a trusted organization and don’t contain any dangerous ingredients before taking them.
Introduction
So you’ve read our article on the benefits of supplementation and are ready to start supplementing your diet. Before you drive down to your nearest grocery store and fill your cart with every vitamin and mineral imaginable, there’s one crucial detail to note: some supplements are, for lack of a better term, shitty. Sure, at first glance that cheap bottle of multivitamins might look like a great deal, but when you really take a closer look you may sometimes find that it is nothing but a big waste of money.
This article will go over the ways in which some supplements are shitty, so that you may avoid them when buying your supplements.
Supplement Regulation
Before buying any supplements whatsoever, there is one crucial detail to be aware of:
The supplement industry is unregulated.
This is the most important thing to note before considering the use of supplements. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not test supplements prior to them being marketed [1]. In short, this means that nobody needs to actually check that a supplement contains what it says it does. Other than the honor system, there is nothing guaranteeing that your Vitamin A supplement contains any Vitamin A.
To make matters worse, not only is there nobody making sure that your supplements contain the nutrients they claim to contain, there is also nobody checking to make sure that your supplements don’t contain things they shouldn’t contain. Heavy metals, bacteria and pesticides are all things that have been found commonly in commercially available supplements [2]. You can take supplements with the best intentions of improving your health, but actually end up poisoning yourself instead.
Thankfully, some private organizations are taking matters into their own hands and providing independent, third-party tests on supplements to verify they contain what they claim. Many of these organizations will provide a list of tested supplements on their website, and many will even provide their seal of approval on the packaging of supplements they’ve deemed safe for human consumption. The most widely accepted standard comes from the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), a non-profit that is also responsible for setting the mandatory standards that pharmaceutical companies are required to follow [3].
The chart below provides the test criteria of the USP and a few other trusted supplement testing organizations.
When choosing a supplement, try to find one that has been verified by a trusted organization. Do be aware that some supplement companies will make up bullshit testing organizations and claim that their products have been verified by them, so make sure that that seal of approval you see on the bottle is from a real and trustworthy organization. Additionally, as a rule of thumb, it is recommended to stay away from supplements that were produced in countries with lower health and safety standards overall, such as China.
Harmful Supplement Ingredients
In addition to not being tested for dangerous contaminants, such as heavy metals, bacteria and pesticides, some commercially available supplements have ingredients added to them intentionally, which are questionable at best. The line between science and pseudoscience can often be a blurry one in the supplement world. Some supplements claiming to have great amazing health benefits can actually end up doing long term damage to your body.
Before putting any supplement into your body, it is essential to carefully read and understand every single ingredient that has been put into it. As we said before, they are unregulated so caution needs to always be exercised. Some supplements are just not worth the potential health risks.
Consumer Reports [4] has put together a handy list of dangerous supplement ingredients that you should watch out for (and probably avoid) when buying supplements.
Supplements Should Supplement
One of the nice things about supplements is that they have a very descriptive name. Supplements should supplement diet, meaning that they should enhance and complete your diet. That’s it.
“Supplements” that claim miraculous things, such as making you last 10x longer in bed or melting 30lbs of body fat off in a week can hardly be considered supplements. At best, they could be harmless snake oil (i.e. Bullshit), but at worse they could contain some of the harmful substances and toxins mentioned above.
Stick to supplementing the vitamins and minerals found in our complete list of all nutrients as those are the ones your body needs.
Additionally, along the same note, remember that supplements should add to and complete your diet, not replace it. Just because you supplement Vitamin C doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat your fruits and veggies anymore. Vitamins and minerals found in real, whole foods will almost always be better than those found in supplements. Try to get as much of your RDA of all nutrients from real food, and then top yourself off with supplements. In theory, a perfect diet shouldn’t require any supplementation.
Do Your Own Research
Sadly, the supplementation industry is currently still in a “wild-west” stage. There is a lot of good, but also a lot of garbage disguising itself as good. It is your responsibility to yourself to make sure you are distinguishing the two.
After heeding all the advice from this article, your final step should always be your own research on the specific supplement you are considering buying. Often a simple Google search of “Is X supplement from Y Brand good?” can provide a wealth of useful information. Take all claims with a grain of salt. If a certain supplement has claims that are too good to be true, it is more than likely that they are. Trust your gut too. If a particular supplement is making you feel uneasy for any reason, it is not worth taking. As we said earlier, supplements are meant to supplement, so look into more natural ways (ie from food) you can obtain the desired nutrient.
Additionally, it may be a good idea to consult with your healthcare practitioner before starting to take supplements, as sometimes certain supplements can be dangerous to take with certain medical conditions. Remember, as always, we are not doctors or medical experts here at UpRiver, so all content is merely guidelines generated from our own research, rather than prescribed professional advice.
Conclusion
Supplements can be a great way to top off your diet, but because the industry is unregulated a good amount of caution needs to be exercised. Look for vitamins that have a seal of approval from a trusted organization, ensuring that they contain the nutrient that they claim to and are free from harmful contaminants. Read and understand the ingredients label to ensure that you are not ingesting any potentially harmful substance and do your own research before you pick up any and all supplements.
References:
[1] https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/what-you-need-know-about-dietary-supplements
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10715762.2019.1636045
[3] https://www.consumerreports.org/supplements/how-to-choose-supplements-wisely/
[4] https://www.consumerreports.org/vitamins-supplements/15-supplement-ingredients-to-always-avoid/
