My grandma in law (if that’s a thing) never took a supplement in her life, had amazing skin, a great head of hair and lived till she was 93.
These days there is a supplement for everything. But are they doing us any good or is it yet another bi product for our bodies to get rid of like anything else. We pop a pill as readily as we would a sweet, get swept up in all the marketing blurb and latest trends that promise the earth but deliver a very sketchy reality, and for what?
Why would I want to look like 25 years old when I’m 60 anyway? Is that not a bit weird? Surely the one thing I’m striving for is to be fit and healthy which is largely down to what I eat and what I do.
Not on my high horse here, I too have been sucked in and swallow a handful of supplements every day because I believe the hype. So reading Xand van Tulleken’s (I’m a huge fan of the man) latest book, ‘Make Me Well’, I’m beginning to see things differently.
Common sense prevails. How could one pill possibly perform the impossible? Why do we buy into the empty promises? Is it borne out of desperation to retain our youth or would we be better advised to let it go and embrace maturity.
And are we really taking what it says on the bottle? How can we be sure that the tiny nuggets that claim to hold the answer to so many life changing things are indeed what they say they are and from a reputable source?
The findings in this book make for very interesting reading. We are so willing to believe the campaign for better skin, and younger bones that the likelihood that this is another money making scam benefitting from our eagerness to halt the ageing process, is enormous.
Interestingly despite the majority of supplements having little or no medical evidence or proof of doing very much of what it says on the tin, still we get duped. It isn’t a cheap path to follow either so why do we not research it more? If our body is indeed a temple, praying to the industry gods won’t grant these pills the magic we hope for, or wipe out the empty misguidance and ironic desperation that fill our lives.
If van Tulleken’s findings are to be believed then the majority of claims from a lot of supplements are unfounded at best and positively untrue at worst. He does find some substantiated evidence for sports supplements but supplements in general are backed by studies that would send medically trained scientists running a mile.
The other quite obvious fact is that there are so many versions of the different supplements on the market, (the US claiming over 30% of the global dietary supplement market and the UK accounting for 2.5%) that it would take the best part of your life to wade through the evidence as to whether what each one claims to solve, is true. By which time you’ll be so far into the aging process, that no amount of supplement taking will rescue your one foot from the grave.
Vitamin D is thought to be the saving grace here, but even that, van Tulleken claims, does nothing more than prevent deficiency and the onset of prehistoric diseases like rickets. Although the Health and Foods Supplements Information Service does push back arguing that in the UK, sunlight can’t reliably supply enough vitamin D in autumn and winter. They may have a point but that just backs up the deficiency argument, held up by the NHS which merely illustrates that it is a personal choice between unnecessary and worth taking.
So a step back in time to the 90s when partying hard and not giving two hoots about aging was the trend. Simpler times or less knowledgable? Whatever the case, the supplement market is big business. Supplement taking has personally perceived benefits but what is really fueling the demand for these pills is individuals’ beliefs in the marketing surrounding them. Its’s a supplements boom, capsules, cash and counting.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately people will always believe in magic but whether it’s real, or just a trick of the supplement game, comes down to personal choice. Personally I think perhaps Grandma Daisy had it right, eat a little of what you fancy, keep active and have a glass of sherry now and then! Maybe the key to a long life is not spending time and money on potions with a promise, but living fully in the moment.
PS “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” WB Yeats. Discover your own magic Contact Positive-Soul today.