3 popular supplements that are a waste of your money

Supplements are a double edged sword. Although the right ones could improve your health in many ways, the wrong ones could cause you more damage than good.

So what are the 3 supplements that you should avoid?

In this post, you’ll uncover the 3 popular supplements that are a waste of your money. Why you should avoid them and much more!

Many people take multivitamins to safeguard against nutritional deficiencies, disease and for it’s convenience. However, do you know that multivitamins could actually do more harm than good? Here are just a couple of reasons why:

• Nutrient Imbalance
  The problem with most multivitamins is that it has too much of certain nutrients (for e.g. vitamin B6) and too little of others. What happens instead is that you’re over-dosing and under-dosing at the same time.But what about the recommended daily allowance (RDA)? This is the minimum level to prevent deficiency, however it is not necessary the optimal dosage that you should be getting.It might be convenient and tempting to believe in a one pill a day for optimal health. But how much exactly can you fit in a pill?

Calcium has become popular to supplement with, especially among the elderly, in hopes to maintain or improve bone health. This is not to say that calcium is not important, it is important mineral for your bone health. But supplementing it is usually a waste of money.

First, does it work? Supplementing calcium by itself will not substantially improve your bone density. You have to take it alongside other nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K to improve your bone health.

Besides being ineffective, studies have shown calcium supplements to be associated with various health risks. There are studies showing that dietary intake of calcium cam protect you against heart disease, but supplemental calcium may actually increase the risk. Excess calcium, especially from supplementation is also associated with increased risk of prostate cancer, kidney stones, higher death risk (in women), etc.

And lastly, calcium is found naturally in dairy products, certain vegetables, etc. You can easily get enough of it from your diet, making supplementation unnecessary.

The truth is weight-loss supplements (be it whether they’re advertised as appetite suppressants, fat blockers, etc) usually have little to no effect (especially over the long term. What’s worse, they may actually be harmful for your health.

If you’re looking to slim down, you’re better off altering your diet and being more physically active. For unless you do these simultaneously, no supplement is going to have a big impact.

Some weight loss supplements even have side effects such as sleep disruption and cardiovascular effects.

It’s best to get most of your nutrients from food. Your body process whole foods differently. Nutrients in food work synergistically together, making to more bioavailable than consuming the equivalent nutrients from a pill.

That said, there are also certain nutrients where it’s hard to get enough of from your diet. Especially when the foods we consume are increasingly being over-processed and could possibly be laced with anything from pesticides, insecticides, heavy metals, carcinogens, etc. It is therefore also important to recognise that some supplements can help you improve your health and wellbeing.