“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?

“Is that healthy?”

It’s a question I hear all the time from clients, customers, and well-meaning friends and family as their go-to Registered Holistic Nutrition Practitioner and Health Coach.

Regardless of the product or practice in question, my answer is almost always (much to their frustration): “Well, it depends…”

The thing is, everything – whether it’s a certain food, diet plan, exercise regimen, supplement or medication – has its uses. It largely depends what you are hoping to achieve by incorporating it; What are your goals? What potential benefits/outcomes are you hoping to see? Is there another alternative to which you are comparing it? For how long are you intending to use it?

And, as I’ve said many times before, every body is different. What is “healthy” for one person may not be “healthy” for another. It’s very rare that we ever see a food, product or practice with the blanket label of “healthy” that’s applicable to every single person on the planet. Depending on your unique genetic makeup, lifestyle, personal history, gender, goals and health conditions, your “healthiest” life could look very different from that coworker or influencer who told you the Keto diet changed their life.

Let’s take intermittent fasting as an example of a practice that can result in healthy weight reduction, increased mental clarity, reduced inflammation, and even (allegedly) better longevity for some. When we delve further into the research, however, we find that most of the clinical studies on intermittent fasting have been done on cisgender men, because the hormone fluctuations that occur at different points during the female cycle make it difficult (but not impossible) to obtain results.

But women are not just small men, and we now know that, for someone who struggles with Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome, for example, or blood sugar imbalances, intermittent fasting can wreak havoc on hormone regulation.

Even a concept as widely-sold as eating less and moving more will not necessarily benefit everyone indiscriminately. Someone with a history of disordered eating behaviors or overexercising may find themselves triggered by a conversation with a well-meaning friend who is trying to “get healthy” on a new workout regimen. For the former, eating less and moving more may not be a “healthy” practice at all, and may even result in a relapse, severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies, Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (loss of the menstrual cycle), infertility, or osteoporosis.

And setting aside for a moment the matter of bio-individuality, it’s worthwhile to question what we really mean when we use the word “healthy”? Are we discussing weight? Nutrient status? Mental Health? Hormone regulation? Or perhaps simply a balanced and happy life?

The question it ultimately boils down to, is: what do you value most in a healthy life?

Wellness Culture and social media (certain platforms in particular, which shall remain unnamed) have made it easy for unqualified individuals to champion blanket “health” advice that is purely based on their own experience rather than clinical studies or meta analyses (which are not perfect either), or, even worse, a brand that is paying them to promote their product.

While the easy access to information that social media provides is an inarguable blessing to our modern world, it’s always in our best interest to pay close attention to the source of the information we are seeking, whether that’s an individual and their education/qualifications, or a brand sponsor or other vested interest.

It’s also important to maintain a clear view of the specific goals we are looking to achieve. We may come across an ad or sponsored video touting the benefits of moringa powder (of which there are, unarguably, many), but are they conducive to the results we as individuals are looking for? Moringa may be an excellent antioxidant, but it won’t necessarily help you lose weight, if that’s your goal.

It would do us all a service to ask the necessary questions to unearth for ourselves our own unique definition of “healthy”; What does your healthiest life look like? Do you want more energy? A stronger body? Better relationships? More food freedom? Maybe for you, a “healthy” life involves buying organic produce and preparing most of your meals at home, but still having the flexibility to accept a spontaneous invitation to a girls’ night out.

There is enough color, space, and plasticity in this world for us each to find our own unique version of “healthy”. I would love to get a conversation going about what “healthy” means for you! Let me know in the comments below, and we can share in inspiring one another and celebrating the many routes that exist to a “healthy” life.

One of the most common questions I get from customers in the health food store where I sometimes work is “Which supplements should I be taking?”, which, when they learn I’m also a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, is almost always followed by, “What do you take?”

Here’s the thing: the choice to supplement is a deeply personal one. Although there is a core group of supplements that virtually everyone will benefit from (more on these at the end of this post), the supplements you choose to take will depend on a wide range of factors, including your unique goals, age, health conditions, diet, activity level, and even the time of year.

For instance, my personal daily supplement regimen (this is by no means a prescriptive list, as every body is different, and my needs will undoubtedly be different from yours), includes:

• Berberine, for blood sugar regulation, which helps to keep my hormones balanced and my skin clear,
• N.A.C, which helps to detoxify excess estrogen from the liver,
• Probiotics, for gut health,
• Evening Primrose Oil,
• B Complex,
• Vitamin D,
• and Magnesium.

And then there are the as-needed supplements that I keep on-hand, but don’t necessarily take every day, such as Ashwagandha for stress/sleep support, Vitamin C, for an extra immune boost, rhodiola, for those mornings when I just need a little extra energy and stamina, and occasionally a greens or protein powder, for the days (or seasons) when my diet isn’t as on-point as I’d like it to be.

Are all of these really necessary? For you, maybe not. Or perhaps you require a completely different curation of herbal and nutritional support.

In an ideal world, I’d love to tell you that we can get everything we need from a natural, whole-foods diet. Unfortunately, in today’s world of ultra-processed foods, GMO’s, soils that have been so over-tilled that they are completely depleted of minerals, and produce that is picked long before it ripens and then shipped in the back of cargo trailers before it sits in a supermarket display, sometimes for weeks, that is simply no longer a realistic option. Even if you ate perfectly at every meal, every day of your life – which, let’s be real, even the best of us don’t – it still wouldn’t be feasible to get all of the nutrition we need, the way that our food is produced in North America today.

We can, however, do our best by eating a colourful variety of unprocessed, nutritionally-dense foods (ideally local), including organic or frozen fruits and veggies (which are picked when ripe and immediately frozen, so their nutritional content remains high), grass-fed meat (particularly organ meats), pasture-raised eggs (including the yolk), wild-caught fish, and plenty of sprouts, seeds, and even seaweed. This will help ensure that any gaps in our intake are few and far between, thus minimizing the need for nutritional support via supplementation.

There is, in fact, one supplement worth noting that can actually boost the bioavailability of the nutrients that are present in the foods we eat, meaning we are able to absorb more vitamins and minerals from our diet.  

Shilajit is an Ayurvedic (ancient Indian) remedy that consists of the dark, mineral-rich extract of high-mountain rocks in the heat of Summer. Sound woo-woo? Despite its somewhat dubious host of aliases including names like “Blood of the Mountain”, and “Juice of Rock”, Shilajit has been used successfully for over 3000 years to promote gentle detoxification, strengthen the immune system (particularly the lungs and respiratory tract), support the kidneys and urinary tract, help maintain balanced blood sugar, fortify the bones, and promote energy and healthy aging, all alongside its aforementioned benefit of enhancing the absorption of nutrients, even magnifying the potency of other herbs and supplements.  

It does this by providing a rare combination of beneficial trace minerals, including silica, iron, calcium, copper, lithium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, and zinc, as well as fulvic acid, humic acid, amino acids, and plant-based antioxidants. Shilajit is created from the slow decomposition of plant material over many centuries, deep in the rocks of high mountainous regions across the world. As it develops, it becomes a sticky, mineral-infused substance. Stimulated by the intense heat of Summer, it eventually seeps out of the rocks and is available for harvest.

If you’re still on the fence about supplements, or are unsure where to start, it’s important to know that quality and sourcing does matter, and if you’re shopping at a reputable health food store (and not in the pharmacy section at Costco), a well-trained sales rep should be able to assess your needs and recommend some well-formulated products that will get you the results you want.

Having worked closely with brand reps, and attended seminars on the research, manufacturing, and comparative mechanisms of many supplements, I can assure you that natural health products are regulated, despite what you may have heard from TikTok or That Guy on YouTube, and many are also sourced and extracted with the utmost care, as well as being clinically studied and third-party tested for safety and efficacy.

As with anything, a balanced and informed approach is always well-advised. Although I’m a passionate advocate for the benefits of supplementation alongside (not instead-of) a health-promoting diet and lifestyle, you can have too much of a good thing. We don’t need to be taking every latest and greatest “superfood” or extract we read about in the headlines, just because it’s purportedly “good for us”. The list of foods and practices that are “good for us” is so long and wide-reaching that to try and incorporate every single one on a daily basis would be insanity. And there comes a time (usually when you find yourself taking handfuls of softgels multiple times a day) that you may reach a point of diminishing returns. The body cannot, after all, process, absorb and utilize unlimited chemical compounds.

Instead, it’s best to select a few supplements that are going to provide the most benefit in the areas where you personally need the most support. If you aren’t sure what those are, a good place to start would be a marine- or plant-based Omega-3 supplement (which is particularly hard to come by in the Standard American Diet, and is important for healthy aging and preventing inflammation, the root of all disease), a Probiotic (because gut health equals total-body health), and a high-quality Multivitamin.

And maybe even Shilajit, if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck from your lovingly-planned, nutrient-dense dinners.