Dietary supplements are baffling. Finding the right ones for your body’s needs might seem straightforward, but it’s easy to get bogged down by information overload. To make it more confounding, plenty of popular supplements have little scientific evidence supporting their claims – and even the FDA is not required to verify if supplements actually do what they purport. Translation: the research and investigation is up to you.
The Washington Post recently published a piece on supplements, including a wheels-off visual by David McCandless, who was searching for “which supplements’ claims were backed by scientific evidence, and which weren’t.” The resulting graphic is a work of art in itself, and the information is surprising. But it’s also a ton to navigate if you’re not an expert or unsure of how to begin.