Provision #491: Supportive Supplements

by Bob Tschannen-Moran

LifeTrek Laser Provision

Today I dare to go where angels fear to tread: into the largely unregulated world of nutritional supplements. With so many exotic products and so many sensational claims, it's hard to know what to believe and what to do. Unfortunately, many people take supplements as replacements for healthy nutrition, fitness, and stress. That's a formula for disaster. It's better to take no supplements at all than to do that. If you have the resources and if you understand their role, however, some supplements may be worth taking. Read on to learn which ones.

LifeTrek Provision

I hesitate to write this Provision for many reasons. The primary one being that following our Optimal Wellness Prototype Click should give people all the nutrition we need without any support from supplements. The Prototype includes, after all, the diet that fueled the evolution of human beings and that our bodies are still best suited to eat. If all our foods were fresh, colorful, whole, organic, and, in the case of meat, pasture-fed or wild with plenty of healthy-fats and minimal unhealthy fats, there would be nothing more to say than to "eat, drink, and be merry."

Unfortunately, that does not describe most of our foods, even for those of us who have dedicated ourselves to the cause. At organic grocery stores, for example, most foods are at least five days old, if not longer. At regular grocery stores, the shelf life is even longer. Processed foods are even worse. You have to wonder what we are eating when the expiration date on the package is more than two years away. One thing is certain: no hunter-gatherer ever had that option.

Because the nutrient value of our industrial food supply is compromised, many people choose to support their diets with nutritional supplements -- spending almost $5 billion per year in the United States alone. That's a lot of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, herbs, amino acids, hormones, and other exotic stuff. Since supplements are largely unregulated, and since they can therefore easily waste people's money, injure them, or both, a few words of caution and buying tips may be in order.

Because of the lack of regulation, it's hard to recommend any particular brand of supplements. Consumer Reports recently evaluated 18 brands from discount and dollar stores. Nearly half of the tested brands failed to contain their labeled level of at least one nutrient, and two of the vitamins failed to dissolve properly. That means your body won't absorb the nutrients. Big name and major store brands fared better in the Consumer Reports tests. For people on a budget who want to take a multivitamin, that's the way to go.

Some brands, including a number that are sold at major retail stores, have been verified by the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), a public standards-setting authority for prescription and over-the-counter medicines, dietary supplements, and other healthcare products manufactured and sold in the United States. A "verified" supplement has all the listed ingredients in the declared amounts, does not contain harmful ingredients, will break down and release ingredients in the body, and has been made under good manufacturing processes. Visit the USP website for a list of verified supplements Click.

For even more money, there are premium brands that exceed the requirements of the USP. One such brand, for example, is Pure Encapsulations Click. They self-regulate the quality of their suppliers to pharmaceutical grade, introduce no hidden fillers, coatings, binders, shellacs, artificial colors, fragrance, excipients, wheat, yeast, gluten, corn, sugar, starch, preservatives, or hydrogenated oils during the manufacturing process, and have independent laboratories test each and every batch of finished product. If you have the resources, a premium product is the way to go.

So what supplements are worth taking? That's another reason I hesitate to write this Provision. Although nutritional supplements, or nutraceuticals, represent an almost $5 billion per year industry in the United States alone, medical drugs, or pharmaceuticals, represent an almost $250 billion per year industry. That difference means there is far less pharmaceutical-grade testing done on nutritional supplements. In most cases, although increasing numbers of studies are coming on line, we simply do not have sufficient data to make conclusive recommendations.

That's why many people say, "Don't waste your money." And if money is an object, I would agree. Stay with the Optimal Wellness Prototype Click and leave the supplements alone. If you have the money to spend, however, and if you want to take supplements on the basis of anecdotal evidence and of what studies have been conducted, then I would start with a robust multiple vitamin and mineral supplement. The supplement should maximize your intake of the B vitamins, vitamin D, antioxidants, calcium, and magnesium while minimizing your intake of vitamin A acetate or palmitate (retinol), vitamin E, iron, and zinc.

That can be a hard formula to find. The one I take, manufactured by Pure Encapsulations, is called Polyphenol Nutrients. Here is what you get in six capsules a day, taken with meals: