Diet supplements – useful or nonsense?

Diet supplements are a very controversial topic. Some consider them to be essential building blocks for a healthy life and high athletic performance. They argue that it is impossible to get all of the nutrients for an optimal supply through diet.

Others are totally against taking it. They fear the dangers of artificial ingredients and possible side effects. Some also accuse the dietary supplement industry of making exaggerated advertising promises and conveying a false sense of security through their products.

I’ve dealt with it a lot and therefore have a differentiated view of the topic. With this article I would like to try to shed some light on the darkness of the nutritional supplement jungle. I would like to briefly introduce you to the most common types of nutritional supplements. I will explain to you what I think of it and for whom they can be useful under which circumstances. For products that I personally consider recommendable, I will also give you a recommendation.

Overall, I’ll try to answer the most common questions about nutritional supplements in this article. I try to be brief; Due to the complexity of the topic, you will still have some text. So that you can still find what you are looking for quickly, I have divided the article into the following sections:

One click takes you directly to the section that interests you most. However, I recommend that you take the 5-10 minutes to read the entire article. This will give you a good overview of the entire topic.

What are food supplements?

Diet supplements are, as the name suggests, (useful) additions to your diet. They should help you to provide your body with certain nutrients that it cannot or cannot obtain through normal nutrition (in the optimal amount).

These can be concentrated vitamins, minerals or other micronutrients. According to Statista data, over half (approx. 62%) of all adults in Germany regularly or at least occasionally take such micronutrient preparations.

You can also take dietary supplements to compensate for certain deficiencies in your macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates). In this context, protein shakes are particularly popular in order to get enough protein. This can be useful, for example, to avoid protein deficiency , to maximize muscle maintenance in the diet or to create the best conditions to build muscle mass to be able to.

I will go into more examples later.

Why food supplements are no substitute for good nutrition

There are several good reasons why nutritional supplements should only be a supplement, not a substitute for, a good balanced diet. I would like to show you these at this point. The wrong view of these aids and the associated handling is one of the reasons why the use of food supplements is demonized by some people.

Taking vitamins and the like can give you a false sense of security. I’ve met some people who use supplements as an excuse not to have a healthy diet. This can happen consciously or unconsciously. The eating habits are (even) worse because the preparations ingested can compensate for this. However, they can only partially do that.

The poor diet with too many unhealthy foods is not neutralized by this. You only manage to enrich it with a few useful substances. You are not doing your health a particularly big favor by doing this.

Therefore, first try to eat as healthily as possible. Then think about what, based on your lifestyle and eating habits, could be useful additions to this healthy diet. Ideally, you should also have your blood values ​​checked every now and then.

Who should take dietary supplements?

First of all, I want to say that very few people really have to take nutritional supplements. You can provide your body with sufficient quantities of most of the micro- and macronutrients with good nutrition. If you have a medically determined deficiency that cannot be remedied simply by changing your diet, that is of course a different matter.

Otherwise it is not necessary to take nutritional supplements. Whether you can still benefit from taking it is another question. In many of them this is answered with an yes to be answered. The likelihood of benefiting from the targeted intake of dietary supplements is particularly high among those who are active in sports and the elderly. However, there are food supplements for everyone that they could take sensibly. Why and which one is individual. At the same time, however, it is not so individual that some basic recommendations cannot be made.

Since I am not a doctor, I would like to point out at this point that you should see yourself regularly (every few months or if you have complaints ) should be examined by a doctor and blood drawn from you. In this way, deficiencies and overdoses can be recognized and you have the opportunity to use this knowledge and make the decision for yourself whether and how you want to react.

In the following sections I will introduce you to nutritional supplements that I think are useful for many people. My focus is on the general health and athletic performance benefits. The first categories in particular are also interesting for all people who are not very active in sports. Although I can only advise them to get sporty at least one more try. Your bodies will thank you!

What food supplements are there?

The simpler question would probably be which dietary supplements are not available. The supplement market is really big. This is a billion dollar industry. If there is one thing that is beneficial to health or performance in any area, it is in the form of a dietary supplement. Even a vague guess is often enough.

In order to give you a quick overview of the most important preparations, I would like to briefly introduce you to the most common nutritional supplements below. I’ve broken them down into categories to make this article a little more manageable. I will go into vitamins, minerals and trace elements, greens / superfoods, protein powders and healthy fats. Then I will introduce a few other nutritional supplements that may be of particular interest to athletes.

It is my goal that you then know whether the intake of dietary supplements is basically an option for you and what may be useful for you.

Vitamins for food supplements

Vitamins are the absolute front runner among dietary supplements. Everyone has probably taken some vitamin supplement at some point. Vitamin C in particular is very common as it has a reputation for strengthening the immune system. Somehow this is also obvious, since vitamins are defined as organic compounds that the body needs for vital functions and cannot produce (in sufficient quantities) from other substances itself. So they have to be supplied from the outside.

But should or do you even have to cover your vitamin requirements with food supplements? No! There are no studies known to me that suggest that you should take vitamin supplements if you suspect you should. At least not if you have enough fruits and vegetables take to you. However, you should consume the recommended ten grams per day and kilo of body weight. I’ll go into one exception shortly.

However, if you are unable to eat enough fruit and vegetables on a regular basis, you can also consider taking a multivitamin or a combination of mineral and vitamins. I used to take the Ultra A / Z from Peak * regularly for this purpose. It contains all essential vitamins and minerals in sensible doses and it is very cheap.

However, it does not contain any secondary plant substances whose effects in interaction with the vitamins have not been conclusively clarified when they are taken. Today I therefore take a high-quality greens shake every day in addition to my healthy diet for a good micronutrient supply, as a precaution, . I’ll go into that later.

Special case of vitamin D

I would like to go into one vitamin separately at this point. Even if you eat a very healthy diet, there is a very good chance that you will not get enough of it. The reason is that vitamin D is mainly formed by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Unfortunately, many of us are not in the sun enough for a sufficient amount. In various studies, up to 90% of those examined were found to have a deficiency, i.e. falling below the minimum supply (!).

For an optimal amount, we would have to spend several hours outdoors every day around noon in summer. Without the upper body, 15-30 minutes should be sufficient. Many don’t do this regularly. Even if you can take the time to sunbathe daily, from around mid-October to mid-March in our latitudes the sun’s rays are not strong enough even at noon.

A vitamin D deficiency is also not to be trifled with. For example, it plays a crucial role in the health of your bones, enables your immune system to function well and has an effect on your own well-being and cognitive abilities that should not be underestimated. I didn’t take vitamin D supplements before and started when a deficiency was discovered. The change was pretty sharp and I’ve been taking it every day since.

I take Vitamin D3 + K2 from Wehle Sports * every day. In addition to 5,000 IU of vitamin D3, they also contain the synergist vitamin K2, which improves absorption and utilization. Fat is necessary for absorption and storage. That’s why I take my capsules in the morning, before my first coffee, together with my Omega 3 fish oil capsules. I will go into the omega 3 fatty acids again later.

Minerals and trace elements as food supplements

The essential minerals and trace elements come close on the heels of the vitamins. The list of offered elements is long. The front runners in terms of sales as dietary supplements are magnesium, iron and zinc.

The same applies here: If you eat a balanced diet and consume enough fruit and vegetables, you probably do not need any dietary supplements from this segment. You should also be able to meet your needs for essential minerals and trace elements.

If you regularly find it difficult to do this, you can (as already mentioned) think about supplementing your food specifically to “safeguard”. You can either take a mineral and vitamin supplement like the Ultra A / Z from Peak * or a high-quality greens shake. I will go into the latter in the following section.

Do mineral drinks make sense for athletes?

Otherwise it makes perfect sense to replenish your electrolyte balance after exercise, especially after long or intense cardio units. (We recommend to athletes pregnyl kaufen) Minerals are consumed in metabolic processes or excreted through sweat. Here you can have a mineral drink for better performance during and faster regeneration after training.

A mineral drink such as the Mineral Complex instant soft drink from Supplement Union * is suitable for this. In contrast to many other products, the minerals are in organic compounds, which improves the absorption capacity. The price / performance ratio in our partner shop bodybuilding depot is also very good. You buy there directly from the manufacturer. You can also get an additional 5% discount on everything there with the Fitvolution5 code.

Otherwise, I consider an additional intake of minerals and trace elements as dietary supplements only necessary if a medical examination reveals that you have a deficiency. For example, I was found to have low zinc levels. Since I’ve been taking 25mg of zinc a day, my skin has improved significantly and I sleep better.

Of course, symptoms can be many and I am not a doctor. For this reason I can only advise you to have yourself and your blood checked regularly and comprehensively by a doctor.

Greens / Superfoods to supplement your diet

Superfoods are enjoying increasing popularity in the nutritional supplement market. Individual fruits or plants are often hyped for their (supposed) positive effects for a few months. Often enough, these are things that have been shipped halfway around the world and then offered here at a relatively high price.

You will probably already have realized that I am not a big fan of these so-called superfoods. I hate to dwell on such trends at all. It is much more important to me to focus on things that really make sense and that have been proven to offer added value. You don’t have to eat rare roots from the South American jungle for this.

There are also a lot of really good superfoods or foods that deserve the title that you can buy right in the supermarket around the corner. I’m talking about berries, fruits and vegetables that are also available regionally. These also contain a lot of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, antioxidants and other valuable substances for your body. If you get enough of it, you don’t need to take crazy and expensive superfood supplements.

Why and which greens I still use

Despite my criticism of superfoods, I still take a so-called greens shake every day, which also includes some so-called superfoods. How does that fit together?

I want to be very frank with you: I consider these selected concentrates made from various plant substances to be a good insurance policy for the days when I struggle to adhere to the nutritional requirements I have set myself. For me, it’s a bit of a luxury that I can afford to worry less about my diet. Immediately after getting up in the morning, with my greens shake, I already have a head start of 200-300 grams of fruit and vegetables. It’s just worth it to me.

The Ferrari among the greens / superfood shakes is definitely Athletic Greens. With 75 proven effective ingredients, it is an absolute premium product that (as the only product of its kind) is even certified by the National Science Foundation for its high quality and sustainability. However, quality also has its price. Although it is still cheaper than the daily coffee at the bakery. You can also access a special offer for my readers via my link. You get a bonus and have an unconditional 60-day money-back guarantee. So you can just try it and then decide whether it is worth the money to you:

If this is too expensive for you, you can alternatively try Green Mother * once. If Athletic Greens is the Ferrari, then Green Mother is the VW Golf of Greens Shakes. It’s a little cheaper, but the taste takes a lot of getting used to and when you look at the ingredients you can see that something has of course been saved. Nevertheless, you also get a solid and high-quality insurance against days when your diet is not going optimally.

Does protein powder make sense as a dietary supplement?

Protein is one of the two essential macronutrients that your body needs in large quantities in order to be able to work (optimally). Because of its importance for the muscles, it has been very popular as a dietary supplement for a long time, especially among (strength) athletes. The protein shake has long proven to be a good aid for everyone who likes to lose weight easily and healthily (and want to define their muscles ).

Lately, protein powder has become increasingly popular even among non-athletes. It is becoming increasingly common that a high-protein diet has benefits. The food industry tries of course to use this to their advantage and adds extra protein to all kinds of foods to write this on the packaging. There are already a lot of good, protein-containing foods anyway. However, that should be something for another article.

So we come to the real question: Are protein shakes a sensible dietary supplement?

The question can be answered with a clear yes and no. Ultimately, it is absolutely not necessary to take such shakes to meet your protein needs. This may be more of a challenge for vegans, but as an omnivore (omnivore) you can meet your protein needs (even as a bodybuilder) without shakes. Of course, you should be careful what you eat all day. Such a shake can ultimately only make it a little easier for you to ensure this supply and benefit from the advantages.

Excursus: importance of a sufficient protein intake

But why is it really important that you consume a lot of protein? What are the advantages for you? And how much protein is actually useful? After all, in the end you don’t want to suffer from a protein deficiency Consume too much protein .

A lack of protein quickly and clearly affects you, your physical performance and your health. Mild malnutrition is very rarely identified as such. It is (especially) relatively common among people who want to lose weight and therefore eat little, among people over 50 and generally among people who are not very conscious of their diet.

The amino acids that make up proteins are essential building blocks that the body needs to function. If your organism receives less than it needs for optimal function, it has to manage it. This creates more or less noticeable defects.

This ranges from poor progress or even regression in your training to significant muscle loss (which occurs even faster if there is insufficient strength training). Your regeneration and wound healing can slow down and your immune system can be weakened overall. Other consequences can include difficulty concentrating and sleeping, as well as thinning hair and even hair loss.

Most of these phenomena will occur to the fewest (clearly noticeable). To avoid the negative effects of an undersupply, you should simply make sure that you have an adequate intake of proteins.

How much protein should you have?

Depending on whether you do sport, build muscle ( muscle building diet ), lose weight (and maintain muscle ), or just want to eat healthy, there are different Amounts of protein recommended. Sensible recommendations are from one to about two and a half grams per kilo of body weight per day. With an amount of one and a half to two grams you are not doing much wrong. You can find out more details in the previously linked articles.

That’s why I don’t like to go without my protein powder, especially when I’m on a diet. This serves me as a low-calorie and high-protein filler and generally as a good ingredient for low-carbohydrate dishes (such as my protein pancakes ).

Which protein powder is right for you?

Which protein powder is right for you depends on the application and your living conditions. I would like to recommend four different protein powders as possible sensible food supplements. If you should order a protein powder from my partner shop Bodybuilding-Depot, you can save another 5% on everything (including special offers) with the exclusive discount code for my readers Fitvolution5 ( everything about my partnership with bodybuilding depot ).

1) If you want a quickly available protein to take after training, I recommend WPC 80 from Supplement Union. It is made entirely in Germany and you can get it either from Amazon * or (extra cheap) directly from the manufacturer *.

2) Micellar Casein shakes are very suitable as low-calorie and high-protein fillers. My recommendation is the CAS 90 from Supplement Union. This, too (like almost all products from S.U.) is manufactured in Germany and regularly examined by independent laboratories. You can get it from Amazon * or directly from the manufacturer Bodybuilding-Depot *.

 

CAS 90 Casein on Amazon *

CAS 90 Casein at BB-Depot *
(not the discount code ” Fitvolution5 “forget it!)

3) If you are a vegan, I recommend getting a good vegan protein mixture. As a vegan, you can only achieve an optimal supply of essential amino acids through a sensible combination of different vegetable protein sources. A few years ago it was quite a challenge to get a good vegan protein. Fortunately, there are a few good options out there today. My recommendation for vegans is the Vegan Protein from VegiFEEL *.

These should be three good options for most people looking for a protein powder supplement. I have compiled even more options and information on this in my blog article about the sense of protein shakes .

Is protein powder a dietary supplement at all?

At the end of this section I would like to ask one more question, almost of a nutritional philosophy: Why is a protein concentrate actually called a dietary supplement, while e.g. Flour is called a (basic) food?

Yes, protein powder is probably the most consumed by strength and fitness athletes for the purpose of building muscle. However, protein powder can be used very well elsewhere. You can just use it as an ingredient to add protein to your food. It can be used very well as a supplement or substitute for many dishes. It is particularly useful for baking.

At the same time, protein, unlike carbohydrates, is an essential nutrient. The processing of a simple concentrate is no more complex than is the case with flour. That’s why I no longer really see my protein powder as a supplement, but rather as a completely normal ingredient in my diet.

Healthy fats as dietary supplements

The second essential macronutrient group, in addition to proteins, are fats. Here too, deficiency symptoms are not to be trifled with. The importance of fat is unfortunately underestimated by most people. If you eat less than a gram of (healthy) fats, your body is already managing deficiencies. This has a negative effect on numerous metabolic processes and the formation of all types of body structures.

Especially in a diet, a deficiency becomes visible in many people, since calories and thus also fat are saved. Common consequences are, for example, a weakened immune system, hormonal fluctuations, dry skin, headaches, freezing quickly and constant hunger. For this reason, make sure that you always have enough (good) fat in your diet.

In principle, you do not need any food supplements to meet your fat requirements. Eat a few nuts every day and use good oils when preparing your food. Very high quality vegetable oils are rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Cold-pressed rapeseed or olive oil, for example, are very good.

I can also recommend that you try out a little more unusual valuable oils. The peanut oil * or argan oil are particularly good for frying * recommended. Both have a large proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, a very high smoke point and an interesting taste of their own. Due to its very high proportion of the valuable omega 3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, linseed oil * should also be in every health-conscious household. However, you should only use this cold.

Omega 3: fish oil or algae oil capsules

A particular challenge with a healthy diet is that the polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids are usually far too few in our diet. You get these fats primarily from oily fish. The majority of Central Europeans therefore suffer from an Omega 3 deficiency (mostly without knowing it).

The most important omega 3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA and EPA can be obtained (almost) exclusively from fatty fish. ALA can also be obtained from plant sources and the body can convert a small amount into DHA and EPA. This is enough for survival, but not for optimal body functions.

If you don’t eat a portion of oily fish (such as mackerel, salmon, trout or sardine) (almost) every day, you should think about supplementing with some omega 3 from fish or algae oil. With one to three grams of EPA and DHA a day you are on the safe side if you want to prevent deficiency symptoms and benefit from the positive effects of a good supply. As a rule of thumb, this is an average of around 200-300 grams of fatty fish or 5-6 high-quality, large fish oil or algae oil capsules. By the way, you don’t have to worry about an overdose if you have taken your capsules and also eat a large portion of fish.

My Omega 3 recommendations

I have been taking the high-dose Omega 3 Gold fish oil capsules from Olimp * for a long time and I still consider them to be recommended.

Our partner shop Bodybuilding-Depot recently started offering smaller 500mg fish oil capsules with 51% EPA / DHA per capsule. These come from certified sustainable fishing in Peruvian waters, which are considered the cleanest fishing areas in the world. In addition, the oil is cleaned very laboriously in order to minimize possible pollutants. The capsules can therefore do without vitamin E ( Article about vitamin E in fish oil capsules ).

The price / performance ratio is already great and with the code Fitvolution5 you still get an additional five percent discount.

As an alternative, you can also buy fish oil in the bottle and use it for your salad, for example. When I use it in this way, I go for Nordic Oil *, which have a very good reputation for product quality, have regular, independent laboratory controls and do not add any vitamin E to the oil.

As a vegan, you have the option of using special algae oil. As far as I know, this is the only possible alternative to fish oil. The production is a little more complex and expensive than with fish oil. The Omega 3 capsules by ProFuel * are still reasonably affordable, despite the high EPA / DHA dosage.

If you want to learn more about the topic, you can read my article on Omega 3 fish oil capsules read. I have also listed some interesting studies there.

Further nutritional supplements for athletes

I have already introduced you to the most important / popular dietary supplements and gave you my assessment and recommendations. All of the points listed also and especially apply to active people. But now I would like to briefly introduce a few nutritional supplements that are particularly interesting for ambitious athletes. So they are especially useful for your athletic performance.

Admittedly, which nutritional supplements are optimal for an athlete depends to a large extent on the sport. An endurance athlete will have different requirements for their dietary supplements than a strength athlete. Different things will be important to a long distance runner than to a short and medium distance runner.

Remember that the following additional recommendations and suggestions are primarily to be assigned to weight training and medium-long-distance endurance sports (especially running, cycling and swimming). I have already gained experience with this and informed myself accordingly. For other sports, other nutritional supplements may be more useful.

Creatine monohydrate for muscle strength and mass

The top dog among the legal and harmless muscle building preparations is probably creatine monohydrate . It has been very well researched, useful and harmless, especially with regard to its use in weight training. Increases in strength and muscle mass are demonstrably directly and indirectly promoted by the correct consumption, without any side effects for your health.

Creatine plays an important role in the energy supply process in your muscles. The conversion of ADP to ATP (the fastest energy store in your muscles) cannot take place without creatine. The larger your creatine store, the greater the short-term available energy (greatly simplified!). In addition, when the creatine stores are full, a little more water is stored in the muscles, which can lead to a more muscular appearance.

Your body produces creatine itself from other amino acids. So if you get enough protein in your body, it can produce an amount of one to two grams a day. In principle, this is sufficient, but it is not ideal for top performance. Here it can make sense to take creatine as a dietary supplement. It is best to take it every day and not as a creatine regimen .

When it comes to creatine, I definitely recommend that you use a product with the Creapure seal. Only these are manufactured in Germany according to the highest quality standards. A very cheap creatine with this seal of approval is, for example, the Creapure at Bodybuilding-Depot *. Remember that with the code Fitvolution5 you will get another five percent discount.

Alternatively, you can also get the Creapure from Olimp * at Amazon.

Beta alanine for faster progress in strength training

The beta-alanine is also very widespread among strength athletes because, like creatine, it is well researched, harmless and yet effective. The amino acid is converted to carnosine in the body and in this form acts as an acid buffer in the muscles. It delays the acidification of the muscle. This will potentially give you a little more repetitions. Similar to creatine monohydrate, beta alanine is also very rarely found in daily food.

In the range of around 8-15 repetitions (upper range of hypertrophy training ), a full carnosine store is beneficial for your strength training and can help you to cope with additional repetitions. With a full carnosine store, you will potentially achieve somewhat faster progress in your strength and muscle building training. In combination with creatine monohydrate, you can even strengthen the entire chain of short-term energy supply.

When buying beta alanine, you should make sure that it does not contain any unnecessary additives (e.g. silicon dioxide). In addition, if possible, I would use a German manufacturer who has regular product quality checks carried out. Our partner Supplement Union is such a manufacturer. The price / performance ratio is also top with the beta alanine and with my code Fitvolution5 you get another five percent discount if you order directly from the depot.

Energy gels for long and medium-distance endurance athletes

From endurance training of around 90 minutes, I take an energy gel or a bar with my training. This is primarily used to ensure that other carbohydrates are available that can be used as an energy source. It is supposed to support you so that you can get high performance a little longer.

Simple (not necessarily cheap) energy gels actually only contain sugar. In my opinion, this is not ideal. I have had the best experience with gels that contain a mixture of carbohydrates, electrolytes, and some caffeine. I really like the (vegan) gels from GU. The best thing to do is to try the GU Energy-Gel Mixbox * to find your favorites. Of course there are also a few other good manufacturers.

Zinc – often useful for (strength) athletes

Actually assigned to the minerals and briefly mentioned there, I particularly recommend strength athletes to keep an eye on their zinc level and, if necessary, to consider an additional intake. Deficiency in this mineral is very common among strength athletes. Endurance athletes can also be affected.

Zinc plays an important role in many metabolic processes. In addition to its central role for the immune system, it is also very important for sport: it is required for the production of the male sex hormone testosterone. This in turn also plays a key role in strength performance and muscle building. That doesn’t mean that you can directly increase your testosterone levels by adding zinc. However, low testosterone levels are often due to a zinc deficiency or too few (good) fats in the diet.

So: It is essential to have an extra large blood count done regularly and also to have a check for a possible low zinc level. If this is not optimally high, do not buy the expensive zinc from the pharmacy but go to a bodybuilding depot. There you will find the finest zinc gluconate (extra high bioavailability) Made in Germany to save money. Of course, with an extra five percent discount with Fitvolution5 .

Training booster for tired days

Not every day goes equally well and there can simply be situations where an extra dose of energy and focus can make sense for your training. Sometimes you may be tired after a long day, not motivated enough, or you may find it difficult to concentrate on your training. Maybe you also have the feeling that you just lack a little bit of power to get the performance you want.

In such cases it can be useful to be able to use a pre-workout training booster every now and then. Such boosters usually contain caffeine, taurine and various amino acids, which are supposed to boost performance in the short term. Of course, you shouldn’t do this with every training session or in excessive amounts. Occasionally, however, the opportunity to get an extra push is something I wouldn’t want to do without.

My favorites are the Synforce Matrix by S.U. * (don’t forget Fitvolution5 !) and Redweiler by Olimp *. Both are good all-rounders among the training boosters.

What I look for when buying my dietary supplements

As mentioned at the beginning, the market for nutritional supplements is a billion dollar business. Of course, everyone involved wants to make money. This is completely legitimate if the promised health or sports benefits can really be kept.

My first recommendation is to always pay attention to the descriptions of dietary supplements and not to fall for half-silence promises. I have already mentioned the really meaningful things that I know. Ultimately, the effect always comes down to good functioning of your body. For the most part, however, you can achieve this simply through a very good diet. I explained the most important exceptions before. You definitely don’t need more! Except, of course, in the case of medically determined defects.

If you are promised (significantly) more than that, I advise you to be very skeptical. Particularly impressive individual examples are always a huge alarm signal for me. In any case, be sure to inform yourself about the ingredients. You should always be sure that you are doing your health a favor and not doing a disservice. On Examine.com, for example, you can get very good information about the current state of studies on all dietary supplements.

Otherwise, I attach great importance to the fact that the manufacturer has regular quality controls carried out on the nutritional supplements that I buy. The more transparently this happens, the better. Ideally, it is also a German manufacturer who also manufactures its products in Germany. I also try to avoid unnecessarily long value chains, in which numerous co-earners contribute to unnecessary price increases.

This is why I recommend many dietary supplements from Supplement Union

A manufacturer / supplier who, in my opinion, fulfills these criteria very well is Supplement Union. For this reason, I am happy that my cooperation with the provider came about at the end of 2019. I have been using and recommending the products with conviction for many years. You can find out more about the collaboration, my reasons and backgrounds in the article about my (affiliate) partnership with Bodybuilding-Depot . I am proud to be one of the few bloggers you work with and to be able to offer my readers the biggest discount code on the internet with Fitvolution5 .

Your conclusion on the subject of dietary supplements

Food supplements are not absolutely necessary. So do not take anything that is advertised somewhere without thinking. It’s a huge economy that benefits from taking as many supplements as possible. I finance my work, which I put here in this blog (in addition to selling my books) to a large extent, through commissions that I receive for buying one of the products I recommend. There are no additional costs for you and you support me and my work on this blog.

Still, I don’t want you to take things that you don’t need. So think carefully about what you really want to spend money on and what possible advantages you will get from it. After all, you can achieve a lot simply by eating well. This should always come first and only then should you think about how and what you can optimize with a few nutritional supplements.

If you want to learn more about the individual dietary supplements, then read the previous sections and the referenced articles.

In my article about useful supplements I also wrote about some of these nutritional supplements from a slightly different perspective. Some of them also appear in my muscle building supplements guide, which is part of the muscle building basics Value and Premium package is. Make sure to stop by if your goal is to build muscle!