Have We Created an Unnecessary Dependency on Dietary Supplements?
The topic of supplementation has been on my mind a lot lately. We are bombarded by advertisements for supplements left and right, especially on social media. Many of these ads are packaged in a creative piece of catchy content by its creator. And many are created by people who may have a large social media following which therefore comes with a large influence to buy what they are promoting. I think this is because as a society, we deem people with a large social following as trustworthy, honest and credible. But this is not always the case. And you must have a filter for who you decide to take supplement/dietary advice from.
The supplement industry started gaining popularity in the 1970s and has grown tremendously since then. In 2020, the dietary supplement industry was worth an incredible $61.2 billion dollars. It is projected to grow to $128.64 billion by 2028. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time even grasping this.
And what I find most interesting… is that despite the abundance of supplements, OTC and prescribed medication that people are taking, there is a steady increase in chronic diseases and poor immunity against the common cold. We are obsessed with health and yet sicker than ever. Something doesn’t add up here.
My hypothesis is that rather than addressing root causes and building resiliency the way we used to through real food, we are just throwing supplements and medications at everything and expecting it to solve all of our problems.
I’m here to tell you a hard truth. Which is that no matter how many supplements you try to take to fix (X) health issues, you cannot heal without addressing the root of things. Supplements are meant for exactly that: to add to, not to replace a healthy diet.
I’m oversimplifying here but healing most always requires two MAIN components:
A well balanced and complete nutrient dense diet (food foundation)
A regulation and resiliency of the nervous system (many of us are stuck in “fight or flight” a lot of the time)
Here’s what I see happening today:
Most people get their health/nutrition advice from social media, the web and/or health/diet books. MOST of this information is biased and based on opinion or misinformation. I’ve even read books by doctors who have cherry picked scientific studies to support their biased health claim.
Most people are very confused about the information that’s out there and usually fall prey to the most trendy thing that's currently in front of them... Keto, Paleo, Intermittent Fasting, Carnivore, the list goes on.
Most people blindly take a multitude of supplements based on what's working for others because of catchy creative marketing by “trustworthy” influencers. They do this without examining #1 - if they actually need this supplement and #2 - if it's safe for them.
SAFETY
One of the things to take into consideration when deciding if you’re going to take a supplement is whether or not it will interact with another supplement and/or pharmaceutical that you might be currently taking. Many people don’t consider this and can have adverse effects from the combination. In addition to this, certain vitamins have an upper limit on intake. For example, vitamin D is a very common supplement that is recommended as we’ve seen an increase in deficiency. The upper limit from a supplement is 4000 IU/day. However I’ve seen several popular supplement brands have a single serving size of 5000 IU’s or more. The message being put out there is “Vitamin D is so important for optimal health” and to take this supplement to get your daily dose. Instead of the message being that our best sources of natural vitamin D is from the sunlight and foods sources like egg yolks, salmon and other fatty fish, cod liver oil, and liver. The human population simply does not get enough sunlight, especially in the northern states in the winter. Not only that, we are convinced that we need to lather on large amounts of sunscreen to “protect” our skin. But that’s another rabbit hole for another time.
When we acquire our vitamins from food, it’s very difficult to OVERconsume a particular vitamin. Our body intelligently takes what it needs and stores or eliminates the rest. However, through supplements, it can be easy to rack up a large quantity of a single vitamin or mineral in the body.
Regulation
I would be remiss if I didn’t also bring up the lack of regulation in the supplement industry. You’ve probably noticed the little warning message on every supplement bottle:
“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
The FDA simply cannot keep up with regulating every supplement that exists out there.
Many supplements have been found to be contaminated with heavy metals. And many others don’t contain the amount of what is stated on the bottle or contain other ingredients that aren’t listed on the bottle. In fact, in a new study done this year, researchers analyzed 30 different supplements that had immune boosting claims. What they found was that 17 of 30 had inaccurate labels, 13 were misbranded, and 9 of them had contents found that were not on the label.
(I’ll link the study here in case you’re interested in reading more)
My point in all of this is not to demonize supplements altogether. My point is to encourage you to use caution when selecting supplements you want to take and have a time frame and intention behind using them. A lot of time, supplements are generally not needed if you’re consuming a high quality diverse nutrient dense diet and you don’t have any established nutrient deficiencies. If you are someone that needs a particular supplement, be your own best advocate and research the quality and safety of the product. Ensure that the product is third party tested and verified. Two great resources to check verified supplements are:
Today more than ever we have to be mindful and self aware of what we are putting into our bodies. Again, be your own best health advocate.