At a time in history when we are really starting to rediscover natural medicines, food supplements have established themselves as an essential player in preserving well-being and health.
And for good reason, the food supplement helps counteract many everyday ailments and discomforts: it helps fight fatigue, take care of your hair or skin and even helps reduce the effects of painful digestion. Used wisely, the food supplement then makes it possible to meet some of our daily needs, whether physiological or dietary.
However, it can be difficult to find your way around the many dietary supplements on the market. And not all of them have the same efficiency or the same quality charter. But then, how to choose a food supplement?
A dietary supplement, what is it?
A food supplement, also known as a “nutritional supplement”, is defined as a food whose main objective is to supplement a normal diet. The food supplement is then composed of various nutrients which make it possible to compensate for certain deficiencies and deal with several everyday ailments. Taking it allows you to take care of your health in the long term.
Most often, a food supplement is made up of several ingredients and several substances, including vitamins, minerals and trace elements, such as magnesium or iodine, fatty acids, amino acids, extracts plants (such as curcumin, for example) and probiotics.
The food supplement comes in different dosage forms. It can take the form of capsules, tablets, capsules, lozenges or ampoules.
Choose a food supplement according to your needs
The first step in choosing food supplements is obviously to clearly identify your needs. Today there are different (and very numerous) types of food supplements with varied properties which provide effective responses to certain very specific ailments, including:
Thus, once one has precisely identified one’s needs or deficiencies, it is possible to move towards a particular dietary supplement. Faced with uncertainty, it is perfectly possible to turn to a professional (health professional, nutritionist, phytotherapist, etc.) or to go to a pharmacy.
The basics for choosing quality food supplements
In total, five elements must be taken into account when choosing the best dietary supplement . These selection criteria allow us to move towards quality products, respectful of our body and our planet (one does not go without the other!).
First of all, it will be a question of reading the product label carefully. The term “food supplement” must imperatively appear there. Furthermore, reading the label will allow you to know more about the dosage of the product, the different active substances present within it or even its dosage form. This first step allows you to have a general vision of the quality of the product you have in your hands.
It will then be necessary to look at its composition, and in particular on the presence of allergens (lactose, gluten, etc.), certain excipients and on products which do not enter into your diet (products of animal origin for vegetarians or vegans in particular who will move towards a vegetarian food supplement ).
It is also essential to pay particular attention to the concentration of the active ingredients in the product. This is to evaluate the effectiveness of the product. Most often, the concentration of active ingredients and their content are indicated in the form of milligrams per dose. For example, a food supplement capsule may contain 100 mg of Vitamin C. This aspect then allows you to choose a product that meets your needs and deficiencies.
It will also involve finding out about the origin of the ingredients of the supplement. It is advisable to favor ingredients that are well assimilated by the body and with controlled traceability, and if possible, move towards an organic food supplement even if it is sometimes necessary to prioritize effectiveness over the AB label. Also, a natural food supplement will not necessarily be more qualitative.
Finally, it will be necessary to choose the dosage form of the food supplement. This parameter will often depend on the way in which you wish to follow your treatment. It will then be a matter of choosing the form that suits you best and best suits your needs.
Furthermore, and beyond these five selection criteria, it is recommended to move towards food supplements which meet certain specifications and certain manufacturing standards. Likewise, you should choose ingredients whose effectiveness has been proven by scientific studies.
And favor made in France but without dogmatism. At Nutri&Co, we prioritize efficiency over made in France. If the formulation and production of an overwhelming majority of our references is manufactured in France, finding the best partners, who master unique know-how, sometimes invites us to cross borders.
Precautions to take when taking a food supplement
Although dietary supplements are not considered drugs, taking a supplement repeatedly over the long term can sometimes bring some undesirable effects, especially if it is primarily a question of solving a temporary problem.
If you are already taking medication or if you suffer from a particular pathology, the best thing to do is to seek advice from a professional in the field of food supplements, a health professional, a pharmacist or to a nutritionist. Certain contraindications may exist and undesirable effects may occur: see our topic .