Know What You're Getting

How do you pick your supplements? Do you ask the store clerk which brands are "good?"
Do you get recommendations from friends? Or do you buy based on price? All of these methods are common
but may not be the best way to ensure that the ingredients listed on your supplements label are actually in the supplement!
What's that you say? Yes, it's true, ingredient labels are not a guarantee that the level of a certain vitamin or mineral say, is accurate. I would like to think that certain brands can be counted as reliable, alas, that's also not true.
What to do? I recommend a testing lab called Consumer Labs.
Their mission is: to identify the best qulaity health and nutrition products through independent testing. You can learn about how they test and how they remain independent by going to their website. I have used them for years and been surprised over and over again when a well respected company falls short of their stated ingredients. Or something toxic, like lead, is found in higher than acceptable levels as was the case with a supplement put out by Dr. Andrew Weil. Yes even the mighty are fallible.

There is a great report on the home page called, "What Are "Inactive Ingredients?" More than 70 Compounds and Why They Are in Supps. And another one I'm going to read, "Key Ingredients Missing in Many Arthritis Supplements."
For $27 a year you have access to all the reports they generate on the supps they test. This is a small price to pay in light of the cost of taking supplements for optimal health. You can also buy individual reports if you don't want ongoing access. You also learn about the individual supplement or ingredient you are interested in.

Here is a bit of insight you can use gleaned from my reading of more than 20 of their reviews. Puritan's Pride consistently gets high marks for providing the amounts of ingredients they promise. I cannot vouch for their formulations--i.e is the amount in each tab or capsule enough to make a difference or support your health--but if you figure out what your body needs and you can find it in their products I say buy it. They are inexpensive and may be just as good as some of the name brands.
To your health!

Comments

[diet suppliments]

This is a great report on diet supplements.