Top Pharmacist Reveals 5 Nasty Additives in Your Supplements to Watch Out for

Your supplements aren’t just pure, distilled versions of whatever nutrients you’re trying to incorporate.

Nutrients are combined with fillers, thickeners, stabilizers and other additives to make them stable, robust or more colorful, an expert has warned.

According to pharmacist Dr. Pupinder S Ghatora, some of these additives are linked to health risks, and have even been banned in other countries.

Dr. Ghatora, who has worked in the vitamin industry for nearly two decades, told the Daily Mail that at best, some of these additives reduce the effectiveness of your supplement.

At worst, they can increase the risk of cancer.

Read on to discover the five additives you should be looking for on your nutrition label.

Magnesium stearate

This additive is put into vitamin powders to make them flow more easily into other containers and prevent them from sticking to equipment or bottles. It is also found in cosmetics.

But magnesium stearate can cause your supplements to flow through you so quickly that you don’t even get the benefits, Dr. Ghatora said.

“It has no health benefits and will simply cause the supplement to pass through you unabsorbed. Brands often use it to bulk up supplements so they can reduce the amount of the more expensive active compound,” said Dr. Ghatora.

Other research, such as a 2017 study by Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories in Japan, found that taking too much of this additive could have a laxative effect.

That’s less than 2,500 milligrams per kilogram per day, about 170,000 mg for a 150-pound adult, according to PubChem, a public information database managed by the NIH that publishes information about chemicals.

Carrageenan

“At first glance, you’d think that carrageenan, also known as seaweed, is beneficial to your health because it’s derived from algae,” Dr Ghatora said.

However, he said, “research indicates that it can have adverse effects on digestion, triggering inflammation, ulceration and raising blood sugar levels while exacerbating glucose intolerance.”

Skepticism about this additive has existed since at least the 1960s.

A 2021 review of TK at the University of Milan found that carrageenan has been linked to chronic inflammation in several rodent studies. They cautioned that this effect has not been tested in humans, but tests on human cells in a petri dish have elicited a similar response.

Inflammation is your body’s natural response to foreign invaders. But prolonged inflammation is linked to faster aging and cancer.

Carrageenan is found in a wide range of vegan supplement products. But it’s also taken on its own in the form of seaweed gels, a favorite of celebrities like model Bella Hadid.

Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide, often listed as E171 on nutrition labels, was banned by the European Commission in 2021.

The EC based its decision on a review published by the European Food Safety Authority in May of that year which said titanium dioxide can build up in larger amounts in the body over time and may increase the likelihood of develop cancer.

“Worryingly, research has suggested that the ingredient may have a carcinogenic effect,” Dr Ghatora said.

But countries like the US and the UK did not follow the EC’s model in banning E171. It is still used in small amounts in both countries to make pills whiter, according to Consumer Lab.

Because it’s used to make pills whiter, it’s common in supplements like multivitamins. For example, it is found in Centrum multivitamins for adults.

talc

Talc is used in supplements to make it whiter and to help products prevent sticking to themselves. On its own, it has not been linked to any disease, according to the FDA.

But it is particularly good at absorbing other chemicals it comes into contact with, meaning it could absorb chemicals and pollutants during the manufacturing process, Dr Ghatora said.

“Talc has recently attracted attention because of concerns about contamination from industrial-grade talc, which can include impurities and even asbestos,” he said.

Exposure to asbestos irritates the lungs, leading to scarring and, in some cases, lung cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Talc also used to be widespread in beauty products and was linked to an increase in ovarian cancer cases in the 1960s, which the FDA attributes to asbestos contamination.

The FDA still tests talcum powder products for asbestos and publishes annual reports on cosmetics containing it.

Talc, similar to titanium dioxide, is often used in white pills to keep the color bright. Many multivitamins, such as One A Day Women’s Complete, list the ingredient as a component of their product.

Sweeteners and sugars

There is a wide range of chemicals that can be added to sweeten a supplement, but Dr Ghatora said most are synthetic and highly processed molecules.

These include sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol and sucralose. Previous research, such as a 2023 study from SUNY Upstate Medical Center, has linked these alcohol-based sugars to an increase in liver cancer.

“We should avoid using sugar alcohols, such as erythritol and sorbitol, as sweeteners,” said study author Dr. Andras Perl. When he fed these synthetic sugars to cancer cells, he caused them to multiply rapidly, he said.

Dr. Ghatora also singled out aspartame, the synthetic sweetener popularly linked to gum and diet sodas.

“There are new studies emerging that prove it [aspartame] it can have a negative impact on our body’s oxidant/antioxidant balance, which has a knock-on effect on many of the body’s functions,” he said.

Sweeteners can be added to any supplement, but they’re especially common in gummy formulas and those you’re encouraged to eat, not swallow. Nature Made’s Zero Sugar Multi Gummies, for example, list maltitol on their product label.