Dear Friends,
Over the last year, several of my letters have provided suggestions on how to pick quality supplements and avoid fraudulent products.
If you have any doubt this is a real concern when shopping for supplements, we have yet another example showing it is big issue – this time the focus was supplements with berberine, a fast-growing category.
A company named SuppCo, which operates a digital health platform, purchased 13 top-selling berberine products from Amazon and had a third party lab test them to see if they contained the amount of berberine listed on the product label.
The lab results found that 7 of the 13 tested appeared to contain less than 10% of the claimed amount berberine, including a couple that registered no detectable berberine.
This category of supplements was ripe for bad actors to sell fraudulent supplements for a few reasons.
First, as mentioned, berberine is becoming very popular because research shows it can be very helpful for blood sugar and metabolic health, which may also help weight management.
Second, the dose of regular berberine needed to deliver results is rather significant, at 1,500mg a day.
This means a legitimate supplement brand must invest a good amount of dollars in raw material, which it then has to pass on to consumers of the product.
This opens the door for bad actors to cut corners and not put 1,500mg in their products – and undercut quality brands on price.
You Get What Your Pay For
The old saying was true in this berberine study, as the average cost of the 6 berberine supplements that passed the lab test was about $33.44 per bottle.
On the other hand, the average price of the 7 products that failed was only $25 – a lot less.
One of the tips I mentioned in earlier letters is to be wary of supplements with prices that seem too good to be true.
Trust your instincts, because there’s a good chance you’re not getting what you bargained for, as low price often doesn’t mean great value – especially when it comes to supplements.
Another challenge with berberine is that the relatively high 1,500mg daily serving often causes stomach upset or gastrointestinal distress in users – it’s one of the top complaints of berberine supplements (in a bit, I’ll explain how we try to overcome this at NatureCity).
But if you hear a supplement brand say “we give you 1,500mg of berberine and it never causes stomach issues,” that should be a red flag for you.
It’s more likely the reason their product is tolerated so well is because it contains very little or no berberine.
Star Ratings Can Be Deceiving
Another consumer challenge this berberine study highlighted is the danger of relying on product ratings to determine the quality of the product.
We all do this especially when shopping on Amazon, it’s hard to ignore a product you’re interested in that has a good price and a good star rating.
Well, in this berberine study, 6 of the 7 products that failed had either an “Amazon Choice” designation, or an average consumer rating of over 4.3 stars.
Sounds surprising, but again this demonstrates you can’t solely relay on these ratings or marks for supplements.
For example, even if the reviews were legit – and that’s entirely separate topic of concern – maybe users just like the taste of the gummies or the price – not realizing the product may not even contain any berberine.
I know all of this is a challenge, which is why I did my tips for buying supplements previously. I think you’ll find it helps you identify trustworthy brands and reliable products.
How Berberine Can Help You
Now a few words on berberine and how we approach it as a supplement at NatureCity.
One of berberine’s key functions is supporting blood sugar metabolism and helping the body convert carbohydrates into cellular energy.
This is particularly significant as we age, when maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, managing weight and body composition, and promoting cardiovascular health typically become more challenging.
One of the ways berberine works is by supporting insulin in its key function, which is helping to transport glucose from the bloodstream to muscle or fat cells.
Cells use the glucose for energy or convert it to fat for longer-term storage.
Additionally, it is believed that berberine helps activate the AMPK enzyme, which helps direct carbohydrates to muscle rather than fat. This can help promote a better body composition.
Since AMPK activity also tends to decline as we age, this support from berberine is also very helpful.
Berberine is found in several plants, most notably in Berberis aristata, also known as Indian barberry.
Despite its benefits, one challenge with berberine supplementation is its low absorption rate in the bloodstream, which is why doses of 1,000mg to 1,500mg per day are typically required to produce desired support.
As mentioned, this amount of berberine can lead to gastrointestinal discomfort for some users, making daily intake over time unsustainable.
Recently, there’s been an innovation to address this problem.
It starts with the recognition that to help absorption, our bodies convert some of the berberine you consume into dihydroberberine in the gut.
Once in intestinal tissues, the dihydroberberine is converted back to berberine and enters the bloodstream.
Our Favorite Berberine Ingredient
Understanding this process led to the creation of a supplement ingredient called Glucovantage.
The makers of Glucovantage essentially do the hard work for your body – converting the berberine to active dihydroberberine, giving you a more digestion-ready supplement ingredient that gets absorbed much better than standard berberine.
In fact, research found that just 100mg of Glucovantage increased berberine levels in the blood about 5x better than the standard 500mg serving of regular berberine. That’s a major improvement.
And in addition to being more convenient, the lower GlucoVantage dose is much less likely to cause stomach or gastrointestinal distress.
One other tip for you to consider - to maximize the benefits of GlucoVantage on weight management and body composition, combine supplementation with regular high intensity exercise or strength training.
Here’s why - you’ll recall that we said berberine helps support insulin in moving glucose to cells. This glucose has to go somewhere – either in fat cells or muscle cells.
If this energy is stored in fat, it can create more fat, so driving glucose to muscle is preferable.
When you exercise, muscles get depleted of energy, so insulin will direct more glucose to these muscles and have less to give to fat cells, which should mean less fat creation.
At NatureCity, we incorporate 100mg of GlucoVantage in each capsule of our TrueBerberine+ product, which also includes InSea2 brown seaweed extract and chromium for a comprehensive approach to metabolic and blood sugar health.
We recommend taking 2 to 3 capsules daily for optimal results. Take capsules about 15 to 30 minutes before meals.
Yours for Good Health,
Carl Pradelli
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