Monday, March 29, 2010

Be a Supplement Skeptic

Did you all read the recent news about Fish Oil products being tainted with PCBs -- even when the label claimed the products were tested, pure and safe? This is just one more expose' in a long line of supplement crimes. Lead in children's vitamins. Fungicides in Ginseng products. Pesticides in Alfalfa tablets. The alarming levels of toxins found in supplements manufactured in China. And the list goes on.

On March 2nd, an environmental consumers group, Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation, sued fish oil supplement merchants for covering up the fact that their products contained toxic levels of PCBs. This took place in California, which requires a warning label anytime a product contains toxic ingredients.

Who did they sue? Omega Protein, the world's largest producer of fish oil products. They manufacture products for Twinlab, GNC, Rite Aid, CVS, Now Health Group, Pharmavite and Solgar.

So far, Mateel has only tested 10 Fish Oil supplements and has found toxic levels of PCBs in all of them. They plan to continue testing products and adding companies to the lawsuit as they discover who is marketing contaminated fish oil supplements.

Now, this is the thing that really stuns me. Either Omega Protein didn't test their products and still labeled them as pure. OR, they did test them and labeled them as pure anyway. Either way, this is another evidence that the supplement industry is not to be trusted.

You see, as consumers take daily doses of contaminated products, toxin levels build until serious problems arise. And supplement users usually take supplements trusting they will do their bodies good and not harm.

I encourage you to be a supplement skeptic. It is tempting to just pick up your supplements when you see them on sale at your local grocer or drug store. But that is simply not safe. You can not trust labels.

I've seen way too many news stories like this one -- where supplements companies truly endanger our health in the name of good health.

Only buy from a trusted source. One that can prove their rigorous quality control, that openly invites the public to check out their manufacturing processes, that tests their products so that they can guarantee their purity and effectiveness. A company that gives a 100% money back guarantee on every product.

I have posted before that Shaklee is my supplement company of choice. Read (here) to see how they passed my three critical questions for all consumers to ask supplement companies. If you're really interested in finding good supplements, I encourage you to read through all the posts under my supplement topic. You can also check out my Shaklee website for what makes Shaklee unique.

For your health,

Note: I have posted before about why I am a Shaklee Independent Distributor. Click here to read that post.

1 comment:

Jessica said...

I just did the "experiment" you posted about baking vitamins for 30 min at 350 degrees.

The multi-vitamin I have been using for the last 2 years had black spots all over it and the new vitamins that I just bought turned light brown and didn't have any spots or oozing black stuff. That is beyond disgusting. I wish I had done this sooner. I will not be putting another one of those nasty vitamins in my body - EVER!