Evaluating supplement claims
Evidence: strong
Before believing any supplement claim, ask who funded the research, how good the studies are, and whether the headline is a real-world performance gain or just a biomarker. Most claims wilt under that scrutiny.
Not medical advice
This is a general knowledge base, not medical or dietary advice. If you are injured, unwell or weighing up a supplement or a change to your diet, speak to a doctor, physiotherapist or registered dietitian who knows your situation.
The supplement market sells more certainty than the evidence supports, and a few consistent questions separate the handful of aids worth taking from the rest. The IOC consensus is the anchor: most supplements add little or nothing over a good diet, and only a short list has genuine performance support (Maughan et al. 2018).
Questions to ask of any claim
- Who funded the research, and who did it? A performance literature concentrated in a commercially linked group is a reason for caution, even when individual studies declare no conflict. Dietary nitrate is the worked example: much of the foundational work comes from one group tied to the maker of the standard research product, and the marketing is correspondingly more confident than the data. The same questions apply to Nomio and to the bicarbonate products.
- How good are the studies? Volume of research is not quality. Look for small, short trials on young, recreationally active men; effects that shrink under tighter control and in better athletes; significant heterogeneity; and outcomes that are biomarkers (lactate, an oxidative-stress marker) rather than race performance. A drop in a marker is not a faster race.
- Does it actually make you faster, in the real world? The only outcome that matters is performance in conditions like racing. Many products can show a physiological change while never demonstrating a time improvement.
Scrutiny cuts both ways
Applied honestly, this lens clears some products and condemns others. Caffeine and creatine survive it: their effects are supported by large, much-replicated, substantially independent evidence. Dietary nitrate and beta-alanine pass but narrowly, with modest, conditional effects. Ketones, BCAAs, Nomio and most of the rest of the shelf do not, resting on mechanism, biomarkers or marketing rather than performance.
Other flags
- Elite adoption is a weak signal, not proof. That professionals use something is worth noting, since they have most to lose, but they also chase marginal and placebo gains and are marketed to heavily; sodium bicarbonate is a case where the adoption probably does track real benefit, but adoption alone never settles it.
- Contamination and anti-doping risk. Poorly regulated supplements can be contaminated with banned substances; this is the basis for the most cautious tier of supplement classifications (Maughan et al. 2018).
- Individual response varies. Even a well-evidenced average effect may not apply to you, so test on yourself before trusting it on race day (individual variation).