Watch out for those supplements you are popping, another startling finding

Just... dang. If these billion-dollar retailers can get ripped off, just think what the online marketers are getting away with.

Well, Just dang....what else can I say. So disappointed that supplements are not tested and just given to us on faith that it is what it says it is...Grrrrr....

Some of them work! I'm a bit Vitamin D deficient and my doctor recommended some products off the supermarket shelves.
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Interesting username Struwwelpeter. I remember that book very well from my childhood. It was read to me in English by my immigrant relatives.

bluebird123 said...
Interesting username Struwwelpeter. I remember that book very well from my childhood. It was read to me in English by my immigrant relatives.

Lived in Frankfurt not far from the Heinrich Hoffman museum, so the family and I used to go there now and then.

When I'm feeling a little too "casual", the wife brings him up. Plus "Hans guck-in-die-Luft" and "Suppen Casper" could have been written about our two sons.

The stories about the little girl getting burned to ash for playing with matchs, and the thumb-sucker getting his thumbs cut off by some psycho tailor, now those were just plain wrong... and 100% German!

Doesn't surprise me one bit. There are so few -real- studies showing any real benefit from off the shelf supplements, and then news like this.....

Eat healthy. Buy a vitamix blender and drink fruits/veggies in a smoothie if that'll make it easier.

Tim G said...
Why isn't Costco listed? Because most of their vitamins have the USP (United States Pharmacopeia) label, meaning that USP has subjected the supplement to rigorous testing and shown it to have the ingredients and amounts it claims to have.

Thanks' Tim G.  I learned something new today! 

USP website LINK:  "USP Verified dietary supplements are products that have been voluntarily submitted to the USP Dietary Supplement Verification Program and have successfully met the program's stringent testing and auditing criteria. The program was established by USP to help dietary supplement manufacturers ensure the production of quality products for consumers."

 

You probably can not really know what is in there. It might even vary by lot from the same manufacturer.

But I say again: on many vitamins and maybe some herbs, Consumer Lab has reported- several times when I have used them over the years- several of these brands to have very close omaybe a bit over to what they claim to have and to be free of contaminates. This includes WM's Spring Valley. And as I also said earlier, WM's Spring Valley Vitamin D(though not an herb) certainly got my blood Vit D levels to the upper end of the range, from the lower. So it may or may not have contaminates, but it sure as heck had a good amount of Vit D in it. So who is right? The New york Atty Gen, or Consumer Lab? Is Consumer Lab a scam? (they might be for all I know) All I can say is that CL was apparently correct to say that Spring Valley Vit D which they got from WM had close to the label amounts of Vit D in it, since it increased my blood levels of Vit D dramatically. I hope it does not turn out that CL is a fraud, but they do seem to conflict with the NY Atty Gen.

Struwwelpeter said...
According to the Washington Post version of the article
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/03/gnc-target-wal-mart-walgreens-accused-of-selling-fake-herbals/)

"The investigators tested 24 products claiming to be seven different types of herb — echinacea, garlic, gingko biloba, ginseng, saw palmetto, St. John’s wort and valerian root. All but five of the products contained DNA that was either unrecognizable or from a plant other than what the product claimed to be."

So, vitamins were not examined, only herbals. Almost certain that the big boxes got ripped off, just like us little people. No time for schadenfreude, since they passed the product on to us.

I wish they would post all the fakers on a "Wall of Shame", since they already saw fit to smear the retailers.

You know, this all just seems a bit far out. I wish I still had my subscription to Consumer Lab(CL), I'd go check the herbals. Though I have paid way more attention to their tests of vitamins, I'm pretty sure I have looked at their tests of herbals and whatever else, just trying to get a good idea, and for the most part most companies have been at least OK. But in these tests 19 out of 24 were crap? I mean, why would big ass companies like WM or GNC allow such a thing to develop and damage their huge profits and sales? I understand that they may have been ripped off by their suppliers, but you would think they would run their own quality control considering what is at stake financially. Plus, WM's supplier, Spring Valley: not only has it tested just fine with CL for many products over many years, but what reason would Spring Valley have to supply junk to WM? Sure, it might increase their profits but at a huge risk for their future.

Ginsing is an herb, right? I just looked back at some notes I took from CL back in 2011. I'm not going to quote exactly to avoid any copy right issues, but Spring Valley was on a list of 10 approved and 4 not approved. For fish oil, Spring Valley was not approved only because it's enteric coating released too soon.

Do Y'all suppose that CL itself is a scam, maybe paid by the companies they are testing?

I do hope that the FDA does indeed got on this and start regulating the vitamin and supplement industry.

It's a shame that people do all possible for their health, and yet it's often for naught. Maybe we need a grass roots campaign

Consumer reports does indeed test supplements. I'm on the verge of renewing with them just to see what kind of results they have found. If both they and Consumer Labs report a good number of companies with mostly good results, then something stinks.

BillyBob@388 said...

Pratoman said...
I do hope that the FDA does indeed got on this and start regulating the vitamin and supplement industry.

It's a shame that people do all possible for their health, and yet it's often for naught. Maybe we need a grass roots campaign

Tip toeing around a response that could be deemed political. Hmmmmmm, very difficult. Oh well, here goes. Frankly, I would not be all that thrilled with the idea of giving the FDA any additional power to regulate my choices. Especially when you consider how many FDA approved drugs later have to be pulled off the market or warnings issued due to harms discovered after FDA has declared them "safe and effective". And do you ever have to just laugh at the craziness of TV drug adds, with the announcer with the calming voice going on endlessly in the background about all the ways the drugs can kill or injure you? As they are trying to get you to ask your doctor for that drug? And all of that is with FDA approval. Hard to see how anything to do with supplements has been more worrisome than that.

I'd lean more towards a free market, consumer oriented approach. If Consumer Lab can not be trusted- and I am not yet sure that they can't be- then what about Consumer Reports? Don't they sometimes check supplements?

Remember Thalidimide? Approved in Europe. Approval denied by FDA.