18/06/2026
Supplements can be an amazing addition to your health and wellness routine - but there's a dark side to the industry we need to be aware of.
A lot of it is unregulated, and the marketing is usually crafty enough that you'd never know what's actually in the bottle. Here's some things to keep an eye out for before spending your money:
💊 TGA approval covers safety, not whether a product actually works. That "AUST L" number means the ingredients are permitted and the claims are self-assessed by the brand — not tested for results.
💊 A "proprietary blend" with one total weight hides the individual doses. Often the active you're paying for is underdosed and cheap filler makes up the bulk.
💊 "Naturally sweetened" still isn't always gut-friendly. Sugar alcohols like sorbitol and xylitol can cause bloating and gas, and there's growing evidence sweeteners like sucralose can disrupt the gut microbiome.
💊 The form matters as much as the nutrient. A few worth knowing — folate over folic acid, methylcobalamin over cyanocobalamin, magnesium glycinate or citrate over oxide, vitamin D3 over D2.
💊 A rough guide to effective doses: magnesium 300mg+, vitamin D 1000–2000 IU, omega-3 aiming for 1000mg+ combined EPA and DHA (not just the capsule weight), curcumin 500–1000mg, creatine 5g, probiotics in the billions of CFU.
💊 And the single most useful check — look at the amount per serving, then how many capsules a serving actually is. A big front-of-label number spread across four capsules isn't what it looks like.
None of this is to scare you off supplements. It's to help you ask better questions, and spend on the things actually worth it
