How to Choose a High-Quality Nutritional Supplement

To help you feel more confident about your supplements, here are the key things to look at when choosing a quality supplement:

Ingredient Information 

Products sold as dietary supplements have to come with a supplement or nutritional facts label that lists the active ingredients or nutrients, the amount per serving, daily values, as well as other inactive ingredients that may be included, such as fillers, binders, and artificial colorings. The manufacturer suggests the serving size, but your healthcare provider might decide a different amount is more appropriate for you.

NRV

NRV is an abbreviation for ‘Nutrient Reference Value’. As a consumer, one may be more familiar with the old system of noting RDA’s (Recommended Daily Allowance) within the nutritional facts, but the values for RDA and NRV are exactly the same. Food supplement labels list the ingredients included in the product and give the proportion of the NRV value (% NRV) that is contained within the supplement (e.g., vitamin C, 80mg, 100% NRV). NRV’s are set for 13 vitamins and 14 minerals for the purposes of food labelling and are guidance levels on the daily amount of vitamin or mineral that the average healthy person needs to prevent deficiency. A supplement may promote itself as having an abundance of nutrients included, but upon review of the nutritional information, it is seen that the % NRV levels are quite low- just because it is included, does not always mean it is at an affective amount. If you are choosing products from a trusted brand, higher %NRV, sometimes even those over 100%, are significant because that is the level that is scientifically proven to provide a product’s claimed therapeutic effect.

Active vs. Inactive Ingredients 

Like any food label, a product is required to list all comprised ingredients. In the case of food supplements, this is broken down into active and inactive or other ingredients.  Ingredients are listed in the nutritional facts in decreasing order by weight or amount per serving where the active ingredients are generally those listed first as they are the nutrients that provide the effects in order to achieve therapeutic goals and health benefits.

Inactive ingredients are preservatives, fillers, artificial colors, or flavors. These are usually added to extend shelf life, change the appearance or taste, or reduce the cost of manufacturing. A common example of this is the widely used additive, magnesium stearate. Magnesium stearate is an inactive ingredient used by many supplement companies as an anticaking, lubricant agent that reduces the cost of manufacturing since its lubricating characteristics prevents ingredients from sticking to production equipment thus increasing the final yield of product. Although generally recognized as food safe, magnesium stearate is an unnecessary ingredient with no health benefits. However, the impact of long-term intake of this ingredient is still unclear.  

High quality nutritional supplements are free from these unnecessary additives. While not a problem for everyone, inactive ingredients can include substances associated with adverse reactions for sensitive people.  These additives could lead to reactions for people with food sensitivities, intolerances, or allergies. Some even have questionable long-term health implications.

A high-quality supplement minimizes the use of unnecessary additives and fillers to the end product, so you only get the specific ingredients you want.

Quality of Ingredients

Premium nutritional supplement companies will produce products using the bioidentical forms of nutrients as those are the most bioavailable. When we consume a vitamin or mineral, its bioavailability refers to the amount of the nutrient that has an active effect within our bodies. Put simply, the higher a nutrient’s bioavailability is, the more of it that will get sent to the parts of the body that need it. 

Equally as important as the ingredients themselves are the bioavailability of those ingredients.  Bioavailability basically refers to each nutrient’s ability to provide the desired effect in the body.  When a nutrient has high bioavailability, it usually means the nutrient is in a form that is well absorbed and/or easily unitized by our cells. 

A common example of bioavailability can be demonstrated when discussing the nutrient folate.  Folate is an essential vitamin and therefore we must obtain it through diet or supplements.  The most common form of folate used in supplements or fortified foods is folic acid.  Folic acid is a distinctly man-made form of folate and is often used due to its stability and long shelf-life.

In order for folic acid to be used by our body, our cells must first convert folic acid into the active form of folate (i.e. methylated folate).  However, many people contain a very common and often undetected genetic alteration (?mutation, polymorphism?) that prevents their cells from efficiently converting folic acid into the active form.  Therefore, for many individuals, using a supplement containing folic acid to raise folate levels might not be effective.  However, using a supplement that already contains the active form of folate (methylated folate) would have much higher bioavailability because it would already be easily utilized by our cells.

Put simply, the higher a nutrient’s bioavailability, the more effective it may be. Therefore, when finding a high-quality nutritional supplement, it’s important to assess each nutrient in the formulation to ensure it is a well-researched and highly bioavailable form.  While it can be it can be difficult for the everyday consumer  to easily identify if a supplement is leveraging high-quality, bioavailable nutrients, most companies that do use these types of ingredients will often mention this on their bottles or brand marketing materials. You can always consult your local pharmacist too to determine the quality of ingredients used in supplements. 

To the everyday consumer, it can be difficult to easily identify if a supplement is leveraging high-quality, bioavailable nutrients, but companies that do use these types of highly effective ingredients will often illustrate this attention to detail on their bottles or brand marketing materials. You can always consult your local pharmacist too to determine the quality of ingredients used in supplements.