misleading labels on natural/organic nutritional supplements

[eShirl]

wrote this to a sibling who works/lives in another town at an organic grocery/health food store:

"I got iron tablets at (store in my town), and I think the label is misleading, though probably not technically deceptive. Nature's Plus brand (two tablet formula) IRON 40mg 90 tablets. Turns out they are only 20mg 90 tablets: serving size 2 tablets, servings per container 45."


my sibling's reply:

"I'm familiar with the misleading-label issue with nutritional supplements. It seems that most of the manufacturers do it to a greater or lesser degree as a tool in their marketing. At work, we have to go to the Serving Size information frequently when we're trying to help a customer decide which brand or version of a product to buy, and we wish they would be more straightforward about what's in the bottle.

"A major reason for it is that a lot of customers are looking for a certain number of milligrams of the product in question, and will buy based on the number shown on the front of the bottle. Manufacturers do whatever they can to be able to display the most popular "strengths" that customers are looking for. One fish-oil company sells the identical capsules (the company sales rep came right out and told us so) as both 500 mg. and 1000 mg. strengths. The 1000 mg. box will show a serving size of 2 capsules, and the 500 mg. package shows a 1 capsule serving size. If they didn't do that, a lot of people looking to take 1000 mg. would bypass the "500mg." package to find one from another company that says "1000mg." on the package, even if the other company's product shows a 2-capsule serving size."


The moral of the story: always read your labels, front back and sideways!

[DemocratAholic]

1. i discovered this myself

I bought a multi-vitamin at the store. I am the kind of person who reads labels very carefully. I looked at the back of the package and saw it was giving me 100 percent or more of all my vitamins. So, I was taking (1 pill) day for over a year, thinking I was getting all my vitamin needs supplied in this tablet. WRONG! I came to discover over a year later that a "serving size" was actually 2 tablets! So that one pill was really only supplying me with 50 percent of my vitamin needs. OMG! I was outraged about that! I often do not eat very well, so I really was depending on that vitamin to supply me with what I needed.

I am a big supporter of the vitamin/herb/nutritional supplement industry, and I am not advocating that the government interferes in their business.

HOWEVER, a "serving size" should be 1 pill! There is absolutely no reason to make a serving size more than 1 pill...other than hoping people do not read the label carefully enough, and trying to trick them!

Anyway, thanks for posting this. This is good information for people to know when buying vitamins and supplements.