2948: How to Choose High Quality Vitamins & Supplements

[00:00:00] It's another Q&A edition of Optimal Health Daily and I'm Dr. Neal Malik. Hey there, happy Friday and welcome to another Q&A edition of Optimal Health Daily where I answer your health questions related to fitness, diet and nutrition and lots more. You send in the questions and I answer them for you. Now if you're in the U.S. and you send in a relevant question, we'll visit the post office and personally mail you a physical copy of the Optimal Living Daily workbook so long as we have copies left.

[00:00:30] Or if you're outside the U.S., we'll email you a digital copy and I'll tell you all about how to send in a question at the end. So for now, let's hear today's question as we optimize your life. Today's question came via email. Kim writes, I listen to your podcast every morning to start my day with information and knowledge. I do have a question and I know you've talked about supplements before,

[00:00:58] but I had a doctor tell me one time to purchase the best quality vitamins I could afford. With so many variations, I'm still confused on what product line to choose or how to tell that they're not just filled with filler ingredients that provide no nutritional value. I've recently started purchasing from a certain company, but it's still confusing when there are so many to choose from. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to send in your question, Kim. And I'm so glad you find the podcast helpful.

[00:01:28] Thank you so much for being a regular listener. All right, let me start by talking about certifications you might see on supplement packaging. This is really important because in the U.S., the supplement industry is not very well regulated. As you mentioned, Kim, there are products that have been sold that don't actually contain any of the ingredients listed or just may contain some of the ingredients and the rest is just filler like ash or, believe it or not, shredded newspaper.

[00:01:58] So the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, does not actually approve of supplements before they're made available to the public. Now, when we think of medications, for example, pharmaceutical companies have to make sure that their products have been tested for safety and effectiveness. Basically, medications are very well studied and tightly regulated before they're made available. But that's not the case with supplements.

[00:02:25] Supplement manufacturers assume the responsibility of making sure their supplements are safe and don't contain harmful or impure ingredients. Unfortunately, not all supplement manufacturers are vigilant about making sure their products are safe before being sold to the public. And there is no law that says the FDA has to approve dietary supplements for safety before they are sold.

[00:02:50] So, all of this to say that the products you see on the shelves at the local drugstore cannot be assumed to be safe. In fact, one study found that 15% of protein supplements sold contained banned substances like amphetamines or street name speed. Other products had anabolic steroids in them. Other studies have found that the supplements may not even contain the ingredients listed on the label, just like I mentioned earlier.

[00:03:19] So, we may think we're buying a supplement with very specific ingredients, but in fact we're getting something else entirely. So, to protect ourselves from this happening, I've recommended we look for certain symbols on a supplement's packaging. If we find the symbols I'm about to mention on the product's packaging, that means it's gone through some quality and purity testing. So, who tests these supplements for quality and purity? Now, the FDA does inspect dietary supplement manufacturers' facilities.

[00:03:49] So, basically, where the supplements are made, they also review consumer complaints, and any reported adverse events from people taking those supplements. Since the FDA is well aware that not all supplements have the purest ingredients, they did create a certification called CGMP, which stands for Current Good Manufacturing Practice. This certification, again, is given by the FDA to medicines or supplements

[00:04:17] if they can prove that their operating procedures are sound, that they have ways to monitor how their medicines and supplements are manufactured, that they have an established system for finding issues with products they manufacture that don't meet established quality standards, and that the lab that does this testing for quality standards uses reliable methods of testing.

[00:04:41] So, what happens if a company does not have this GMP or CGMP certification? Does that now mean the medicine or supplement they produce does not meet quality and purity standards? Not necessarily. The medicines or supplements they produce may be just fine. We just don't know for sure. So, there are other organizations that try and test for the quality and purity of supplements that are sold. The two most well-established organizations are

[00:05:10] United States Pharmacopoeia, or USP, and the National Sciences Foundation, or NSF. So, I've often recommended we look for a USP or NSF symbol on a supplement's packaging to make sure it's been tested for quality and purity before we buy it. So, where does that leave us? Well, let's think of it this way. The more certifications we find on a supplement's packaging, the better.

[00:05:38] It gives us, the consumer, extra confidence that the product is likely free of impurities and actually contains the ingredients in the right dose that we would expect. If you can find a product that has a USP, NSF, and GMP certification, then I would say that's a pretty good purchase. When we started this podcast, it felt like diving into the deep end. Each day brought new challenges, and we were drowning in decisions.

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[00:07:04] Go to shopify.com slash OHD. Shopify.com slash OHD. Oikos presents 15 seconds of strength. Here we go. Steve's got a trunk full of groceries and no one to help him. Oh, that's tough, Jim. Looks like a five-trip load at least. He grabs the first bag. The second. Bob, it looks like he's trying to do it on one trip. He shimmies the door open, steps over the dog. Oh, and he stumbles. Oh, right into the kitchen without missing a beat.

[00:07:32] Jim, now that's a man who eats his protein-packed Oikos. With 15 grams of complete protein in each cup, Oikos Triple Zero can help build strength for every day. Oikos. Stronger makes everything better. Thank you again for taking the time to send in your question, Kim, and for being a regular listener. Now, if you want to send in a question to be answered right here on the show, plus get a copy of the Optimal Living Daily Workbook, you can email a question to health at oldpodcast.com.

[00:08:00] Or, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, come by oldpodcast.com slash ask. Right on that page, you can record your questions straight from your computer's microphone. It's really easy. You can even play back your message and delete it and do retakes before officially sending it in. Or, you can do it the old-fashioned way and call in your question. The number is 161-ILOVE-OHD.

[00:08:28] That's 1-614-568-3643. Thank you so much again for doing that. Answering your questions is my favorite part of the show. But, that'll do it for another Q&A edition of Optimal Health Daily. Thank you so much for listening every day and all the way through. And I hope you have a great start to your weekend. And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.