Ever get confused by all the conflicting information you hear about nutritional supplements? There are countless scientific studies proving the benefit and efficacy of supplements. There is also a lot of misinformation and false claims surrounding their benefits. I believe it’s important to shed light on the most common myths about nutrition supplements in the industry to provide some clarity.
For 41 years, I have seen how nutritional supplements add value on all fronts of health. This includes my own health and thousands of others. I have found 3 major benefits to the addition of nutritional supplements:
- Boosting the Immune System and preventing disease,
- Slowing the ravages of aging, and
- Utilizing natural medicine instead of pharmaceuticals.
See our recommendation for the 4 nutrition supplements everyone needs for optimal health.
I am 62 years old and most days I swallow approximately 72 nutritional pills. I have been doing this regimen about the same since age 14. That equates to about 750,000 pills and counting! No one needs to follow my lead to this degree. But I do believe everyone should follow a basic supplement program. Otherwise, optimal health will decline with every birthday after age 30. I have a podcast, The Holistic Navigator, where I discuss all the nutrition science I have studied over the years. You can catch the full episode about my personal supplement regimen here.
Nutrition Supplement Top 3 Most Common Myths
I still see many myths promoted on this topic. To help you keep them clear, I wanted to share the three most common myths I see again and again.
1. WEIGHT LOSS SUPPLEMENTS CAN HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT FOR LIFE
Consumers spend an estimated 3 billion dollars looking for the magic pill to drop 20 pounds!
When I started this business in 1979 and for decades to follow, diet pills were a big part of our industry. About 15 years ago, I realized that clients who were attempting to “boost metabolism” or “reduce appetite” with strong herbal compounds was a great mistake.
Most appetite supplements artificially stimulate the body with natural amphetamine effects. This can become unhealthy for many functions in your body. It can impact blood pressure, heart rhythm, anxiety, and more. Almost everyone gains every pound they lose after stopping these supplements.
Excessive body weight has far less to do with eating too much food. It has everything to do with an unbalanced blood chemistry that prevents weight loss. Fix the blood chemistry and the ability to lose weight will be possible. Ignore the blood chemistry, results will stop. Even with all the workouts and healthy eating.
You will never exercise your way out of a bad diet and lack of proper supplementation. Share on X
Find a professional who understands how to balance the blood values like when you were younger and miracles will begin to happen. Not only to your weight but also health and longevity. These values include fasting insulin, C-reactive protein, omega 3 levels, glucose, HbA1c, and others. You can listen to my podcast on the facts on blood chemistry and losing weight here.
2. I EAT HEALTHY FOODS SO I DO NOT NEED TO SUPPLEMENT WITH VITAMINS!
I used to believe whole foods had all the nutrition to keep my body healthy without the need for additional nutrients. Though this may have been possible hundreds of years ago, in today’s society, it is not. Here’s why.
- Foods today are grown on depleted soils due to over-farming. This practice has created less nutrient dense food than 40 years ago. Even organic farms are not as nutrient dense as they used to be.
- Because we by foods shipped from across the US and the world, the majority of foods you eat are picked before they are ripe. This lets foods ripen in-transit so they don’t go bad before they arrive at the store. This is, again, lessening the nutritional content.
- Most foods consumed today have been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and glyphosate. Consumption of these foods leads to an array of significant damage to the gut lining. The absorption ability of our intestines for nutrition is lessened. This makes it even more challenging to get the nutrients we need from food alone.
- I coined a disease that we will all encounter at a certain point in our lives: F.T.D. or Father Time Disease. Nature has programmed in all living creatures the primary goal to procreate. Reproducing requires a strong chemistry to ensure the survival of infant and mother. After the reproductive years end, the body becomes disposable from nature’s standpoint. This is a strong reason that we must consume higher than average nutrients to age gracefully and decrease the disaster of faster aging.
Here’s our advice on how to choose the best vitamin.
3. VITAMINS ARE UNREGULATED
Far too often do I hear that dietary supplements are unregulated. This is patently false. You only have to look at the very first sentence on dietary supplements on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Website to settle that dispute. There, it plainly states: “FDA regulates both finished dietary supplement products and dietary ingredients. FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering ‘conventional’ foods and drug products. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA): FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market.”
Prescription medications kill over 100,000 people each year when PROPERLY prescribed. Vitamins have not caused a single death in 27 years. Painkillers alone kill 23,000 Americans each year. Vioxx, created by Merck, was responsible for over 60,000 deaths before being pulled off the market. That was just ONE drug approved by the FDA as “safe.”
Vitamins have not caused a single death in 27 years. Share on X
The FDA can, and has, shut down supplement makers that do not meet these regulations. For example, in November last year, federal agents seized more than $2 million worth of supplements once it was discovered that the product contained methylhexanamine (DMAA). We have all the regulations we need, and many we created for industry instead of consumer benefit. If anything is lacking, it’s the enforcement of the regulations already in place for drugs, foods, and supplements. Anyone who says vitamins are unregulated have a bias against nutritional products. That alone tells you to not regard their advice for health and nutrition.
Before you believe these myths, do a lot of research. Talk to supplement experts and hear from them. Discuss your concerns, fears, questions, and worries and be open minded. You may be shocked to uncover even more myths that have been widely communicated.
