The sense and nonsense of nutritional supplement VitaePro – Radar

Take the food supplement VitaePro, for example. The advertising of this product regularly appears on television. If we are to believe skater and ambassador of VitaePro Erben Wennemars, take this product if you care about your muscles. The pills are not for sale in stores, but you have to subscribe. For this you pay almost forty euros per shipment, which is equal to sixty tablets. VitaePro recommends one to two capsules per day on the packaging.

Joke is a fit woman from Lemmer who does everything she can to stay as healthy as possible. But at the beginning of this year she suddenly notices that she is becoming less fit. When she saw the VitaePro advertisement with Erben Wennemars, she ordered the product. “I’m going to try it, I thought, I want to believe that this product helps my health,” said Joke.

Wonderpil?

General practitioner Tamara de Weijer believes that quite a few claims are made on the VitaePro site. ‘It’s actually a kind of miracle pill when you read the site. A vitamin supplement, in any form, is not a miracle pill. If you eat unhealthy and hardly exercise, such a supplement will not do anything. I am afraid that people will give up fruit and vegetables when they take such a supplement. But a pill is never a substitute for healthy eating. ‘

David van Bodegom, professor of Vitality at the Leyden Academy, agrees with Tamara de Weijer. According to him, the solution to becoming healthy and fit is not to take nutritional supplements. ‘I think it is better to spend your money on a pair of sports shoes and at the greengrocer than on these types of subscriptions,’ says Van Bodegom.

Renger Witkamp, ​​professor of Nutrition and Pharmacology is generally critical of supplements, but is not entirely against it either. They can be useful in certain groups. Witkamp’s response to VitaePro is: ‘Pure money beating in my opinion. And a smart marketing concept that lures customers in with a website that looks slick, but has nothing to offer in terms of content. It is just a multivitamin and you can simply buy it much cheaper from Kruidvat or Etos, for example. ‘

Exercise and eat vegetables to grow old healthily

Van Bodegom: ‘The VitaePro advertisement suggests that you can grow old healthily with this pill. But to grow old healthily, you really have to get started. Go outside to exercise and eat healthy. ‘

Tamara de Weijer looked at the composition of VitaePro for us and came to the conclusion that most ingredients can also be found in food. Vitamin C is also found in red bell pepper, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Of course also in oranges and lemon, berries and strawberries. It’s in so many products that you really don’t need any pills, ‘says the doctor.

To keep your heart healthy, Vitae Pro has also added omega 3, aka fish oil, to their tablet. Van Bodegom: ‘Fish oil has a beneficial effect on the heart. That is why it is also recommended to eat fish once a week, preferably oily fish. If you eat fish once a week, you don’t have to take extra fish oil. ‘

A standout ingredient of Vitae Pro is boswellia serrata, an Indian frankincense extract. Tamara de Weijer: ‘Boswelia serrata does not naturally occur in our diet. I don’t think it’s harmful to take, but research on how the claim for ‘maintaining lean muscles’ works is still ongoing. There is a disclaimer, but I have really great difficulty with that, nobody reads that. You read the front of the package which says better resistance, better bones, better muscles. People don’t read those fine print at all. ‘

Anyone who thinks when it comes to food supplements ‘it does not benefit, it does not harm’, is disappointed, according to De Weijer. For example, it has already been shown that an excess of vitamin B6 can cause nerve damage.

Vitamin D against coronavirus

There are supplements that have been proven to be needed by certain people. Vitamin B12 for people who do not eat animal fats and Vitamin D is recommended for people who spend little time outside and according to experts, vitamin D would also be effective against the corona virus.

According to Van Bodegom, you can spend your money better on healthy food and you can actually ignore nutritional supplements. ‘You have to take a walk outside every day. According to official guidelines, this is half an hour. You can also sit on the couch for 23 and a half hours. It is also important to eat healthy food, which is often also tastier ‘.

Reactions VitaePro and Erben Wennemars

VitaePro and Erben Wennemars have responded to the item about nutritional supplements. You can find the full responses via the links below.

Survey Radar on Dietary Supplements

You will find the full results of our research into nutritional supplements via the link below.

Survey: Anyone on the Dietary Supplements?

– .