Nutritional supplement

Potentially edible!
Food woo

Fabulous food!

* Turmeric
* Vitamin D
* Vandana Shiva
* Genetically modified food
* Marika Sboros

Delectable diets!

* Breatharianism
* Gluten-free
* Sweeteners
* Diet soda

Bodacious bods!

* ECA stack
* Bodybuilding woo
* Carnivore diet

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A nutritional supplement is a marvelous thing. It can be a vitamin, a food, a random plant extract, a chemical that probably won't actually kill you, or even nothing at all. It can be promoted as medicine only not quite, and isn't sufficiently regulated that you need to actually prove it's effective for anything at all, as long as you don't make any specific health claims.

A handy way to sell them is as vitamins. The churlish might say you were selling pseudovitamins, but they just want to undermine the health freedom of your potential customers.

## Contents

* 1 Kinds of nutritional supplements
* 2 A dose of reality
* 3 Regulation
* 4 Resources
* 5 See also
* 6 References

## Kinds of nutritional supplements[edit]

You can roughly break down the different types of supplements like this:

* Vitamin supplement: These are used for if you are not getting enough vitamins in your diet, and sometimes includes mineral supplements
* Herbal supplements: This can be basically anyone of these, and are in theory derived from some plant.
* So-called Superfoods: Basically, a plant with almost magical abilities
* Pre-Work Out/Post-Work Out: These are chemicals used by people who work out. A Pre-Work Out supplement is meant to increase energy and muscle endurance, and they're usually just caffeine pills. A Post-Work Out is used to increase muscle recovery.
* Protein Shake: Different kinds of shakes have different values, but they're used because muscle builds best if you consume an easily absorbed protein within 5 minutes of working out.[citation needed] However, in a test conducted by Consumer Reports, 3 out of 15 tested shakes were found to contain amounts of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic that were slightly above the allowed limit.[1][2]
* Lifestyle helper: For lack of a better term. These are things like fish oil and glucosomine that make life easier in some way, such as helping your heart or joints respectively.[citation needed]

## A dose of reality[edit]

A study of several commercial nutraceuticals sold as potential health enhancers was tested in mice and reported in 2014. The compounds tested were: Bone Restore®, Juvenon® (lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine), Life Extension Mix®, Ortho Core®, Ortho Mind®, Super K w k2®, Ultra K2®, and a more complex mixture of vitamins, minerals, botanical extracts and nutraceuticals that the researchers themselves prepared. The researchers concluded, "The results are consistent with epidemiological studies suggesting that dietary supplements are not beneficial and even may be harmful for otherwise healthy individuals."[3]

## Regulation[edit]

Essentially, drugs are assumed to be unsafe and ineffective until they are clinically proven otherwise, while dietary supplements (because they are classed as food) are assumed to be safe and effective until they are clinically proven otherwise.[4]

## Resources[edit]

Keeping the above in mind, vitamin deficiencies can occur in people (living in a cloudy/low-sun exposure environment can interfere with your vitamin D intake and eating a vegan diet for a lengthy period can make you deficient in vitamin B12). Should you be diagnosed by a qualified physician and prescribed and/or recommended nutritional supplements by one, follow their advice. Self-diagnosing medical conditions can be a risky business; recognize your own bias. Between the dubious nature of the claims often made by the makers of these products, and the questionable quality and quality control, always check the supplement you may be thinking about taking, and always err on the side of caution. With that in mind, the following is a list of websites which monitor the quality of supplements and the claims of their makers.

* Medline Database: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
* Consumer Lab: http://www.consumerlab.com
* The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: http://www.ajcn.org
* Supplement Watch: https://web.archive.org/web/20050401090814/http://www.supplementwatch.com/
* Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov
* Institute of Food Technologies: http://www.ift.org
* National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements: http://www.ods.od.nih.gov
* Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database: http://naturaldatabase.therapeuticresearch.com (A database of peer-reviewed research, analyzed by pharmacists and scientists, and used by the National Library of Medicine<)

## See also[edit]

* Vitamin supplement
* Herbal supplement
* Superfood
* Anti-oxidants

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Report: Protein Drinks Have Unhealthy Metals
2. ↑ What our tests found, Consumerreports.org, July 2010.
3. ↑ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-013-9609-9 Lifespan effects of simple and complex nutraceutical combinations fed isocalorically to mice
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20101209232529/http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/DietarySupplements/dietary-supplements-fda-regulations

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Articles about food woo

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| Promoters: |  American Association of Nutritional Consultants • John Fagan • Food Babe • GreenMedInfo • Organic Consumers Association • Vandana Shiva • Anti-Gym • Bulletproof diet • Joel Fuhrman • Harmonized H2O • Errol Denton • Gerson Therapy • MonaVie • Purity Products • Robert Young • Matt Cahill • Life Extension Foundation • Rick Scott • David Wolfe • Whole Foods Market • PETA • THINCS • Abd ul-Rahman Lomax • Jeffrey Smith • Jim Bakker • Mehmet Oz • Essene Gospel of Peace • John Heinerman • Institute for Natural Healing • Aseem Malhotra • Konstantin Monastyrsky • Marika Sboros • Malcolm Kendrick • Gary Taubes • Consumer Health Digest • James DiNicolantonio • Dwight Lundell • Chris Kresser • Frank Lipman • Carolyn Dean • William Davis • Anthony William • Josh Axe • Nasha Winters • H. L. Newbold • Tim Noakes • Zoë Harcombe • Annee de Mamiel • Sarah Palin • Weston A. Price Foundation • Michael Savage • Gary Null • H2Om • Nancy Appleton • Vinnie Tortorich • MeMe Roth • Environmental Working Group • Eric Berg • Varg Vikernes • Shawn Baker • Hunter Avallone • David Perlmutter • Jake Angeli • Church of Scientology • Kevin Trudeau • Kurt Saxon • Jack Dorsey • Steve Pavlina • TruthWiki • Lew Rockwell • Steve Jobs • NaturalNews • Jethro Kloss • Jordan Peterson • Jason Fung • Vegan Artbook • Paul Saladino • Truthstream Media • Jimmy Moore • Max Lugavere • Vegan Gains • Tom Naughton • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. • Ray Peat • Joel D. Wallach •
| Diet woo: |  Blood type diet • Breatharianism • Jesus diet • Lemonade diet • Ephedrine • Fasting • Macrobiotics • Organic food • Raw foodism • Doughism • Alkaline diet • Self help • Paleo diet • French paradox • Gerson Therapy • Herbalife • Vitamin D • Creatine • Raw milk movement • Gluten-free • Anti-oxidants • Squirrel diet • Vitamin and mineral supplements • Soy • Trans fat • Errol Denton • Coconut oil • Glycemic index • Isagenix • Subway diet • Agave nectar • Sweeteners • High-fructose corn syrup • Neti pot • Milk • Bulletproof diet • Pro-ana • Carnivora • Geophagia • Holland & Barrett • Weigh down diet • Clean living movement • Edward Howell • Bone broth • Palm oil • Jack Dorsey • Carrot • Diet soda • Food dye • Low-carb diet • Carnivore diet • Vitamin C • Steve Pavlina • Lew Rockwell • Steve Jobs • Jeanette Winterson • Onion • Helminthic therapy • Mediterranean diet • Fad diet •
| Supplement woo: |  Ellagic acid • Apple cider vinegar • Canola oil • Aspartame • Chlorella • Chlorophyll • Coconut oil • Creatine • E number • Rooibos tea • Açaí berry • Vitamin D • Salt woo • Matt Cahill • Vitamin and mineral supplements • Soylent Green • Rick Scott • Dietary supplements • Herbal supplement • Consumer Health Digest • Activated charcoal • CEASE therapy • Vitamin C •
| Toxin woo: |  Aspartame • Canola oil • Microwave • Broccoli • Cleanse • Chemophobia • Candida • Nitrites • Lead • Mercury • Trans fat • E number • Monosodium glutamate • Food allergy • DDT • Colloidal silver • Arsenic • Aristolochia • Alcohol • Median lethal dose • Ayahuasca • Activated charcoal • Water • Polonium • Botox • Radium • Uranium • Real Water • Toxin •
| Bodybuilding woo: |  ECA stack • Creatine • Ephedrine • Fad diet • Urban caveman movement • Anti-Gym • Human chorionic gonadotrophin • Bodybuilding woo • Broscience • Bold and Determined • Human growth hormone • The Golden One • Joe Rogan • Shawn Baker • Carnivore diet •
| GMO: |  March Against Monsanto • Monsanto • GMO A Go Go • Seeds of Death • Mark Lynas • Michael Pollan • GreenMedInfo • Judy Carman • Vandana Shiva • Bill Maher • Liberty Beacon • Food, Inc • Food Babe • Gilles-Eric Séralini • Nassim Nicholas Taleb • Glyphosate • AlterNet • FAQ on genetically modified food • Kevin Folta • Beppe Grillo • Jill Stein • TruthWiki • Genetically modified food • Golden Rice • Kyle Kulinski • The Non-GMO Project • Environmental Working Group • Fair trade • The Young Turks • Frank Lipman • American Academy of Environmental Medicine • Chidambaram Subramaniam • M.S. Swaminathan • Norman Borlaug • Percy Schmeiser • Jimmy Dore • Immortal Technique • David Dees • NaturalNews • Truthstream Media • Zachary K. Hubbard • Matt Walsh •