The Nutritional Supplements Industry is a Huge and Very Confusing Business

If You Want to Use Them, How Do You Choose the Supplements That're Right for You?

The nutritional supplements industry expanded greatly after World War II. Today, more than 90% of all supplements are sold as "nutraceuticals," or supplements taking on the roll of pharmaceuticals.

In other words, people are using nutritional supplements to fight disease. But the FDA doesn't allow manufacturers to make disease claims. No matter, many still do as the FDA is so under-staffed that they can't really cover the country and bring down enforcement actions.

The FDA requires a Nutrition Supplement Fact label on every bottle. They think this will help consumers make "educated" nutritional supplement choices. But, consumers really have no idea what the writing in the panel means.

for example: producers put in lots of cheap nutrients like B vitamins and skimp on important nutrients such as minerals you can see this right on the label in the column that lists % DV (Daily Value), % RDA, or % RDI B vitamins are often 5000% the DV and minerals are often under 100% of the DV minerals take up lots of space in the capsule and to get the amount you need would increase cost (bad for the maker) and cause you to take more capsules (not what most people want to do) nutrient balance is very important but cost/profit concerns negate any interest in this why worry as the manufacturer knows the consumer has no clue how to evaluate the supplement anyhow

I've Studied This Topic Since I Was Twelve Years Old

I Became Desperatly Obese and Jumped Headfirst Into Pills and Potions to Solve My Problem

I've learned a few things. The nutritional supplements I took, I learned, did not solve my weight problem. That was diet and exercise. But they did contribute to improvements in my health. It was far easier in the 1960's to understand this topic because there weren't many products out there.

Today, you've got all the multi-level marketing companies, vitamin and mineral companies, and many others. It's no different than the weight loss industry; it's about marketing and making money. Are there good ones out there? Yes, but they're few in number.

I challenge you to look at the bottles and see how many have a balanced ratio of nutrients as I taught you above.

Essential Nutrients vs. Nutraceuticals

Your first concern in choosing a nutritional supplement is to choose essential vitamins and minerals. These are the ones your body cannot make each day and you must get them from your diet and/or from a supplement:

• there are 30 different nutrients in this group
• these include both vitamins and minerals
• minerals are harder to get than vitamins so one should concentrate on them

Nutraceuticals are nutrients for which humans have no known need. These include herbs and other newer, modern day substances such as lycopenes and pycogenol.

There's much empahasis on using a dizzying array of nutraceuticals to fight against disease. The supporters of using supplements this way claim that we're all suffering from nutrient deficiencies and the result is disease. There's some truth to this because many people eat refined foods (nutrients have been stripped out) and our soil is over-worked and has less nutrients than it did fifty years ago.

Environmental Pollutantion is a Very Big Concern Today

Few people realize the extent of the pollution problem. Dr. Henry Schroeder of Dartmouth University claimed more than 35 years ago that five toxic metals were responsible for 95% of all illnesses and 50% of all deaths in the US. OK, that's far from a nutrient deficiency but it actually represents a toxic overload.

Our bodies have key enzyme systems that detoxify pollutants and a mineral or vitamin deficiency will reduce enzyme capacity.

Cytochrome P450 is the primary liver enzyme responsible for eliminating toxins. Low levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, and zinc cause problems in the manufacture of this enzyme.

Good nutrition combined with reasonable and balanced nutritional supplement use can help protect against this toxic overload.

Learn Some Basics About Choosing Your Supplements

I've written a basic primer book on the subject: supplements help if chosen wisely unwise choices can create problems one of my clients was taking supplements with a zinc to cooper ratio of more than 200 to 1 ideal is no more than 10 to 1 what's the risks? heart disease, high blood pressure, and immune system suppression what happened to him? A non-lethal heart attack

You need to know what you're doing.

Check out my little book, The Vitamin & Mineral Hoax, Rip-Offs and Lies at Your Expense. This willl give you a comprehensive overview of the nutritional supplement industry and get you on the straight path to good supplement choices. Knowing how this industry works will save you money too.

You must be a knowledgeable consumer.