Not only is it important to choose your combination of supplements with care, it is also important to understand the quality of the product you are purchasing.
You’ve surely heard that you should read food labels. Read your supplement ingredients as well! You may be surprised to know that many supplements, such as those available at your local grocery or drug stores, may contain fillers, preservatives, sweeteners, artificial colours, binders and more.
What specific ingredients should you be wary of? Here are several examples:
- lactose (allergenic: may cause abdominal discomfort)
- corn starch (allergenic)
- sodium benzoate (commonly used preservative)
- sodium lauryl sulfate (tablet solubilizing agent)
- propylene glycol (helps maintain moisture)
- magnesium stearate (lubricant – can affect product absorption)
- artificial colours
Reading the ingredients is a good start – however, it’s not that simple. Not all ingredients may be listed. Why? It is not necessary to list all ingredients if these are not added at the point when the product is manufactured into its final dosage form. You can request full disclosure from the manufacturer. Some companies of professional grade products, such as Thorne, voluntarily list all ingredients regardless of when added.
Thorne provides greater insight on their website, an excerpt of which is included below:
Going beyond the choice of therapeutic raw materials and quality control standards that are necessary to produce truly hypoallergenic finished products, there yet remains in the industry tree the 500-pound gorilla with the excipient-laden bad breath. Universally lacking in the promotional rhetoric of those companies who are now boasting of product purity because they are ‘GMP certified’ is any attempt on their part to address why they utilize excipients in their manufacturing processes – such as magnesium stearate, stearic acid, or ascorbyl palmitate. These excipients are utilized as flowing agents to ensure maximum productivity is obtained from capsuling and tableting machines. One company labels ascorbyl palmitate as a vitamin C source in its products because ascorbyl palmitate is a fat-soluble form of vitamin C, albeit developed as an antioxidant for oils. At a minimum, this company should list ascorbyl palmitate in the ‘Other Ingredients’ panel at the bottom of the product label, along with the other excipients, since it is utilized as a flowing agent. Nevertheless, if a company cannot manufacture products without using excipients, they should not allude to being either ‘hypoallergenic’ or ‘pure.’
Another useful illustration to understand the difference between professional grade supplements and consumer grad supplements may be found here: Thorne Example. Professional brands generally contain pure ingredients that have a high bioavailability allowing the body to extract and utilize the nutrients efficiently.
A few tips:
- capsules generally have greater bioavailability than tablets
- purchase wisely: it’s better to spend more on a high quality product with high bioavailability and gain the benefits than spend your money on a lesser quality supplement that your body has difficulty absorbing
- become informed: read labels, ask questions