Walk down any drugstore aisle, and you’ll see walls of pills promising better immunity, more energy, weight loss and just becoming an unstoppable force of health and wellness. It’s a successful pitch when you factor in that U.S. consumers spend an estimated $60 billion a year on nutritional supplements, without any guarantee that they will work as promised. Now that’s a tough pill to swallow.
Here are four vitamins and supplements that health experts often say are a waste of money for most healthy adults, based on large studies and expert consensus, not trends or influencer hype.
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1. Multivitamins
Much like most healthy adults, multivitamins are trying to do too much.
According to Erin Cahoon, a dietitian who works at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, “Broadly speaking, we should get our nutrition from our food first. Yes, there are going to be medical conditions where that changes. But for the broader population, there’s no need to take a multivitamin.”
This might be hard to hear, considering multivitamins are one of the most commonly purchased supplements, as they are relatively inexpensive and convenient when compared to taking multiple tinctures and tonics. However, a lot of medical research has found that there is no singular magic pill as they don’t significantly prevent heart disease, cancer, cognitive decline or early death in any measurable way in otherwise healthy people.
Large analyses from Johns Hopkins, Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health show that routine multivitamin use offers no more benefit than just having a reasonably balanced diet. This is because nutrients from whole foods are absorbed more effectively than synthetic vitamins, and multivitamins can create a false sense of nutritional security.
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2. Vitamin C
Immunity boosters are one of the biggest market pushers for the health racket, which is amped up during cold and flu season. Vitamin C is commonly marketed as a must‑have for preventing colds and protecting your immune system, but evidence doesn’t fully support those claims.
Large reviews, including Cochrane analyses, found that vitamin C does not prevent colds in the general population and only slightly shortens cold duration, mainly in people under heavy physical stress, like endurance athletes.
Though they agree that vitamin supplements are generally safe to take, experts on the Mayo Clinic staff have hopped on this vitamin verdict and directly state on the website, “Most people get enough vitamin C from a good diet. Vitamin C supplements might help people who are at risk of having a lack of vitamin C, called vitamin C deficiency.”
In other words, it won’t necessarily hurt you to take it, but why spend money on something that will do less than just eat some berries or citrus fruit? If it doesn’t prevent you from getting sick, it may not be worth adding it to your cart.
3. Probiotics
Gut health seems to be the trending topic that gives reason to everything that’s wrong with your life. Though there may be some truth to that theory, the term “probiotics” is often misused or misunderstood, as there are many bacterial strains that support a healthy gut in different ways.
This is not to mention the fact that probiotic supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA, so the strains and doses on labels may not match what’s inside the bottle, or survive digestion at all.
“Just like you would need to know which specific vitamin to take, you also need to know which specific strain of probiotic to take to achieve the intended benefit. A dietitian can provide guidance on which probiotic is best for you,” said Cahoon.
4. Fat Burners and Weight‑Loss Supplements
Thin always seems to be in, and when there are so many ways to be unhealthy with your food intake, the next best thing to eating healthy is losing weight overnight. However, in most cases, these are empty promises, and so-called fat burners are among the most expensive and misleading supplement categories.
According to Cleveland Clinic experts and NIH reviews, most weight‑loss supplements show little to no long‑term effectiveness, and any short‑term weight loss is typically small and temporary. Supplements pumped full of ingredients like caffeine or green tea extract may slightly increase calorie burn, but the effect is minor compared to diet and exercise.
Larry Appel, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, agreed.
“Pills are not a shortcut to better health and the prevention of chronic diseases,” said Appel. “Other nutrition recommendations have much stronger evidence of benefits — eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugar you eat.”
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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