Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva Podcast. I'm your host Monica Reinegel. I get lots

of questions from listeners about various nutritional supplements. And in today's

episode, we're going to talk about which ones are really worth your money and which ones

may not be. If you're a first-time listener and you enjoy today's show, I hope you'll

subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And now let's get started.

I recently got an email from Brian who wrote, in episode number 28, you talk about multivitamins

and calcium. But what about other supplements like, and here, Brian listed 25 different

nutritional supplements, literally from A to Z, starting with ashwaganda and ending

with zinc. Maybe you have a similar list. According to the FDA, three out of every four

American consumers take a dietary supplement on a regular basis. And for older Americans,

the rate rises to four in five, one in three children take supplements. And we're spending

a lot of money on them. The supplement industry is a $122 billion industry. And yet it doesn't

look like we're getting much of a return on our investment. In 2019, researchers at

Topps University examined survey data on supplement use and health from more than 27,000

individuals spanning a six-year period. And they found that those who reported taking

nutritional supplements didn't seem to get any benefit from them in terms of decreased

mortality. They didn't live any longer than those who didn't take them. Now, those who

had adequate intake of certain nutrients, including vitamin A, K, magnesium and zinc,

did live longer than those who didn't. But only if they were getting those nutrients

from foods, those who were getting them from supplements didn't do any better. Now, this

particular study is painting with a very broad brush. The researchers didn't look at all

the different supplements individually or look in detail at causes of death. But studies

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