What are dietary supplements

The core positioning of dietary supplements is "supplementary options for daily diet". They are not medicines, cannot replace meals, and have no therapeutic effect. Common vitamin tablets, protein powders, probiotics, fish oil, and plant extract preparations all fall into this category. Their core role is to fill the nutritional gap caused by insufficient daily dietary intake.

It’s interesting to say that two weeks ago, I went shopping with a fitness guy named Fa Xiao. He grabbed the creatine and branched-chain amino acids on the shelf and told me that they were “just needed” for him to build muscle. When he turned around to check out, he met his mother. The old lady glanced at the bottles and cans in his hand and frowned: “These useless health products again! Eating too much can damage your liver! ”

You see, even if it is the same thing, different people's perceptions can be so different. In fact, the current controversy about dietary supplements is essentially a matter of boundary sense - it is much more reliable to clarify what it can do and what it cannot do than to call it "useful" or "IQ tax".

When I was an intern in the nutrition department, almost every pregnant woman who came for prenatal check-ups would be prescribed folic acid. This is a typical situation where additional supplements are needed - folic acid in daily diet is not stable, and it is really difficult for ordinary people to eat the dosage needed to prepare for pregnancy. Extra supplements can clearly reduce the risk of fetal neural tube defects. This is a conclusion written into clinical guidelines. People who eat vegan all year round are almost always deficient in vitamin B12, which is difficult to replenish through food. Just take OTC B12 tablets, which cost a few dollars a bottle, and it is much more cost-effective than dealing with the problem of anemia.

But if you want to say that supplements are all good things, that’s definitely not true. A while ago, a blogger posted that he took more than a dozen supplements every day, including anti-diabetic pills, whitening pills, liver-protecting tablets, and collagen drinks. After three months of taking these supplements, he went for a physical examination and found out he had liver damage. The doctor said he took too many supplements. There are also many merchants who promote ordinary grape seeds and anthocyanins as "anti-cancer artifacts" and "anti-aging elixirs" and sell hundreds or even thousands of bottles. In fact, the clinical evidence of the active ingredients is not sufficient at all. To put it bluntly, they are charging money for poor information.

There are actually two schools of thought in the nutrition circle regarding supplements. The clinical school is more conservative and only recommends categories that are supported by clear large-scale clinical evidence, such as calcium, iron, VD, and folic acid. If you are deficient, supplement them. If you are not lacking, don’t eat them blindly.； The natural nutrition school is more flexible, such as milk thistle, melatonin, and cranberry extract. Although there is no hard-core evidence of treatment, many people can indeed improve the corresponding symptoms after using it. As long as it is a compliant product and the dosage is reasonable, there is no need to completely deny it.

I usually prepare two bottles of supplements and one bottle of VD. After all, it is common for the sun to shine for a week in a row in the southern winter. If the sun is not enough, I will take one pill.； There is also a bottle of probiotics. Sometimes I take two pills when I have a stomachache after eating too much. It is really useful. But I would never blindly take those "functional supplements" that cost hundreds of dollars. After all, I can eat a pound of vegetables and half a pound of fruits every day, and I don't miss out on meat, eggs, and milk. I can get most of my nutrients from rice, so I don't have to waste money.

In fact, to put it bluntly, supplements are like the power bank in your bag. You don’t need it at all when you can plug it into an outlet for charging at home (normal eating). You can only use it for emergency use when you can’t eat well when you are out and there is an obvious gap in your diet. The battery life of mobile phones that always rely on power banks will be reduced, and people who always rely on supplements for nutrition will inevitably have physical problems.

If you really feel that you need to take supplements, do a basic nutrition test first and make up for whatever is missing. When buying, just look for the blue hat logo or OTC logo of the regular brand. Don’t believe those "three-no" products that "cure all diseases" in the circle of friends and square dance groups. They are most likely to be a trap.