Jan 23rd 2024

Supplement Users are More Likely to Engage in Healthy Habits

Don’t expect media attacks on supplements to end anytime soon.

In fact, you may recall how we discredited their latest nonsense declaring multivitamins useless for preventing disease and confirmed the integrity of quality supplements for restoring health.

Now, two researchers—collaborating with the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)—set out to determine if supplement users are any healthier than non-users.

Study shows supplement users make better health decisions

This latest research published earlier this year in Nutrition Journal comes to us courtesy of Annette Dickinson, food science and nutrition consultant and professor at the University of Minnesota, and Douglas MacKay, VP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at the CRN.

Citing recent studies and media accounts claiming supplements provide no preventative benefits against disease, these researchers wanted to see how consumer health choices related to their use of supplements. So, they conducted a large-scale analysis of previous research published in 20 separate peer-reviewed scientific journals and used this data to compare traits and behaviors of supplements users to non-users.

What they found was—and contrary to naysayers in the medical mainstream—most people using supplements did so as a health strategy to reinforce better food choices.Sadly, you won’t find this reported on in mainstream media outlets. Yet this review demonstrates once again how the FDA, Big Pharma, and staunch supporters of conventional medicine have it all wrong when it comes to consumer supplement use.

A comparison of supplement users to non-users

Of course there will always be adversaries against the use of vitamins and supplements as a substitute for a healthy diet or to compensate for bad habits like overeating, lack of exercise and smoking and we agree. But, as Dickinson states, “it implies that those are the kind of people supplement users are.” Instead, Dickinson explains that with this study, “We just wanted to highlight the fact that the evidence shows that that's not primarily the way people use supplements—they use them as part of an overall approach to wellness.” Additionally, this profile of a dietary supplement consumer infographic from CRN concisely depicts how supplement users are more likely to partake in healthy habits versus non-supplement users.

In fact, the researchers found supplement users tend to be better educated. According to 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, 61% of users had more than a high school education, while 37% had less than a high school education. Plus, supplements users exercised regularly and ate healthy, while smokers and the obese were less likely to use supplements. Bottom line - supplement users take responsibility for their own health by making thoughtful and proactive food and lifestyle choices.

This comes as no surprise to regular Beyond Health readers. We’ve been advocating for years that health is a matter of personal choice. One that requires minimizing exposure to toxins and providing cells the proper nutrients, including supplementing with quality vitamins, minerals, and herbs.

Go ahead and sound off…who here is healthier because of supplement use?

Sources: