I tend to break down supplements into two main categories; performance and health. There’s some crossover. Partly as you need to be in good health to perform well! But also, some supplements have multiple benefits across both areas. Supplements by name are to fill in a gap, or complete something. When thinking about supplementing, consider do you need it? Is your diet lacking in a specific area? Do you have a fitness or performance goal that you want help with?
One of the most common questions nutritionists are asked is “What supplement do you recommend?” But more often it’s phrased as “What supplement do I need?” With all the promotions of different types available it is unsurprising that it leads people to believe they need to take supplements.
These adverts are everywhere: Online, on social media, in magazines, on billboards. They may be targeting at your health, wellbeing, performance, and some even claim to reduce you chance of getting ill/catching a virus! Whether you actually need to supplement comes back to the regular response of it depends! Everyone is individual with their own individual needs. This means there are few, if any, blanket recommendations that anyone should be giving. Those with strong advice often have a financial incentive to sell you something.
Ideally you would get all the nutrients you need from your food, rather than needing to supplement. If you eat a balanced diet with lots of variety, that often covers the basics. Supplements can then be used as an option to ‘complete’, or round out your diet, and cover any gaps you have.
Certain diets cut out foods or food groups, which when removed create the potential for a deficiency. This can include vegan diets, which without animal products can be low in B12, iron and calcium. Low carb diets without enough fruit and vegetables may have less variety for all the micronutrients you need. If you don’t eat fish, you may need more Omega-3. If you aren’t eating nutrient dense foods, or if you are in a calorie deficit (dieting to lose weight), then a multivitamin may help you avoid deficiencies. Before buying supplements just think whether you really need to, or if your diet already covers what they are providing.
If you’re showing symptoms of a deficiency then you should speak to your doctor. They can arrange a blood test if necessary, to advise you further. Certain micronutrients we want to keep within a certain range, with too little leading to deficiencies, but at the other end, too much can be harmful. For this reason, either get advice from your doctor or a registered dietician (that isn’t the same as a nutritionist who can provide information on diet and healthy eating, registered dieticians can diagnose and treat people) to see whether supplementation would be beneficial or not.
For performance or body composition goals whey or protein powders can be a great option to supplement your diet and increase your protein intake. I mention that here, even though it can fall under dietary supplements above, as having enough protein will help maximise muscle growth (hypertrophy) and it also assists recovery. On that train of thought, carbs are important to fuel training too, especially glycogen depleting exercise, such as endurance events. Intra-carb supplements can be used during a workout or training session, as a rapidly available energy source to top up your glycogen stores. You may also consider creatine, caffeine or beta-alanine to increase your training quality, performance and/or recovery. These are examples, not an exhaustive list!
With ergogenic aids, checking the dose is important. Then trial it to find the level that works for you. Take caffeine as an example, where the most common dose given for performance is 2-6mg/kg of body weight. That’s a big difference between the bottom and top end of the range. It makes sense to start at the lower dose, see how it helps, then adjust up only if needed.
Beta-alanine as another example, is often included in pre-workouts. However, the current research on that supplement shows it as effective after a loading period (when it’s fully saturated in your system). If you only take it in small amounts in a pre-workout a few times a week, it’s probably not helping very much, if at all. Understanding how, why and in what circumstance to use any supplement is important if you want to get the possible benefits from them.
One note for anyone competing or a professional athlete, is to check anything you take is legal. Look out for whether they have the Informed Sport testing. This should help avoid you unknowingly taking something you aren’t allowed, as with that every batch of a supplement is checked that it doesn’t include any banned substances.
For some supplements, the research might not show any clear benefits. In those cases, are some supplements worth trying? Well, like a lot of questions on here, it depends.
If studies on a supplement show a neutral or small positive effect, maybe. When you have a specific condition which you struggle with, and have tried everything else, then trialling something new and monitoring the effects, could be worthwhile. The monitoring part here is key. Research summarises the results on groups of people, with certain cutoffs for what is or isn’t a “significant” effect. Within each study, there are often outliers at both ends of the spectrum – with high and low responders. As an individual, you may find something that really works for you. Equally, if a supplement is having no effect, it probably isn’t worth continuing to take.
This leads nicely to the consideration of the price. A lot of supplements are expensive, and if you take lots of different ones too, the cost can add up. If you aren’t sure on the efficacy of a supplement, something that is a few pence a serving might be more worthwhile to take a punt on, than one which is ££’s.
If a supplement has been shown to have any negative effects in trials studying it, I’d recommend steering clear. A great reference site with overviews on supplement efficacy and how they relate to specific health conditions or performance benefits is Examine. They’re my go-to for anything I’m unsure of, or if I’m considering testing out something myself.