When looking into dietary supplements, it’s a confusing landscape. So many choices are presented, and various brand names are prominent too – but what should you get? It requires some research to make this decision.
Trying to get the most from your supplement selection is also of interest too. After all, it’s a considerable investment over weeks or months – we all wish to get value for money and to feel a benefit to our health too.
Here are 5 tips to get the most out of dietary supplements.
1. Source What’s Best for You
Not every supplement will work wonders for you. It depends on what vitamin or mineral you’re currently deficient in. When it’s been determined that increasing your level of a particular supplement will provide notable benefits to you, then that’s worth strong consideration.
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Make a list of the supplements that you believe are needed. Find out whether you can provide them yourself instead of purchasing a ready-made solution. You’ll find that purchasing empty capsules to fill with your homemade supplement powder is surprisingly affordable.
Homemade supplements can lead to considerable savings versus buying commercial solutions backed by expensive brands, full advertising campaigns, and sold in the retail markets with a steep markup.
2. Check for Lumpiness in Powder Ingredients
One sign of a low-quality ingredient for a supplement powder is when it’s lumpy. You can check for this by passing a spoon through a mix to see how well it glides through or whether it gets stuck on clumps of the powder.
Much of the time, a powder that’s not been made fine enough to complete the spoon test successfully is of a lower quality than one where you can.
3. Look for Vegan or Cruelty-Free Solutions
When you’re passionate about only purchasing supplement powders that were produced in a cruelty-free setting or have only vegan-sourced ingredients, then make that the first question you ask. It saves a lot of wasted time and frustration this way.
Verify that the dietary supplements weren’t first tested on animals to see what the effects were. With vegan, you’ll need to check if the powders qualify as Vegan, but also that the capsules are Vegan too (they’re available from select manufacturers instead of Gelatin).
This way, you’ll have two feel-good factors – from staying true to your beliefs and through the supplements.
4. Change the Time When You Take Them
It’s not always necessary to take every supplement at the same time of day.
Some supplements are better taken with a meal or sometime before consuming one. Others might be work better on an empty stomach. It depends entirely on what’s best for that supplement and requires a bit of research to get right.
Once you know the best time to take the supplements, it helps to break up the volume to a smaller amount. Also, if you have a larger tablet to swallow, there’s nothing to stop you from chopping it into two pieces and downing them separately.
5. Dosage Do’s and Don’ts
Whether you’re purchasing retail supplements or plan to make your own, verify what the appropriate dosage level for your gender, age, or other pertinent information that’s applicable.
Also, look for any pre-existing ailments or medical conditions where the supplement should only be used with a lower dosage (or not at all). This way, you can either use the right number of pills to match the appropriate dosage for you or produce a homemade product that you’ll consume in the right amounts.
Whether you decide to make your own supplements for home use or purchase retail products, dietary supplements play a key role in human functioning. Do what’s right for you.
