These days, it's often difficult to eat a balanced diet and meet all our essential nutrient requirements. That's where dietary supplements can help. However, with so many products on the market, making the right choice can be complicated. In this article, we give you five mistakes to avoid when choosing your food supplements.
Don't base your choice on claims or product name. To assess a product's effectiveness, look for the nutritional table and list of ingredients on the packaging. Also consider the presence or origin of any excipients used, as well as allergens (gluten, lactose, other molecules...), additives, preservatives or any other controversial compounds. Make sure that the form used for nutrients and/or active ingredients guarantees optimal assimilation, good tolerance and limits undesirable effects.
Be careful with dietary supplementsfrom abroad , which are sometimes sold on non-specialized websites. These food supplements are not subject to the same quality controls as in France, and some substances may be prohibited by French legislation. French legislation is quite strict, and this is not the case in all countries. So be careful about the origin of your food supplements.
The presentation of a dietary supplement is called its "galenic form". These include capsules, tablets, syrups, liquids, powders... A good manufacturer chooses a galenic form adapted to the nature of the raw materials used. Sometimes, one form is preferable to another for the same product, as it guarantees better concentration and/or protection of the active ingredients.
In dietary supplements, the active ingredient is the substance with health-promoting properties. The concentration of active ingredients is therefore essential for assessing a product's efficacy , and also indicates its quality. To verify this, you need to look at the composition of the food supplement, and more specifically at the nutritional information.
To be on the safe side, choose brands that apply strict quality controls to their production and guarantee the quality of their products. Avoid products that may have been stored in poor conditions (e.g. stock clearance stores, display cases or shelves in direct sunlight, packaging that may already have been opened): this can alter the quality of dietary supplements. Scientific and/or clinical studies on the ingredients or on the finished product are also good guarantees of the quality and efficacy of the dietary supplement.