An American Revelation: Nutritional Supplements – Not All Are Created Equally


By: Summer McAllister, ND and Ann Aresco, ND I


n the last few weeks, the New York State Attorney General issued cease and desist letters to GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart, requiring them to pull store-brand nutritional supplements from their shelves (specifi cally herbals), based on the results of DNA testing of the ingredients. The products tested included Echinacea, garlic, ginkgo, ginseng, saw palmetto, St. John’s Wort and valerian.


Shopping for supplements can be an overwhelming experience.


Every grocery store, box store and chain has aisles of supplements, herbs and vitamins overfl owing from their shelves. How do you pick what you need? Many people feel comfortable with familiar com- pany brands, generic store brands, or names they’ve heard on TV ads. Price is also a factor in buying decisions. This is why so many consumers assumed that they could trust their neighborhood Target or pharmacy. But unless you have a specifi c recommendation from a health care provider, it becomes a game of luck to pick a supple- ment that will be useful.


When purchasing a supplement, there are three properties to


check for: purity, potency and third-party quality testing. Purity


Good quality supplements don’t have dyes, fi llers, glues,


artifi cial sugars, and hydrogenated oils. Some manufacturers add these ingredients to keep production costs down, but unfortu- nately they can be a source of allergies for people. Most people are trying to avoid these fi llers in their diet—they certainly don’t want to fi nd them in a supplement they’re consuming to improve their overall health.


Potency We expect that the supplement we’re purchasing will actu- ally help the health condition that we’re looking to improve. Many supplement companies have found that marketing campaigns are much cheaper than using good quality ingredients. Manufactur- ers may use forms of the nutrient that are old, inactive or poorly absorbable, in efforts to make a cheaper product. The most common tactic among less-savory brands is to use a low dose of a particular nutrient per capsule. Sometimes the dose is so low that if you added up the total milligrams in the whole bottle, you still would not get what you actually need.


30 Essential Living Maine ~ May/June 2015


Third Party Quality Testing Product testing conducted by an outside, reliable source can ensure the quality of the product and also the consistency of ethical manufacturing practices. Supplements should be tested for heavy metals, pesticides and the bioavailability of the herb, vitamin or supplement.


How to Purchase Quality Supplements Where you purchase your supplements is important. Recent re-


ports have shown that many websites sell counterfeit products with labels that appear to be authentic, but with a different product.


A patient here at ProNatural Physicians Group recently refi lled a supplement online after having purchased the original product from our offi ce. She noticed that while the original product was a capsule with a white powder, the one she bought online was a capsule with black “gook” in it. This is very dangerous—never take a supplement if you don’t know for certain where it came from. Even large sites like Amazon are not supplement companies; they simply list items on their site and orders are sent all over the world to be fi lled and sent to the customer. You truly have no way of know- ing where the supplements came from. Most legitimate supplement vendors do not sell through these websites.


Another factor to be aware of is that some retailers do not store


heat-sensitive supplements at appropriate temperatures, so the prod- uct becomes inactive.


The safest way to ensure that you are taking a quality product


is to have specifi c recommendations from a trusted healthcare pro- vider such as your Naturopathic Physician. It is best to seek advice from an ND who specializes in using natural therapies as medicine, as they have the most up-to-date information about which supple- ments are worth your time and money. Your healthcare provider can recommend the best supplements, herbs or vitamins that will be designed for your unique health concerns, saving you from wasting money on products that aren’t appropriate.


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