The Supplement Trap: What’s Real vs. What’s Marketing

The global supplement industry is booming - worth over 200 billion dollars and still growing. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: about 70% of supplements don’t deliver the expected results, and only around 12% actually meet the claims on their labels.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever bought a supplement and later thought: “Is this actually doing anything?”

That’s the trap.

Today, I want to give you tools to cut through the hype, to separate marketing from reality, and to build clarity for yourself and your clients.

I have been biohacking myself since before it was cool - before it even had an official name. I always believed that supplements are a key part of healthy living. I went deep into longevity molecules and adaptogenic mushrooms, only to realise that supplement brands often lie, add unnecessary fillers, and make back labels so confusing that it’s hard to know what you’re actually buying.

This realisation pushed me to create my own supplement brand, based on non-negotiable values: highest quality, purity, and sustainability. It also led me into biotech R&D, where we are now growing adaptogenic mushrooms in bioreactors.

The Supplement Pyramid

Let’s start with the foundation: the Supplement Pyramid.

At the base is nutrition. You cannot outrun bad food with capsules. Nutrition is non-negotiable.

- People who eat 30 or more different plant foods per week have about a 30% lower risk of mortality.

- On the flip side, diets with more than 10% ultra-processed foods increase all-cause mortality risk by around 14%.

- Gut health equals brain health. Even simple actions, like walking after a meal, can reduce glucose spikes by 30–50%.

The second layer is deficiencies. These depend on geography, lifestyle, and gender.

- Women are more prone to iron and ferritin deficiency.

- Non-meat eaters often lack vitamin B12.

- Almost everyone in the northern hemisphere is low on vitamin D.

That’s why doing blood work every 6 months is essential. Even if you eat well, deficiencies can appear because of genetics, and they must be addressed without doubt. This layer is essential for normal body function.

Finally, the top layer is optimisation. This is where we enter longevity and performance molecules. Here you’ll find NR to boost NAD⁺, spermidine to trigger autophagy, berberine for blood sugar, CoQ10 for mitochondria, quercetin and fisetin for cellular health, resveratrol as a caloric restriction mimetic, creatine for muscle and cognition, adaptogens for stress resilience, and omega-3 EPA/DHA for cardiovascular support.

Nutrition itself was given new official significance in 2013 when microbiome dysbiosis was included among the hallmarks of aging, agreed upon by an international group of scientists.

Why supplements exist in the first place

Most of the time, supplements are a fusion of nature and laboratory. We always go back to nature’s wisdom, but we also combine it with modern technologies. Still, many valuable molecules cannot be achieved simply through nutrition. Here are some examples:

- Resveratrol. In clinical studies, the usual dose is around 500 mg per day. One bottle of red wine contains at best 0.75–5 mg. That means to reach a clinical dose you’d need between 100 and 700 bottles of wine every day. I don’t think anyone here would survive that protocol.

- NR, a NAD⁺ precursor. Broccoli contains about 0.25–1 mg per 100 g. To reach the standard 250–500 mg supplement dose, you’d need 22–200 kilograms of broccoli every day. Not even a dinosaur could chew that much.

- Quercetin. Clinical trials often use 500–1000 mg per day. A medium onion contains about 30 mg. That’s at least 15 onions a day—your family might not enjoy that dinner.

- Fisetin. Studies use 100–500 mg per day. Strawberries contain about 2 mg per 100 g. That’s 5–25 kilograms of strawberries per day.

This is why supplements exist. Not because nature is bad, but because therapeutic amounts are impossible to get from diet alone.

Purity and manufacturing

This is also where supplements can go very wrong: production.

A supplement should never claim to be 100% pure - that doesn’t exist. But good products will disclose their purity level: 98%, 99.5%.

When a compound is synthesised or highly purified, we care about:

1. Identity – is it really the molecule claimed?

2. Purity/assay – how much of the capsule is active ingredient?

And then come the manufacturing processes. Some are better than others. When we buy a supplement, we want to be sure we’re actually getting the material we paid for - not a diluted or contaminated version of it. But when it comes to synthesising molecules, not all manufacturers invest the effort required to achieve high purity. That’s why one of the key rules for choosing quality supplements is to look for pharma-grade purity. Ideally, this means around 99% purity, which assures you that the powder you’re putting into your body truly is the molecule you intended to take, without unnecessary impurities.

Adaptogens

Now let’s talk about adaptogens. The market is full of mushroom and herbal supplements, claiming countless health benefits. While many of these claims are rooted in truth, there is very little education on how to decide which products are meaningful.

With adaptogens, the question is not about synthetic purity but about how mushrooms are grown and how compounds are extracted.

Conventional farming is variable - like pulling a carrot out of the soil, you never know what the quality will be. Mushrooms grown on cheap substrates, like rice or oats, often end up being ground together with that substrate. The result is starch in your capsule.

If a label says only “mushroom powder”, you’re getting mushroom-flavored flour. And our stomachs cannot efficiently digest the fibers and chitin in mushrooms to extract medicinal compounds.

That’s why you need extracts - 10:1, 20:1 - to concentrate polysaccharides, triterpenes, cordycepin, and erinacines into a bioavailable form.

So if your “reishi powder” tastes like rice pudding—now you know why.

The future is bioreactors. This is what we are developing at Longevity Lab. In bioreactors, mushrooms are grown in fully controlled environments, free from soil toxins and contamination, with standardised potency. It’s scalable, sustainable, and produces pharma-grade quality suitable for clinical trials.

Heavy metals

All supplements, whether synthetic or natural, should be tested for heavy metals. Mushrooms in particular are bioaccumulators. Lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury can all accumulate in our bodies, damaging the brain, kidneys, and even increasing cancer risk.

A respectable supplier checks and reports heavy metals in every batch. If not - it’s a red flag. Remember: natural doesn’t always mean safe - arsenic is natural too.

Fillers and excipients

Another common trap is fillers. During capsule or tablet production, manufacturers often add extra substances for different reasons. Sometimes it’s because the active ingredient is sticky or difficult to encapsulate. Other times, it’s simply for profitability—to bulk up the capsule so it looks bigger, to improve taste, or to extend shelf life. None of these additions increase the effectiveness of the supplement, but they do change what you’re actually swallowing.

They are often added during manufacturing to make capsules easier to produce, larger, prettier, or more stable.

- Bulking agents: rice flour, microcrystalline cellulose, starch.

- Sweeteners: maltodextrin, sucrose, glucose, sucralose.

- Colorants: titanium dioxide, artificial dyes.

- Capsules: often gelatin (animal). If you’re vegan, look for HPMC (plant-based).

These don’t add value. Sometimes you think you’re paying for fisetin, but you’re really paying for corn starch.

Dosage: too little, too much

Supplements only work when you reach the minimum effective dose. Too little - nothing happens. Too much - you waste money or risk harm.

When NMN first appeared on the market, I was excited. I bought a very expensive bottle of 100 mg pills and proudly took one every day. The truth? It doesn’t even start working until 250 mg. I was literally wasting my money.

- NMN/NR: Effective starting at ~250 mg/day, optimum 600–800 mg/day. Many products sell 50–100 mg capsules → useless.

- Fisetin: Effective at 100–500 mg/day. Some products are 25 mg → meaningless.

Overdosing also has consequences. 

NMN above 800 mg offers no extra benefit. 

Vitamin D can accumulate and cause toxicity. 

Zinc in excess depletes copper. 

B12 in excess is excreted - but if your urine is bright yellow, you’re probably wasting it.

The lesson: once you decide to use a supplement, make sure the dose is optimal.

Synergy

Supplements don’t act in isolation - they interact with each other. That’s why it’s always best to look for short, simple ingredient lists, especially if you plan to combine products. If the back label starts to feel overwhelming after the third line, that’s a red flag: the formula may be unnecessarily complicated. When ingredients truly work well together, a responsible brand will usually highlight those synergies instead of hiding them. And always remember the principle of optimal dosage - one ingredient might be overdosed while another is under-dosed, leaving you with an ineffective or unbalanced formula.

Some examples:

- Iron + Vitamin C → better absorption.

- Vitamin D + K2 + Magnesium → bone and heart health.

- Zinc + Copper → must be balanced.

- Quercetin + Fisetin → stronger senolytics.

- PQQ + CoQ10 → new mitochondria + energy.

- NMN/NR + Resveratrol → NAD⁺ is the fuel, resveratrol turns the ignition key.

Evidence

Another way to spot hype is through evidence. Clinical trials in humans are the gold standard. But they are expensive, so not every molecule has been studied this way yet. Some - like NR, berberine, and CoQ10 - are well researched. Others - like fisetin - are still in very early stages.

If you’re curious, go to clinicaltrials.gov. It’s all public. You can literally type “NR” and see every study that has been completed, is ongoing, or is about to begin.

Now, here’s the important nuance: supplements are not required to go through clinical trials. That obligation belongs to pharmaceuticals. Clinical trials are long, costly, and designed to prove very specific outcomes in order to make legal health claims.

Still, many supplements do undergo trials. Adaptogenic mushrooms, for example, are being studied more and more:

- Lion’s Mane: human trials suggest cognitive benefits in mild cognitive impairment.

- Cordyceps: several randomised controlled trials show improvements in endurance and VO₂ in healthy adults and athletes.

- Reishi: trials suggest immune modulation and improvements in fatigue and quality of life for specific populations.

On the other hand, some longevity molecules are relatively new - so the science is still catching up to consumer use. Clinical trials aren’t always fast enough to match what people are already experimenting with.

The key point: whether completed, ongoing, or upcoming, all clinical trials are publicly available on clinicaltrials.gov. If you’re geeky and detective-minded, you can dive as deep as you want.

Regulations across regions

And of course, regulations differ from place to place:

- EU: the strictest, especially on claims and dosages. Sometimes their maximum allowed dose conflicts with what science shows as optimal. For example, research suggests NR is most effective at 600–800 mg/day, but EU regulations cap it at 300 mg/day. So even if I make a 300 mg capsule, I personally take two.

- UAE (Dubai Municipality): very robust. All imported supplements undergo heavy checks on safety, purity, and claims. So if a product is legally sold here, it’s already passed serious scrutiny.

- US: much looser. Market access is broad, but status can change—some ingredients can shift from “dietary supplement” to “investigational drug” and back. Always verify current status before launching or buying.

Label literacy

And finally - use your common sense, your judgment, and a little intuition when reading labels. Front labels are marketing. 

Back labels are truth.

If you don’t understand the back label, if you see “proprietary blends,” unnecessary fillers, or long chemical names you can’t even pronounce—it’s probably a no.

For example, the front might proudly say “Chaga Extract.” But then you turn the jar around and see that it contains only 3% chaga. Technically legal, yes. But meaningful? Not at all. You’re paying 97% of the price for something else.

Also pay attention to price. If everything on the front looks perfect but the price is suspiciously low, then corners were probably cut somewhere. Always evaluate the cost based on the actual amount of active ingredient, not the number of pills.

Let’s say:

- Product A has 120 pills, each with 100 mg at 50% purity → total of 6 g of active NR.

- Product B has 90 pills, each with 300 mg at 99% purity → total of 26.7 g of active NR.

Marketing might highlight “120 pills” or claim “4 months’ supply” for Product A, but the reality is those pills would last only 40 days at an effective dose. Meanwhile, Product B would last 90 days and provide more than four times the amount of actual NR.

This is a perfect example of why numbers matter more than marketing promises.

Checklist

Here’s your practical checklist:
- Purity - independent lab test, no heavy metals.
- Correct Dose - meets the clinical minimum.
- Transparent Back Label - no mystery blends.
- No Fillers - or only necessary excipients.
- Packaging Integrity - glass, biodegradable, not cheap plastic.
- Price Integrity - if it’s too cheap, corners were cut.
- Synergy Awareness - does it pair well with other nutrients?

If a supplement fails on more than one of these, it’s not worth your money.

Supplements don’t replace health - they amplify it when done right.
Base first: nutrition.
Then: deficiencies.
Only then: optimisation.

Always demand purity, correct dosage, transparency, and synergy.

And remember: quantity isn’t the goal - personalisation is.

So next time you see a shiny label, ask: Does it fit my pyramid? Does it pass the checklist? Because the back label never lies.

And if you need help, contact me - I’ll gladly help you build a personalised stack for the best version of yourself.

Erika Paule, Founder & CEO at SOOO biotech and Longevity lab