Supplement Quality: How Can You Tell?

It's been battered about in the news about whether supplements are worth the effort and money. As always, it depends on your personal situation. Some people are more prone to nutritional deficiencies, are under more stress and use up their nutrient supplies, or just want some "insurance" against illness and disease.  Anyone who eats the modern American diet is eating many, many depleting foods.  No matter how hard I try, I don't think I can eat a perfect diet. So, I think supplementation is fine as a compliment to a healthy diet, as long as you are informed and choosing your supplements wisely.   But, no, I don't think it's wise to eat a crummy diet and think that if you take a vitamin you'll be healthy.  Just sayin'!  ;-)

Eating whole foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals should be priority #1.  If you're also interested in taking them in supplement form, it makes sense that the best supplements are from natural, whole-food sources (vs. synthetic chemicals produced in a laboratory).  No lab can come even close to what Mother Nature makes!  

Note that the recommended dosages in whole-food based supplements are lower vs. synthetic supplement sources.  It's like comparing something that's alive vs. something that's dead.  It is only possible to create high-dosage, synthetic “vitamins” if you isolate one fraction of the vitamin complex.  Relatively small amounts of whole-food natural vitamins, with all of their naturally-occurring synergistic components, are far more potent than high doses of synthetic imitation “vitamins.”

​Differences in Supplement Quality:

I conducted a small observational (non-scientific) study of different supplement brands. At my local Kroger grocery store, the main supplement brands they sell are Sundown, Nature’s Bounty, and Nature Made.  At The Vitamin Shoppe, they sell dozens of other brands such as NOW, Solgar, Source Naturals, Garden of Life, Bluebonnet, Nature’s Way, Twin Lab, Jarrow, Spectrum, Life Extension, and Nutrigold.

I compared labels on various iron supplement bottles.  (You could do this with any supplement.)  Here are the labels...  Make a note of the differences.

​Spring Valley (Walmart):

​Nature Made (Kroger & other grocery stores):

​Wellesse liquid iron:

​Solgar gentle iron:

​New Chapter (organic):

​Desiccated liver pills 
(whole food source):

​My Observations:

I listed these in what I considered to be from the lowest to the highest quality; I consider the whole food supplements to be better.  The dosages and serving sizes definitely differ between and within brands, and comparison is not easy.  The types of iron also varied from ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate, amino acid chelate, iron biglycinate, and actual cow’s liver. (Different forms of vitamins and minerals have varying degrees of absorption and bio-availability.) The cost varies quite a bit also.  I do believe that supplements, as with most things, “you get what you pay for”.  However, I myself take desiccated liver for the purpose of an iron supplement, and it is not expensive and works much better than the iron pills I took previously.  The packaging for the higher quality supplements is often in glass bottles vs. plastic.

Many brands remark on the packaging that they contain some combination of:  no gluten, wheat, soy, dairy, preservatives, artificial flavors, or artificial colors. However, every brand I looked at of the supplements contained some fillers, binders, or other additives.  Even the New Chapter (organic) supplement lists Shellac!  If the fillers are of cellulose, I know that is just fiber, but I wonder if it is truly necessary.  The brands with the least amount of inactive ingredients are probably the better brands.  With complicated chemical names in the added/inert ingredients, it is difficult to know about the quality of a supplement.  Trial and error may be necessary, but that is also difficult when the effect of supplements are not usually immediately felt, if ever.

​
​What to look for in a supplement:

• Natural sources vs. synthetic
• Organic (pesticide & herbicide free) vs. inorganic
• Chelated supplements.  These are usually better absorbed in the body. 

• Vitamin availability... 

Good: Tablets have the most fillers, binders, and coatings and may fail to be digested properly.
Better: Capsules are better digested and absorbed, and can be opened to sprinkle on food or apply to the skin.
Better: Powdered vitamins are rapidly absorbed and helpful with children, people with a weak digestion, who have trouble swallowing pills, or need large doses of a nutrient.  
Potentially the purest: Liquid vitamins, which have the same benefits as powdered.  Liquids can also be injected.  
        (Source book: Staying Healthy with Nutrition by Elson M. Haas)

Establishing a nutritional supplement program is a fine art.  Too much of one nutrient may lead to deficiencies in another.  Check with your doctor to see if your bio-chemistry is balanced.  If you've been doing the same supplement regimen for years, it may be time to re-evaluate.  Listen to your body and be your own best advocate.  

​The bottom line:  

It may be best to go with brands your naturopathic doctor, chiropractor, or nutritional adviser recommends and sells in their office.  The woman at the Vitamin Shoppe was also very knowledgeable.  (I think that the non-grocery store brands I listed above are usually pretty good quality and are what I have in my Amazon Store.  I often buy Pure Encapsulations, Thorne, and TwinLab brands myself.) It truly takes a lot of research to find a supplement that works for you, is well tolerated, well absorbed, quickly assimilated in the body, and does not cause more harm than good.  You're worth the effort!

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