One of the most frequently asked questions I get is about which supplement brands should I be taking and is the giant bottle of fish oil that cost me $10 from Chemist Warehouse as good as the one you prescribed me?
No, it’s not the same. When it comes to quality supplements it can be hard to decipher the difference, but here are some of my top tips;
✅ 200 capsules of fish oil should never cost $10-20: think about how much quality fish costs to purchase for food, then think about processing cost. High-quality fish oil is tested for contaminants such as mercury, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals.
✅ Excipients matter: excipients are the ingredients in a supplement other than the active ingredient, such as a capsule being made of gelatin or starch, tablets need binders and sometimes filler ingredients to bulk them out, then usually have some sort of coating. These ingredients can either befriend or foe depending on what they are.
✅ Dose: for a supplement to be beneficial, ideally you want to achieve a therapeutic dose. Over the counter supplements are bound by very strict labelling rules so will often have lower doses than needed to achieve a healthful benefit.
✅ If you want more bang for your buck, talk to a naturopath (not a GP), naturopaths work with supplemental vitamins, minerals and herbs, it’s what we are passionate about and we understand the forms of nutrients in them, how they’re absorbed and what they interact with pharmaceutical wise. Many GPs don’t have the same in-depth knowledge of nutrients or nutritional medicine as naturopaths. This isn’t to say they can’t diagnose an iron deficiency, but that Ferro gradumet they prescribed is 100% not the best form of iron to rectify your iron stores.
