The supplement industry is evolving, responding to the constantly increasing demands from consumers for clean strategies to support health and wellbeing. Today’s supplemental market is worth around $123.28 billion globally, but not all supplements are made alike.
When consumers see a supplemental pill for something like the Reishi mushroom, they often assume that this supplement is all-natural. However, the reality is that different manufacturers take unique approaches to creating supplemental solutions.
Just because a supplement has a natural product on the label, doesn’t mean it’s constructed with nothing but true natural extracts. Additives, such as preservatives and colourants, and other additional substances can influence the impact of the supplement in health.
The Importance of Naturalness: Avoiding the Synthetics
Labeling guidelines in the supplemental industry aren’t always as clear as they seem. It’s easy for certain ingredients to be considered inadmissible when a company is classifying a dietary supplement. Additives like maltodextrin often appear in botanical extracts without impacting the label.
Unfortunately, natural nutrients and synthetic substances frequently go hand-in-hand. Natural extracts obtained from whole food sources and critical substances are valuable to the body. Synthetic additives together with extracts can detract from the performance of the supplement, affecting everything from bioavailability, to the health benefit for which is indicated.
What many consumers don’t realise is that many supplements available in the market today are more artificial than natural. They contain artificial substances that aim to mimic the way that natural nutrients behave in the human body, but the results aren’t always the same.
Knowing The Makeup of a Supplement
One of the reasons why a focus on natural extracts is so important in supplementation, is that it has a direct influence on the results that a tablet or powder can deliver.
With natural supplements, customers can select a formula for their supplementation that was designed based on the outcomes of true scientific studies. Through clinical trials, it’s possible to see how natural extracts react in the human body, and how extraction techniques may be performed to deliver the optimal bioactive compounds to the consumer. High-level natural extracts are chosen after hundreds of clinical trials and patents.
Notably, it’s also important to remember that the additives and extra ingredients in a supplement can have an impact on a patient in an unforeseen way. The presence of certain additives can easily lead to allergic reactions and other common problems. Some additives in supplements may even interact negatively with other medications the patient is taking.
Supplements created with pure natural extracts avoid the common problems that emerge with additives such as:
- Fillers: These give supplements more bulk, which allow companies to get away with placing smaller amounts of the natural extract.
- Binding agents: These help tablets to stay together, but they can also be used in excessive amounts in some supplements.
- Preservatives: These can prevent the supplement from going bad, but certain kinds of preservatives are better than others.
- Coloring agents: These are absolutely unnecessary from a scientific point of view. Their purpose is to give the tablet or powder a more attractive color, which can be achieved in a natural way.
- Flavoring agents: Again, these often aren’t necessary for supplements, but they can sometimes make certain substances easier to swallow.
Careful consideration of supplements and their natural impact also means consumers have more control over their exposure to substances like pesticides.
Natural Extracts and Bioavailability
One of the most important things to remember about natural extracts and supplements, is that additives and unnecessary substances can often affect the bioavailability of the substance. Certain natural extracts combined together can improve the bioavailability of nutrients, vitamins, and other beneficial substances within a supplement, this is often the case for co-administration as adjuvants.
However, other additives simply diminish the impact of certain powders and tablets by making it harder for the positive nutrients to be absorbed.
Using natural extracts in medicinal supplements, such as piperine, and genistein demonstrate the ability to support bioavailability. This means that people can enjoy a better impact from a smaller amount of the medicine’s active ingredients.
Alternatively, synthetic substances can limit the therapeutic function of a supplement in the stomach or intestinal tract of the patient. For instance, modified release tablets can make it harder for patients with intestinal issues and irritable bowel syndrome to fully absorb the nutrients within the supplementary tablet.
Natural Substances Have a Better Impact
When it comes to supplementation, there are many aspects that can affect the impact a tablet or powder can have on a patient. However, the research indicates that the more natural substances a supplement has, the more likely it is to support good health, better outcomes, and improve bioavailability.
Natural substances can also avoid the use of synthetic coatings and extra additives that make it harder for the pill to break down in the stomach, particularly for people with digestion issues.
Through fully natural supplements made by natural extracts, patients can achieve a better therapeutic response from their consumption, with fewer capsules per day.