Almost 70% of US adults report using supplements on a regular basis based on a recent study from the Council for Responsible Nutrition. For the past several years supplement use has been fairly consistent fluctuating between 65% and 70%.
Multivitamins lead the pack of reported usage and it is higher in older users. 86% of the survey respondents reported being confident with the safety of the products available.
What wasn’t explored in the study were the brands of supplements people were using. Sadly the largest selling products, with probably 80% of the market share are the very low cost, low quality, and poorly absorbed products like Centrum, Kirkland, One-a-Day, etc.
What is worrisome is that 70% of the population are taking supplement to improve, or maintain, their health, but most are choosing products which provide little benefit. Talk to a nurse or sewage plant worker and you’ll hear reports of “Bedpan Bullets” these are undisolved supplements, and for those brave enough to look closely, I’ve heard reports of them still being able to read “Centrum” on the tablet. You’ll find the same from sewage plants where they have screens to capture solids in the sewage, and most are undisolved vitamins. It isn’t just cheap multivitamins, but even prescription products. One study at the University of Maryland sought to analyze 9 different brands of prescription prenatal vitamins – what they found though was that six out of the nine didn’t even dissolve. So if your supplement doesn’t dissolve, you can’t absorb what nutrients are in it.
So good news is many people are concerned about improving their health, but bad news is many aren’t using products which are capable of helping. The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements analyzed over 1,600 different multivitamins available in North America and only 4 received the highest ratings and it dropped off very quickly with only 20 products being in the top 20%, but over a thousand in the lower 20%. I’m reassured to know that I’m using the #1 rated multivitamin, the same product that thousands of professional and olympic athletes trust as well.
Here is the details of the study http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Product-Categories/Nutritional-lipids-and-oils/U.S.-supplement-use-remains-strong-CRN-survey-says