Quality resources are needed to meet specific health needs. Unfortunately, consumers face major quality issues.
Some nutritional supplement laboratories extract the active ingredients from herbs and other nutritional products, so they can concentrate these ingredients in their products. The remainder of the herb or food source is not discarded – it is often sold to other supplement producers. Although you do not know it, a label may be accurate that its composition is 100% of the product described on the label, but it does not contain 100% of the product.
A person may have poor results with St. John’s Wort or some other supplement, because they tried using a product from which the active ingredients had been removed, or made of poor quality herb.
Supplements with active ingredients removed are sometimes cheap and all too easy to find, despite attractive packaging. Poor quality supplements are commonly on store shelves, often used in multilevel products, and hyped by many health newsletters. The fact of the matter may be hard to determine. Quality herbal products generally have potency of the active ingredients on the label.
Another issue is about quality health information. Our reading of recent scientific studies is that the longevity folks were wrong about taking large amounts of synthetic vitamins for long periods of time – as wrong as the American Heart Association when they told everyone to eat margarine for their heart health. (Trans fatty acids such as in margarine are now illegal to serve in New York City restaurants.)
Taking large amounts of synthetic vitamins for a long time may be detrimental to health. Such usage can deplete the body of cofactors needed to process these vitamins. Some minerals should not be taken excessively. Nutritional and herbal preparations may have contraindications. Product labels should be read and followed. If taking medications, the prescribing physician should be informed of intended supplement use. One should take what their body needs, and not what they do not need.
We strive to give you access to quality products, and quality information. We attempt to help you find resources, including food supplements, that are right for you.