I know supplements can be expensive. Believe me; I know because I take them myself.
But the point of taking supplements is to give your body all the building blocks that it needs to make healthy cells, tissues, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. If we are paying for supplements that are not providing those building blocks, it is just a waste of money. Or worse, if we are taking supplements that are actually doing more harm than good, then we will pay a much higher price later.
Sadly, the health supplement industry is not very well regulated in the U.S. Even if there were more rules and regulations regarding supplements, I would not trust the U.S. government to get it right (but that’s just my perspective). As we have seen in all areas of government rules, money has a lot of influence.
We work with and buy from companies that perform independent testing on their products - meaning they pay for a different, non-affiliated lab to study their products for efficacy (how well it works) and purity (free from toxic stuff that could cause harm).
Because we work with high quality companies, the supplements we use and recommend are not cheap. Could you find a multivitamin supplement at one of the big stores for less money? Yes. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for a few reasons:
- You have no idea how long those products have been sitting in a hot warehouse before you get to them. Supplements break down as they are exposed to oxygen, so we want the freshest supplements available. When we heat supplements, they break down faster. So, if they have spent even a month in a hot warehouse, baking and oxidizing, they are basically useless by the time they get to your house.
- Most supplement companies use cheap products in their supplements, including things like coal tar and wheat chaff. Coal tar is exactly what it sounds like - the tar that comes out of processing coal. Many supplement companies use it to bind together their hard packed vitamins. Do you really think it’s a good idea to swallow a little bit of coal tar every day? What do you think might happen in 10-20 years if you consume a little bit of a toxic substance every day?Answer: chronic and possibly deadly illness. (Side note - how do supplement companies get away with using bad products? Money has influence.)
- Consuming unhealthy animal products makes unhealthy people. Do you want to consume fish oil from fish that have been swimming in the ocean their whole lives? Or do you want to consume fish oil from fish that have been swimming in a dirty tank, eating their own feces and corn (not a natural diet for fish), never allowed to build muscle because there’s not enough room to actually swim… fish farming is usually not a pretty system. I want fish oil from healthy fish. The supplement companies that we use and recommend know exactly when the fish was caught that they use in their supplements. So, I can call them up and say, “I have a bottle of your product with this product number: ____. When was that fish caught?” And they can tell me when it was caught. That’s worth my money.
Are high quality supplements expensive? Yes. Are they worth the expense? In my opinion, yes. I see it as an investment in my long-term health.
