Why Understanding Quality Differences Matters

 

“We do not know what will come next, or how consumers will learn the difference between quality supplements. We only know that we will continue to educate the public and be a voice of reason.”

 

People are using supplements in record amount, but most of them do not know that there are quality differences. On one hand we have brands selling synthetic products which are cheap, do not benefit the customers but the sales pay the bills. Then there are the better supplements, still mainly synthetic, but better than Centrum. The natural health industry is growing because the trust in pharma and the medical system is on a steep decline, yet, big pharma wants a piece of the action and they will be profitable because quality standards are not their goal, increased shareholder profit is. The natural health and dietary supplement industry is attracting major corporate investment, which you can see from several high-value acquisitions that have been happening.

In August 2026, Procter & Gamble bought the premium supplement brand Thorne Research for approximately US$3.8 billion—before that, in 2023, it had been purchased by the private equity firm L Catterton for US$680 million. Thorne’s sales reportedly were more than doubled during this period, from around US$290 million to a projected US$650 million, illustrating the brand’s rapid growth and commercial appeal. Similarly, Japan’s Kirin Holdings purchased the Canadian supplement company Jamieson Wellness in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately C$2.5 billion, offering C$45.75 per share—a 27% premium over the stock’s 20-day average trading price. These transactions demonstrate that well-known supplement brands have become valuable acquisition targets for major international corporations, including companies with extensive operations outside the traditional natural health sector.

The scale of this corporate interest becomes clearer when we consider the size of the natural health market: Canada’s natural, organic and wellness retail sector is reported to have reached C$28 billion, while the broader US nutraceuticals market—which includes dietary supplements, functional foods, fortified beverages and botanical products—was estimated at US$161.8 billion in 2025. Within this larger market, dietary supplements alone represent an estimated US$74–85 billion segment, making the United States the largest individual national market for these products.

All in all, these figures and acquisitions highlight the substantial commercial value of the natural health industry and the growing interest of multinational corporations in expanding their presence in it. They also raise an important question about how ownership changes may influence product development, pricing, marketing priorities and the original identity of supplement brands.

Scientific research supporting supplement claims is also becoming increasingly valuable in the natural health industry. According to the article The Proof Behind Supplement Claims Is Being Rolled Up by Capital, investors are bringing ingredient suppliers and clinical research companies under the same ownership, while rising research and regulatory costs may push supplement brands to focus on fewer products with stronger scientific evidence. This raises questions about research independence and transparency, particularly when the same investors have financial interests in both the products and the studies used to support their claims.

Then you have the headlines about the dangers, the news on daily supplements and increased mortality, which keep the natural plant-based supplements grouped in the same category as the lowest levels. Even though supplements are being used in treating multiple disease conditions, including the recent vitamin C and DMSO study for treating cancer, unfortunately there is no distinction between GMO vitamin C from China and a pure source from Scotland.

The study Multivitamin Use and Mortality Risk in 3 Prospective US Cohorts[1] came out in 2024 stating that multivitamins do not promote a longer life and are linked to a 4% higher risk of mortality. There are “several potential reasons [that] could explain the results, reflecting both the complexity of nutritional science and the study’s limitations.”[2] I would like to share some of the points mentioned in an article reflecting the study as we have been preaching the same message for decades. In this article, a physician was asked to comment on the findings regarding the “concern raised is the quality and type of multivitamins taken by participants.” As he points out, ‘there is no mention of what multivitamin they were taking. Quite frankly, most of them are junk. My big problem with multivitamins in general is that they have a little bit of everything and not much of anything.’”[3] He goes on and points out some of my other concerns that “many multivitamins contain additives such as magnesium stearate, which can stick to vitamins and minerals and make them harder for your body to absorb, reducing their effectiveness.”[4] A study published in the journal Pharmaceutical Technology shows that the percent dissolution for capsules after 20 minutes in solution went from 90% without stearates to 25% with them. Clearly, stearates reduced the rate the capsule dissolved by 65%! This means delays in the absorption of nutrients. Therefore, individuals with impaired digestion may have particular difficulty absorbing nutrients coated with stearates.

Even more concerning issue is having steric acid or magnesium stearate in almost every vitamin product and brand on the market. Even though these flow agents are GRAS (generally recognized as safe), they are lubricants added to raw materials, made from trans-fats derived from genetically engineered cottonseed oil that tends to have high-level pesticide residues. Neurological studies have found evidence that magnesium stearate may collapse cell membranes and selectively kill T-cells, breaking down the body’s immune defence system. That is obviously not something you pay for when buying a supplement.

Nowadays you really have to be a detective to find the information on the nutritional supplements that you would like to take. Advertisement would suggest all kinds of alternatives for vitamins and minerals stating that it is essential for you to take them. You want to be healthy after all, right? As you can see, the companies behind these advertisements producing the products “are sabotaging the health of millions of people who are unsuspecting buyers of harmful and synthetic vitamins and minerals. The fact is that most mineral and vitamin brands on the market are synthetic, i.e. made from oxide minerals and other chemical substances. These products contain harmful substances, for example: preservatives, fillers, binders, coal tar, bitumen, gelatin, waste products etc. Consequently, these products cannot be digested by the human body and therefore cannot be assimilated. Moreover, they do not have a synergism due to being industrial-made and thus cannot find their way out of the body and thus get lodged in the tissues of the body causing disease or enhancing present diseases. Multi complexes are manufactured by pharmaceutical and food companies, and are not organic which is the state all digestible foods must be in for the body to break them down in order to absorb their nutrients.”[5]

Whole food supplements are made from concentrated whole foods, containing complex structures of vitamins, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and other essential compounds that work together synergistically. Unlike isolated or synthetic nutrients, which are separated from their natural complexes and treated like foreign substances by the body, whole food supplements are recognized and utilized efficiently. Synthetic supplements, especially in high doses, can act like drugs, leading to imbalances and potential deficiencies as the body depletes its stored nutrients to compensate.

The natural synergy in whole food supplements ensures better absorption and effectiveness, whereas breaking nutrients apart diminishes their value. Many supplement manufacturers overload products with isolated nutrients, assuming more is better, but bioavailability and balance are more important than sheer quantity. Excessive intake of single nutrients can disrupt the body’s equilibrium, emphasizing the need for whole food-based supplementation over synthetic alternatives. “The potency of a supplement has much more to do with synergy than with actual nutrient levels. It is a combined effect of all the parts of the food, rather than the chemical effect of a single part, that is most important.”[6] This is also the reason why a balanced, healthy diet is the most important factor, supplements alone cannot repair the damage caused by unhealthy lifestyle, especially not the toxic ones.

We do not know what will come next, or how will consumers learn the difference between quality supplements. We only know that we will continue to educate the public and be a voice of reason. We do not have the money of pharma, but they do not have the heart of a lion, and we will roar as loud as we can.

 

References:

 

[1] Loftfield, Erikka et al. 2024.

[2] Tsai, Sheramy. 2024.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Nikolic, Goran and Markovic, Dragana. 2015.

[6] Ibid.