What Should You Look For in a Health Supplement

When you are purchasing vitamins, minerals or any other health supplement, please remember one thing: all vitamins, minerals, and supplements are not created equal.

Let me explain. Nutritional supplements, just like anything else, are made by companies and what do companies generally like to do? Cut costs and increase profits. In short that could be a definition for success, for some businesses. That is not a success formula for health though. How does this relate to nutritional supplements? Well in cutting costs, there are many things that can be put into supplements, many extras, to make them cheaper to produce. Two examples are binders and fillers. Simply put, these things do a number of things: they stop substances from caking together, they are used as fillers, and they help bind substances together. They may serve a purpose but their overuse does not.

Another problem is that many times people go the health food store and look at the prices of substances. This is a big mistake. Cheaper is not likely to be better. Like anything quality usually comes with a price. Health is not something a price should be put on.

Another mistake is that people look at quantities. For instance this substance has 500 mg of Vitamin C while this one only has 250 mg; therefore the fist one must be better. One very valuable thing you can do is read labels. Remember what I said about quality, binders and fillers, well if a supplement is full of these items or is a lower quality, you are not going to absorb the extra amount anyway. So ignore the amount, at least somewhat, and look at the labels. If in doubt ask store staff. If they do not appear knowledgeable then go elsewhere. As a general rule, go with the supplement that has the least amount of fillers. You will recognize these substances when you read labels because you will see plenty of extra ingredients. Another possible hint: In my opinion, many of the more reputable brands typically package their supplements in recyclable packaging, although this is not always the case.

Choose good brands. This is something that takes time but you will get a sense after a while. Unfortunately the better quality substances tend to be more expensive; however, you will have to use less of them to get the same effect, and you will probably benefit better from doing so.

So in closing, please be sure to read labels, watch out for fillers and binders, and go for the better brands. Your body will like you for it.