Supplements that work - How to choose

Whole Food Supplements: How to Choose Supplements that Work

Whole food supplements must be chosen carefully. Many of the supplements on the market today are not real whole food supplements. If you don’t do your research, you run the risk of wasting money on products that do little for your health.

There are over 250,000 supplements on the market today. How do you know if something really works? Should you believe the advertising from the manufacturer? Do you think you really can “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days?”

I want you to choose whole food supplements that will make a difference in your health. And of course, I don’t want you to have to go through the time-consuming—and expensive—process of trial and error.

This page takes you through the process of using research to choose a high-quality whole food supplement. Remember that high-quality doesn’t necessarily mean the most costly product. High-quality products are those supplements that work!

Dean’s Tip:

Just because a supplement may have exotic sounding ingredients, or is "cutting-edge," doesn't mean it's healthier for you or better than a true whole food supplement. Don’t be fooled the way millions of others are fooled!

Here’s a rundown of the process I use when choosing supplements that work. It works well and is actually how I ended up liking each of the products on my Top picks page:

• Step 1 - Determine whether the supplement is a whole food supplement or another type.

• Step 3 - Ask people you know (who understand whole food supplements, of course) for their opinions and recommendations.

Step 1 – Is it a true whole food supplement?

If you’re looking for whole food supplements that work, you are looking for the elite class of nutritional supplements.

It's a fact of science that vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are often synergistic. They require the presence of each other, just the way nature intended, to give you the maximum benefit.

Unlike other vitamin and mineral supplements, whole food supplements retain the whole range of good things you find in whole food.

What’s a cofactor and why do you need to know about it?
Food researcher Vic Shayne, PhD, says:

"A food complex includes not only vitamins and minerals, but also many cofactors (helper nutrients) that are found in nature’s foods as a result of the evolutionary process.”

Cofactors and food complexes cannot be made in a laboratory. Nor can scientists duplicate them. They are found in whole foods and in whole food supplements and may be the most important part of the food.

Step 2 – Is the research valid?

When you find a supplement on the market, your first question should be:

“Where are the third-party, randomized, double-blind, crossover, peer-reviewed, published studies to support the claims being made?”

When you ask this question, you will eliminate 99% of everything on the market. Product manufacturers will say, “Clinical studies say blah, blah, blah…”

What clinical study? Where is it published? Who reviewed it? Was it randomized?

With the advent of the internet, it’s easy to find out if there are bonafide studies to rely on or not. But doing the research is your responsibility. Don’t rely on the claims of manufacturers. They are counting on you to do just that!

Before you go shopping for a whole food supplement, get familiar with these research terms:

• Third-party study: someone other than the manufacturer of the product has done the research.

• Randomized: A computer decides which study group an individual is in, not the scientists conducting the study.

• Double-blind: Neither the participants in the study nor the scientists conducting the study know who is taking the placebo.

• Crossover: A study within a study. Midway through the study the control and placebo groups are switched without participants’ knowledge.

• Peer-reviewed: Once the study is completed, a panel of experts reviews the results for accuracy and decides whether to recommend it for publication.

• Published: The study will appear in a professional journal such as Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology etc.

Step 3 – Find out what others are using

When I am evaluating new products, I like hearing what people who have already used the product have to say about it.

Reading testimonials provided by the manufacturer is one way to do this. Ideally though, you should get information from someone who tried the product and will tell you honestly what he or she thinks.

Questions to ask include:

• When did you start using the product?
• How long have—or did— you use it?
• Did you experience any benefits from using the product?
• When did you start to feel the benefits?
• Was there anything you didn’t like about the product?

If you’re looking for some excellent whole food supplements that work, check out my Top Picks to see the products I like and why.

How to choose supplements that work