10 Supplement Companies To Avoid
>>> One of The Most Quality Supplement Companies (on Amazon)
10 Popular Supplement/Vitamin Companies to Avoid:
Consumer Reports published an article in 2012, about the surprising dangers of some vitamins and supplements.
In April 2020 Consumer Lab tested 27 popular multivitamins and found that 12 of those contained much less, or much more, of one or more vitamins or minerals than claimed, and/or failed to disintegrate properly within 30 minutes, which is the standard for multivitamin tablets set by the United States Pharmacopia (USP).
Based on our research, these are 10 multivitamin companies we would avoid:
Centrum - Made by Pfizer, you’d think a global pharmaceutical company would have a level of efficacy with their products. They sure have the advertising budget. Yet, since their acquisition of Centrum, Pfizer has been involved in many controversies of fraud, including a law suit bought against them in 2012, by the watch dog group - Center for Science in the Public Interest, and were forced to pull false claims from their labels, concerning breast and colon health. Centrum contaims palm oil which is made from trans fats, and food dye Yellow 6, a toxic food dye that can cause allergies, tumors, as well as cause chromosonal damage. These are not listed on the ingredients list as they are considered “inactive ingredients.”
One-a-Day Vitamins - Made by Bayer with barely half of the users on this site offering positive reviews, many of them citing severe nausea. As one of the most widely advertised and most affordable, One a Day has low effectiveness and uses synthetic vitamins which may cause toxicity with long term usage.
One Daily - Made by Rite Aid failed to break down properly in the dissolution test, and contained more than 125% of the listed calcium, while this amount isn’t a health risk, it does raise a concern about overall product integrity.
Whole Source Mature Adult - From The Vitamin Shoppe also failed to break down in the allotted time and contained more than 125% of its labeled zinc, and more than 165% of its labeled Vitamin D, again, like the One Daily, this raises concerns about the product's consistency.
Equate - As Walmart’s house brand, the biggest issue for reviewers of this product is the tendency to induce nausea to the point of throwing up, which generally indicates sub-par but cost-effective fillers or lower-quality vitamin B12 is being used.
GNC Supplements - In 2016 the FDA and the U.S Attorney’s office conducted a lengthy investigation which resulted in GNC being fined $2M and the company agreeing to examine the supplements it sells. This raises the concern that GNC did not know what some of their supplements contained beyond what was on the labels, they also had not bothered to check their products for themselves.
Flintstone Vitamins - By Bayer, has a questionable ingredient list, including a lot of chemicals and additives that can do more harm than good. One of the most popular vitamins for kids, they also contain artificial colors which cause hyperactivity in children.
PaleoBalance All in One - WholeFoods Multivitamin although it's designed to provide balance for those following a paleo diet, it does not contain Vitamin K, which is vital for those choosing this diet.
Kirkland Adult 50+ Mature Multi - As part of the Costco family of house brands, this multivitamin gets the dosage wrong of certain nutrients. If you took it daily, you would still be lacking enough nutrients to give the body what it needs.
Centrum MultiGummies and Vitafusion Complete Multivitamin Gummy are notoriously inaccurate with their ingredients, in a 2017 supplement analysis, four out of five vitamin gummies contained significant label claim variances, and are often missing nine or ten essential multivitamins or minerals.
This is a quick list to point out some of these issues in this largely unregulated field.
If you are interested in doing some of your own research, the U.S Department of Health & Human Services provides comprehensively researched, vitamin and mineral supplement fact sheets, this is information from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplemnets and other federal government sources.
>>> Our Recommended High Quality Supplement Company (on Amazon)
NOTE: Information on this website is for educational purposes only. Nothing on this website constitutes a professional medical diagnosis or help. Please see a medical professional for an official diagnosis or for professional help. Purchases made from links on this page may result in a small commission for ISD.