Dietary supplement tablets

For the vast majority of people who eat a balanced diet and have no special health needs, it is not a necessity at all. Only people who have clear nutritional intake gaps or have specific supplement needs as assessed by professionals can truly benefit from taking it as needed. Eating it indiscriminately may cause health risks.

Last month, I helped a friend who works in Internet operations read the physical examination report. She had been eating takeout every day and staying up late for three months. It was found that the 25-hydroxyvitamin D was only 12ng/ml (the normal reference value is greater than 30). The doctor prescribed the most common vitamin D3 tablets, which cost a few yuan a bottle. She took one tablet a day. After three months, the level increased to 35. She had followed the trend and bought several hundred yuan of imported multivitamin gummies, but after eating them for more than half a year, they were of no use. Later, she looked at the ingredient list and discovered that the D3 content of each gummy was only 100IU. The doctor asked her to take 1,000IU every day, and she had to take 10 pills to get enough. The effective ingredients in the gummies were not as much as the white sugar in the gummies.

Nowadays, there is a fierce debate on the Internet about supplement tablets. On one side are the proponents of "it is better to take supplements than not to supplement at all". The pill boxes are filled with grape seeds, lutein, and multivitamins. Taking a handful before meals every day is more punctual than eating. On the other side are the opponents who all criticize the "IQ tax". They think that all supplements are marketing gimmicks, which are useless and increase the burden on the liver and kidneys. In fact, both sides are reasonable. To put it bluntly, this thing is like an emergency patch. If your clothes are torn, it will be useful if you mend them. If you sew a patch on good clothes, it will make you panic.

For example, the vegan people I have come into contact with have almost no animal-derived foods in their daily diet. The vitamin B12 gap cannot be filled by dietary supplements. Long-term deficiency will cause peripheral neuropathy. At this time, taking B12 tablets, which cost a few cents a piece, is cost-effective and effective. There is also folic acid that needs to be supplemented during pre-pregnancy. It has also been confirmed by evidence-based medicine to reduce the risk of fetal neural tube defects. This is a real need. You can’t say that people are paying IQ tax by taking folic acid, right?

But on the other hand, if you eat eggs, milk, fresh vegetables, and whole grains for three meals a day, and often go out to bask in the sun, you must follow the trend and buy calcium tablets and vitamin D tablets to supplement. If you eat more than the tolerable maximum intake in the "Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for Chinese Residents", it will easily lead to hypercalcemia and kidney stones. When I was rotating in the nutrition department, I met an aunt who bought several kinds of liver-protecting tablets, collagen tablets, and multivitamins and mixed them together. Within a month of taking them, the transaminase was significantly higher. After I stopped taking supplements, it slowly dropped. It was a combination of multiple supplements, and the excessive amount of active ingredients put an unnecessary burden on the liver.

Many people don’t know that tablets actually have the most stable active ingredients and the most cost-effective among all dietary supplement dosage forms. For the same supplement of 100 mg of vitamin C, ordinary tablets may only cost a few cents, but if replaced by effervescent tablets, gummies, or oral liquids, the price can be more than ten times higher, and a lot of additional sugars, flavors, and flavorings are added, which adds extra metabolic burden to the body. Many businesses advertise that "gummies/oral liquids are better absorbed". In fact, for most common nutrients, the absorption rate of tablets is no different from other dosage forms by 2%, and all the extra money is paid for marketing and taste.

In fact, there is no need to think too extreme about supplement tablets. It does not need to be regarded as a miracle drug that can cure all diseases, nor does it need to be beaten to death with a stick and said to be an IQ tax. If you are on a business trip recently and cannot eat fresh vegetables every day, prepare a small bottle of B complex and vitamin C for a week or two as a temporary supplement. It can really relieve fatigue and oral ulcer problems. If you expect that taking some whitening tablets and anti-sugar tablets can replace sun protection and sugar control, then it is better to save some money and eat a balanced meal every day and get enough sleep first. It will be more effective than any supplement.