If you aren't new to the fitness game, you probably already know this. I was digging through all the case files that have probably been intentionally buried on the internet that involved various independent studies on vitamins available for purchase and keep running into the same issues that is very concerning for me
The worst part is that there really isn't any way to guarantee that a supplement of any sort actually does contain the amount of whatever it says on the bottle.
I always feared that this would be the case because I think that most people are aware of the fact that the supplement industry is not regulated in any way. I am sure that they want to keep it that way as well because they can just say whatever the hell they want on the bottles, put a little star next to it that says something along the lines of "this statement has not been reviewed by the FDA" and well, they can do whatever they want provided they don't say something completely crazy like "this will cure cancer!"
The supplement industry already knows exactly what they can get away with and they do it all the time. The best thing to do is to ignore their adverts and even their store signs such as GNC and just find out what supplement you want and then just go buy those.... Right?
unfortunately the shenanigans don't end there. Time and time again there have been independent groups or even a district attorney's office in NYC that decided to review a great many retail bottles in stores.
This relates to herbal ingredients in this one case that resulted in a lawsuit, but it found that 4 out of 5 brand name supplements contained none or virtually none of the particular thing the bottle claimed
Some countries place restrictions on supplements because of legal this and science that but with vitamins can contain up to 50% more or 20% less of whatever vitamin is listed on the bottle. I guess because it is tough to put an exact amount of whatever into each capsule just like it is tough to put the same amount of blueberries in each muffin (Casino reference.)
But when this was actually followed up in the UK, 3 out of 8 major brands fell well outside of these ranges. In pretty bad situations, these vitamin manufacturers had around 50% of the vitamin on the label and in worst situations it was discovered it contained such a minuscule amount to the point where it may as well not be there at all.
let's also keep in mind that most people will look at a vitamin label and look for the DV (daily value) and just take the bottle of pills word for it. If it says it is giving me 100% of my vitamin B, that's fantastic! But you really should be looking for IU's, mg, or some other metric of the unit because the percentages are always changing and often the supplement industry just makes the percentages up because again, they are mostly not regulated.
For me, I tend to stay away from any herbal trends especially once it was determined the 2013 review done by BMC Medicine Journal found that just 21 percent of 44 bottles from 12 companies contained the DNA from the herbs advertised, and 1/3 of them didn't have the supplements listed on the bottle at all. So what were people buying? Placebos?
The supplement game is a tricky one and unfortunately I can't really find away around it. If anyone out there knows of a genuinely reliable vitamin manufacturer out there please do let me know the name of it so I can look them up and find out if they are legit or not.
In the supplement game, it is all about making money as it is for almost anything else in the world. But imagine taking a B vitamin supplement for years only to one day take a B-vitamin test and finding out you are deficient because the company lied on the bottle. You can't even hold them responsible in the country I live in. You are not legally allowed to expect the company to be telling the truth - which to me is just crazy.
In other cases a supplement company was selling a pre-workout "booster" that claimed to have a plant extract in it, but it actually contained a really long word "methylhexanamine" which is a banned substance in competitive athletics. Imagine the shock of the athletes when they test positive for PED's?
The only way you can really be getting all the vitamins and minerals that you need in a 100% certain way is to get them in their natural form like in the case of meats, fruits, and vegetables. Obviously this is the best way to go. be very careful about trusting the label on your bottle of supplement pills though because in almost all of the world, they are not required to be accurate or even remotely truthful with this information.