#032: The Supplement Facts: Why 85% Aren’t Worth Taking - with supplement expert Kate Mahoney

Kate Mahoney, former NTA instructor & founder of the Supplement Academy, breaks down why less than 15% of supplements are worth taking, how to read labels with confidence, & why “food first” beats chasing the next trending pill.

Kate Mahoney, is a food-first dietary supplement expert with 30 years’ experience and the founder of the Supplement Academy. She teaches health professionals and consumers how to evaluate supplement quality and effectiveness without affiliate bias or brand influence - so people can make informed, confident decisions.

Episode Description 

If you’ve ever bought a supplement because “someone said it worked”… & then it ended up in your supplement graveyard, this episode will validate your experience.

I’m joined by supplement expert Kate Mahoney - a natural health geek and food-first functional nutrition practitioner with nearly 30 years of experience who accidentally became a dietary supplement expert along the way. She shares the facts: most supplements are not worth your money, & some can quietly create imbalances if taken long-term or taken in the wrong form.

We cover the real reasons most supplement education is confusing (hint: conflicts of interest), why “recommended doses” can be misleading, & the surprising differences between US vs Australian supplement labeling.

If you’re a health-conscious consumer or a practitioner who wants to lift your standards & protect your clients, this is a must-listen.

What You’ll Learn

• Why 85% of supplements worldwide are NOT worth taking (and fatty acids 90%)
• The supplement industry’s biggest issue: profit-driven marketing disguised as education
• Why “if it’s on the shelf, it must be safe” is a dangerous assumption
• The difference between US (DSHEA) and Australia (TGA) oversight — and why it matters
• Why there is no universal “everyone should take this” supplement (bio-individuality)
• The magnesium myth: how long-term use can create mineral imbalances (calcium vs magnesium)
• Why “detox” & parasite cleanses are often backwards - & what actually supports detox
• The hidden label trap: “500mg magnesium glycinate” isn’t the same as 500mg elemental magnesium
• Why “recommended dose” depends on country rules, forms, sourcing, & what the label doesn’t say

Resources & Links

• Kate’s website:  www.thesupplementacademy.com
  Join the SQS certification course waitlist+subscribe to Kate's newsletter
• Follow Kate: @KateMahoneyNTP (and also look for @theSupplementAcademy on Facebook/LinkedIn/Instagram) 
• If this episode made

About your host
I’m Sally-Anne Kearns, Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and host of Nutrition Gateway. I help women calm anxiety, clear brain fog, and stabilise energy through simple, stackable micro-habits grounded in nutrition and lifestyle foundations.

Sally-Anne's HEALthy 40 day reset
$139.00 for the life changing nutrition and biohacking tools that will transform your pain, energy, sleep and reverse your age!

Join Sally-Anne Kearns next 40 Day Reset https://go.sallyannekearns.com.au/reset

Email me: Sally@sallyannekearns.com.au or call me 0400 203 203

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Transcript

Today I am here with none other than Kate Mahoney, and she is just extraordinary. This is a woman that I've been following, actually, since the inception of my new NTA days. And Kate is a food first dietary supplement expert. And she's a functional nutritional practitioner, nutrition practitioner with former international functional nutrition instructor with 30 years of experience, 30 years in 2020 she founder the supplement Academy to provide health professionals and consumers worldwide with comprehensive and affiliate free dietary supplement information and education. Kate's mission is to empower everyone with the ability to identify the less than 15% of supplements worldwide that are actually worth consuming or using with the hope that doing so will lead to improved supplement quality and effectiveness around the world, in turn, lifting the bar and in Kate's free time, Kate calls herself a muppet whose inner spark is rejuvenated by nature, dancing to super loud music with friends and caring for her rescued feline fur Babies with her beloved spouse and enjoying delicious home cooked food with loved ones. So thank you for being here today. I'm so blessed to have your company, and we've just had an incredible conversation offline. So I'd love to expand this into, you know, 30 years that's That's quite the testimony, in terms of you don't actually a look that that old to be in the industry that long. But thank you. What would you say? Like, I mean, you've landed here with the supplement Academy, but what would you say is your background and specialty?

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  8:54  
Well, my area of expertise, even though I was in complete denial about it for quite some time has turned out to be supplements. It was a long and winding road to get here. Let's see. You know, honestly, it kind of started with my health journey, because the truth is that back when I hit puberty, I actually started existing unusual symptoms right in conjunction at the same time. And this was, oh, I would say, probably around 1987 or 88 around that time period. So this was prior to auto immune conditions, even being part of the common vernacular. It turned out, however, that that was what I had. In fact, it wasn't until, I believe around 2010 or 2012 that a doctor over in Europe, quote, unquote, discovered the auto very, very rare auto immune condition that I and other people in the world have, which is that I literally have an allergic reaction to my own biological sex hormones. So, you know, the ones that are meant to, like procreate, those are the things that my body has an allergic reaction to. So every single month as my hormones would go up and down, my inflammation flares would go up and down right along with it, and my symptoms would manifest, or, you know, escalate or de escalate every single month, ever since puberty, wow. Now what was really interesting was, when I hit my early 20s, things suddenly became so much worse. And actually let me take a step back, it was prior to that that, because I kept getting so frustrated with not really receiving or getting any answers from allopathic medicine, I started when I was in my late teens, looking into and learning about things like herbalism and more traditional forms of medicine that had been around for hundreds and 1000s of years, that traditional wisdom that was passed on and then in my early 20s, I met someone who is an amazing individual that is still in my life, someone who was a wonderful mentor to me, that taught me the importance and power of nutrition and movement, and I learned a lot from them, and that really started me on My journey in my early 20s, I started to get mentored by Master herbalists from local apothecaries in the area. I started to learn more about food. I was very passionate learning more about homeopathy and herbs. And, you know, for a while, I even thought about going in the direction of becoming a midwife, but apparently, life had other plans for me, because I believe it was in my early 30s I came across a wonderful opportunity where I was able to participate in this comprehensive educational program on and about supplements that covered the gamut. And it was really incredible and wonderful, because what they would do is they would teach us all these things about effectiveness and quality. The professor, the person who was conducting the classes. He had a PhD in nutrition and specialized in biology having to do with nutrition and things like that. Absolutely fascinating, amazing and brilliant individual, and he would teach us everything there was to know about a specific supplement category, right? Like, let's say we were talking about joint health supplements or joint support supplements. So he would teach us all these things about the nutrition and biochemistry and things like that. And then he would bring in different supplement brands and companies and have them talk to us about their joint supplements. And little did these companies know that after they left, we would all sit around and dissect, using our discerning, critical thinking, whether or not these supplements were worth taking. And let me tell you, that was one of the most phenomenal ways to learn about supplements that I've ever experienced in my life. So when I created the supplement Academy, one of the things that was really important to me was creating an environment and a community where that was possible, where as you were learning about supplements, you were able to have a community to bounce off of and say, Hey, I'm applying what I'm learning here. Does anybody have any input for me, what are your observations? And I've got to tell you, I still utilize it like, if I find a supplement that I think is interesting, I will go to my community of supplement Academy students and graduates, and I'll be like, Hey, here's something interesting that I found. This is what I think of the marketing, and this is what I think of in regards to their claims, and this is what I think of when I evaluate their label. But what do you guys all think? Is there anything that you think that I've missed? Is there anything that doesn't align with your quality standards, that may not be a quality standard for me, because we all have differences of opinions, right? So yeah, I gotta say that that education that I had back in my late 20s, early 30s was great. I had it for about five years, and then I got to a point where I kind of realized it was very frustrating, because while we focused a lot on supplement quality and effectiveness, you want to know what we didn't cover basic physiology. How does the body work? So instead of going, Oh, your digestion isn't working, well, let's throw all these supplements at it. Right? We may not know what the problem is, but let's throw all these supplements at it. And I was like, No, there's something missing here. So that's when I started looking for a functional nutrition program, and I found the NTA, which I am so grateful for. Leanne Scott, who heads up NTA, what does she refer to it as? Is it NTA,

Sally-Anne Kearns  15:44  
nutritional therapy Association, Australia and New Zealand,

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  15:48  
Australia and New Zealand. Perfect. I didn't want to misspeak about that, because I know that she offers this education for anyone around the world, and she has such a commitment to making this information really reflect the foundations that are so essential and important to understand. And she's kind of at the helm of being able to bring this body of knowledge to the world in that way which I am grateful that she has been working so hard at being able to do that. So I entered the program in September of 2013 I believe, graduated in 2014 and while I was taking the course, I literally had both of the instructors from my program come to me and say, Do you have any interest in being an instructor? And I was like, Tell me more. And in the addition of Tell me more, why me? I mean, I really, I didn't understand what I had. I didn't understand that my knowledge and experience with supplements, due to my previous education, gave me a different kind of foundation than what I was learning from the nutritional therapy Association becoming an fntp because I knew and I understood about supplement quality and effectiveness and how to use, what supplements, where and why, in a way that most of the people who went through the program didn't. And after I graduated, half of my alumni were like, Please create a program so that we can learn from you. And I was like, Oh, I'll do it in a little bit, you know. And years went by, I was teaching for NTA. In fact, I was honored that Leanne, at one point asked me to teach the fntp course, one round of the course over in Australia, at one point in time, that was such a gift and an honor to be able to do that and participate in that way. But finally, at the end of 2019 I was like, Okay, I think it's time for me to do this. And so I said, Now is the time. And I started to create the program, and I found a bunch of beta testers. And then we all know what happened at the beginning of 2020 the endemic, right? So that's kind of the roundabout story of of what happened and how I got here. Is there anything that comes up for you as I share that that you'd like to talk more about?

Sally-Anne Kearns  18:37  
I guess there's a couple of things. I mean, I've been watching your journey for a while, and I didn't kind of understand that that key piece of how integral you were in the Australian NTA program, and so that's where I studied, and I'm highly grateful for stumbling upon the opportunity to be a graduate of their program, but I will say that whenever I've seen any of your communication online, it's always been such so empowering. The way that you communicate information about supplements is you never have laziness in your communication. You're always really, you really explain things from that foundational lens. You don't leave anything out, and if you do, you kind of leave a little bit of a pause or curiosity at the end of each statement. So you've really been a key educator in part of what's helped me recognize that definitely one size is not, you know, one size does not fit all in this arena. And in fact, you know, what we learn through the nutritional therapy is how the body responds to these therapeutic nutrients or supplements, right? But you take it that next step deeper and starting to look at the fillers and just feeling helping people feel really confident in this space, instead of, you know, buying something blindly from iHub and being like, Oh, that'll do. You know, that's the cheapest, which is often how people create their decisions, which is terrifying,

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  20:06  
more than just take a multivitamin every day. What do you mean? Wait, what do you mean? Most multivitamins are crap.

Sally-Anne Kearns  20:15  
What? Yes, exactly. And I think, gosh, we all have, I call it the supplement graveyard in the top of a cupboard, somewhere in a box, you know. But when we think about what the NTA gives us, and I think as practitioners of their program, we really try to explain to people the what, the how and why. And I think the other piece that you bring to it is just the when, which I think is really interesting, but then just the breadth of really confidently reading a label. And so you sort of have this extensive experience, this block of time learning from from this incredible biologist, and you develop the program, and what would you say would be the underlying philosophy of the program

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  21:01  
you actually used the word that? Well, it's not really the underlying it's so hard for me to be able to separate things, because for me, so many things are interconnected, right? And I hope that makes sense when I say that it's not just my philosophy, but it's also that my mission is that I am empowering people to make informed choices. It's my philosophy and my mission like I cannot separate the two they are. They're literally so intertwined and inter linked. It is an integral part of what I do and why I do what I do, and I want to say thank you so much for what it is that you just shared about how I communicate, because that is something that is so important to me. I i I aim to be compassionate, understanding, transparent, provide context. Like, there's all these different things that I'm like. I really want to be like this when I communicate, and I will literally like when I respond you. You've probably seen some of my responses. They're like, pages long. And that is because, number one, when I try to reply on social media, there have been so many times when I take all this time to like reply, and then it gets deleted. I try to post it, and it's gone. And my spouse was like, You need to stop doing this to yourself. You need to write your replies in Word on your computer and then copy and paste it. So I started doing that. But the downside of doing that so obviously, they're very long,

Sally-Anne Kearns  22:52  
a lot more for space in word than there

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  22:54  
is literally, I'm sitting there and I'll read it over and I'm like, Oh no, that doesn't make any sense, copy, paste, edit, ooh, need to add this in here. Context, context, context, you know. And then I look at the finished product, and I'm like, this could be a blog post.

Sally-Anne Kearns  23:11  
And so it should, in all honesty, I mean, this is probably what drives a lot of your content, is just, you know, that that thought process of, actually, how do I explain these so that somebody really understands it? Because it's so multifaceted, isn't it like, gosh, I would love to have been a fly in the room hearing the pharmaceutical businesses giving not pharmaceutical, sorry, but supplement companies, or in some cases, they're pharmaceutical, but nutraceutical businesses, and they are businesses, let's be really transparent about this. They're businesses trying to increase the profit for

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  23:42  
profit, businesses want people to buy their products so the education they're providing has an agenda. Let's be honest about that. Can we please?

Sally-Anne Kearns  23:58  
I'm ready for it like and I think that's why people want to hear this, because we need to start to understand that these are marketing strategies, and they're marketing strategies that have been developed with, you know, sometimes hundreds of 1000s of dollars. And one of the things that we do need to be mindful of, there is always a good, better, best scenario, particularly with food, with supplements, and then also just educators like, you know, reading the pamphlet of the marketing material is going to be quite different to perhaps hearing Kate's take on a particular product or experience. So I love that. And so, what are you? What are you now seeing? I mean, you're in the United States and but you do have a lot of ties with Australia, as you mentioned. But what would you say is the current landscape for the supplement industry? Like, What? What? I'll break this into two questions, because what would you say is the current landscape for the supplement industry that you're seeing?

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  25:00  
Well, there's good news and there's bad news, right? So I'm going to use a cross comparison of organic, because I think organic is a very, very good example of what I'm seeing in the supplement industry. In organic, it is very, very clear, at least here I'm going to use the United States as an example. It is a place where people see the potential for profits, and therefore, here in the United States, companies can pay what are called lobbyists to go and try to convince politicians to change the laws and legislation to basically deregulate or undercut the organic regulations so that their products qualify, right? So what you see is more pesticides being used on organic products. Consumers wondering whether or not they can even trust organic products anymore. And then there are these small companies and smaller certification entities, such as at a state level rather than the federal level, who are trying to uphold the original standards of organic. And what does organic really mean? And do you qualify for our standards of organic versus the USDA organic standards, which is what the big companies go for. And it is so expensive to qualify, to not qualify, it's so expensive to be registered as USDA Organic that a lot of these smaller brands and companies who are actually doing things better and more in alignment with organic standards are using the smaller certifications at a state level to show consumers, hey, look, we're actually so good that we qualify for this level of organic, right? So in the supplement industry, the reason why I use organic as an example is because there were a lot of companies originally who were trying to make supplements for the right reasons, because they were sick of the pharmaceutical industry and they wanted citizens here in the United States to have access to more traditional compounds such as medicinal herbs and things like that. Now, it is a very complex and complicated and layered issue, because just I'm going to use medicinal herbs as an example, there are certain medicinal herbs that if you don't have a certain level of understanding or education or training, can be downright dangerous, but if you have that education and training, they can literally be life changing for the right People, in the right ways, in the right circumstances. Now here in the United States, there is not a whole lot of oversight. There is a huge difference between proof of significant risk, which means the burden and onus of proof that there is a significant risk is on the consumers, which means that a company can just put something out, and unless enough harm is done, the FDA is not going to do anything. They're going to be like, you know, until there's enough harm. Now, in contrast, there's the precautionary principle, which is more what is happening in Australia, it means that there are certain supplements and certain nutrients that unless you are working with a licensed practitioner, which, let's be honest, as you know, that does not necessarily mean that that licensed practitioner actually has the education to know how to utilize these nutritional dietary supplements. They just have a a license, right? But in Australia, it is only if you are a licensed practitioner, or, like the graduates from NTA, Australia, New Zealand, you have the fntp degree, which Leanne worked very, very hard to qualify fntp as a degree so that anyone who now graduates from that program is able to recommend supplements to people which I love and appreciate, because you guys are literally educated that licensed practitioners aren't. They don't specialize in nutritional supplements. They don't specialize in nutrition. You guys do, right? So there's a much better understanding there. So okay. Sally Anne, I've got to be honest with you, I can tell that I've gotten off track. So can you please remind

Sally-Anne Kearns  30:30  
Yeah, so, so when we're talking about the current landscape of the supplement industry, so I think you've landed the question right? Like that's I think we we're now saying, yeah, sorry, more. Okay.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  30:43  
So the whole reason why I was giving the organic comparison is because in the supplement industry, originally, it was something that companies people really wanted other people to have access to more natural options. But it has become a situation where so many people and companies want in on the profit margin that you have all the companies and people that are going into the supplement game industry in order to make money, and then you have these smaller companies that are trying really hard to do things the right way for the right reasons. But the problem with supplements compared to organic is that unlike organic, which actually has certifications, while supplements are regulated, they are like in Australia, they're regulated by, I think it's, is it

Sally-Anne Kearns  31:48  
the TGA, yeah.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  31:50  
And in the United States, they are regulated by something known as desha, D, S, H, E, A. So supplements are regulated however, it is not the same as pharmaceuticals. It is not the same as food. There are a lot of things having to do with quality and effectiveness and additional ingredients that most people just don't know about and they think, well, if it's on the shelf, that means it's safe. But the question really number one, is it safe for you? And number two, is it actually going to be effective? Because most nutrient forms in supplements are synthetic, and most synthetic nutrient forms are not bioavailable. There are some that are, but those are the rarity and not the norm, and that is why the thing that I'm known for telling everybody is less than 15% of dietary supplements that are available worldwide, meaning, no matter where you live in the world, where you are a practitioner or consumer in the world, less than 15% of dietary supplements worldwide are worth taking.

Sally-Anne Kearns  33:10  
You heard it here, folks, exclamation mark, yeah, like

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  33:18  
full stop. And what's really scary. Okay, I've got an addition to that, fatty acid supplements even less, oh man, less than 10% of fatty acid supplements are worth taking. That's and that's just the cold, hard truth. And I say that as a supplement expert who is sharing my information with no conflicts of interest, because I am literally not affiliated with any supplement companies. That is the other thing that is so important to me is that most supplement, quote, unquote education that is being provided around the world is literally being provided by or sponsored by, can you guess

Sally-Anne Kearns  34:01  
supplement companies?

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  34:02  
Supplement companies? Yes, can we just talk about what a huge conflict of interest that is? And most people, why don't we have more discerning critical thinkers who are literally questioning, can I trust what I'm being told? Because they want to sell their products to you people. You can't trust the marketing. You can't trust what you're being told. You have to know how to decipher and discern what you're being told accurately, and they're not going to tell you how to do that, and that is literally the number one reason why so many of my professional colleagues begged me to create a supplement course. And it is literally why I created the supplement Academy, because there is no other place. Well, actually there is one other individual I know of brilliant individual. I unfortunately forget his name right now, but he too was very disturbed by how incredibly misinformed so many of our colleagues are, and so he too has started a school where he is teaching health professionals about quality and effectiveness when it comes to supplements, because they're not going to tell you. The supplement companies are not going to tell you. They don't want you to know. They don't want you to know the truth.

Sally-Anne Kearns  35:30  
You know, before I knew better, you know, I call it the, you know, before, before I got sick, right? Like before, the autoimmune thing kind of presented officially. And it was really when I had children and I started advocating for others that I started to ask questions. But it was also when my health fell apart. And prior to that, I used to walk into the supermarket thinking that everything was good for me and that they, you know, inverted commas, whoever they were, they wouldn't put anything out there that was dangerous. And my philosophy was exactly the same when I went into the chemist, you know, or the pharmacy, and I would think they wouldn't, you know, create anything that was harmful. And what I've now, you know, the critical thinking element of life over the last sort of 10 to 15 years of this health journey, and particularly studying with the NTA and witnessing the transformations in the physical body with the right or the wrong supplements and food right like this is really where it's at. And I love that your food fell first based on the extensive knowledge unaffiliated that you have in this industry, because you're still working with the food first philosophy, knowing that really these supplements can be additions in the right hands at the right time, but but more than not, they're just expensive things in plastic bottles that potentially end up in urine or that

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  36:59  
you don't need or that maybe you do need, but you're not getting it in the right way because you don't know how to tell the difference between what's going to be effective from non effective.

Sally-Anne Kearns  37:12  
So look, I guess I look at that and I go, if I'm hearing this for the first time, that's a pretty shocking statistic from an expert that understands supplements deeper than anyone that would be listening to this at this time. And so doesn't that give people permission, in a way, to just get excited about food again? And so instead of wasting, you know, funds on things that you may not understand until you're prepared to get educated or find a practitioner that truly does understand on your behalf, but is also taking in your unique bio individuality, but just give yourself permission to just focus on food. Guys.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  37:50  
Hello, I know when people ask me, Well, what? What supplements do you think everybody should take? And I'm like, no and some of the podcast hosts have been like What do you mean, no, yeah. Okay, first of all, supplements are bio individual. There is no one.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  38:25  
Even if there is a supplement that you benefit from now, that doesn't mean you should take it for the rest of your life. You could literally create potential imbalances and other health issues or health symptoms if you take a supplement for too long, you can, like some people, I'm just going to use magnesium as an example, because so many people, they're on the magnesium train, they're like, I'm going to take magnesium out of time. So good. It's so great, because I suffer from, like, tension in my muscles, and it helps my muscles to relax, and it's so good, and I sleep better. Blah, blah, blah, right? Okay, we've all heard it. If you're a health professional, you have heard people say this, and let's be honest. Sally Anne, I've heard a lot of colleagues say it too. And I'm like, Okay, let's talk about the reality of biochemistry and physiology, because in biochemistry, nutritional cofactors, of which magnesium is one of 1000s. Nutritional cofactors have antagonist and synergistic relationships. Yes, magnesium is very important. However, it is not the only thing, and magnesium is antagonist for a whole bunch of nutritional co factors, such as other minerals like calcium. Now calcium and magnesium, they have a synergistic and antagonistic relationship. It's a balancing act between the two of them, and you want to know why, because calcium causes the muscles to contract, while magnesium causes the muscles to relax. And most people are like, well, I don't want my muscles to contract. Yes, you do. What is your heart? The muscle? What is your heart? Your heart is a muscle, and it pumps. How does it pump? It contracts and it relaxes, and it contracts and it relaxes. So guess what you need? You need a balance of calcium and magnesium. But if you're taking magnesium all the time, guess what you're doing? You're creating nutrient imbalances in the body because you're taking too much of one thing all the time.

Sally-Anne Kearns  40:51  
Yeah, and let's not talk about how many, how many magnesium therapy? Yes, lots of magnesium there. Not the one that you want for the cramping. Anyway, you're probably not even taking the right one.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  41:03  
Oh my gosh. I know one of the things that I teach the people who go through my functional supplement Specialist Program, which is the secondary program that I have, it is only for health practitioners. It is not just for health professionals, because you have to have a certain level of education to take it, whereas any health professional can take the SQS, also known as the supplement quality special. Quality specialist course, where you learn about like, optimal quality, optimal effectiveness, how to be able to discern that 85% of the time just taking one minute to look at the label, right? So That's level one. Level two is the optimal what, when, why, where, how of of functional supplement use in clinical practice. And I specifically talk about how taking magnesium for constipation is a band aid. You are literally not addressing the root cause. And then I talk about all the different reasons that could be a root cause. And I'm like, it starts up here with the brain

Sally-Anne Kearns  42:12  
north to south process that we talk about.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  42:15  
Yeah, you've got the HPA access and the HPA axis, whether or not someone is in a sympathetic or parasympathetic state when they are digesting. Because you know what, peristalsis, which is the contraction and relaxation of the intestine. Both the small and the large intestine have to do it. And guess what? You need calcium and magnesium for this to happen, too, speaking of calcium and magnesium, but peristalsis is what moves all of this stuff through the intestines so that we can eliminate it, and if we don't have the right balance of minerals, and if things are not working from the top down, guess what's not going to be working so well down below. So you kind of need to figure out the root cause of the problem, rather than potentially creating a nutritional imbalance by plying yourself with magnesium all the time.

Sally-Anne Kearns  43:14  
Yeah. Interesting thing that I think a lot of people don't realize, and perhaps you can confirm whether or not this is true or not, but most people, they look at the bottle and it says, you know, here's the recommended dose. Now that dose is for what?

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  43:34  
Oh, that's a very complex question, actually. Okay, so first of all, it depends on what country you're in, because countries vary depending on what they consider a dose to be. The question depending on what country you're in, for example, here in the United States, the recommended daily allowance is based on this is the minimal amount of this nutrient that you should be taking and getting every day. Otherwise, you will literally develop health problems, right? Whereas in some other countries, it can be different, they're looking at how much you should you be getting every day. Not this is the minimum, but like optimally, how much you should be getting every day. So the first thing that anyone listening to this needs to figure out is, how are nutrients being talked about or delineated or regulated in your country? Right? That's going to give you some really good, valuable information right there about what they mean by dose. Because at least here in the United States, when you're given a dose, you're also given a percentage of how much of a percentage of that nutrient Are you getting? But it gets a little bit more complicated than that, unfortunately. Sally Anne and I'll tell you why. Okay, I'm going to go back to minerals again as an example, and we're just going to stick with magnesium, because it's a very commonly known mineral. So the thing about elemental minerals is that they're very unstable by themselves. You will not find a mineral by itself, because it will literally be like, right? It's not stable by itself. So what nature does to stabilize these mineral elements is they chelate it to another substance. Every single mineral everywhere is chelated to something. That is why you have magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, magnesium oxide, magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, magnesium malate, blah, blah, blah, list goes on and on. There's a lot of different forms of magnesium Now, the thing is, some of these forms of magnesium are more bioavailable. A Kate effective than others. Also, some of them are more clean. And what I mean by clean is the raw materials that they are used to synthesize. For example, magnesium citrate. That means that the magnesium is chelated to citric acid. Citric acid is synthesized by making corn mold, and at least here in the United States, most corn is GMO, so you are ingesting citric acid that has been made from GMO corn mold. I don't know about you, but I don't want that in my body. Yeah, and the other thing is that you need to figure out, okay, well, where and how is this supplement company sourcing their citric acid from right? Because, are they sourcing it from China? Are they sourcing it from the United States? Are they sourcing it from someplace else? What is the raw material that was used to make that citric acid? There are so many different questions. It's a layered and complicated thing. But the whole reason why I brought this up, I know we're like going down some rabbit holes, people, but, but bear with me, because the original question, I actually remember it this time. The original question was, well, how much is a dose? Here's the tricky thing, since every single mineral is chelated to another substance, typically around on average, 80% of a mineral is going to be the chelation substrate, and only around 20% on average, is going to be the elemental mineral. Now here is where the difference between Australian supplement labels and US supplement labels get very, very interesting, because in the United States, they don't have to tell you that. So you buy a bottle of 500 milligrams of magnesium glycinate, and every single 500 milligram capsule will say that you're getting 500 milligrams of magnesium glycinate, and then they'll tell you how much of a percentage of recommended daily allowance that is for 500 milligrams of magnesium. But what they're not telling you is, guess what? You're only getting 100 milligrams of elemental magnesium per 500 milligram capsule. That's it right now in Australia, what I really appreciate about Australia, this is different about Australian labeling laws by law, supplements made in Australia, manufactured in Australia, are required to list the elemental amount of a nutrient that you are getting. So if you are purchasing a bottle of 500 milligram magnesium glycinate. If you turn that bottle over and you look at the label, they are required by law to tell you how much elemental magnesium you are getting in every single dose. So maybe it's a 500 milligram magnesium glycinate, but you turn over the bottle and they say, well, you'd have to take five capsules to get 500 milligrams, because there's only 100 milligrams of magnesium in each capsule. So like I said, it's complicated and nuanced and layered.

Sally-Anne Kearns  50:05  
It's so is and we, you know, it's something that people think that they're doing right, you know, because they speak to someone else, and someone else says, I've had a shift with this problem, with this nutrient, and they think that they're doing the right thing for their body. And I just, I don't know, I feel as though, the education that you're providing. It's so niche and it's so needed, like people need to be having these conversations with with other humans, so that other humans can make an informed decision about, am I going to spend that 80 bucks on this magnesium that I may or may not be getting because of the elemental constituents? But yeah, and is it actually worth it, or could I just really slow my game down, make sure that I'm plating up properly, focusing on getting into a parasympathetic state and actually working to chew my food as I was designed to do, and ingesting and digesting. And it makes me really excited about nutrition as a standalone which I always was. But I think when we first move out of using a pharmaceutical drug into using nutraceuticals or therapeutic nutrients, we start to, you know, we're looking for. The next thing

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  51:25  
you know, like it's a habit speaking the game of the supplement industry, which is always looking for the next thing. So yes, but please keep going, because I

Sally-Anne Kearns  51:35  
love where you're going with this. So I just kind of figured that, you know, you get off your you potentially remove yourself from pharmaceuticals, and then you go into therapeutic nutrients, and then, you know, you're looking for the next thing, whether or not it's injecting peptides or wherever people are going, they're constantly kind of seeking, how do I, you know? Is it a big one that I every time I hear it, it's like the parasite cleanse, you know? And I'm just like,

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  52:01  
Oh, you are literally speaking my language colleague. Because, okay, when I was going through my comprehensive supplement education, what I was also doing at the same time is that I was a health and wellness consultant, and I was working with hundreds of people every week who were coming to me and looking for advice and recommendations on what supplements to take and why, and I cannot count the number of people every single week that I would have to talk out of not just parasite cleanses, but cleanses in general, because I would be like, Okay, first of all, detox is never the First step. You are literally putting such a load and a burden on your body that your body probably isn't ready for you want to know how to really detox, clean up your diet, drink enough water like that's literally all you have to do, and it's a big reason why I don't know if the whole 30 program ever got really big over Australia, like it did

Sally-Anne Kearns  53:10  
in the United States? No, I mean, there was a season, but you know, you it's flee. It was, I feel like it was fleeting,

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  53:19  
yes, because it it changed from what it was originally, which was very good, because originally, what it was is it was giving people like a 30 day food based detox, where they were saying, Only eat 100% real foods that have not been processed in any way. Like they were even saying, don't eat dried foods, like no jerky, no dried fruits, you know, eat fresh, whole foods. And that was what they told people to do for a month, and people were having huge results just from doing that. And the reason why is because it's literally a detox to eat clean or just to eat normal food that it was designed.

Sally-Anne Kearns  54:18  
It sounds so silly when you say that, like, wow, news flash, mic drop, you know. But I feel as though I could certainly talk to you for hours, but I'm mindful of our timeline, and I guess the thing that I'm would love to understand from you, is there any sort of key discussion? Do you want to discuss, any key new developments in your program or products, or just something that you're excited about this year,

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  54:44  
or the two might be related? Yeah, I can tell people that I'm very happy and excited to tell people that this is something that I've been working on for a while, because I really want this information about supplement quality and effectiveness to be in as many hands around the world as possible. So I'm actually working on converting the information in my supplement quality Specialist Certification Course for health professionals into a book for consumers, so that anyone, no matter where you are in the world, you can get it. The one caveat is that at first it will probably just be in English, because, you know, that's the language that I speak, but if there is enough popularity, who knows what's going to happen, maybe it will be translated into other language that would be like a dream come true, but that, that is what I'm working on right now. I'm working on putting it into book forms that I can get it into as many hands as possible, because what's most important to me is empowering people to make informed choices about supplements.

Sally-Anne Kearns  55:56  
That is, I got the full fruit tingles all over my body, then around, just confirmation around how exciting that is, and I know for a fact that that will become a staple on a lot of practitioners desks, just in terms of informing people and even the general public, like there's no reason why somebody couldn't pick up a resource exactly like that and just be like, You know what? I want to educate myself a little bit more around some of these nuanced changes in different in different parts of the world, and how to feel empowered, you know, just like you do with reading a food label. So how do people find you? How do they how do they

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  56:34  
find you? I did want to speak really quickly to what you were just saying, though, about consumers using that book as a resource, because, as you and I both know, supplements are becoming so popular and such big business that there are more and more health practitioners who are starting to recommend or prescribe them, even though they don't know diddly about supplements, which really is so irresponsible and entirely other topic. However, the reason why I am a big reason why I'm creating this book is because I want to empower consumers so that whenever a health practitioner that you are working with recommends a supplement, you can cross check the information of the supplement label in the book to be able to ask your health practitioner the hard questions about, why are you recommending this to me? Because, did you know this, that and the other thing about this, I do not want to take this. You need to find me a better product and help teach health practitioners who are recommending supplements that there is so much more to know about supplements than just recommending something because you've heard it's good,

Sally-Anne Kearns  57:49  
powerful, like, I cannot wait for that layer of accountability when my first client says, Why are you recommending this? And and then wow your copy of the book, and

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  58:05  
I know it's high quality and effective, because I've done my research, I've done my due diligence as a practitioner to know that this is safe and effective for you, and that's what I think any health practitioner or health professional who makes supplement recommendations should be doing. It's literally the bare minimum,

Sally-Anne Kearns  58:28  
isn't it? I would have thought so. However, it's continuously surprising me where the benchmark actually is in terms of, you know, practical information. So I'm so excited about that, and you've you've definitely given me so much to think about in just such a compassionate and empathetic way. I love how you show up in the world. I'm really blessed that you've given this time to me. And I just love that you've, you're fulfilling this, this, this part of the market, because it's something that's so, so paramount to the health of humanity, and even more so as these marketing giants just get bigger and bigger and bigger. So where do people find you? How do they follow the path of this book and how do they follow what you're doing?

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  59:17  
Good question. Okay, so you can find me at www dot the supplement academy.com, and on there, you can sign up for a newsletter. I've got blog posts that you can read. I do try to send the newsletter out weekly or monthly. It depends on my bandwidth. So if you sign up for the newsletter and you're like, Wow, I'm not getting anything. Just be patient. I swear to you, it will come. But it really is dependent on my bandwidth, and that varies because I am a one person business, doing this all myself. So thank you for your patience. If you sign up for that, you can also find me on social media. My handle is Kate Mahoney, NTP, I believe I'll probably share that with you, I assume Sally, so that people can go ahead and forgive me, sometimes on some platforms, very rarely. But for example, on LinkedIn and Instagram. I think there is a the supplement Academy platform there as well. So there you go. Thank you. You can find me excellent Kate Mahoney.

Sally-Anne Kearns  1:00:33  
NTP, okay, fantastic. So exciting. I can't wait to get my get a copy of this book. Take my money. Woman, take my money. Thank you. Gotta get it finished. Thank you so much.

Kate Mahoney | SA Founder  1:00:46  
You're very welcome. It was been wonderful, and it's been an honor to be able to connect with you. Thank you so much. Sally Anne for being a great host.



Transcribed by https://otter.ai