Smart Thinking About Supplements

Tweaking how you take, use and choose your natural health supplements could make them better for you. Karen Hag finds out what you need to know 
 

Up to 70 per cent of us take some sort of supplement, whether it’s a fish oil capsule every day, echinacea when we’re feeling rundown, or calcium for stronger bones. But due to factors like storage and interactions with foods and other medications, you might be absorbing far less of a supplement’s active ingredients than you think. On the other hand, certain habits can improve how well your body uses the supplements you buy.

To get more bang for your buck, consider the following rules when you take…

CALCIUM

Do: switch to a supplement that contains calcium citrate rather than calcium carbonate if you experience constipation. It’s a side effect of taking calcium, but is more likely with carbonate-based supplements. Spreading the dose of calcium across the day, so that you never take more than 500mg at once, will also help you avoid becoming constipated.

Don’t: take more calcium than is recommended on the bottle or by your doctor. Research has linked calcium supplements to an increased risk of heart disease when they’re taken in ‘too large’ doses.

FISH OIL

Do: buy a supplement with a use-by date that’s as far away as possible, and store them in a cool, dark place. Fish oil becomes rancid over time, so the fresher the better.

If you cut open a fish oil supplement and it smells ‘off’, don’t take it.