WHY YOU WON'T FIND A GOOD SUPPLEMENT AT THE STORE

Anybody that tells you that you don’t need a supplement, that you can get all the nutrients you need from food, is wrong. I don’t care if it’s your doctor, your dietician or your best friend. Supplements are here to stay. Not because they’re a trend, but because we live in a world where food has lost almost half of its nutrients, and where there’s more toxins than ever before.

Even though supplements are relevant more than ever, don’t go out and buy just any supplement. As with any product, you get what you pay for. And if you’re buying the huge container, with supplements for a year for $10, you’re not helping, your body.

In this 3-part supplements series we’ll go over how to choose a supplement, what nutrients you should take (and which you should avoid) and how to create a nutritional plan for you and your family.

First, here are two general rules.

#1--you wont find a high-quality supplement in a retail store.

The products that you find at a retail store usually compete on price and brand recognition, which usually means that they lower the quality of the product. I’m not saying that all online products are good, but now you can discard the overwhelm of going to the store.

#2--to choose a product look at the manufacturer, don’t read the label.

The supplement industry is weakly regulated. What’s on the supplement label many times is not in the product (check out ConsumerLab.com for more info on that). The FDA recalls products on a daily basis because of possible contaminants, possible Salmonella or undeclared ingredients that can cause allergies (peanuts, soy, milk). This is why there’s no use in looking at the label. If we want to evaluate the quality of a supplement, we need to look at the manufacturer.

Here are the 3 criteria I use to evaluate a supplement manufacturer. Look at the products website to see if they're legit or if you should invest your money somewhere else.

1- The product is made in-house. You don’t want a company that outsources the product manufacturing, because that means they’re outsourcing their quality control. In they manufacture it in-house it means the company has invested millions of dollars to guarantee quality to its customers.

2- The manufacturer is an FDA registered facility and follows Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for pharmaceuticals. This way you’re sure that’s what’s on the label, is in the product (no contaminants, no undeclared allergens, no BS).

3- The company that manufactured the product has a research and development team. Not one scientist, but a group of them. Science is changing and it’s changing fast. You want a company that’s staying on top of the science, and is incorporating that science into its products.

It might take some time to find a high quality supplement, but once you do, you’ll know that you’re getting the most for your money. If you want to know more about the products I've been taking for over 10 years go to www.ClaudiaR.usana.com.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

ConsumerLab.com

FDA Supplement Recall: https://www.fda.gov/food/recallsoutbreaksemergencies/recalls/default.htm