Shocking Secrets Behind Dietary Supplements | What I Discovered Working Behind the Scenes

Medically reviewed by Abbey Sharp, Registered Dietitian (RD), BASc.

These are the shocking secrets I learned about the supplement industry after working behind the scenes on my own dietary supplements.

The dietary supplement industry is the Wild West, as I like to call it. Aka largely unregulated, messy, and shadier than you’d like to know. As a dietitian dedicated to evidence-based nutrition, part of my goal with launching my own brand, neue theory, was to change the industry for the better. After all, if you’re going to take a dietary supplement, wouldn’t you want one formulated by a nutrition expert?

It’s been a long couple of years developing neue theory, but I’ve learned a lot in the process. So today I’m taking you behind the scenes with me, and sharing the shocking secrets I’ve discovered about the supplement industry.

The FDA Doesn’t Really Regulate Dietary Supplements

The FDA’s website says it clear as day: the FDA does not approve a supplement for safety or effectiveness, or evaluate their labeling claims before it hits the market. It’s up to the goodwill of the company to ensure their products are safe and well labeled.

The problem is two fold: first, not all brands operate from a place of goodwill, and second, they really don’t have to because no one asks them for evidence. And you can’t really blame consumers for not pushing it, because it’s hard to know the right questions to ask. It feels to me like everyone’s flying a plane with no license or training, and just hoping that no one stops them.

Since the supplement industry has over 6,000 companies pumping out 75,000 supplements in America alone, it’s understandably difficult to regulate. The FDA just doesn’t have the resources to police every random company’s label and claims. Hence the reliance on self-regulation. The big hope is that that brands are being honest and putting out safe quality products, and the brands are hoping that you don’t know the difference.

So what if dietary supplements are found to be fraudulent? Not much. They probably could get away with just shuttering their website, starting a new one,  printing new labels, and continuing to sell the same problematic product. The industry calls this “fly by night” advertising, and it probably happens a lot more than one would like to think. Yikes.

Many Companies Don’t Have Regulated Facilities

Where your supplement is manufactured does matter, but unfortunately, many companies aren’t willing to pay the premium.

Companies that are committed to producing safe, high quality, and ethical products generally conduct their production in cGMP facilities, which abide by the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. cGMP regulations were created by the FDA to offer the public some protection against shady products.

But working with a reputable cGMP facility costs more money because of regular auditing for purity, quality, cleanliness, and documentation. When finding a manufacturer for neue theory, a cGMP facility was on the top of my list because it’s that important.

Unfortunately, the FDA doesn’t have an official cGMP seal for packaging, so most people don’t know about it. So if you want to significantly increase your confidence in a dietary supplement, I highly recommend seeing if it’s cGMP manufactured.

Most Dietary Supplements Aren’t Tested

For a product that claims to improve your health, you’d think that the are rigorously tested in a lab for efficacy or at least safety. Wrong.

But since supplements are something you are generally taking regularly, if not daily, I always recommend looking for third party testing. Third party testing means an external testing facility who is not affiliated with the brand or the manufacturer can take the finished product, analyze it, and screen for unsafe levels of a key allergen, endocrine disruptors, elements, and other unlisted ingredients. And FYI, this can be a legitimate threat.

Most of the really dangerous examples of tainted products come from the shady weight loss supplement world, followed by sexual enhancement supplements and muscle builders. But over the years, we’ve seen countless investigations uncovering manufacturers cutting their active ingredients with laxatives, pharmaceutical appetite suppressants, and dangerous stimulants.

So yeah, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, not every brand tests, because it’s not mandatory and it’s expensive.

Not All Dietary Supplements Have Clinical Doses

There are a lot of popular supplement brands out there that have basically taken an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach. And most people would look at 75 ingredients and feel set for life. But supplement manufacturers often just follow a brand’s instructions, and a lot of brands know that understandably, the consumer thinks more is always more.

But we’re still working with a finite sized scoop. You can’t distill down an entire fridge worth of functional ingredients into 12 grams of powder and expect that you’re getting clinical doses of everything in the mix. 12 grams is a tablespoon, and most of these functional ingredients have clinical doses of at least 10 grams a PIECE, sometimes 10 times that amount.

The result is that you’re getting a lot of window dressing, some great marketing, and not a lot of nutraceutical action. And you know, in some cases that might be fine! There is something to be said about ingredient synergy, even if each individual ingredient doesn’t reach the clinical dosage.

Most brands get away with this and not get questioned because they will pack dozens of ingredients into massive proprietary blends lists, so you have no clue how much you’re actually getting. If could be 50 mg, it could be 1. That makes a difference.

Supplement Health Claims Can Be BS

Unlike drugs, supplements are not permitted by the FDA to be marketed for the purpose of treating, diagnosing, preventing, or curing diseases. With that being said, a brand can technically make a claim even if it’s NOT evidence-based, as long as it’s within the scope of what the human body can do.

For example, let’s look at a dietary supplement for hair growth. You can’t say the supplement TREATS alopecia. But since a normal healthy bodily function is to grow human hair, you can make a claim that the supplement supports hair growth. Now a claim like this would make total sense if it contains ingredients in the product that have been shown to support hair growth, but you could also be selling spa water and say it promotes hair growth.

As you guys know, I like receipts and I like research. That’s why I will always provide studies to explain our ingredient choices because I’m not about the BS health claims here.

Cheap Ingredients May Not Work

A huge learning moment for me as a dietitian-turned-supplement-developer was when I came to my manufacturer with a list of probiotic strains that I had liked and seen pieces of in other products. And I was kindly informed by our science advisors that even though those strains are commonly used, they actually wouldn’t survive very well in a medium like protein powder. We ultimately decided to use spore forming bacillus strains in our formula, but it was shocking to me to learn that many of these strains in other products are actually useless by the time of consumption.

There’s also huge variability in vitamin forms used in multivitamins or dietary supplement blends. For example, a lot of brands will use a synthetic form of b12 called cyanocobalamin because it’s cheap, but it’s nowhere near as well absorbed as methylcobalamin. So tread carefully, because not all brands have your best interests at heart, and may be selling you a subpar product.

Bottom Line on the Dietary Supplements Industry

By now, I hope you’ve learned the importance of choosing an evidence-based, third party tested supplement manufactured in a cGMP facility. All of this is not to tell you to buy my supplement (or that you need dietary supplements at all), but to help you make an informed decision.

More Blog Posts You Might Like

Read more about dietary supplements:

• The Unregulated World of Natural Health Supplements
• Are Supplements Safe? How to Choose the Right Supplement
• Natural Remedies for Bloating (Evidence Based Diet and Supplement Tips)
• Food and Supplements for Fertility and Getting Pregnant

Do you know if your dietary supplements meet these standards? Were you just as surprised as me to learn these secrets about the supplement industry? Let me know below!

Updated on July 21st, 2024