HEALTH
Running on Drugs
By Nasri Shah
further research on their effectiveness
and safety.” Customers therefore
rely on the complete responsibility
of manufacturers and sellers to stick
by their claims of “100% safe!” and
“completely natural” products with “no
side effects”.
cautions: some natural ingredients
may be contaminated with heavy
metals and undeclared ingredients,
whereas ISO logos and the sort are
only an indicator of the supplements’
compliance with safety procedures,
but not their effectiveness.
GETTING THAT EDGE
The key to choosing the right
supplements, as Deborah advises,
is to seek out professional advice.
Nutritionists and physicians can
recommend nutritional products based
on one’s diet and medical history.
Even if customers were quick to
sober up to checking WebMD and
Google Answers, they find themselves
overcompensated with information
from various, often conflicting sources.
The rabid eye of social media doesn’t
help much either, with health scares
and hoaxes circulating quicker than a
flu bug.
You see them on
pharmacy shelves,
purporting to make you
sleep better, to fortify
your inadequate diet,
enhance your mental
acuity, etc. We investigate
the phenomenon of
using non-medicinal
supplements to enrich
our lives.
Multivitamin capsules, non-surgical
slimming products and muscleboosting protein; these are just some
of many supplements that pave the
yellow brick road of today’s consumer
society. These demands aren’t
exclusive to just women any more.
A plethora of choices now appeal to
men and children, with the common
promise of cushioning the blow from a
fast-paced and poorly fed lifestyle.
It’s easy to forget how this modern day
fairytale of quick results and over-thecounter health fixes is entrenched in
some horrors of their own. After all, it
was not too long ago when the Chinese
company behind Slim 10 – a brand
of diet supplements – was hauled to
court in 2002 over claims that it was
responsible for several instances of
liver failure and deaths in the region.
Indeed, the moral of that story – as
they say in fairy tales – was the need
for consumers to remain savvy about
their options.
Today, the market for health
supplements continues to burst at the
seams with unprecedented growth,
and Singaporeans are estimated to
fork out a tidy sum of at least S$100
on such products in each visit to a
health store.
Nutritionists, however, are quick to
caution against such enthusiasm. Ms
Sharina Nogot, a senior nutritionist at
MyKenzen, says: “Most supplements
on the market actually still require
18
Family & Life • Aug 2014
2013
What’s more, between waking up at
three in the morning to catch a World
Cup match and slipping into work by 8
am, it’s easy to turn to supplements to
correct the inconveniences of modern
life. According to Deborah-Dale Young,
a nutritionist at Clinicians, people
become reliant on such products
to make up for lack of sleep and a
poor diet. It’s therefore tempting to
approach nutritional supplements with
abandon, in line with the adage that
“the more, the merrier”.
In this case, however, less is in fact
more. Sharina cites several instances
in which the ruthless consumption
of supplements can be detrimental;
the overconsumption of vitamins A,
D, E, K and Iron, amongst others, can
result in excessive toxicity levels in the
body. A person, depending on his or
her diet, can also react badly to some
supplements, particularly if he or she
has a history of medical problems.
In scouting for supplements, another
adage comes to mind: if it’s too good
to be true, it probably isn’t. Speaking
from experience, Deborah offers the
rigorousness of product testing that
all Clinicians products undergo as an
example of qualitative measures that
have to be set in place before a nutritional
supplement is ready for consumption.
This isn’t to say, however, that
manufacturers are always found to
be in compliance with these. Even
if a product were in breach of these
protocols, it’s nothing a flourish of the
digital wand can’t fix.
Supplements are often marketed as
having “100% natural ingredients”,
and stamped over with GMP, HACCP,
ISO logos. To these claims, Sharina
SUPPLEMENTING,
NOT REPLACING
Both Deborah and Sharina affirm
that nutritional supplements are not
a replacement for a healthy diet or
lifestyle. In some cases, supplements
may be recommended by nutritionists
to individuals with certain needs:
these include vegetarians, people
suffering from malabsorption or those
on medication that may interfere with
their diet.
For others, the draw of a pill is mostly
the wrong fit for problems that broadly
relate to a mismanagement of diet
and health. Indigestion and fatigue –
common culprits arising from a hectic
lifestyle – are wrongly vindicated by
nutrit