Top 50 Health Supplements

One too many supplements?

About 20 mins from my place there is a mini market that has a great salad bar. You can get a really good salad with just about anything you want on it. It’s easily the best salad bar I’ve ever been too and it’s also the most affordable (nice!).

This same market is joined to a supplement/health food store that promotes a supplement remedy for just about any ailment you can think of (they advertise heavily on the local radio stations).

Part of their marketing is a free magazine they distribute and give out in the store about natural remedies for health. This free ‘magazine’ is really just a catalog for every product that they sell. I picked one of these magazines up that had the following title “Top 50 health products”

50…Seriously.

Does this mean that I would be 50 times healthier if I took all 50 of them? I showed the magazine to a friend of mine to point out how ridiculous it was and we started flipping through the list. She proceeded to tell me that a friend of hers (who introduced her to the market) has purchased no less than 30 of the items on the list!

Wow…just wow.

These are not cheap items either, probably ranging from $15-$40 per item (each item meant to last anywhere from 1-3 months)

This is just an example of how crazy the marketing of natural health products can get.

I asked how her friend is measuring any improvement in ‘health’ from using these products…she just shrugged her shoulders and said “she doesn’t measure anything”.

John

Posted by johnbarban in supplements
Tags: dietary supplements, health products |15 Comments

15 Responses to “Top 50 Health Supplements”

  1. FitXcel Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 6:43 am

    It would be awesome if supplements were regulated and had to back up their claims. Not that it would eliminate all the bogus ones, but surely it would cut back on some of them. Of course, you’d have to get the FDA to embrace the idea of eating less instead of eating more of X food, so I’m not sure we’ll see that happen any time soon.

    BTW, I ran a half-marathon yesterday on an 18-hour fast. Not organized or anything, just on my own. Even pulled a decent 7-ish min/mile pace. As far as I can tell, my muscles are still intact and I didn’t die without Gatorade or other supplements. But running good times for long distances isn’t possible without massive amounts of food, right? Someone forgot to tell that to my body.

    -Drew

  2. branko Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 8:37 am

    Heres my top 3 supplements list : 1 Food (any kind)
    2. Water
    3.fishoil liquid or capsules .

    also weight train fast a day or two watch pants get looser in the waist !

    cheers the swede

  3. ERV Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 11:20 am

    In all fairness, there are some supplements that are useful to some people. I dont eat red meat (not an ethical thing, it just grosses me out), so I am almost always anemic if I try to donate blood. So, I make sure to take iron supplements a couple times a week.

    My mom is an older lady, and though she is super active, she is Vitamin D deficient, so she takes physician prescribed Vitamin D.

    Most of the supps in these ‘magazines’ are crap, though. Not only is the ‘science’ sketchy, but there is no production oversight. Gary Null (big time snake-oil salesman in the US) almost killed himself taking his own supplements, because there is no manufacturing testing/oversight.

  4. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    branko, are you sure fish oil works? I really don’t know what to think, and would be interested in having John Barban examine fish oil. There was another popular oil (can’t remember which one; may have been flax seed) that I was researching myself and found that the health benefit properties were found not in the oil but in where the oil was derived. So is fish oil no different from drinking fish blood just because we know that fish is healthy, but not necessarily just the blood alone? Or does the fish oil actually contain all these health benefitting stuff?

    Also, my brother’s fiance is a nutritionist at a hospital and also has degree in nutrition and she also agrees that most supplements, including vitamins, are scams.

  5. James Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    With all the health products on the rise, as well as alternative medicine and their ilk; I wouldn’t be surprised if a backlash develops against these trends. One that defends quote “junk food”. What is really so bad against white rise, pastries, and fatty meats anyways? Is it that we have so much available that it is easy for the population to get fat on? All that means is that we have to learn to moderate our intake so we don’t get fat. We are living in the wealthiest time in history. I have never had to worry about not getting enough to eat. Even though I come from a poor family. Yet alternative health nuts, gurus, and fringe doctors tell us, the populous, to avoid eating certain foods in favor of their strict diet of “special foods”. I suppose I shouldn’t say fringe doctors, as their are so many of them from vegan to paleo that any sensible…

    I digress. I think I made my point…

  6. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    White rice is now bad? In Asia, people eat white rice EVERYDAY LOL.

  7. James Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    The argument against white rice is that it is a refined grain. No nutrients. What I find funny about the argument is the people who tout it, do they even know what a nutrient actually is? Or for that matter vitamins. Do they actually know what they are and not just what they are told they do.

  8. Dan Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    Lets see, $1,000 a month on pills or good food? Tough decision.

    The people in the health food store by me look deathly ill. It is hard to walk in their sometimes.

    Dan

  9. branko Says:
    May 18th, 2010 at 11:05 am

    $1.000 a month on food just sounds off the hook or is not ?

  10. James Says:
    May 18th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    1000 dollars a month isn’t an unrealistic amount to pay for food for someone who is buying expensive foods because of some believed benefit. Like organic. It only comes to around 30 dollars a day. Especially for someone who is bulking up they can easily reach that amount. What a waste of money eh?

  11. James Says:
    May 18th, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Or if you have a family to support…

  12. Josh Eflin Says:
    May 18th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    I would just go to the salad bar, especially if its cheap and delicious

  13. Keith Says:
    May 19th, 2010 at 2:50 am

    John,
    Totally random question, but how much do you believe sleep affects a person’s ability to lose fat? If I am in a 1000 caloric deficit, but only sleep 5 hours a day, will this hinder my fat loss?

  14. Omar Says:
    May 19th, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    John,

    What would you recommend supplement wise for a woman trying to conceive and during pregnancy? Assuming her diet is varied. I’ve read 400ug of folic acid daily is widely recommended pre and 600ug during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects. Is this hype or proven? Are there any other supplements she should consider?

  15. johnbarban Says:
    May 20th, 2010 at 12:03 am

    I think there is some good data supporting the folic acid recommendations. Other than that I’m not aware of any other supplements that have similar scientific support.

    JB

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