Rushing between classes, club meetings and study sessions while achieving a well-balanced diet may feel like an ambitious goal for a busy student. Supplementation feels like an obvious tool to fill in the gaps, prevent the constant campus illness or aid in reaching health or appearance goals. This is a particularly tempting route to success when it seems like every other person on social media swears their life changed when they started a certain supplement regime.
However, with seemingly endless supplements on the market and often contradictory marketing claims, it can be hard to know what to think about supplements, how to determine if any are actually helpful and what a supplement actually is.
The supplement industry is estimated to have risen in value from $152 billion to $300 billion from 2021 to 2028, illustrating the vast worldwide popularity of supplements. The growth in supplement brands, ingredients and marketing also increases the difficulty in navigating the science behind this profit-driven environment.
In the United States, dietary supplements are defined as substances intended to add to or supplement one’s overall diet without treating, curing or diagnosing disease. However, this definition is basically a catch-all, leaving room for convoluted variety, in addition to slightly differing from other countries’ definitions, creating confusion for consumers of non-domestic products.
Under this classification, supplements are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a subsect of food, not medicine. Fewer quality assurance and efficacy requirements are required for food compared to drugs by the U.S. government. For example, food is not required to be screened for toxic chemicals, which adversely affects weight loss and athletic supplements. Furthermore, the categorization as food means the FDA cannot regulate efficacy and safety before supplements are marketed.
FDA’s main regulatory focus, therefore, is ensuring that supplement brands do not make false claims about disease prevention or treatment. In this vein, supplements are required to disclose the addition of new ingredients added to their products.
Widely marketed supplements are vitamins and antioxidants. A notable example is vitamin D, which is essential for aiding absorption of calcium and normally made in the skin during exposure to sunlight. While some studies have seen dosages of around 2,000 international units (IU) a day to be effective, larger randomized trials have questioned the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation and even raised issues of damage to bone density in 4,000 IU a day dosages, which are often marketed as better for their additional product. This evidence amplifies both the lack of comprehensive research on supplements and the need to exercise caution against marketing tactics such as the promoting higher amounts of an ingredient as more effective.
Antioxidants — such as vitamin C, beta carotene and vitamins A and E — lack almost any evidence of efficacy against illnesses like heart disease and cancer in randomized clinical trials according to a 2021 Harvard analysis, which cautions against taking supplemental antioxidants without doctor recommendation. Instead, the researchers report that antioxidants have been potentially linked to increases in certain cancers, particularly in at-risk groups.
Interestingly, fiber was the most positively recommended supplement in the study, as many people struggle to reach their daily intake. Low level supplementation of vitamin D or fish oil was also positively recommended for those with low ability to get natural vitamin D or those with heart health risks.
Another popular subcategory of supplementation is for athletic gain. Two popular supplements stick out: creatine and protein supplements. Creatine is particularly well-researched and documented to aid in explosive exercise, age-related muscle retention and muscle recovery when paired with a balanced diet and strength training routine. Most negative effects are related to upset stomach and can be avoided by skipping the popularly marketed “loading phase” of increasing intake for the first week. Creatine is marketed as an appealing aid for busy college students looking to improve their fitness, so knowing where the benefits and risks exist remains important.
For protein, a summary by Nature, holds that while the daily recommended dose is 0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight — which is already achieved by most U.S. adults without supplementation — increased benefit in muscle building for those completing resistance training can occur up to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight. However, this is still much lower than the often recommended 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight by health influencers, indicating that most can achieve enough protein to reach a plateau in benefit through conscious diet choices.
The literature, as it stands, suggests there are few highly supported supplements and a significant need to improve regulation and research around the supplement industry. As we scroll online seeing dozens of ads with appealing taglines for college students who are looking to maximize healthy habits amid the stress and chaos of campus, it is important to remember these limitations. Therefore, keeping up to date with information as it is published and consulting personalized expertise seem the best routes for success given the limited general research on this confusing industry.
