A patient asked me today what I thought about Advocare supplements. Below is my response to her, tidied up for the blog post.
First of all, Advocate carries a lot of products which makes supplementing confusing and comparison hard. For my analysis I focused on the equivalents to the ones I offer because I honestly believe the gold standard and our goal should be a healthy diet, yet even with the best diet we can’t get enough vitamin D3, probiotic and omega3. Supplementing beyond your needs is redundant and possibly dangerous. Though, because most people do not consume an adequate diet, a multivitamin is usually necessary as well. Therefore, I’ll be comparing omega 3, probiotic, vitamin D3 and multivitamin.
Omega 3
Omega 3 supplementation is a required part of our diet for a variety of reason. The main reason is that omega 3s make up the cell membrane of every cell in our body. Without healthy cells, there’s no way our bodies are going to be healthy. I wrote all about the necessity of omega 3 here.
Advocare’s omega is concentrated. Here’s an article about why innate choice doesn’t concentrate under the FAQ on innatechoice.com. While they seem to use the same type of fish to derive the oil as Innate Choice, I don’t know if it’s purified. Additionally Innate Choice offers more DHA/EPA for serving.
In terms of pricing, Advocare certainly has an advantage. Even if you adjust for taking extra Advocate to make up the difference in the amount of DHA/EPA per serving, it’s still less money. However, naturally occurring unconcentrated fish oil is absorbed 300% better than synthetic ethyl ester form. If this is what Advocare uses, then the lesser absorbability results in an expense opposed to an investment.
Probiotic
Advocare’s probiotic isn’t recommended for anyone under 12. I’m not sure why. Innate Choice’s motto is “Every Body Every Day For Life” so they make sure their supplements are safe for the entire family, just in differing amount. In fact, if breastfeeding, you can safely open an Innate Choice probiotic capsule and put the powder on the nipple so that that infant can ingest while nursing. Children certainly need a probiotic, especially if csection and antibiotics are part of their history. Innate Choice also contains 15 billion organism of 9 strains to their 6 billion 7 strains.
I’m not sure about Advocares practices to ensure the shelf life and quality of their probiotic. Innate Choice produces their probiotic with 19 billion microorganisms, 4 billion above their label claim. Not all supplement companies do this. I don’t know Advocare’s practices. Innate Choice also stores their probiotics in a refrigerated warehouse, and when I make a purchase in the summer months, they wait until Monday or Tuesday to express ship their product to minimize heat exposure – no sitting outside over a hot weekend!
Advocare is again a lower price than Innate Choice. But, Innate Choice recommends taking two capsules a day. Advocare says you can take two “For greater effect.” I don’t know what that means. For greater health effect? For greater digestive effect? Innate Choice is formulated for you to reach the sufficient amounts required for health. Not health “effect”. For health. Nonetheless, taking 2 capsules of Advocare doesn’t give you the number of organisms as one Innate Choice, so Innate Choice is definitely the better value here.
Vitamin D3
Advocare doesn’t seem to have a D3. It’s in several products, but not in adequate amounts, so if you exclusively use this supplement line, then you’re bound to be deficient and cannot obtain optimal health.
Multivitamin
Advocare’s multi (CorePlex) doesn’t seem to be whole food based, organic, non-synthetic, corn, soy and certainly not gluten free as is Innate Choices. It doesn’t say it’s free of synthetics or that it is 100% natural. It doesn’t even say that it is natural. To know that, I’ll likely have to call the company. This is important, as there’s a difference in how the body can use an isolated vitamin versus a vitamin with natural co-factors. We certainly don’t want chemical vitamins, such as dl-tocopherals. These are unusable to the human body and potentially toxic and harmful. It doesn’t seem that Advocare uses these lower quality vitamins, but more investigation is needed to determine if they are utilizing the highest quality. I suspect if they were, it would be obviously stated on their label and website.
It costs about half as much as Innate Choices, but you may be paying for an inferior product. In that case, you get what you pay for.
Additional thoughts on Advocare
Advocare uses a list of 30 different sweeteners in their products, including acefultame potassium, sucralose (Splenda), and high fructose corn syrup. These are not quality ingredients. In fact, they are extremely controversial. It worries me that a company promoting health would use these ingredients at all.
Advocares price seems to be lower across the board, but I’m not sure it’s always a savings – if quality is equal then yes and I’m convinced it’s not.
But, I will say, they provided enough information on their site that I was able to make an informed decision and comparison and I VERY much respect and appreciate that.
Active practice members of Barto Family Chiropractic can receive 20% off Innate Choice products when purchased in the office.
*These thoughts are my own. I am not reimbursed by Innate Choice, though I do sell these supplements in my office. I do so because I feel they are the best quality supplement. It’s what I use for my family and I would only ever offer my patients the kind of care I provide to my own children…and husband too. ;o)
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