Most dietary supplements are useless, but here are the ones you should take

Every year, supplements send roughly 20,000 people to the emergency room.

Last year, the world's largest dietary supplement maker, GNC Holdings Inc, agreed to pay $2.25 million to avoid federal prosecution over its alleged sale of illegal pills and powders.

And the Food and Drug Administration has ordered the makers of several supplements to recall their products after scientists found traces of illegal and potentially dangerous molecules in their formulas.

Still, while many supplements are useless, there are others that we can't enough of simply by eating a healthy diet.

So here are the supplements you should take — and the ones to avoid.

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Protein powder: Skip it — eat beans, tofu, nuts, fish, or meat instead.

Marketed as necessary for weight gain and muscle building, protein is one of the best-selling supplements in the US.

Protein is good for you — it helps build muscles — but most Americans get plenty in their diets. In fact, most of us get too much. Meat, fish, beans, tofu, and nuts are rich in protein. Plus, numerous companies have been accused of spiking their protein powders with cheap fillers — another reason to avoid the powdered stuff.

Homeopathic remedies: Skip them — they don't work.

Advocates of homeopathy — which involves diluting an active ingredient until there's no measurable quantity left — claim that the treatments can do everything from relieve colds to calm anxious pets.

But homeopathy hasrepeatedly been shown to be ineffective. A2005 study published in the medical journal The Lancet found the approach was roughly as effective as a placebo.

Workout boosters like Jack3d or OxyElite Pro: Skip them — they've been linked to illness and at least one death.

For years, the makers of these supplements, whose active ingredient is dimethylamylamine (DMAA), claimed that they increased speed, strength, and endurance.

But in 2011, after two soldiers who used Jack3d died, the US Department of Defense removed all products containing DMAA from stores on military bases. A 2015 indictment against Dallas company USPlabs, which makes OxyElite Pro, accused the company of falsely claiming that its product was made of natural plant extracts. In reality, it contained synthetic stimulants made in China. The indictment also claimed that the use of OxyElite led to several liver injuries and at least one death.