Today over 40% of the British public take some form of supplement and this is growing as many people look at alternative medicine to improve their standard of life.

New companies arrive everyday, a lot also disappear everyday. Taking into account the different brands and combinations of supplements, there are literally thousands of choices available, so for many people it's like finding your way through a jungle. So it's important to understand the labels on many nutrients, as there are fraudulent companies selling products that will do you more harm than good, many of these supplements are unable to be sold through shops or nutritionists, so they advertise in the papers, market these products at incredibly cheap prices. Sadly many people are fooled by these "special offers" and "buy a years supply", etc. - would you put cheap petrol in your car ! These products are full of artificial fillers, binders, chemicals, flavours and sweeteners.

Some well known companies that advertise on television sell Vitamin C tablets which are coloured orange, since we associate Vitamin C with oranges, Vitamin C is naturally almost white and is not sweet so nor should your supplement be. Another well known supplement in one large store being their top selling multi-vitamin is filled with eight artificial chemicals. Many products say 100% of the RDA but this is irrelevant as for optimum health, dosages are much higher.

These reputable companies will always mark labels with complete ingredients, do not be misled by cheap prices, attractive labels, understand the information given. For instance, if you see these in the ingredients would you understand them :-

All good companies will already mark for allergies, ie. no sugar, salt, soy, yeast, wheat, dairy, preservatives, flavours or colours.