We pride ourselves on making sure that our supplements are full of the good stuff! In our capsules, you’ll find Food Based nutrients, mushrooms and herbs, and never any nasties. But, when we say nasties, what do we actually mean? We’ve put together this little guide that helps to make things simple!

Excipients are extras that are added alongside the active ingredients in supplements or pharmaceutical medicines. They are used for a number of different reasons. They can act as fillers, binders, anti-caking agents, lubricants, colouring and coating agents and sometimes flavouring agents too. The most important thing to remember is that it’s only the active ingredients (in our case Food Based nutrients, mushrooms, and herbs) that provide any benefits to health. When you read the labels of different supplements, it’s important to look out for any nasties that may be given different names. We’ll come on to that later, but for now, let’s focus on why they are added in. 

They help to ‘bulk’ and ‘bind’ 

Creating food supplements isn’t always a simple process, and getting the perfect balance between all the ingredients in the right quantities, to fit in the capsules perfectly can sometimes be challenging. This is often where fillers can come in. The active components in the supplements can sometimes be small, for example tiny vitamins and minerals. If this is the case, fillers can be used to ‘bulk’ out the final supplement. Equally, if the supplement is in a tablet form, it’ll need some help to ‘glue’ together. This is where more fillers and binding agents come in! Rest assured, our products never contain additional fillers or binding agents of any kind. 

They’re cheap! 

These additional fillers don’t have a high price tag. They’re cheap and as a result, help to reduce the manufacturing costs of the supplements being made. They are often partnered with isolated vitamins and minerals, so when combined with fillers and bulking agents, the end result is a much cheaper product to produce and manufacture.

They stabilize and extend shelf life 

Extending the shelf life of products in large scale manufacturing is thought to be a huge benefit. So is controlling the texture and consistency of the final product. This is why stabilizers and anti-caking agents are often used, even though they add no nutritional value to the product and aren’t beneficial to our bodies.

Ingredients that you need to look out for on product labels

With this in mind, there are certain ingredients that you will need to look out for when you’re looking at the label of food supplements. Some of the top excipients to look out for include:

• Stearic Acid
• Magnesium Stearate
• Cellulose 
• Silicon Dioxide
• Vegetable gum
• Potassium sorbate 
• Maltodextrin

So now we know why they are added, let’s talk about how they impact our health. These fillers and binders that are added to a number of supplements on the market provide no additional health benefits. They are inactive substances which are there to reduce manufacturing costs, extend shelf life and help stabilize the final product. They’re used in the supplement industry for a whole host of reasons! It’s important to note that they’re all registered as ‘safe’, but as they don’t offer any health benefits, we prefer to take a different approach here at Link Nutrition. 

What makes us different at Link Nutrition

Here at Link Nutrition as you know, all of our products are completely free from fillers, binders, and excipients. We believe what is put into our supplements, is just as important as what is left out. It’s part of our commitment to the quality of the supplements that we make. We recreate what nature intended, and you wouldn’t find any of these additional ingredients in the food that you eat, so you certainly don’t want them in any of the supplements that you take. 

We also like to fill our capsules full to the brim of only active ingredients, meaning that every single ingredient in our supplements is working hard for YOU. The ingredients that we use in our capsules are widely researched and thoroughly tested so you can be assured when taking our supplements, you’ll be getting the highest quality supplements. 

Want to find out more about Food Based nutrients? Check out our previous blog which delves into the top 10 benefits of Food Based nutrients! You’ll find out why we champion the Food Based difference, and why your body will love them too! Want to find out more? You can head to the blog here!