Health is our first priority. Proper nutrition is the best way to maintain a healthy body. However, as our dietary habits change, we are more attuned to a diet of convenience foods and soda drinks. These lead to nutritional imbalances and cause many debilitating diseases. Nutritional supplementation is the only practical alternative.

The problem is not that we need them or that they are priced high, but that we have no guarantee about their effectiveness and purity. Manufacturers continue to make claims but we cannot verify them personally. Therefore pharmaceutical grade supplements become essential. First let me explain a few things about the problems that supplements have.

Fish-oil supplements are produced after refining the oil obtained from cold water fish like salmon, herring and sardines. Such fish are also known to contain impurities in the form of heavy metals like nickel and arsenic which are poisonous for the body. Manufacturers claim that their refining process removes such contaminants. However, over-refining can remove the essential omega 3 fatty acids from the oil for which the product is meant for.

Supplements differ in the way they are absorbed in the digestive process. To take an example, a tablet might say that it contains 30mg of a vitamin but when only 6mg gets absorbed; the rest is eliminated as waste. So the effectiveness is only 20%. You will then need 5 tablets to cover your requirements.

Vitamins do not work in isolation. They work along with other minerals and enzymes. Natural food contains the right amounts of nutrients which makes it easier for the body to process them. However, artificially made vitamins are isolated elements and are therefore not effective.

Different companies use different ways to manufacture, transport and store their products. Most supplements are put into one of 3 grades - animal, food and pharmaceutical grade supplements. The US Pharmocepia (USP) in the sole body that sets standards for these health products. There are 2 requirements for products to be termed as pharmaceutical grade supplements.

The first criterion is high bioavailability, which implies that the constituent nutrients are absorbed by the body to a large extent with minimum wastage. The second criterion is the absence of fillers and binders used in the products but hinder the process of absorption. This is also known as purity of the product. Pharmaceutical grade products are required to be ninety nine percent pure.

Usana Health Sciences is the country's top-rated nutritional supplements manufacturer. All its products are USP certified for bioavailability and purity.