HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS

Walk into any health store and you’ll be overwhelmed by nutritional supplements, each promising incredible results with the simple pop of a pill. Faced with a huge selection, it’s not easy to know where to start when it comes to choosing a quality nutritional supplement, let alone picking the right one for you.

But don’t worry! We’ve pulled together a checklist of the most important credentials to look out for when buying a great health supplement, as well as the things to avoid:

1. Quality Assurance is Vital

A good supplement provider will always go to lengths to ensure that their products are safe, effective and conform to the highest industry standards.

A good way of ensuring a supplement is the best quality is to make sure it’s been manufactured at a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility.

Good manufacturing practice guidelines provide guidance and quality assurance to ensure all manufacturing facilities are hygienic, manufacturing processes are controlled, and ingredients are fully disclosed. As well as GMP certification, look out for other signs of quality including producers that comply with ISO 9001 standards.

2. Avoid fillers

Just like when shopping for food, it’s really important to avoid fillers, preservatives, additives and other nasties when choosing a nutritional supplement.

Reputable providers list all ingredients, including inactive ingredients, in their products.

Here are some substances to watch out for and avoid:

Talc of magnesium silicate
Titanium dioxide
Hydrogenated oils
Artificial colors
Sugar

3. Steer Clear of Proprietary Blends

Take a close look at the supplements on your grocery store shelf and you’ll soon notice the term “proprietary blend” popping up. If you’ve never asked yourself what it actually means, now’s the time.

Basically, the FDA requires manufacturers to list the weight of each ingredient in a supplement, unless it is a proprietary blend. In that case, the manufacturer can simply list the ingredients the product contains, without any information about weights or proportions. This means companies could well be leveraging on a marketing gimmick while selling supplements which contain less of those all-important functional ingredients, and more fillers.

Instead of proprietary blends, look out for synergistic combination formulations that fully disclose the weights of the ingredients used.

4. Choose ingredients proven to work

Just because a supplement promises incredible health benefits doesn’t mean it will always deliver. Not only may the ingredients be of poor quality, but there’s a chance they’re not even proven to work.

So when choosing a supplement, make sure the ingredients used are provided at therapeutic dosages and are actually backed up by clinical studies.

While some companies do the hard work for you and provide links to outside studies, you might have to do some of your own due diligence with the help of published research.

The Bottom Line

Choosing a supplement doesn’t have to be headache. A little diligence should do the trick and over time, you’ll find it much easier to recognise a quality product from a dud. Just remember to look out for:

Quality Assurance
Pure blends (no unnecessary additives)
Clearly labelled ingredients
Ingredients and dosages that are proven to work

For safe, effective and top quality nutritional supplements you can always trust, take a look at the range of premium natural formulations available at ncapsulate®.