When I started my nutritional supplement company, I happened to discover some insider secrets that'll probably blow your mind. I'm going to expose seven of those insider secrets that some of the nutritional companies might not want you to know. Some of these secrets might even be putting you and your family's health at risk, but don't worry, it's not going to be all doom and gloom. I'm actually going to share with you some easy things that you can do, so that you can identify supplements that are safe and effective, and you can avoid some of the pitfalls of our industry's dirty little secrets, by just looking for these few little things.
Secret #1
Most supplements are not manufactured here in the United States at all. Most supplements are manufactured outside the United States in countries like China and India. Now, that bothers me for a couple of different reasons. First, I personally like to purchase products being created right here in America, because quite frankly, they provide jobs and livelihoods for people right here at home.
So when I started my nutrition company, I wanted to make sure that all the products were being manufactured right here in the United States. But my concern about things being manufactured overseas goes beyond simply creating jobs here in the US for Americans. Countries outside the United States don't necessarily have the regulatory agencies that oversee the facilities in which these products are being made in the first place. As a result, you don't know what you're going to get when you're buying these types of products and a vast majority of the products here in the United States are manufactured overseas.
One of the ways you can help improve your odds of getting a better product is to look for the ‘Made In The USA seal. This seal will ensure that products were made right here in the United States, but this seal isn't the only thing that you can look for. And that brings us to the second secret that nutritional companies probably don't want you to know.
Secret #2
Number two, all manufacturing facilities are not equal. What people don't realize is that even if a product's made right here in the United States, the facilities vary greatly. At one end of the spectrum, you have products being assembled in people's garages, and at the other end of the spectrum, you have facilities that are immaculately hygienic, highly inspected by independent regulatory agencies and really of the highest regard. And then there's everything that falls in between. So how do you know as a consumer what you're buying is from a quality manufacturing facility?
The first thing you want to do is look for the FDA seal of approval. What this tells you is that you're buying a product that was manufactured in a facility that was inspected and approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Believe it or not, in this country, not all manufacturing facilities of supplements need to be FDA approved. So when you're looking to buy a nutritional supplement, you always want to make sure that it's made in a FDA approved manufacturing facility.
If it is, the seal will definitely be on the bottle. Be careful because many inexpensive supplements, some that you might even have in your cabinets at home right now, might have been made in facilities that were never inspected by the Food and Drug Administration at all.
Secret #3
Standardized manufacturing practices are not required throughout the nutritional supplement industry. Therefore products manufactured in a facility that has sloppy or lazy manufacturing can be contaminated with other products manufactured in the same facility, or worse yet, they can be contaminated with things like bugs, fecal matter, chemicals or harmful toxins like arsenic or lead. Several independent studies have shown that this type of contamination in nutritional supplements happens over and over and over again.
So the question is, how do you protect yourself from getting products from facilities like these? What you're going to want to look for are two specific seals that should be on the manufacturer's packaging. The first one, is the GMP seal of approval. This stands for Good Manufacturing Practices. This ensures that they're following very, very strict guidelines, what we call proceduralized cleanliness in the manufacturing process. This lessens the likelihood of contamination from other products, bugs, toxins and so on. So if you see the GMP seal, you can feel confident it was manufactured with very strict cleanliness practices.
The other seal you're going to want to pay attention to and look for is one that says NSF Certified. What this regulatory agency does is look at absolutely every aspect of your manufacturing process from beginning all the way to end, to make sure the likelihood of contamination is almost at zero. For a company to carry this seal on their products, they must at all times adhere to the NSF’s extremely high standards. The way an NSF can ensure this is by not only having a rigorous initial inspection process, but in addition, they also have regular unannounced inspections to ensure that the highest levels of manufacturing processes are constantly and consistently adhered to. Many companies, quite frankly, just don't want to go through this type of scrutiny and you won't see the NSF seal on their products. My recommendation is to always look for those two seals, the GMP seal as well as the NSF seal on all your nutritional products, to ensure that you're getting the best, most quality supplements that you can buy.
Secret #4
Secret number four, not all products are organic. You'll want to look for the organic seal. Whenever you have supplements that are made from whole food sources, it's really important to make sure that you're getting it from an organic source. That way you can ensure that the plants that your supplements were actually made from didn't spend their entire life soaked in herbicides and pesticides and other things that are toxic to us.
Secret #5
Insider secret number five has to do with fish oils. Anybody can squeeze a fish, but that doesn't mean you're going to get a good quality fish oil that's actually healthy for you. Some fish oils come from fish that are grown in what we call fish farms. They spend their entire life in a toxic environment, eating fish food made from all kinds of things that you wouldn't even see fish eating in their normal natural environment. If you extract the oils from these types of fish, you're likely going to have a much higher toxicity level. Due to the fact that they're raised in these confined areas with hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands of other fish, they're likely going to have an even higher level of toxicity.
The key here is you don't want to steal from Peter to pay Paul. You don't want to have all the benefits of taking fish oil while giving yourself concentrated toxins.
So you must be asking, what's the solution then? You're going to want to look for is a supplement made from a fish that was freshwater caught, and that fish is a small fish with a short life cycle. Something like anchovy or a krill. The reason why you want a fish that's fresh water caught is because when it's out in the ocean, it's in its natural environment, eating the plankton and other micronutrients that are necessary to create high quality omega-3 fatty acids within its body. This is the good stuff that you want within your fish oil. That's the beneficial stuff that you get from it. The reason you want a small fish is because when it's small, it's at the bottom of the food chain and therefore it's not consuming tons of other fish in its lifetime that they themselves might have concentrated toxins.
Each step up the food chain that you go, the more likely it is that the fish has concentrated environmental toxins such as PCBs or heavy metals or other things. So you're going to want to buy a fish oil supplement that's made from a small fish that is fresh water caught. It's not only about getting a fish oil that's a small fish that's caught in open waters, that's great, but you also want to make sure that the company that you're purchasing from, has gone through the process of distilling it to remove any of the harmful contaminants. Cheaper omega-3 fish oils that you'll often find in things like grocery stores or big box stores, may be from a manufacturer that didn't go through this process simply to save money. So you may save a few bucks on the cost of the supplement, but you may be getting a lot of these contaminants in your fish oil.
The manufacturer may or may not have this listed on their label. Even really good products might not have the fact that they're distilled on it. Some will say double distilled or triple distilled, but not all of them have it on there, even if they are good.
Secret #6
Insider secret number six, most supplements are not tested for purity, quality or even consistency. What this means is there can be large differences in concentrations from one capsule to another capsule within the exact same bottle. There can also be differences in the purity of the product from one capsule to one capsule in one bottle to another bottle. There's no major oversight within the nutritional supplement manufacturing for this. The question exists, how do you protect yourself and ensure that you're getting something that's actually consistent so that you're getting the same thing in each capsule?
You're going to want to look for the 3rd Party Tested Seal. That means a third party came in and independently, randomly took a product off the line, brought it back to the laboratory, ran it through extensive testing to see that there was consistency with potency, capsule, to capsule, to capsule. They also test to see what's listed on the ingredient list is actually what's in each capsule. And finally, they also test that there are no contaminants that could be harmful to the person taking that capsule.
Keep in mind, this process is pretty expensive for a nutritional supplement manufacturer, and quite frankly, that's the reason why so many don't do it. But bear in mind, when you're buying supplements, you're going to want to pay a little bit more for those products that have gone through this extensive third party testing for purity, quality and consistency. Personally, I would want that peace of mind for my family for something that you're going to be taking every single day. You want to make sure it's the highest quality possible.
Secret #7
Insider secret number seven, one-a-day vitamins absolutely stink, and yet they're still one of the most popular things to be taking because people feel like they're doing something to improve their health.
One-a-day vitamins are designed to slowly dissolve as they pass through your digestive tract. They slowly release their contents as they're digested. They release little bits of vitamins along the way. The problem with that is, certain nutrients are only absorbed in the upper portion of the digestive system. It makes absolutely no sense to release those in the lower portion. They're never going to be absorbed. You literally piss away your nutritional investment, and that's if you're lucky enough to even break down the one-a-day supplement in the first place.
Unfortunately, so many Americans are taking antacids or just naturally have low stomach acid, so your body's very first step in breaking that vitamin down does not even allow for absorption. In fact, there's been several reports of sewage treatment plants having big problems with trying to figure out what to do with all the undigested supplements that they're finding in the waste. Now, that might sound really gross to you, but it really highlights the fact that you need to have something that you can actually absorb. That's why I always recommend capsules that dissolve immediately in the stomach. That way your body has a chance to absorb everything that you're taking throughout the digestive process.
I also recommend taking them in the morning and the evening, not just once a day. Nutritional supplements are designed to be just that, they supplement your diet. Most people aren't eating just once a day, rather they're eating throughout their day, they're getting nutrition throughout your day. Your supplements should be taken in the same way, getting them throughout your day so your body can utilize them throughout the day as it needs it.
I hope you found this information useful and you can apply it to your supplement buying process immediately today. Heck, it might even be interesting to go to your cabinets right now and see what you have and see how many of your products stack up to what you now know to look for. And remember, if you're looking for high quality nutritional supplements that meet or exceed all of the standards discussed today, go to Davis Nutrition for all those nutritional needs.
Until next time,health is by choice, not chance.
