You’re looking into supplements because you want help with a wellness concern, right? So logically you’d want the ingredients inside to actually do what they say they’re going to do.
To that end, you’ll want to look for supplements that source their ingredients from high-quality raw materials, and the ones that are transparent about that process get a gold star. For example, Solgar requires certificates of analysis from its suppliers proving that the ingredients are up to snuff, and Solgar scientists take that scrutiny one step further by also testing everything themselves—so you can trust the ingredients that pass all those tests are legit.
The Anatomy of a Supplement
If you’ve ever searched for supplements, you know there are approximately… one zillion options out there, give or take. As you’re assessing your (many) different choices for vitamin C, have you ever wondered what *actually* differentiates top-shelf supplements from the rest? To find out, we teamed up with Solgar—the premium supplements that never take shortcuts and adhere to a self-imposed gold standard of excellence—to take a deep dive into the anatomy of a supplement. Here’s what to look for as you’re sorting through all those options:
The Ingredients
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Well+Good editors
Real talk: It doesn’t matter how great the ingredients in your supplements are if they degrade before your body can absorb them, which is where the coating comes into play. Most supplements use either a gelatin or veggie-based (also called cellulose) capsule, but both types of capsules can be covered in an enteric coating to aid nutrient delivery.
“Enteric” is just a fancy way of saying “relating to the intestines,” and means that this particular type of coating protects the supplement from acid as it passes through your stomach so it can reach the small intestine, where most nutrient absorption happens.
Water-based enteric coatings allow the nutrients inside each supplement to be better delivered into your bloodstream, where they can get to work on targeting your particular wellness concern. PSA: Solgar goes with only water-based coatings on its tablets, and the supplements leave out unnecessary sugar, salt, and fillers—so you’re only getting what you signed up for.
The Coating
Glass loses heat less quickly than metal or plastic, so it also helps temperature control your supplement—and the non-porous nature of glass helps lock out moisture. Yes, it’s basically the Rolex of containers.
The Bottle
Light, heat, and moisture can affect the composition of delicate formulas, but amber-colored glass (or opaque-colored glass in general) can help protect against all of the above.
Ever noticed that high-end beauty products often come in colored glass bottles? The same principle can be applied to supplements: When you’re investing in A+ ingredients, you want a container that will help support the quality of the ingredients inside, like Solgar’s signature amber glass ones.
A quick science lesson:
Magnesium Citrate Tablets
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Vitamin D3 250 MCG Softgels
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L-Glutamine 1000mg Vegetable Capsules
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The Process
So how, exactly, do some supplement ingredients (such as herbals) go from a plant growing in the ground to a capsule you can down every morning with breakfast? That’s where the manufacturing process comes into play. It sounds boring, but stick with us—manufacturing is actually a key step in the creation of a supplement that separates the cream of the crop from the rest.
For example, Solgar uses food-grade cleansers to sanitize all equipment between batches (which is important, because this stuff is going into your body), and completely disassembles the machinery to deep clean it after each formula change.
Moral of the story is: Solgar follows strict standards to ensure there’s very little chance of anything that doesn’t belong in your supplements ending up in there.
The facility also uses air filters that remove 99.9 percent of airborne particles and a reverse osmosis water purification system for next-level filtration.
The Anatomy of a Supplement
If you’ve ever searched for supplements, you know there are approximately… one zillion options out there, give or take. As you’re assessing your (many) different choices for vitamin C, have you ever wondered what *actually* differentiates top-shelf supplements from the rest? To find out, we teamed up with Solgar—the premium supplements that never take shortcuts and adhere to a self-imposed gold standard of excellence—to take a deep dive into the anatomy of a supplement. Here’s what to look for as you’re sorting through all those options:
Magnesium Citrate Tablets
$15
Shop Now
Shop Now
B-Complex "100" Vegetable Capsules
$19
Shop Now
Shop Now
L-Glutamine 1000mg Vegetable Capsules
$28
Shop Now
Shop Now
Vitamin D3 250 MCG Softgels
$19
Shop Now
Shop Now
Hyaluronic Acid
120mg Tablets
$17
Shop Now
Shop Now
Shop the Products
Has 2020 Been Stressing You Out? Try This MD’s 5 Tips for Finding More Calm
Is It Just Me Or Is It Impossible to Stay Focused WFH? Luckily, There Are Supplements to Help
I Cleaned Out My Supplement Shelf and These Are the Only 5 I’m Keeping
Learn More
Glass loses heat less quickly than metal or plastic, so it also helps temperature control your supplement—and the non-porous nature of glass helps lock out moisture. Yes, it’s basically the Rolex of containers.
Light, heat, and moisture can affect the composition of delicate formulas, but amber-colored glass (or opaque-colored glass in general) can help protect against all of the above.
A quick science lesson:
Ever noticed that high-end beauty products often come in colored glass bottles? The same principle can be applied to supplements: When you’re investing in A+ ingredients, you want a container that will help support the quality of the ingredients inside, like Solgar’s signature amber glass ones.
The Bottle
The facility also uses air filters that remove 99.9 percent of airborne particles and a reverse osmosis water purification system for next-level filtration.
So how, exactly, do some supplement ingredients (such as herbals) go from a plant growing in the ground to a capsule you can down every morning with breakfast? That’s where the manufacturing process comes into play. It sounds boring, but stick with us—manufacturing is actually a key step in the creation of a supplement that separates the cream of the crop from the rest.
For example, Solgar uses food-grade cleansers to sanitize all equipment between batches (which is important, because this stuff is going into your body), and completely disassembles the machinery to deep clean it after each formula change.
Moral of the story is: Solgar follows strict standards to ensure there’s very little chance of anything that doesn’t belong in your supplements ending up in there.
The Process
Real talk: It doesn’t matter how great the ingredients in your supplements are if they degrade before your body can absorb them, which is where the coating comes into play. Most supplements use either a gelatin or veggie-based (also called cellulose) capsule, but both types of capsules can be covered in an enteric coating to aid nutrient delivery.
“Enteric” is just a fancy way of saying “relating to the intestines,” and means that this particular type of coating protects the supplement from acid as it passes through your stomach so it can reach the small intestine, where most nutrient absorption happens.
Water-based enteric coatings allow the nutrients inside each supplement to be better delivered into your bloodstream, where they can get to work on targeting your particular wellness concern. PSA: Solgar goes with only water-based coatings on its tablets, and the supplements leave out unnecessary sugar, salt, and fillers—so you’re only getting what you signed up for.
The Coating
You’re looking into supplements because you want help with a wellness concern, right? So logically you’d want the ingredients inside to actually do what they say they’re going to do.
To that end, you’ll want to look for supplements that source their ingredients from high-quality raw materials, and the ones that are transparent about that process get a gold star. For example, Solgar requires certificates of analysis from its suppliers proving that the ingredients are up to snuff, and Solgar scientists take that scrutiny one step further by also testing everything themselves—so you can trust the ingredients that pass all those tests are legit.
The Ingredients
If you’ve ever searched for supplements, you know there are approximately… one zillion options out there, give or take. As you’re assessing your (many) different choices for vitamin C, have you ever wondered what *actually* differentiates top-shelf supplements from the rest? To find out, we teamed up with Solgar—the premium supplements that never take shortcuts and adhere to a self-imposed gold standard of excellence—to take a deep dive into the anatomy of a supplement. Here’s what to look for as you’re sorting through all those options:
Well+Good editors
The Anatomy of a Supplement
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