Herbal Supplements

[xoxoxoBruce]

There's been an ongoing battle over the value of herbal supplements. Experts weighing in on both sides as to whether they help, do nothing, or actually hurt. You can't tell from the people taking them because of the extremely powerful placebo effect, researchers are finding has a much bigger effect than they thought possible.

Researchers in Canada, rather than get into that fray, decided to see if the popular supplements were what the label claims. They bought samples in the US and Canada of the 12 most popular supplements. Only 2 were exactly what the label said, 10 were adulterated or contained none of what the label claimed, and two contained Black Walnuts as one of the fillers. That could be dangerous to a nut allergy sufferer.

I can't find the original site where the chart came from but many sites talk about the study. This one presents both side of the fuss.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by the link

As a supplement consumer, I certainly want to know which brands passed muster and which did not! So why was this information omitted from the study?

Dr. Newmaster’s response to my question was, shall we say, oblique. “We provide an unbiased ‘watchdog’ service. The herbal industry has been alerted to a problem, and now it has the ability to take action,” he told me.

Bullshit.

Absolutely, absolutely do your research, choose only reputable brands with American sourcing and oversight, etc. There is some poisonous shit out there. But unless these guys tell me the brands, all they've done is stoked the all-or-nothing instinct in people.

[monster]

Generally, avoid anything from China. There is apparently one reliable brand made in China, the rest ...not so much. As for whether it's a real or placebo effect ....who cares if it does what people want it to do? Given the state of the RX industry here, a properly produced official placebo would probably cost more anyway

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not bullshit, it's of no use to the buying public. The purpose was prod the industry and FDA to get their shit together, not rat them out to the public, but once the press caught wind of it the study spread like wildfire, and most of the links I found didn't even have a rebuttal from the industry trade guy. Even he admits it's a problem in their industry, but claims it's small. If these were the sales leaders it's more than small.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by monster

Generally, avoid anything from China.

Nothing from China makes it past me in our house.

As a resident of the state where country ham is a religion, I was deeply distressed to learn that Smithfield was purchased by a Chinese concern. This is not disclosed on any label (that a non-US entity owns the company). It killed me to scratch one of my favorite brands off the list - and, since its a "Virginia" company, many grocery stores here sell mostly Smithfield.

Google "concerns about pork from China" sometime. On an empty stomach.

Now if China was shipping some of its local pork to the US and shipping some of its US pork to China, who would know?

[monster]

China is a major manufacturer of Herbal remedies (no surprise), but given that a lot of complementary and homeopathic remedies originate with Chinese medicine, people are worryingly OK with taking concoctions manufactured there. Our Natural Living Experts are happy with only one producer out of the whole country. I don't remember which one it is -one that specializes in mushroom remedies, I think

[Gravdigr]

Wait. WAIT. WAIT!!

Are you telling me that the powdered tiger penis contains no actual tigger dick?

[monster]

oh it does, it does. Tiger Moth Schlong

[orthodoc]

There was a study in early 2015 that looked exclusively at American retailers and the herbal preparations on their shelves; it found that nearly none of the samples tested contained what they claimed to contain. Lots of non-herbal ingredients and random plants, but not the herb being sold. It was reported around Feb. 3 of this year. Here's one link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-fake-herbals/

The study was reported widely, so there may be better links than that one.

Herbal remedies aren't scrutinized for anything other than drastic toxicity by the FDA, because all the manufacturers use the disclaimer that they aren't being sold as medicines. The FDA isn't allowed to do more than check whether they'll kill you. There's NO oversight of these products - they could contain NONE of the advertised herb, or 1/10 of the dose, or every bottle could contain a different dose up to and including very toxic. People have died taking these things (remember Ephedra). There's no protection because they aren't legally medicines. Anyone who buys these things needs to know that.

If it comes from your own garden, at least you know what it is - although you won't know how much active ingredient you're getting. Otherwise it's a total crapshoot, unless you have a gas chromatograph in your home lab.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's very illegal, however, to mislabel them saying they contain things they don't, and not saying things they do. Unfortunately it's not enforced as it should be.

[Clodfobble]

On the other hand, it is completely 100% legal to not disclose an ingredient on a processed food label as long as it is less than 2% of the whole. And that level goes for each separate ingredient, so it could be 1.9% sugar, 1.9% HFCS, 1.9% MSG, 1.9% "natural flavors," 1.9% EDTA, 1.9% sodium benzoate... And legally the ingredient list could just say "apples."

[orthodoc]

Clod makes the case for not eating processed foods.

[Clodfobble]

Honestly I'm against eating in general, really. Huge time-waster. But if I have to bother with it...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Harrumph, skinny little whippersnapper.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

On the other hand, it is completely 100% legal to not disclose an ingredient on a processed food label as long as it is less than 2% of the whole. And that level goes for each separate ingredient, so it could be 1.9% sugar, 1.9% HFCS, 1.9% MSG, 1.9% "natural flavors," 1.9% EDTA, 1.9% sodium benzoate... And legally the ingredient list could just say "apples."

Wow. Ours have to show all ingredients. They only have to appear in order of prominence above 2%, and can be listed in any order if they're less than 2% - but they still have to be listed.


From wiki:

Ingredients – All ingredients of the food must be stated under the heading 'Ingredients' and must be stated in descending order of weight when present at more than 2% in the product. Ingredients making up less than two percent may be declared in any order at the end of the declaration. Moreover, certain ingredients such as preservatives must be identified as such by the label 'Preservatives', a specific name, e.g. "sodium nitrite", and the corresponding European registration number colloquially known as an "E number", e.g. "E250". When ingredients are themselves made of a number of sub-ingredients (i.e. a mayonnaise), these must be declared as well in the ingredient declaration. If ingredients or additives contain one of the listed 14 EU allergens, these must be explicitly named in the list. For example: 'Preservative: E220 (Sulphites)'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...ng_regulations