What's Actually Worth Buying in the Supplement Aisle
GlowLab with Susan Yara
In this episode of GlowLab with Susan Yara, co-founder and CEO Siff Haider from wellness brand Arrae shares expert insights on navigating th
Key takeaways
- Promising multiple health benefits or miracle results is a major red flag for unreliable supplement brands.
- Regulatory standards vary by country—Canada has stricter regulations compared to the unregulated U.S. market.
Main topics
- Red flags in supplement marketing
- Regulatory differences between countries
Notable quotes
"Promising everything—like making your hair go from gray to black—is a huge red flag."
"The more brands there are, the more curious people get. I'm happy about that."
Conclusion
Consumers should approach supplements with intention and education, focusing on
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) What are some like red flags that you might that a consumer might notice about a supplement brand since there are so many to choose Speaker 1 (0:06) from? Okay, Speaker 2 (0:06) I love this question. Speaker 1 (0:07) I think promising everything. Okay, like this is going to do every single thing. It's going to solve your immune problems. It's going to make you skinnier. It's going to make you like your hair go from gray to black. Like, you know what I mean? Like, obviously, I'm exaggerating. But like, I think promising, over-promising too much, not being able to substantiate why they're using what ingredients they're using. A good brand, if you reach out, should be able to give you answers. If you're getting no response, you know, there's just like crickets, you're not being able to understand why they're using what they're using. I think that those are all red flags. Welcome Speaker 2 (0:47) to Glow Lab. Speaker 1 (0:48) We're going to Speaker 2 (0:48) have a lot Speaker 1 (0:48) of Speaker 2 (0:48) fun Speaker 1 (0:48) and Speaker 2 (0:49) learn a lot Speaker 1 (0:49) together. Speaker 2 (0:51) The supplement industry has completely exploded and I feel like I am so lost these days. I have so many supplements. And I don't know which ones are actually working. And I don't know which ones are really the ones that I should be consuming and buying all the time besides the ones that the medical professionals tell me I have to take. So for today's episode, I decided to bring in Sif Hyder. She is the co-founder and CEO of the wellness brand Array, which happens to be one of my favorite supplement brands. And she's going to tell us all of the things that go into the supplements that she's making and what you should be looking for as the consumer. Speaker 1 (1:21) Okay. First off, you know, I'm a big fan. I was just telling Speaker 2 (1:24) her all the different Array products that I carry with me, that I'm using, that I love. But I'm so excited to have you here. I'm so excited. I mean, we're both like fans of each other, each other's brands. And so it's, this is going to be such a fun conversation. So, you know, I think the supplement industry is really interesting because now there are so many brands out there and you know like you see people online showing all these like different supplements and stuff especially on tick tock and it's hard to say what is actually good and what is not. Have you learned a lot in the process of building Speaker 1 (1:57) your own brand? For sure. You know, when we started Array, it was 2020. There were very few brands. I also feel like almost like the barrier to entry was a little bit harder. We invested a lot of our own money to start our brand. We're also Canadian. So the laws are very different there. Like you can't just start. a supplement brand without anything like it's regulated there. Wait, I don't actually think I realize that. So you started in Canada. Yeah. So we're Canadian. We literally started it out of our apartment in Toronto. And in Canada, the supplement industry is regulated under Natural Health Canada. And so you can't just come up with a supplement and la-di-da. Like there's you have to go through the regulatory process. You have to have your claim substantiated. And so. our experience of entering this world was different and i think even brands based in the us will probably say that because obviously as time has gone by the industry has exploded and you know there's now a lot of let's just say interesting brands saying interesting things and the barrier to entry is a lot lower as much as i love tick tock shop as an example love it but at the same time there's also a lot of crop out there yeah i mean did Speaker 2 (3:08) you find there was a difference when you decided to start selling in the us for sure i mean it's Speaker 1 (3:12) it's an unregulated industry which is It's interesting for us, of course, like, you know, as a Canadian brand, like we sell in both places. So we do have to uphold standards like we can't just say what we want. We can't just do what we want because we sell across both both sites, essentially. So, I mean, coming into the US, it was just kind of shocking how. easy it was for people to get started in this industry i think it falls a lot on the consumer to make sure they're doing their research here i will say however that as the supplement industry has grown so has the education that's available to the consumer and so the same way that you know as skin care grew i feel like the consumer started to get a lot more educated just because there were more brands more options and i feel like the more there is the more curious people get i am really happy about that because i think that the industry now You know, if there were just three brands that existed, I think there would be less people in the world taking supplements and believing in the power of like just wellness from within, which I mean, it changed my life, which is why I'm in the industry that I'm in. Speaker 2 (4:17) And Speaker 1 (4:17) so I'm happy that there's been a proliferation of brands and that consumers are getting more curious in order to make sure they're making the right decisions. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:25) I love that. I mean, are there things that people should. Speaker 1 (4:28) look for when they're buying their supplements? Personalization is very key, right? I mean, I've always seen such parallels between the skincare and the supplement world, whereby the options that are available to you are infinite. But I think it's up to you to understand what you really want to work on, right? So for example, with skin, if your concern is dark spots you shouldn't necessarily be buying an acne treatment if you don't really need it you know or you don't need a 30-step skincare routine it's literally the same in the supplement world as well in the wellness world you don't need to take 50 supplements if you don't have all of those problems that you're wanting to address you know so i think when it comes to like you know what you should be looking for It's getting really clear about what it is you are wanting to solve and then going into the research on, okay, what do I really need for this? Because for example, if you have gut health issues, then let's focus on getting that clear before you then introduce 600 more supplements. So it really is getting clear about what you need. You can also, of course, work with a provider, get your blood work done if you want to go down that path as well. And you can get as detailed as you really want. But I really do believe that you don't need everything under the sun. I am someone who is like surprising, but it's true. I am more of a minimalist when it comes to what I'm taking. Of course, I'm like very particular, but I'm taking those things particularly because I know what I want to solve. Speaker 2 (6:00) Right, for sure. I mean, I tell everybody whenever I'm about to start taking a supplement, I do my labs to see if I even need that supplement because otherwise it's just not going to be effective. It's not going to do anything at the very least, right? It's not going to do anything for you. you also it could do something you have some kind of an adverse reaction if you're not seeing what's going on in your body in the first place right sure Speaker 1 (6:22) and then also i think that there is a thing to be said about cycling on and off things as well you know you don't necessarily need to be taking every single thing for the rest of your life i think you can cycle on and off and that's why i think labs are really useful just as an example i just tend to run really low with my vitamin d levels this is obviously something that happens to most people so i will say that vitamin D, D3K2 is like something that most people do need to be taking. However, once I've been taking like higher doses and like things start to normalize for me and my labs look really good, then maybe I'll take a break for a few weeks before I come back to it. You know what I mean? So I think. If you have access to labs and now, you know, there's so many different things that are available to people like Function. Dr. Mark Hyman started that where you can get your labs done very easily. I feel like we should be utilizing these things because especially if you are really into biohacking and like increasing your health span, we should be making use of these things that we have available to us in order to make sure that we are spending our money in the right way. I agree completely. Speaker 2 (7:27) And I actually have Speaker 1 (7:27) spoken to some Speaker 2 (7:28) CMs in the supplement world. Not that I'm not at all trying to make any supplements whatsoever. And I remember finding it to be a little bit more. almost frustrating than the skincare industry because the skincare industry you can truly come with like innovation like you can come to them with your own formula and be like I need to show you how to make this and we basically call that a tech transfer where we're taking our formula and saying this is how you make this right and you can also work with like these contract manufacturers to create something that's completely new. Whereas I felt like a few years ago with these contract manufacturers for supplements, they only did things in one way. Like if you wanted to release like a bloat supplement. here are your options and that's it. Right. And so how have you kind of gone through this process, like trying to make things that feel really Speaker 1 (8:14) innovative? Because I feel like your products are. So we have always from the beginning of our brand, always owned our own formulation. So we will categorically not work with a contract manufacturer who cannot work with our specs, because I think that first and foremost, from like an innovation perspective and just catering to. a consumer you want to be innovative you want to do something that's not been done before and then just from like a business perspective and i'll like me as a founder the reason i got into it is because i wanted to do things differently it's because i wanted to solve problems and frankly speaking formulas that are available with a contract manufacturer that's being kind of regurgitated by every single brand in different packaging. I don't think that that leads to any kind of longevity for a brand. From a business perspective as well, if you want to build a successful brand,