Being mindful is great because it's is so... inclusive! We need to be mindful to make sure this one body we have for our entire life (you only get one... remember that) does the best that it can, for as long as it can. A smarty pants like you, who is very mindful about the things you're putting in, on, and around your body, is often the exact same person taking nutritional supplements. You've read enough to know that you probably aren't getting the nutrients you need regularly, which is why we need to talk about supplements. Why do I need them? How do I tell which ones will work? Ok, but specifically, GIVE ME THE DEETS!
Food is always ALWAYS the best way to get the building blocks your body needs to function at 100%. However, we always pride ourselves on being "real not ideal" because life doesn't hand everyone a private chef, and sometimes all I get for breakfast is coffee, ok, BACK OFF... So that's why we need supplements.
Oh, and also, due to advances in modern agriculture the nutrient density of our food has gone down. These advances are great for {literally starving} people, but not for anyone who can afford to go to the grocery store. As in, there are definitely more oranges available, but those oranges have less vitamin C per orange. So vitamins from food are great, but it can be hard to get enough of them to combat and prevent diseases of the modern era (autoimmune disorders, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, etc.). So that's also why we need supplements.
Not all supplements are created equal. You know how you look at cut and clarity when you pick out an engagement ring? (or at least you do if you want her to say yes...) Well, with supplements and vitamins you need to look for sourcing, potency, and manufacturing standards. If you ask your supplement company about any of these, and they shy away... that's a bad sign.
Did they choose that vitamin B just because it was the cheapest version of vitamin B, or did they pick the vitamin B that showed results in real people's lives in a research study? You can start to see 2 very different pictures of health. This is one of the reasons that safe and effective supplements cost more. Fish oil (great for your heart and brain) has to come from a fish. Did your fish swim in nasty contaminated waters? He will be cheaper. You might want to invest in a fish that swam in water, not toxic sludge. In shopping terms (easier for me to understand), you'd prefer your supplements came from Saks and not from the dollar store.
That's right. Some companies make supplements that don't even dissolve, and just come out the hind end unchanged. Sometimes it even shows up on x-rays, and you can literally see all the money someone is wasting by buying and taking supplements that can't break down in their system. We don't suggest digging through your toilet, but it's good to ask questions about how dissolvable a capsule or tablet is.
Let's be real, bodies are weird. And because they're weird they absorb certain forms of nutrients better than others. I see this in action all the time in my clinic. I run a blood and urine panel on a lot of my patients to check their levels of vitamins and minerals. Often, their results will show they are low in several nutrients, and then they tell me "BUT I'M TAKING A MULTIVITAMIN"... which tells me a few things: 1. It's not potent enough, or 2. It's not the right form of vitamins to be absorbed, or 3. Their supplement has a lot of fillers and not a lot of vitamins. Often all are true, and the patient can feel the difference when they switch to a higher quality product. Here are some things to keep in mind:
First of all, the company should publish their ingredient lists and make them easily accessible to you. Is it packed with sugar, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavorings, or colors? Remember how you were looking for something to make you healthier? Also be wary when something says it contains "other ingredients" and then doesn't list what "other" means.
Vitamins and minerals need to have a certain amount of oomph to actually have an effect on your body (this is called "therapeutic dose"). Manufacturers might not put as much in each capsule because, once again, it doesn't cost as much. This is when patience and time reading the label pays off. Scared of a higher price? You might actually be getting more bang for your buck with a more expensive bottle if the pricier supplement is more potent. Probiotics are a good example:
This should give you some piece of mind that a product really serves a purpose. It was chosen by someone who cared, to be available to you because it's doing good things in the lives of others. It'll hopefully also explain why each ingredient was chosen for that supplement.
Critics LOVE to scream at the top of a mountain that nutritional supplements aren't FDA approved. Just so we're clear, a stamp of approval from the FDA (while a valuable organization) doesn't necessarily make or break anything for me. There's a lot of time, influence, and red tape that goes into getting something approved. The FDA, like everyone else, also have regrets and often change their mind. For example, here's a list of things that were once (or are still) FDA approved:
I'm not here to bash the FDA, but my point is that my consumption and judgement of what I put in my body doesn't hinge on a stamp of approval from the FDA. So if that statement ever tries to sway you again, just smile and nod... and do some more digging. FDA approval is a great thing for supplements to have because it means they trust their product enough to let a bunch of strangers scrutinize it. It just isn't the end-all-be-all.
That being said, without any sort of regulating organization, there are some shady supplement companies. I'd love to paint you a pretty picture of rainbows and unicorns, where everyone only used the best ingredients and didn't care about how high their profit margin was... but I can't. So you need to read a little more into how your supplements are manufactured, and what's actually in them.
You SHOULD look for QAQC or "quality assurance" or "3rd party audits." And if you want to get REAL intense a manufacturer should be able to provide a COA (certificate of analysis) that says "hey! this is what we say it is, and our ingredient list is real and has been proved by other people!"
We get it. Money is tight, so that $5 multivitamin looks way more attractive than the $60 multivitamin. However, would you rather throw $5 in the toilet, or spend $60 on something to make you healthier? As we've mentioned a few times, in the supplement world you get what you pay for (rotting, smelly fish is free-99). Look more closely at cost per day (or cost per serving) than cost per bottle. Some bottles may last 2 months, some may last 2 weeks.
... Here's the thing, you're worth investing in.
Hannah Anderson
Author