The Truth About Supplements

“The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle.”

– Marion Nestle, New York University Nutritionist

Like most topics in today’s hyper-polarized Western society, supplements have been added the list of contentious lifestyle dilemmas that are always just a little bit inflammatory to bring up at a dinner party.

Not unlike politics, religion, food and fitness, beliefs regarding supplements are generally divided into two camps (or “dogmas”, if you will): those who unequivocally believe that everyone should be taking them, and those who believe that we don’t, in fact, need them at all – that they are a waste of money at best, and dangerous at worst.

So, which is it? Well, you know what they say: There are three sides to every story: his side, her side, and the truth. As with most things, the “truth” when it comes to supplements is intricately nuanced, and not so black-and-white as we’d like to think. Let’s take a deeper dive into some of the ideas surrounding supplements:

We should all be getting our nutrition from whole foods.

This is true. If we lived in a world where we all grew our own food from organic, heirloom seeds in nutrient-rich soil, if the air and the water were clean, if there was no such thing as industrial mono-cropping, genetic modification, high-stress lifestyles or environmental pollutants, just eating real whole foods would provide all of the nutrients we need to survive and thrive. The reality, however, is that we don’t have the privilege of eating the way our ancestors did. As a result of modern food production practices, the average essential mineral content in a selection of common vegetables has declined by as much as 59% since 1940, and we’d have to eat 8 oranges to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one. Given this research, we may be well-advised to consider taking a high-quality multivitamin and mineral supplement.

Supplements are unregulated, and often contaminated with heavy metals and other dangerous toxins.

This should not be true. If you purchase your supplements from a reputable health food store or a licensed practitioner, you can be confident that the products you’re getting have been approved by Health Canada, and third-party tested for safety and efficacy. If you’re unsure, look for an NPN (Natural Product Number – a numerical code assigned to products approved to be marketed under the Natural Health Products regulations in Canada), or ask the retailer if their products are TRU-I.D.-certified. Although supplements are required by law to be licensed by the Natural and NPN-prescription Health Products Directorate (NNHPD) prior to hitting the market, this does not mean that there aren’t unregulated products out there. Just as with drugs and some food products, it is always possible to get your hands on falsified or contaminated supplements, especially if you are ordering online and/or internationally. So spend your money wisely.

Supplements are natural, and therefore 100% safe.

This is untrue. There are many different categories of supplements (vitamins, minerals, herbs, meal replacements, homeopathics, electrolytes, collagen… The list goes on). Although some have very high thresholds for what’s considered a safe upper-limit dosage (Vitamin C and B vitamins are good examples), you need to be more careful with things like herbs, blood-thinning agents like curcumin, sleep and mental-health aids, fat-soluble vitamins, and certain minerals such as iron). Some supplements also contraindicate specific health conditions, prescription medications, or each other, or can mask important diagnoses. Taking too many supplements can also overtax the liver and compromise absorb-ability, so it’s important to keep your regimen selective and personalized. Just as with medications, you should always speak with a licensed health care provider before taking a new supplement. Although some M.D.’s go the extra mile to seek specialized training in the field of natural products, you’d probably be better-off asking the advice of a Functional Medicine or Naturopathic doctor, or even a pharmacist.

Taking supplements can make up for a bad diet.

This is untrue. There is a common saying in the holistic health space: “You can’t out-supplement a bad diet”. Although some supplements are useful for filling in the gaps, bringing nutrient levels up enough to prevent deficiency, they do not provide everything we need to thrive. Furthermore, if we are subsisting on a Standard American Diet high in refined sugars, ultra-processed carbohydrates, inflammatory Omega-6 fats, chemical preservatives and other additives, taking a standardized turmeric capsule, for instance, will do little to treat the inflammation you’re likely to suffer from. Although it’s not always possible to get everything we need from diet alone, food is a far more powerful tool than supplements when it comes to preventing and treating chronic disease states.

By taking a supplement, you can target a specific health complaint the same way you can by taking a pharmaceutical.

This is not always true. Because most supplements are natural compounds created by nature and not by human design, they usually have a wide range of benefits. Magnesium, for example, is essential for over 800 functions in the body. It helps with sleep, stress, muscle cramping, headaches, and many other things. And depending on the form of magnesium you take, you can use it to help treat a variety of conditions, from constipation to fibromyalgia. And because of its innate natural intelligence and synergy, the body is likely to put certain supplements to use where they’re most needed; You may take collagen in the hopes that it will prevent wrinkles, for instance, but if you have a knee injury, or intestinal permeability, your body is far more likely to send those peptides to work on those areas first, the way an E.R. doctor performs triage.

Supplements are a relatively new concept to humans; therefore we don’t know the long-term effects.

This is only somewhat true. Although Nutritionism (the science of isolating and studying individual nutrients) was first introduced less than a century ago with the discovery of Vitamin C, some categories of supplements – such as herbs and mushrooms – have a far longer track record of medicinal use in human history. The ancient health schools of Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine date back to at least 3000 B.C., and although we may not have the double-blind clinical trials (yet) to prove the safety and efficacy of chaga, for example, or ashwagandha, over 5000 years of successful practice is tough to argue with. It’s also worthwhile to note that most modern pharmaceuticals are far newer introductions to human biochemistry (many of which also have unknown long-term effects), and the safety studies (when they are performed) are far from perfect.

So, as we can see…

The world of supplements is rife with gray area. There is no one answer in terms of “for or against”. Supplements, when sourced and used appropriately, can be a very useful tool when it comes to supporting and improving our overall health, but they can also pose some risk, just like food or medications. And just like food and medications, there is still much to be learned in terms of the science. We don’t yet know what we don’t know.

As with every other controversial subject, context matters. Perhaps more-so than anything else, quality and sourcing also matter. It’s not possible to group all supplements together under one umbrella, as there are countless different types, manufacturers, formulations, and treatment protocols.  

If you’re concerned about the safety or validity of your supplements, I’d encourage you to ask yourself a few simple questions: Was this substance created by human or natural design (did it come from a whole-food source)? Is it a licensed NPN and/or TRU-I.D. certified? Does it have science or, at the very least, a long history of proven use to back it up? Is it serving a specific purpose in my regimen that I can’t get some other way? And, perhaps most importantly, have I gone through the appropriate health channels and consulted licensed practitioners in deciding whether this product is necessary and helpful for me and my unique needs?