TEMPLE, Texas — According to The Washington Post, in 2022 Americans spent approximately $35.6 billion on dietary supplements.
That's a lot of money for products that show little, if any, evidence of benefits. And many are not U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approved.
But between gym memberships, supplements, pelotons, treadmills, and home gym equipment, are we spending too much? After all, the older we get, the more that we appreciate the saying, "If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."
Financial Advisor Rolandus 'RoJo' Johnson told 6 News, “As they say in our world, health is wealth. Right? The healthier you are the better things seem to be the older you get."
Just like anything, it is easy to become obsessed and before we know it, we are spending a lot on things that we might not even be using that often.
Johnson says, "Definitely have an allotment of gym going or some kind of exercise routine or nutrients, proteins, different things like that. And it could be one of those things where even in your groceries, you are looking at things like that, and different supplements and things and healthier eating."
Johnson went on to say, that if you want to spend on health items, you'd better have a budget, telling 6 News, "But definitely having some sort of budget or some sort of allotment towards your health, now it can get very costly so maybe replacing the gym with you know one of these local like a digital program that may cost you like $8.99 versus $29.99 a month."
And remember to shop coupons, or buy in bulk to save money.
"You know looking for a generic protein or something like that rather than it being like $60.00 per bottle it's only $15.00 so there's lot of little way so it's going to take some research. But there's still lots of ways to save money there as well."
And a reminder that just feeding ourselves can be very expensive, especially eating healthy.
Johnson says, "And then here's another thing, I think what we don't utilize is YouTube, and using it for your meal-prep guys man you can get on YouTube and there are several like volumes and volumes and you can get ideas for free."
How much of a big business is the supplement industry?
According to "My Protein U.S." the average American will spend 4 thousand dollars on supplements over the course of their lifetime!