Wellness

[newziesuzie]

This is terrible. Ground up house plants?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements/

The New York State attorney general’s office accused four national retailers on Monday of selling dietary supplements that were fraudulent and in many cases contaminated with unlisted ingredients.

The authorities said they had run tests on popular store brands of herbal supplements at the retailers — Walmart, Walgreens, Target and GNC — which showed that roughly four out of five of the products contained none of the herbs listed on their labels.

In many cases, the authorities said, the supplements contained little more than cheap fillers like rice and house plants, or substances that could be hazardous to people with food allergies.

At GNC, for example, the agency found that five out of six samples from the company’s signature “Herbal Plus” brand of supplements “were either unrecognizable or a substance other than what they claimed to be.”

In pills labeled ginkgo biloba, the agency found only rice, asparagus and spruce, an ornamental plant commonly used for Christmas decorations.

At Target, the agency tested six herbal products from its popular “Up and Up” store brand of supplements. Three out of six – including ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian root, a sleep aid – tested negative for the herbs listed on their labels. But the agency did find that the pills contained powdered rice, beans, peas and wild carrots.

Here are the products that were analyzed by the attorney general, along with the test results that were described in cease-and-desist letters that the agency sent to the four retailers.

From GNC, Herbal Plus brand:

Gingko Biloba: No gingko biloba found. Did detect allium (garlic), rice, spruce and asparagus

St. John’s Wort: No St. John’s Wort found. Did detect allium (garlic), rice and dracaena (a tropical houseplant)

Ginseng: No ginseng found. Did detect rice, dracaena, pine, wheat/grass and citrus

Garlic: Contained garlic

Echinacea: No echinacea found. Did detect rice in some samples

Saw Palmetto: One sample contained the clear presence of palmetto. Other samples contained a variety of ingredients, including asparagus, rice and primrose

From Target, Up & Up brand

Gingko Biloba: No gingko biloba found. Found garlic, rice and mung/French bean

St. John’s Wort: No St. John’s Wort found. Found garlic, rice and dracaena (houseplant)

Garlic: Contained garlic. One test identified no DNA

Echinacea: Most but not all tests detected Echinacea. One test identified rice

Saw Palmetto: Most tests detected saw palmetto. Some tests found no plant DNA

Valerian Root: No valerian root found. Found allium, bean, asparagus, pea family, rice, wild carrot and saw palmetto

From Walgreens, Finest Nutrition brand

Gingko Biloba: No gingko biloba found. Did detect rice

St. John’s Wort: No St. John’s Wort found. Detected garlic, rice and dracaena

Ginseng: No ginseng found. Detected garlic and rice

Garlic: No garlic found. Detected palm, dracaena, wheat and rice

Echinacea: No echinacea found. Identified garlic, rice and daisy

Saw Palmetto: Contained saw palmetto

From Walmart, Spring Valley brand

Gingko Biloba: No gingko biloba found. Found rice, dracaena, mustard, wheat and radish

St. John’s Wort: No St. John’s Wort found. Detected garlic, rice and cassava

Ginseng: No ginseng found. Found rice, dracaena, pine, wheat/grass and citrus

Garlic: One sample showed small amounts of garlic. Found rice, pine, palm, dracaena and wheat

Echinacea: No echinacea or plant material found

Saw Palmetto: Some samples contained small amounts of saw palmetto. Also found garlic and rice

[jessa]

[piperbay]

Thanks for posting. I guess you take a chance when taking a supplement since there is no regulation. I used to take a lot supplements, now I try to eat very healthy and that's it.

[NoelSeven]

This is so shocking. My first question is... Where were they made? I suspect the answer would be disheartening.

IMO it should be a law that supplements and all forms of OTC drugs be clearly labeled where they're made.

I am glad to see Costco products are not on the lists.

[brii]

I'm not surprised. They could put anything in there.

[santorini]

I wouldn't take any brand other than Andrew Lessman.

[gabstoomuch]

That article is exactly why I will only take Andrew Lessman vitamins from HSN, no matter what the cost. He is so open and honest, he even does shows right from his manufacturing plant once in a while from Nevada. He explains every ingredient, he talks about his research.

He is also a lawyer, so he knows what to 'claim' and 'not claim'. He does not use any fillers, he tells us exactly where he sources his ingredients. He sources pure ingredients that do cost more, but look what 'inexpensive' and mass produced gets you (as stated in this article).

He wont sell on the open market, in stores etc, because he loses control of the product. I say good for him~! He left QVC years and years ago because of the Q wanting him to compromise his quality. He said 'buh-bye QVC'.

I will never buy anything but Andrew Lessman.

[Annabellethecat66]

I buy Andrew Lessman's vitamins. He has his own manufacturing plant. He sells on HSN.

I don't worry about what's in his vitamins.

[NoelSeven]

On 2/19/2015 annabellethecat said:

I buy Andrew Lessman's vitamins. He has his own manufacturing plant. He sells on HSN.

I don't worry about what's in his vitamins.

I do, too. I get his daily Essential vitamin and his vitamin for eye strength.

But I also take other supplements which I get from Costco like vitamin E and CoQ10. There's a big price difference there.

[newziesuzie]

I'd like to be able to know where they're all made but even the ones made in America aren't regulated or inspected.