What are supplements?
Nutritional supplements are any substances you take to improve your health or wellness. This includes vitamins, minerals, and herbs. The most common form is a pill, or capsule. You also can get them in powders, drinks, and foods. These supplements aren’t meant to cure diseases or health conditions, but meant to help aid physical or mental wellbeing.
When to take supplements?
A common misconception with nutritional supplements is that they can be used to replace nutrients that you would normally get from a well balanced diet but this can be dangerous. They should only be used alongside a well balanced diet. For example an athlete may decide to supplement protein to help them recover from their training. However they should continue to consume protein from wholefoods e.g. chicken, fish etc.
The supplemental protein should just be used to help them reach their elevated daily requirements due to training which may be hard to reach by just eating wholefoods on their own.
Supplement use in the UK:
According to a survey of 2,000 UK consumers (aged 16+) conducted in September 2018 . 59% of consumers reported taking a vitamin, mineral or other supplement product at some point during 2018 and 34% said they took a supplement daily (38% of women and 29% of men). Spending on vitamin and mineral supplements in 2018 was estimated at £442 million and popular supplements included cod liver oil and multivitamins.
Are they safe? Advantages, disadvantages
The majority of nutritional supplements are safe to consume alongside a well balanced diet. I would in fact recommend to many of my clients to add supplements if I feel they need it. The Department of Health and Social Care recommends certain supplements for some groups of people who are at risk of deficiency. The main disadvantage with supplements is that some people rely on them solely to get their nutrients and as a result don’t eat a well balanced diet.
Verdict:
I would recommend nutritional supplements if you feel tired, lethargic or are training for an event and feel you need extra nutrients to meet your increased training demands. In future episodes I will go into more detail on specific supplements and whether you should buy them or not.
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