How To Evaluate Nutritional Supplements -
The First Of Six Criteria
There are thousands upon thousands of nutritional
supplements available in the market with each
one promising various health benefits. Due to
insufficient regulations governing the supplement
industry which do not correctly address supplement
quality, the market has become flooded with poorly
put together supplements not based on good science.
Physicians Management Journal backs this up by
saying that one in three dollars used on nutritional
supplements is WASTED!
We are now living in an information age and smart
consumers are able to easily research nutritional
supplement choices before they buy, particularly
on-line. They are only too well aware that the
multitudes of supplements competing for their
supplement dollar are not equal in terms of efficacy,
safety and value for money.
However a major problem exists in that the information
put out by virtually all supplement companies,
including the large, well known, U.S. multi nationals,
is less than truthful. The marketing presentations
by these companies are very clever and are designed
to hide product weaknesses while attempting to
wow people with fancy scientific buzz terms that
make their supplements appear better than they
really are.
To overcome this consumers need a transparent
way to easily and properly evaluate and compare
nutritional supplements in order to avoid the
rubbish and zero in on the best vitamin supplements
in the market.
I previously worked for a leading manufacturer
in the nutritional supplement industry and as
a result was able to learn the secrets and shortcuts
that supplement manufacturers take. During this
time I gained access to a world renowned bio-scientist
who has produced close to 200 new pharmaceutical
and health supplement formulas. He showed me how
to evaluate and compare nutritional supplements
through six easy to use criteria and I created
a website to teach supplement users how to use
these criteria.
All supplements regardless of how many ingredients
they contain can be evaluated by using either
all or most of the following criteria.
* The formula
* Ingredient quality
* Bioavailability (absorption)
* Manufacturing protocols and standards
* Synergy
* Value for money
Let's look at how to use the first of these criteria,
The Formula.
THE FORMULA
The evaluating part is straightforward but when
comparing nutritional supplements it's important
to compare apples with apples and oranges with
oranges. So the type of supplements compared must
be of the same general category.
For example there's no point in comparing a herbal
supplement, taken to treat a specific condition,
and containing one or two major active ingredients
(the herbs or extracts from them), and some other
vitamins or minerals acting as co-factors; with
a multi ingredient supplement containing 80 ingredients
taken for overall wellness and preventative health-care.
A multi ingredient nutritional vitamin supplement
must be compared with another multi ingredient
supplement where both have been formulated for
the same health benefits and so on.
There are three things to consider when using
a supplement formula as criteria to help evaluate
a supplement.
* Are the key active ingredients well established
as the most beneficial and effective nutrients
for their target objective in the body, and what
is the total number of these ingredients in the
product.
* Whether the dose amounts of selected key ingredients
fall within clinically established ranges for
health benefits.
* Whether the dose amounts of all vitamins and
minerals are within established safe upper limits.
MOST EFFECTIVE NUTRIENTS
Here's an example to explain this point more
clearly.
Let's say that that you're a man and you're looking
for a multi-ingredient health supplement that
offers two benefits in particular-to strengthen
your immune system and provide protection for
your prostate.
In order to find the best supplement for the
job you need to know the most effective and beneficially
proven nutrients for the immune system and prostate.
Then you can check supplement labels to see the
extent to which these nutrients are included (if
at all).
So once you know the most potent nutrients for
each body system and organ you can simply create
a checklist when studying supplement labels. The
best vitamin supplements will have formulas which
target every system and organ in your body!
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