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Saturday, July 31, 2010

5 Criteria To Choose The Best Nutritional Supplement

There are so many brands of nutritional supplements in the market. How do we know which one is the best for me and my family? There are 5 important criteria to consider before deciding which particular brand to buy in order to get the quality we need.

1. Complete - A little bit of every nutrient is better than lots of one or two

A good supplement provides the full range of nutrients - vitamins, minerals, a variety of antioxidants such as bioflavanoids, alpha lipoic acid and coenzyme Q10. Alpha lipoic acid and Coenzyme Q10 are more costly nutrients and many "multi"-formulas do not include them. All these antioxidants work in different areas of the body and are designed to neutralize different kinds of free radicals.


2. Balance - Nutrients work best together in synergy - not alone

A good supplement provides nutrients in balance so that our bodies can enjoy the benefits of the nutrients when they work in synergy. Excessive amounts of one nutrient can sometimes hamper the absorption of another. You don't want to choose a supplement like a smorgasbord where you go to the local pharmacy and buy different supplements and putting them together yourself.

Vitamin E is the most potent antioxidant within the cell membrane. Vitamin C is the most potent antioxidant within the plasma. Glutathione is the most potent antioxidant within the cell itself. All of these antioxidants need the B cofactors and minerals to neutralize the free radicals. Glutathione needs sufficient selenium otherwise it will not able to do its job properly.

Vitamin C replenishes Vitamin E so that it can be used over and over again. Alpha lipoic acid, another potent antioxidant replenishes Vitamin E and glutathione. So when you provide all these antioxidants together, one plus one is not two, but instead adds up to ten or even twenty.


3. Potent - Too much of any nutrient is harmful but too little is ineffective
We need only a very small amount of each micronutrient. A good supplement provides sufficient amounts for optimal health. These amounts are often higher than the RDA levels. RDA or Recommended Dietary Allowances are the minimum nutrients needed to prevent acute deficiency diseases like scurvy, pellagra, rickets, etc. RDA levels are not optimal levels of nutrients needed in our diets to reduce the risk of degenerative diseases.

For example the RDA for Vitamin C is 60 mg daily. This will prevent scurvy, however according to medical literature you won't see any health benefit until you supplement between 1,000 and 2,000 mg of Vitamin C. To get that much in our diets we would need to eat eighteen large oranges or eighty avocados daily.
A good supplement should then provide the nutrients we normally get from our food but at levels we cannot obtain from our foods.

4. Bio-Available - What doesn't get absorbed and used is wasted
Vitamins and minerals can come in various forms. Some are more readily absorbed and used by the body than others. A good supplement always uses the most bio-available form. for example, chelated minerals are those bonded to amino acids and are more readily absorbed than mineral salts.


5. Safe - Above all, do no harm

A good supplement avoids nutrients like iron and preformed Vitamin A which can be harmful on long term use. A good supplement is also manufactured to more exacting standards to ensure purity and uniformity in every tablet. Products that are made to pharmaceutical standards are best as opposed to those manufactured according to food standard.


NSF International is an independent not-for-profit organization committed to making the world a safer place for consumers. It helps to certify a wide range of products ranging from food, water, different consumer products including dietary supplements.






NSF does not just evaluate the data submitted by manufacturers or analyze just a sample of the product. They conduct product testing in their own accredited laboratories to ensure that the actual contents of the product match those printed on the label. If you consume a dietary supplement that has been certified by NSF you can be confident that the contents are being regularly checked by one of the most respected certifiers in the world. NSF conducts annual audits and periodically retests each dietary supplement product to ensure continued compliance against the toughest testing standard in existence.

Visit NSF's listing page for a list of NSF certified supplements.