A Canadian study has found that staff in health food stores routinely give advice aimed at selling expensive supplements instead of supporting the health of the consumer.

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, was conducted by Athabasca University between 2002 and 2008.

University students visited 192 health food stores and 56 pharmacies across Canada seeking advice on supplements and specific medical conditions.

In 88 per cent of cases the health food stores provided advice that was either unscientific or poorly supported by science.

"When people go into health food stores and ask for advice on dietary supplements in the great majority of times they're going to get misleading advice to lead them to buy expensive and unnecessary supplements," said Norman Temple, the lead author of the study.

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