{"id":769707,"date":"2026-09-13T21:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769707\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T21:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:04:24","slug":"8-in-10-americans-say-theyre-taking-supplements-do-they-have-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769707\/","title":{"rendered":"8 in 10 Americans Say They\u2019re Taking Supplements. Do They Have Benefits?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">The Pew survey found that more women than men were taking protein supplements, a finding that surprised Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Canada. Until recently, he said, it was more common for men to supplement with protein. The increase in use among women may reflect greater attention to their protein needs on social media, which has some merit since women are more likely than men to fall short on protein, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">The popularity of protein supplements may also be partly linked to the growing use of GLP-1 medications, and the belief that consuming extra protein may help stave off <a class=\"css-povzk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/02\/well\/glp-1-muscle-loss.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">muscle loss that can accompany the use of the weight loss medications<\/a>, Dr. Phillips said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">Regardless of sex or medication use, it is important to consume enough protein, Dr. Phillips said. But to build or maintain muscle, he added, resistance training is more important than protein consumption. And it\u2019s better to get your protein from food sources, because they provide other beneficial nutrients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">\u201cSupplements are convenient, but they are not necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">While previous estimates of supplement use have varied, research suggests that it has increased in recent decades, said Elizabeth Kantor, an epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In June, she and her colleagues published a study that included more than 63,000 U.S. adults, surveyed between 1999 and 2023. Over that time, the researchers found, <a class=\"css-povzk\" href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2850245\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">supplement use climbed to 60 percent from 51 percent of adults<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-12m5bll evys1bk0\">The rise in supplement use may be driven in part by claims of their benefits on social media, many of which are unsubstantiated, Dr. Topol said. It may also be \u201ca reflection of the longevity fixation, that these are going to be the ticket to expanding life span,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pew survey found that more women than men were taking protein supplements, a finding that surprised Stuart&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[20011,191274,102,6636,91082,40476,56,54,158,55],"class_list":["post-769707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-diet-and-nutrition","tag-dietary-supplements-and-herbal-remedies","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-pew-research-center","tag-polls-and-public-opinion","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}