To Supplement or Not? Understanding the Benefits and Dangers

Jan. 26, 2022 — Are you considering of including dietary supplements to your weight loss program? While dietary supplements will be useful in some instances, they could be a very slippery slope, and customers should proceed with warning, one registered dietitian nutritionist says. 

Jamie Lee McIntyre, a dietitian and diet marketing consultant at JamieLeeRDN.com, says she sees extra curiosity in supplementation each January with folks’s New Year’s resolutions. But there’s additionally a year-round curiosity, she says, particularly for the reason that pandemic started, making it much more essential to grasp the dangers and rewards related to them.

First off, it’s essential to notice that the FDA doesn’t regulate dietary supplements.

“Though they are sold over the counter, they can be as dangerous as medicine. The least dangerous worst-case scenario is a waste of money,” says McIntyre. “For example, megadoses of water-soluble vitamins are literally flushed down the toilet through urine when there is no medical need or true nutrition deficit in the person taking it.”

“The most dangerous worst-case scenarios can be a food and drug interaction, such as vitamin K interfering with blood thinning medications, or toxicity, which can happen with fat-soluble vitamins and others,” she continues.

Reading labels for certification will help however is one other place the place schooling is important. Many complement makers will go for testing by a third-party operator to indicate a top quality and exhibit that what’s on the label is certainly what’s within the bottle.

McIntyre recommends searching for certification from Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport, or USP should you’re checking.

Beyond studying labels, it’s important to grasp your precise wants earlier than popping tablets or including powders to your drinks. Liberal use of dietary supplements may cause a number of points, says McIntyre.

“One of my very first patients I met as a new dietitian was an individual hospitalized for a gastrointestinal bleed because of his regular use of a laundry list of vitamin supplements,” she says. “Many labels even warn of this. While toxicity and food and drug interactions are the most dangerous complications, less dangerous but undesirable issues can arise, such as masking a different deficiency or undiagnosed health condition, or creating a new issue or symptom from taking an unnecessary supplement.”

For these trying to enhance health features through dietary supplements particularly for that goal, the slope will be simply as slippery.

“I often see clients taking pre-workout or ‘energy-boosting’ supplements, with high amounts of caffeine,” says McIntyre. “This can lead to diarrhea, rapid and irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and dizziness, among other issues. Another common side effect is gastrointestinal distress and upset stomach.”

How to Get It Right

If you’re questioning should you want a complement of any kind and need to add it to your weight loss program in a secure method, there are steps to take to perform that. The first and finest option to go about supplementation is to begin together with your physician or a registered dietitian.

“I first perform a full nutrition assessment, complete with review of past medical history, allergies, current and past medication use, current supplement use, lab work (most often chem, heme and lipid panels), and, of course, a diet review using food logs or food questionnaires to understand where they stand in terms of current nutrient intake,” says McIntyre. “Labs that I would order separate from the panels I’ve mentioned would be iron and total binding capacity, ferritin, B12 and folic acids, as well as vitamin D.”

Depending in your way of life, this strategy could range.

“For certain populations, like athletes considering low-risk supplementation, lab work may not be necessary for implementing a product like creatine monohydrate. Or if I know a client is having a tough time meeting protein needs on a vegan diet, a minimal-ingredient plant-based protein powder could be low-risk,” McIntyre says. “As with all things nutrition-related, it comes down to the individual and what is required to determine the best approach truly specific to them.”

What about taking a easy multivitamin? Should you verify in with a health care provider or registered dietitian for that?

“A single multivitamin, in the absence of other nutrients and serious health conditions, can be a good insurance plan,” says McIntyre. “If a person has decided to take a multivitamin, I recommend looking for one that is third-party tested, contains nutrient dosing specific to the person’s needs based on sex and age, has good bioavailability of key nutrients, is convenient, and sold at a reasonable cost.”

Some multivitamins are focused to particular populations, like post-menopausal ladies, for instance. While these would possibly appear to be the fitting thought, you must once more tread fastidiously earlier than you’re taking one. For occasion, be cautious of dietary supplements that promise hormone stability or are in any other case not normal follow with out first getting a full diet evaluation and confirmed medical want for such a complement.

This holds true on this present second of the pandemic, too. Misinformation about what dietary supplements can and may’t do to forestall or treatment COVID is widespread.

“You cannot, nor would you want to, ‘boost’ your immune system with supplements,” warns McIntyre. “Yes, it is true certain nutrients support immune health. Vitamins A, C, and E, and minerals like zinc, all play a role in immune system function.”

That mentioned, “there is no need to take supplements if you eat a balanced diet, so the recommendation should be to include these foods in your daily diet for essential nutrients that support your immune system.”

And in a really perfect world, you’ll do exactly that — get the vitamins you want, with out dietary supplements.

“If there is a perceived, specific need for supplementation, it is always best to review your interest with your physician, dietitian, and pharmacist so that they can best help you navigate and choose what is right for you,” says McIntyre.