Cash down the loo? It’s just not a healthy move for your money

Pumping multivitamins, other tablets and powders into your body might feel like helping yourself, but have you checked the cost?

Aussies are among the world’s biggest users of vitamins and other supplements.

Flushing money down the toilet is nobody’s idea of a good time, but millions of Aussies are effectively doing this in an effort to improve their health.

We’ve been pumping vitamins and supplements into our bodies at one of the fastest rates in the world, lured by slick marketing involving sports stars, and increasingly social media influencers plugging products alongside images of their amazing gym bodies.

However, studies and medical experts say many dietary supplements are useless for people who live otherwise healthy lifestyles.

More than eight million Aussies take vitamins, minerals and supplements, according to Roy Morgan research, and it’s estimated we spend more than $2 billion a year on them.

Spending on vitamins easily eclipses what we spend on gym memberships and activewear.

Hard work - not health supplements - creates strong bodies like this. Picture: Brad Fleet

The most disturbing statistic I found was US research showing one in three American kids take supplements – yikes!

I can proudly say I’ve never stuffed my kids with vitamins or similar products, but I cannot say the same thing about myself.

I used to regularly swallow multivitamins, magnesium powder to prevent inflammation, fish oil because I’d read it was good for me, and various amino acid supplements at various times. And I was too scared to tally the monthly cost.

Then, in recent years, back when we were allowed to leave the country, I was lucky to experience two great adventures – hiking the Kokoda Trail and trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp.

Both trips have since saved me small fortune by helping stop me wasting money on health supplements.

On these visits to PNG and then to Nepal, I marvelled at our guides and porters carrying huge loads up and down mountains despite living in what Aussies call poverty.

They had never taken a vitamin tablet in their lives, yet their muscles rippled in the mountain sunshine or they powered through steep snow without breaking into a sweat.

Returning home after spending time with these fine physical human specimens, I told myself three words: “harden up, princess”. And I haven’t spent a cent on multivitamins or other tablets since.

Studies have found that nutrients are most effective when they come from natural foods and a healthy diet rather than manufactured stuff.

Don’t flush your money away by overspending on health supplements.

Want vitamin C? Eat an orange. Vitamin D? Go out in the sunshine. Fish oil? Eat fish.

Of course, if a doctor says you should take a supplement for medical reasons, take the supplement.

But if you’re loading up on tablets and powders because you believe it dramatically helps your health, or because a social media influencer tells you to, think again.

Deakin University professors say supplements are only beneficial if your underlying diet is inadequate. They say some people take them as an insurance policy but these people are often health-conscious and the ones who need them the least.

There will always be weirdos who get some sort of satisfaction watching their near-fluorescent urine as those unneeded vitamins are sent into the sewer system.

Eating your way to good health is a better and cheaper option.

@keanemoney