Dirty Secrets About Your Calcium Supplement
When a company uses the credibility of a high quality branded ingredient to conformation the reputation of a finished product, consequently quietly switches this key ingredient for a low quality ' knockoff, ' I call this nutritional counterfeiting. Consumers think they are taking the elementary product whereas the packaging looks twin adrift the little branded ingredient logo, but what they don ' t know is that the key active ingredient has been switched out for one which may not give them the results of the first ingredient.
As a researcher in a new study on a plant - based calcium supplement, it was on the top of my mind when I recently visited some local vitamin stores looking for some calcium for my family and myself. I was keen with the results of this marine algae calcium versus the other two leading calcium sources, so I wanted to glare in what brands of finished products this ingredient was greater. Retail staff at two of the four stores I visited any more recognized the plant calcium ingredient ( AlgaeCalāļ ) that was the subject of my study, and suggested New Chapter Inc ' s product, Bone Strength Take Care, as the most popular calcium product in their stores - but when I looked for the AlgaeCal ingredient on the marker, it was nowhere to be found! The store staff were visibly punchy and unable to answer why the AlgaeCal had been switched or how the new calcium ingredient compared. In gospel, three out of four of the store ' s management had not realized that there was an ingredient change until I inquired.
The manufacturer had neatly shipped the new tenor and not notified the stores of the key ingredient change, i. e, the calcium substitution.
Although I ' m in no way affiliated with the manufacturers of AlgaeCal or paid by them, I made it my business to learn about it over the months that the University of Connecticut Rear of Medicine and Harvard University Medical Advise conducted the human osteoblast study. I learned AlgaeCal is the only certified organic calcium source in the world. It is picked by hand from South American coastal waters while it is living. The Atlantic ocean pushes new tennis ball sized pinkish algae up onto the sandy beaches every day and they are picked before the sunshine turns them white. Like apples falling from a tree, they are either used immediately or they go to misuse - in other words they are sustainably and ecologically harvested. But, what impresses me most about this rare calcium ingredient is that it has been the subject of more than a dozen research studies looking at bone density, bio - availability, tolerability, safety and other parameters.
With the scientific support, ecological sanction, and organic certification of AlgaeCal it is evident why New Chapter used it in its Bone Strength Take Care product to prepare with. However, it appears that they itch have switched to else form of marine algae calcium sequentially early 2010. From my inquiries, it is evident this new product is a different algae genus and scratch like the AlgaeCal. It is primarily repetitious when vacuumed from the ocean tile in an industrial scale dredging operation. A substantial degree of the vacuumed material is thereupon extinct from the boat, effectively silting the surrounding area and sultry local type. And, more to my surprise and enterprise, this calcium has no bone density research. They do have one bio - availability study but it only measures an exaggerated parathyroid hormone happening to calcium - a study sketch that is flawed and not conventional by the research society. For a product like calcium that I understand to take for the neighboring several decades, I don ' t want to
roll the dice on whether it ' s helping my bones or not. I want good well designed research studies pageantry that it is safe and wicked. With a few phone calls, I tuned in that this ingredient costs about 1 / 5th to 1 / 7th of what AlgaeCal costs, so I believe the basis for switching is unconcealed.
Retailers, such as Whole Foods Market and others, which combine to stringent environmental commitments, routinely remove products that hurt the environment, so I was surprised to regard this product on their shelves. Very recently, Krill oil supplements have been banned by Whole Foods Markets for of the dormant threat of over - harvesting. More appurtenant is the case of vermilion calcium, which was also gloomy from Whole Foods shelves several years ago rightful to ecological concerns - and it is harvested by the alike vacuum methods as the new calcium substitute in Bone Strength Take Care. If my ad hoc market survey is any indication, even the largest and most ethical retailers are being duped. Along with millions of consumers, I believe that Whole Foods and other retailers are victims of nutraceutical supplement counterfeiting.
If a company invests in purity, ecological harvesting practices, certifications, and multiple studies for their ingredient as in the event of AlgaeCal, and a manufacturer uses those selling points to get their finished product to the top ( Bone Strength is the number one selling calcium in health food stores today according to available market data ), they should at antecedent announce a knob to a inferior calcium, substantially change their packaging, and reduce their price. New scheme Bone Strength Take Care was on the store shelves for around $60 per bottle - the most worthy calcium I ' ve observed. If I ' m going to fee that much for a bottle of calcium, it had better cover the real ingredient! I goal that consumers and retailers do the right thing and bear a message to all companies in this industry who embezzle the thunder of veritable ingredient suppliers. Look for the logo of branded and well researched ingredients and support those companies who conduct high quality research for their ingredient.
