Supplements 2.0

Tuesday August 2, 2011

How do you choose a supplement? Pollan's often repeated mantra: 'Don't eat anything you have seen advertised.' applies here as well as to food. A good supplement is simply a condensed food, and another maxim that is crucial to getting the most for your money is 'You get what you pay for.'

On my own nutritional odyssey, I have collected bottle after bottle of the current favorite supplement, which often languished in my drawer until I threw them out as they expired. Too much money wasted, so I began researching. There are several factors that contribute to the efficacy of any supplement. 

How do you choose a supplement? Pollan's often repeated mantra: 'Don't eat anything you have seen advertised.' applies here as well as to food. A good supplement is simply a condensed food, and another maxim that is crucial to getting the most for your money is 'You get what you pay for.'

On my own nutritional odyssey, I have collected bottle after bottle of the current favorite supplement, which often languished in my drawer until I threw them out as they expired. Too much money wasted, so I began researching. There are several factors that contribute to the efficacy of any supplement. 

The foundation is: do you need this? Certainly most of us can use more anti-oxidants, more trace minerals etc., But is there perhaps an overriding deficiency that needs to be addressed in order to optimize our health. Very often with my clients, I find this is the case. We are creatures of habit, and we live in a country where food is increeasingly devoid of nutrition. Eating the same things day after day can skew our balances of vitamins and minerals, as can stress and the environment. Educating yourself, and/or finding a nutritional therapist, doctor of Oriental Medicine, Applied Kinesiologist, or whatever feels right for you to help you find balance are the best ways to optimizing health.

Secondarily, is the supplement in a form that you can absorb? For example, it is perfectly legal to toss a piece of blackboard chalk into a bottle and label it 'calcium' but few people would get much absorption. Finding a reputable company (more on this later) can save a lot of money and waste in the long run. The other part of this is: can your system break down and absorb the supplement? The first thing I address with every client is testing for digestion, and then maximizing how their entire digestive system works. Often, when refined carbohydrates have repressed digestion, as they go quickly through the system, the ability to digest anything more complex is compromised. By maximizing a clients abilities to absorb the food they are taking in,many other symptoms often resolve.

And finally, is the supplement of the best quality? There are thousands of companies packaging nutrition, but only two real ways of marketing. One, like the big store brands, is based on quantity, marketing, price and cheapness of ingredients. Given that they are cheap, yet the companies have huge marketing budgets, there is a logical conclusion as to this content. The other method is practiced by smaller companies, who spend their money on ingredients and research. Two of the best are Standard Process and Biotics Research. In order to distribute these, both companies offer extensive education to practitioners who are then able to ascertain what a client truly needs rather than just throwing supplements at them, willy nilly. In the long run,this is always more cost and health effective. 

Austin Nutritional Therapy by Elaine DiRico