Supplements
Is there a magic pill?
With so many supplements available, read on to find which, if any, can offer your running performance a boost…
Words Laura Hilton
The supplement industry is big business; in fact, this year the vitamin and supplements market is thought to be worth over £400 million. As there are such large amounts of money at stake, supplement manufacturers want their products to sound almost too good to be true.
Unfortunately, many of the claims are too good to be true. That’s not to say that manufacturers lie about the potential of their products, but it’s more a case of supplementation being unnecessary in the first place, as long as individuals are otherwise healthy and eating a balanced diet rich in various plant food sources, and with good amounts of healthy fat and protein sources.
In other words, if you’re eating well, any supplements you take may well be pointless as you’re already getting everything you need from your diet.
At the other end of the spectrum, if a person’s diet is full of junk food then taking a few supplements a day isn’t going to undo the damage caused by eating that way; there are far more pressing changes a person eating like that needs to consider before they even think about introducing a mix of supplements.
Supplements come in several forms: tablets, liquids, capsules, chewable tablets, drinks, dissolvable pills or powders are the main ones, and even some supplement injections are available. They contain high concentrations of the nutrient on the label, and can be naturally or synthetically produced.
Some supplements are grown in a yeast or algae suspension, some are food-based and others are bacterially fermented. The nutrients are never taken from whole-food sources as this makes it too hard to control the strength of the supplement, and it also makes the products’ shelf life very short.