India’s Supplement Frenzy: Health Fix Or Just Hype?
12 Sept 2025 6:20 AM IST
Description: India’s supplement industry is booming right now. Conservative estimates say that this industry is growing at a CAGR of 11%, but some experts even place its growth rate at 16-18%.
Supplements as a concept isn’t new, but what is new is that new-age brands are packaging their products in a stylish way. Rather than selling straight up tablets, they sell effervescent tablets, gummies and even multivitamin ice-creams, for instance. Moreover, they’re also leveraging social media and are marketing their products using influencers.
So, should you invest in these premium supplements?
In the latest episode of The Signal Daily, we’ll hear from consumers, doctors and industry people on what’s behind this boom. Do you really need these supplements? And if yes, which ones are worth it—and which ones aren’t?
The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].
—
TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): Tanya is 29 and works as a research archivist in Bengaluru. She’s been on and off supplements for a few years — Vitamin D, B complex, multivitamin gummies. Most recently, she added iron gummies to the mix.
Tanya: I just got like a packet of iron gummies, like maybe last week. I could just feel that I was feeling really tired. Mm. Because of like, like I've just, you know, moved to a new city.
I'm just working eight hours a day, the commute and the chores, and I could just feel myself being like a little. Extra tired, but then I wouldn't like, yeah. Then I wouldn't say like, I'm even regular right now, like I'm taking one every two or three days when I remember.
Kudrat (Host): Tanya said that while choosing what brand to get, she goes for the most affordable one. Beyond that, she doesn’t do much research. She also told The Signal Daily that the only supplement she has seen clear results with is magnesium, which improved her sleep.
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll learn about India’s booming supplement market. Do you really need these pills and powders? And if yes, which ones are worth it—and which ones aren’t?
Kudrat (Host): Before the 1950s, the average Indian diet consisted of more fruits, vegetables, and millets. But by the 60s, India was struggling — food scarcity, droughts, a fast-growing population, low productivity. Enter, the Green Revolution. High-yield seeds, fertilisers, and irrigation: all of which boosted wheat and rice output, and saved the country from famine.
But there was a trade-off. We filled bellies, but lost nutrient diversity. We’re seeing the effects of that today. Even with more food available than ever before, micronutrient gaps are common. A 2024 PubMed study found that 57% of Indian women aged 15-49 are anaemic, and that’s in part because of our poor dietary intake of essential micronutrients like iron. An older study from 2021 by the ICMR, or the Indian Council of Medical Research, found that Indian households across income groups and in both urban and rural contexts lack calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin D and iodine.
Since COVID, however, urban Indians have become more health-conscious. With higher disposable incomes, many are willing to spend on nutraceuticals — foods or food products meant to boost health. Think iron-fortified atta, ashwagandha capsules, or biotin gummies.
Search data backs this up: a report by marketing agency Numerator found that queries for Vitamin B12-rich foods, melatonin, and collagen supplements all rose sharply in the past year.
India’s supplement market in India is booming. Conservative estimates say that this industry is growing at a CAGR of 11%, and will be worth 11 billion dollars by 2027. But some experts even place its growth rate at 16-18% and say that this market will double in size in the next five years.
Traditionally, supplements came from pharma companies via doctor prescriptions. But now, slick new-age brands are everywhere. They market effervescent tablets, gummies, even multivitamin ice-creams — often through influencers and celebrities. And you can order them instantly on Blinkit or Zepto.
Now, these new-age brands are also much more expensive. While a strip of Limcee with 12 tablets costs just 24 rupees, a SteadC tube of 20 effervescent Vitamin C tablets costs 400 rupees. And 400 rupees is actually on the cheaper end for these newer brands.
Supplement companies say that their products are more expensive because their ingredient quality is better and also because their stuff is more bioavailable, meaning your body will digest it better.
The Signal Daily spoke to Mugdha Pradhan, a functional nutritionist and the founder of iThrive, a holistic health company. Her company also makes supplements.
Mugdha: So what happens is, uh, what you would get in a typical chemist shop, let's say you look at a BO zinc, or you look at a zinc-covid.
Technically these are still nutraceuticals, right? They're, they're nutritional, uh, capsules of pills.
They're, they're nutritional, uh, capsules of pills. But the form that's there in those is not the most bioavailable one.
in the sense that your body can't really absorb them to its fullest capacity. Second, they often have a lot of excipients or a lot of additives like color and something like binders and fillers.
And third, the dosage is also very weird. Like they're not really the dosages you need, or sometimes it's a very high dose, but it's not the right form. So it really is mixed messaging for your body and it doesn't fulfill the need that your body truly has for good quality nutrition.
Kudrat (Host): Although new-age nutraceutical companies argue their products are more bioavailable and of better quality, doctors say that that’s an open question – more on that later.
One thing that’s definitely true is that the products these newer companies sell are quite stylish. For example, rather than selling straight up tablets, they sell effervescent tablets, gummies and even multivitamin ice-creams.
Arjun: There's a different sort of powder forms and like chewables and I think there's like, yeah. Uh, oral strips that people can put in their mouths. There are some, I saw some shark tank brands that just apply it externally on your skin and I don't know what the evidence is on that, but apparently, uh, you don't even need to ingest it orally.
just this like sort of coolness factor on supplementation these days, right? Yeah. For better or worse. And so like consumers want to be choosing fancy brands that help them sort of signal to their friends or sort of, I don't know, post on social media.
Kudrat (Host): That was Arjun Anjaria, the founder of Unbox Health, an unbiased lab-tested ratings platform for popular food items and supplements. Arjun told The Signal Daily that while the FSSAI, that’s the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, has solid guidelines in place for supplement companies, there’s a gap in enforcement. FSSAI just has too much on its plate. Arjun said that private players like Unbox are trying to fulfill that unmet consumer need.
Unbox tests items on three things: 1) Label Accuracy Score, meaning how accurately a product’s nutritional label matches what Unbox finds in its lab tests. The second is its non-toxicity score, which shows the amount of toxic metals like mercury in the product. And the third is its nutritional profile. That’s based on both the National Institute of Nutrition and the WHO’s daily recommended guidelines.
Arjun: I think collagens is one that's, we often see a lot of issues in a lot of minerals and vitamins. I think we generally see issues with heavy metal contamination or um, uh, Omega-3 supplements, specifically vegetative Omega-3 supplements.
Right. I think the majority of. Vegetarian. Omega-3 supplements contain almost no Omega-3 from our, uh, assessment. And most Indians don't like to consume, say, fish oil as a source of Omega-3. And so they rely on vegetarian omega threes. And so if you're buying veg Omega threes from the market, chances are you're probably getting, I don't know, vegetable oil or something that's not Omega-3.
Um, protein powders has a higher amount of adulteration and sort of issues in that, in that space. Um, uh, we've seen some issues in the melatonin category as well where some brands didn't quite live up to.
I think herbal supplements is an interesting one where we've seen a lot of issues. Ashwagandha, shilajit. Both in terms of contamination and also in terms of like label accuracy, uh, where just brands just didn't, for instance, if you're selling say, product, it needs to contain pulvic acid up to a certain standard for it to be even considered shilajit and many products just don't contain that.
Kudrat (Host): So, your favourite biotin brand might be selling you something else altogether. Make sure to check Unbox Health. Trustified is another platform that does similar work.
What's interesting is like a lot of, we've all, we've noticed an interesting, um, uh, phenomenon here where often brand reputation does not, is not directly coupled and collated with product quality. And so we've seen a lot of. Brands that have really good reputations that end up with very poor ratings and brands that sometimes have very poor reputations that actually get good ratings.
Kudrat (from clip): Got it. So, um, why do you think that's the case that brands with such a high reputation have a low product quality?
Arjun: Yeah, in many cases, right? Its like you can, um, I mean, a big chunk of their budgets go into marketing, whether it's, um, influencer marketing, performance marketing, um, building the brand, hiring Bollywood, actors, cricketers, whatever it might be to sort of be the face of the product.
Uh, and when a lot of that budget gets pushed into marketing spend, you have less to spend on in the product development and, uh, the R&D and QA side of things.
Kudrat (Host): Let’s be honest—if an influencer or celebrity endorses a supplement, most of us are more likely to buy it. Kashish, another supplement user we spoke to, said that he does his research before buying a supplement. But he admitted that most of his friends don’t. If they see a slick ad on Instagram, they’ll buy the product without a second thought.
Kashish: some, some of the friends or people I know, they will consume anything, uh, without even knowing whether it has any science backing.
Like it goes through. Most of my friends, yeah, if they see a good ad, see a good ad on the Instagram or somewhere, they, and if they have their money, they will just buy it and. That for most people.
Kudrat (Host): Also, if you’re skimping on money by buying cheaper supplements, think again. Arjun said that Unbox has found a positive correlation between cost and quality as well.
Kudrat (from clip): And then, uh, is there a correlation between cost and um, results in your lab test as well? The higher the cost, the better the results.
Arjun: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, um, pretty evident. In fact, one of the things that I did when I was launch, well, building unboxed before we had even launched was I spoke to, uh, several contract manufacturers pretending to be a new brand.
Right. Just to understand sort of that side of the, the brand side of things. Um, and you sort of see it in the menu of offerings that they give you, right? Let's say you call a contract manufacturer and you ask them, uh, tell them that you want to build a, a multivitamin brand or, uh, you wanna launch a brand with a multivitamin product.
Um, they'll offer you sort of a gamut of options, right? Each at different price points and with varying levels of quality. And so you as a brand also have the choice to decide how much you. Paying and sort of, you know, upfront that if you're paying for the, the cheapest option that the manufacturer is offering you, then uh, you are probably gonna be compromising on quality.
Kudrat (Host): So, if you’re gonna be buying a supplement, remember that spending more likely means better quality too.
But here’s the catch: some doctors say you might not need supplements at all. Here’s Dr. Harshad Malve, the medical affairs head at Kevnue, a pharma company, talking about this.
Dr. Harshad: It's all marketing given really now magnesium is available from your routine diet also. Your day to day, you know, if you, if you don't have any illness where you are losing magnesium, uh, out of your, any illness, okay?
Whatever you take from diet is gonna be sufficient. Yeah. All about, it's all about how you package it. And if there are any, any deficiencies in your diet, obviously there are, you know, the combinations of diet, which can be. They can and that should suffice.
Kudrat (Host): Dr. Harshad said that unless a medical doctor specifically prescribes something to you, do not take supplements. Instead, focus on a balanced diet and on getting regular exercise.
Dr. Harshad: Don't take any supplement unless or until advised by your doctor. Okay. Don't start, don't stop. Okay. Both the advisors should be from a, you know, educated, learned doctor. Not a quack. There are a lot of quacks.
There are a lot of, uh, so-called nutritionists. Yeah. And so-called influencers in the market these days.
Yeah. Anybody can give you any shit advice and social media. They call themselves influencers and they're not even qualified. Yeah. Yeah. First of all, you should check what their qualification is. Okay. They're even qualified to talk about this?
Kudrat (Host): That’s also what Dr. Sanjay Kalra, the endocrinologist I mentioned earlier, said.
Dr. Sanjay: We see, um, we see many celebrities now thanks to social media. We see many celebrities and many social influences talking about nutrition, and we see a lot of fancy words, lifestyle, medicine, functional medicine, functional nutrition. I would just suggest that whenever you look at, whenever you want to analyze or whenever you want to assess the degree of any health.
Professional, just see whether that degree is approved by the, uh, national Medical Council or by the Rehabilitation Council of India.
Kudrat (Host): Dr. Harshad also said that while some supplements are safe, certain others might not be.
Dr. Harshad: For example, vitamins.. Yeah, these are water soluble vitamin. Even if you take extra, it's gonna go through urine.
No harm. Yeah, but not all the supplements are like that. Yeah.
Kudrat (from clip): Can you give some examples of supplements that could be dangerous if you take too much or without supervision?
Dr. Harshad: Yeah. So there are, I would say multiple, uh, you know, uh, for example, taking electrolytes without, uh, monitoring of the doctor.
Okay. Okay. Taking, for example, there is a habit of taking a lot of protein, uh, yeah. Supplement, right? Yeah. So, excessive protein is also not good for the body, your, you know, body, the, the body's main to handle X amount of protein. Okay? Okay. So you have to just ensure that. Whatever is taken is taken under the supervision of a learned person.
Dr. Sanjay: In general, we need to follow a balanced diet. So it's so simple. You just need a balanced diet. If you have a vitamin deficiency, a mineral deficiency or protein deficiency, or you are at risk of vitamin mineral or protein deficiency, then we need to take a supplement. The supplement should be medical grade.
We should have a specific dose, and we should be aware how long we have to take it and why we are taking it. So all this. All these answers will come out through communication, through conversation, so to all the healthcare professionals do talk to your patients about what they're taking and what they're not, what their family and friends are taking.
And also to all those of you who consult healthcare professionals, do not hesitate in sharing what you're doing, what you're taking, and ask them if you're on the right track or not.
Kudrat (Host): Like Tanya, a lot of us who care about our health consult Google and think supplements might be the answer. But before you spend thousands, it’s worth checking if you really need them.
Doctors say building a healthy lifestyle – exercising and eating well – is much more important.
There’s a lot of shady companies around–they promise something on their label and deliver something else. If you are gonna buy a supplement, do check out independent platforms that lab-test these products before making your purchase.
Kudrat (Host): That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.
If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected] or you can write to me personally at [email protected].
Thank you for listening.
