5 things SA's supplement industry must fix before making another capsule

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I spend a significant amount of time in my practice untangling what patients believe about their health from what the evidence actually says.

And nowhere is that gap wider — or more commercially engineered — than in the supplement space.

Supplements are genuinely useful tools. I prescribe them. I believe in them.

But the industry has quietly shifted its language from supportive to solution — and that shift is costing patients their time, their money, and in some cases, their health.

South Africa's dietary supplement market tells its own story here.

It grew 9% year-on-year between 2023 and 2024 and is projected to nearly double in size by 2030.

Dis-Chem reported 8% revenue growth in 2025, driven substantially by supplement sales.

Walk the health aisle of any pharmacy, and you will see the evidence: more products, more promises, more claims.

Supplements have moved from occasional purchase to daily ritual — and that ritual, for many South Africans, is now as automatic as a morning coffee.

Feeding the human desire for a shortcut is not building a healthier society. It is building a more dependent and more confused one.

The ritual is not the problem. The misinformation woven through it is.

Here are five things the supplement industry can — and must — do right now.

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1. Reposition supplements as support, not salvation

The word supplement is not an accident. It means to add to something that already exists — to support a foundation, not replace one.

Yet marketing has steadily repositioned supplements as the missing link to fatigue, weight gain, hormonal imbalance, and everything in between.

The actual foundations of health are not in a capsule.

They are improving sleep quality, optimising protein and fibre intake, resistance training, hormone optimisation, and the lifestyle principles most of us have known since childhood.

The highest-impact interventions are not new — they are just less profitable to sell.

South Africa's fastest-growing supplement segments — proteins, amino acids, and plant-based formulations — reflect a population that is genuinely trying to invest in their health.

That instinct deserves to be met with honesty, not with products overpromising results that only lifestyle change can deliver.

This same misdirection has crept into skincare.

Women in perimenopause and menopause face specific hormonal, structural, and barrier changes in their skin that require targeted, evidence-based formulations — not generic anti-ageing copy that ignores the biology entirely.

The supplement and skincare industries share the same original sin: positioning a supporting cast as the lead actor.

Supplements should be placed back where they belong: in a supporting role, not a starring one.

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2. Commit to precise, ethical language

There is a meaningful clinical and legal distinction between “supports normal immune function” and “prevents infection”. Between “supports hormonal balance” and “treats menopause”.

Those distinctions are not fine print. They are the difference between honest communication and misleading a patient.

Consumers deserve hope. They do not deserve false certainty.

And yet the supplement industry has spent years using language that edges toward disease claims without the clinical evidence to support them.

In the South African context — where access to specialist medical care is uneven and patients frequently self-prescribe — this is not a minor ethical concern. It is a public health issue.

When a product claims to “rebalance hormones” or “reverse ageing” without a shred of peer-reviewed evidence, it is not empowering the consumer.

It is standing between her and the actual medical support she may need.

For women navigating perimenopause in particular, where hormonal changes are real, measurable, and clinically addressable, vague wellness language causes genuine harm.

Precision in language is not a regulatory inconvenience. It is an ethical responsibility.

3. Disclose the full picture behind every clinical claim

I am a strong advocate for clinical evidence. But “clinically studied” has become a marketing phrase rather than a meaningful standard — and that is a problem.

When a supplement makes an efficacy claim, consumers deserve the full context.

Was the study conducted on an isolated ingredient or the complete formulation? Were the subjects mice or humans? How long did the study run, and at what dosage?

What level of evidence did it meet — a randomised controlled trial, a mechanistic study, or expert opinion?

These are not the same things. Expert opinion and promising mechanistic data are valuable starting points for research. They are not proof of clinical efficacy.

There is a significant difference between a compelling hypothesis and a well-powered, peer-reviewed, randomised controlled trial.

Consumers should not have to hold a medical degree to understand what a brand is actually claiming.

South Africa's supplement market is also shaped by social media influence — the same global trend driving product discovery through influencer content rather than clinical guidance.

The antidote is not more regulation alone. It is brands committing to transparency that are clear enough to be understood without a degree, and honest enough to withstand medical scrutiny.

The daily ritual many South Africans have built around their health — morning supplements, evening protocols — is built on trust. What sits inside that ritual must earn it.

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4. Make third-party quality testing the entry standard, not a premium feature

Quality should not be a buzzword. When a person is ingesting something daily, the expectation that it contains what it says it contains — and nothing it does not — is the baseline. Not a premium.

South Africa's regulatory environment has begun to address this: the Department of Health's 2024 foodstuff additive regulations, developed under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, introduced new standards for supplement formulations.

But regulation moves slowly. The industry must not wait for it.

Routine third-party testing — contaminant screening, heavy metal analysis, microbial testing — should be a prerequisite for market entry, not a differentiating claim on premium packaging.

This becomes especially critical for products that may contain banned or undisclosed substances, where the consequences of poor oversight extend well beyond a disappointing result.

The industry has spent years using 'quality' as a selling point. It is time to treat it as the ethical floor it should always have been.

For the South African consumer investing an increasingly significant portion of disposable income into their daily health routine, this is not an abstract demand. It is a reasonable expectation that the industry has not yet universally met.

5. Be honest about limits — and earn trust by saying so

The brands I trust most are not the ones making the biggest promises. They are the ones with the integrity to say: We are not the answer, but we are part of the support system.

That level of honesty is not a weakness in a marketing strategy.

It is the foundation of long-term consumer trust. Patients are more informed, more sceptical, and more exhausted by overclaiming than the industry seems to realise.

South Africa's supplement consumer is increasingly health-literate and value-conscious.

With a market growing at nearly 10% annually, the brands that build credibility now — through honest claims, transparent evidence, and real clinical grounding — will be the ones that endure.

The brands chasing short-term sales through inflated promises are building on sand.

The women in my practice navigating midlife — managing energy, skin, sleep, cognition, body composition through perimenopause and beyond — are not looking for miracles.

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They are looking for straight answers. They want to know what will genuinely help, what is overhyped, and who they can trust. They deserve both: practitioners and brands honest enough to tell them the difference.

A better-regulated supplement market, with mandatory third-party testing and honest efficacy language, is not a threat to the industry.

It is the path to the credibility the industry has been trying to buy with marketing spend for years.

The brands that get there first will not just be trusted — they will be indispensable.

Build the daily ritual on something real. That is the only version of this story that ends well for anyone.