How the Supplement Industry Abuses Food Regulations

There is plastic everywhere. Companies use cheap forms of nutrients. They underdose nutrients but overdose fillers. They hide their dodgy flavoring ingredients behind sneaky labeling terms. They pack in unhealthy additives. Their fish oil is rancid. They sell you nutraceuticals with little to no scientifically proven efficacy. They advertise supplements that don’t do anything. They make you sign up for subscriptions to get the normal price. And after all that, they still charge way too much.

It’s all so complicated and overwhelming. At every turn someone is trying to sell you something and they want you to fall for their scummy business practices. So, keep reading to see a breakdown of every one of those points and how you can save money while improving your health, rather than blowing a week's salary to take 50 pills and powders a day.

PLASTIC EVERYWHERE

The bottles, lids, scoopers, bags, packets. All of it is plastic. Metal bottles and cans are lined with plastic to prevent corrosion or leaching of the metal… then the plastic leaches. Paper packaging is lined with plastic to prevent the paper from falling apart… but microplastics fall apart into your drink. Certain bio-packaging that is compostable utilizes no plastic from petroleum… only plastic from plants... which is still plastic.

So many brands pretend like they are healthy, then further wreck your hormones and fertility by selling you more junk wrapped up in easily damaged plastics.

CHEAP FORMS

Nutrients are found in various chemical compounds and each contains its own nuance for how it works in the body. Supplements often include cheaper forms of common nutrients that, of course, come with negative side effects. Different compounds/forms of the same nutrients will differ in their attributes, such as absorption, bioavailability and function.

I. Bioavailability

Bioavailability is how well your body can actually use a nutrient. For example, magnesium oxide is a cheap form of magnesium that is poorly absorbed, so it is commonly used as a laxative because it passes through you. Magnesium glycinate is an expensive, well-absorbed form with magnesium that actually makes its way into the body and bloodstream to aid in its various functions (sleep support, muscle relaxation, bone health, etc). However, there is more elemental magnesium in magnesium oxide (60%) compared to magnesium glycinate (14%), so the same weight of the two compounds (oxide and glycinate) next to each other makes it seem like oxide has more magnesium than glycinate.

II. Absent Complements

It may happen that a supplement is missing a necessary complementary nutrient. One example is how zinc is often coupled with copper because of their antagonistic relationship in which they compete for receptors. Consuming too much zinc without enough copper will result in the zinc out-competing the copper for receptors, thus blocking copper absorption and leading to a copper deficiency. Another example of a (debated) antagonistic relationship is caffeine and creatine. They involve similar resources: caffeine blocks adenosine receptors which increases wakefulness, while creatine boosts adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production so drinking coffee right around the time of consuming creatine is thought to blunt the effects of creatine.

III. Genetic Mutations and Disorders

Different genes result in different outcomes, whether they be common gene mutations or rare genetic disorders. Examples include 1) abetalipoproteinemia which prevents proper fat absorption, 2) hereditary folate malabsorption that impairs vitamin B9 (folate) absorption and 3) underproduction of lactase enzyme which results in lactose intolerance. This matters because you could be one of the approximately 50% of people with a methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation that renders your body unable to properly use folic acid (the synthetic form of folate). That linked big medicine article is, unfortunately, blatantly wrong about MTHFR variants not causing health issues.

Your B vitamin supplement may include synthetic folic acid rather than a beneficial form of folate such as methyltetrahydrofolate. If you have the gene mutation, then your supplemented vitamin B9 is doing nothing for you because it's the wrong form. The synthetic folic acid can actually build up inside your body and hurt your brain or fail to assist with neural tube defects during pregnancy.

IV. Dangerous Byproducts

Some cheap forms of nutrients are bound to harmful chemicals. The glaring example is a cheap form of vitamin B12, cyanocobalamin. In this form, the B vitamin is broken down into cobalamin and cyanide in the liver where the enzyme rhodanese normally detoxifies the cyanide. While the levels of cyanide exposure from cyanocobalamin are typically low and this form is generally recognized as safe by the FDA (which doesn't mean much), you are still consuming cyanide. "The dose makes the poison" is only a good excuse for acute toxicity. Persistent exposure to toxins is killing our health, whether they are microplastics, mycotoxins, heavy metals, cyanide or anything else. 

Cyanide apologists will rebut with how there are low levels of exposure and you eat harmful chemicals such as cyanide all the time in plant foods but your liver works to detoxify them. My response is that I don't eat plant foods containing cyanide (such as seeds, pits, shoots) and that none of it is good! You should try to limit it rather than potentially exhaust your rhodanese enzymes that have to deal with other toxins too, like reactive oxygen species.

UNDERDOSE / OVERDOSE

Certain electrolyte products will contain serving sizes with insignificant quantities of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and chloride. So you pay for electrolytes but receive flavors and colors rather than actual electrolytes. Others use cheap forms so the true amount of a specific nutrient that is absorbed and used by the body is far less than what the label reads.

Some electrolyte products will contain a poor ratio of sodium to potassium. A proper ratio is important to assist with your body's sodium-potassium pump that sustains physiological processes in many organs. Others don’t contain any glucose or amino acids so they lose out on the benefits of sodium cotransport systems (unless you are eating at the same time as drinking those electrolytes).

They load up on cheap filler ingredients for flavor or sweetness so you get hooked on that aspect rather than the nutritional benefit. Or they pack their plastic packets with flow agents like silicon dioxide (tiny bits of glass) so it comes out of the packet a little easier.

NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL “FLAVORS”

Natural and artificial flavors are compounds hidden behind labeling schemes that often include unhealthy or harmful ingredients. They are used for their concentrated flavors in place of real food ingredients. To produce them, manufacturers have to apply chemical solvents and other intense treatments to substrates, then spray in carriers and texturizers to form them into a usable liquid or powder. Due to the obscure labeling scheme, the ingredients used are hidden from consumers. For a more technical breakdown, check out our article How the US Government Allows for a Damaged Food Supply. 

UNHEALTHY ADDITIVES

Aside from plastics, dangerous byproducts and hidden ingredients in the “natural” flavors, companies will directly add unhealthy additives to their products. Silicon dioxide (mentioned above), artificial sweeteners, colors, artificial preservatives and other additives are far too common in the supplement industry and food industry as a whole. Additives are often unhealthy ingredients such as maltodextrin, from GMO corn; aspartame, from E. coli; and artificial colors, from petroleum. Artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium are harmful to the good bacteria in your gut and have links to other health problems (aspartame to cancer and sucralose to DNA damage). 

SUPPLEMENTS THAT DON’T DO ANYTHING

I'll give you the shortlist of supplement examples that are a waste of money. Athletic greens are overpriced powders made from less bioavailable nutrients (from plant sources compared to animal sources) still packaged in plastic. Fish oil supplements are often rancid due to the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the supplements being oxidized by the time they reach you, which harm you as they release aldehydes, lipid peroxides and other dangerous byproducts in the body. Nutraceuticals with no proven effects are marketed as magical cures for common problems, but they rarely ever achieve the desired results. Around 25% of the population is nonresponsive to creatine, meaning their bodies do not show nearly as much increase in total muscle creatine (creatine in the muscle) compared to the remaining 75% of the population, so the 25% lose out on notable muscle-related benefits from creatine.

THE GROUND RULES

The water you drink, the food you eat, the sleep you get, the air you breathe - these four elements are far more important than any supplement you could take. Your money is best spent there first. Then, only buy supplements which have a specific intention for your body. A runner needs more simple, quick carbs while a bodybuilder needs more essential amino acids. Those supplements you reach for should be simple: real nutrients that your body needs more of. Everyone needs sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride but not everyone needs an overpriced mushroom extract blend for “brain health” when none of the mushrooms are proven to help the brain and the mushrooms were boiled, blasted, frozen and deoxygenated to create an extract (losing nutrients along the way).

When you search for electrolytes, your solution should be packaged in sustainable materials, use proper forms of electrolytes with significant doses, use real and transparent flavor ingredients, limit or exclude additives and charge you a reasonable price. It just so happens that Ground meets those criteria!