What to Look for in a Supplement Company

In an ideal world, we'd be able to meet all of our nutritional needs with diet alone, but lets be realistic - we don't live in an ideal world! Our food doesn't contain the same vitamin and mineral levels that it did years ago and many are dealing with less than perfect gut health that inhibits digestion and absorption of nutrients or genetic weaknesses that can use a little extra support at times.

I'm frequently asked for recommendations on products and I can see why choosing might be an overwhelming process for most. Between Amazon, your local health food store, and even the grocery store there are hundreds of brands and types of supplements, so what makes one better than the other?

In nutrition school, we had a lecture about qualities to look for in a supplement company. Some of these qualities include:

• no recalls or complaints

• following current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP)

• transparency in labeling

• adequate testing

• using correct forms of nutrients

• generous return policy/satisfaction guarantee

• good cost to benefit ratio

I was already a fan of Seeking Health supplements due to all the wonderful education the founder, Dr. Ben Lynch provides, so when we had an assignment to put a supplement company to the test, I chose Seeking Health.

Before we get started, I want to give a little background on what led me to Seeking Health in the first place. After I had my third child, I developed food sensitivities to seemingly every food I ate. Having many food sensitivities can be a sign of having a leaky gut, but this made no sense, I ate a near perfect diet. I spent the next year doing everything I knew to heal my leaky gut; besides eating super healthy, I ate sauerkraut, drank kombucha, took probiotics, etc... yet my nursing child and I continued to suffer. Around the time baby number three turned a year old, Dr. Ben Lynch's book, Dirty Genes, was released. In the book, he talks about using a low histamine diet to "clean up your genes" and heal the gut. I adjusted my diet right away and found relief for my nursling on the very first night. Within two weeks I could tell there was a difference in my own health and reactivity to foods. A post on histamine will be coming soon - I believe this is very important information and where some popular gut healing diets can go wrong!

From there, I started listening to Dr. Lynch's videos on Facebook and YouTube and reading his blog posts. I love that he provides information for the layperson and practitioner alike. He does a great job explaining what genes can be involved in what symptoms and how to address these issues with diet, lifestyle, and supplementation.

Putting Seeking Health to the test

The first thing we are looking for in a good supplement company is no recalls or complaints. After much searching, I was unable to find a single complaint, recall, or class action lawsuit involving Seeking Health. Actually, what I found was many other people who had used the supplements with success.

For a company to be cGMP certified, they have to follow strict qualification processes for their ingredients which involve testing to confirm the identity and potency, and look for contaminants. You can find Seeking Health's cGMP certificate here and they also state, "Seeking Health only partners with manufacturers that hold a current cGMP certification."

Overall, Seeking Health does a great job with transparency in their labeling. Every ingredient is clearly listed and usually the amount is listed as well. A few of their products contain propriety blends of herbs, amino acids, or other nutrients but allergens are always clearly listed as well as contraindications. A really cool feature on the Seeking Health website is the ability to see potential side effects of the supplements and reasoning behind each ingredients. Take the Optimal Multivitamin Plus for example - when you click on this product you are first brought to a page that gives you a quick summary but if you click on "Additional Info" you will see "Learning Center - find product FAQ and more! click here." Once you click there, you will find all the information you could have possibly wanted to know about a product - who is it for, how do I use it, what is the purpose of each ingredient and what are they derived from, where are they sourced from, is the product free from GMOs, warnings and side effects, etc... I don't think I've ever seen a company (of any type) provide this level of details and transparency with their products!

Seeking Health is also very transparent about their testing procedures as detailed in this article. Their testing includes: shelf life, shipping studies, label claim verification, and a variety of contaminants including microbial, heavy metals, allergens, and other contaminants. Third party testing includes testing for GMOs and testing their fish oil and DHA products to meet standards for IFOS certification.

Dr. Ben Lynch is a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and is considered by many to be an expert in genetics. With significant research, he formulates all of the products at Seeking Health. When buying supplements, it's important that the correct forms of nutrients are used. If not, then at the very least you'll be wasting money on useless products, and worst case scenario, you could even do your body harm. Let's look at a couple examples. Magnesium is a popular supplement, but if you buy the cheapest bottle off the shelf at the grocery store, you're probably going to get magnesium oxide. This form of magnesium has a low bio availability and commonly causes digestive upset. On the other hand, Optimal Magnesium from Seeking Health contains a combination of dimagnesium malate and magnesium lysinate glycinate chelate which are both easily absorbed and used by the body and are not prone to causing digestive issues. B vitamins are another product that many companies get wrong. Take folate/folic acid for example. Many people assume these are the same thing but this is not even close to the truth! Folate is the naturally occurring form of Vitamin B9 (found in leafy greens) and folic acid is the artificial form (found in fortified food products and some vitamins). Folic acid is not usable by our bodies and blocks our natural folate receptors making it difficult for our bodies to use actual folate (you can find more information on this in Dirty Genes). Seeking Health's B Complex Plus contains all eight B vitamins in their ideal forms plus the cofactor choline.

The last two things on our list are a satisfaction guarantee and good cost to benefit ratio and Seeking Health meets both of these qualities. If you are unhappy with the products for any reason, you can request a refund or replacement within 60 days. This is important in a company because it shows that they stand behind their product and want their customer to be happy. I have also found Seeking Health to be incredibly affordable compared to professional brands that offer similar products and they even break down the cost per serving on all of their products for those that are interested. The products are well formulated and effective and I always feel that I am getting a great value for the price.

All of this isn't to say that Seeking Health is the only good supplement company out there. Many other quality brands exist but Seeking Health just happens to be my first choice. I've used many of their products personally and have seen great results with my clients as well. Take a look through the supplements you own and see if those brands can pass the test!

One final reminder - as the saying goes, "You can't supplement your way out of a poor diet." We should always strive to meet our body's needs through nutrition first and use supplements as a means to fill in the gaps.

Seeking Health products are available from their website or receive a 15% discount by purchasing through Fullscript.

*this content is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment*