DIET: A 39-year-old Raw Foods Vegan influencer has died after living on and promoting her “wonder” diet.
- https://nypost.com/2023/07/31/vegan-influencer-starved-to-death-friends/
- https://notthebee.com/article/a-vegan-influencer-was-surviving-solely-off-exotic-fruit-and-she-just-died-ofwell-you-can-guess
SUPPLEMENTS: Consumer Lab warns of seven red flags to watch out for when buying vitamins, minerals, and herbs. I added one more based on my several years of experience reading Consumer Lab reports.
- Labels that don’t tell you what you’re supposed to be getting.
- Meaningless claims. Phrases like “clinically tested”, “pharmaceutical grade,” and “FDA approved laboratory” have no actual meaning.
- Claims to treat or cure disease. Supplements are not legally permitted to make such claims.
- Gummies. Standards are lower for these, plus the ingredients are less stable. If your kid refuses anything else, they’re better than nothing. But they should be seen only as a last resort.
- Upper Limits. Be aware that your total supplement intake of a specific nutrient may take you above the Tolerable Upper Limit or Not To Exceed amount. You can google these for gender and age.
- Be suspicious of a label that says “Quality Tested” or “Third-Party Tested” if there is no indicated who did the testing. Consumer Lab allows manufacturers to put their quality seal (graphic above) on products they have approved.
- High prices. I saved more than the cost of my Consumer Lab subscription just by switching to cheaper, but better quality supplements based on their recommendations.
- Don’t trust a brand. Before I joined CL, I had one brand I totally trusted. Turns out, one of their products was contaminated with arsenic! Then, recently, Mama Buzz asked me to check out Solaray, a brand she felt was trustworthy. I did a search for every Solaray product CL had tested and found 2 were Not Approved for contamination issues; three were Not Approved for inaccurate labeling issues; two were Approved for purity and accurate labels, but Not Recommended because the doses did not match what clinical studies have found to be best; two were Approved, but Overpriced; six were Approved; and three were Top Picks (best quality for the price).
BTW, if you’re serious about making smart health choices not just in supplements, but also in things like air and water filters, I highly recommend joining Consumer Lab. A subscription gives you access to years and years of their research, plus the new stuff they publish weekly, and the ability to email specific questions. This week’s answered questions included “How do probiotics work?”, “Does brushing with a charcoal-containing toothpaste remove coffee stains better than a regular whitening toothpaste?”, “Which brands of decaffeinated coffee contain dangerous solvents?”, and “Can collagen or gelatin (including gelatin capsules) be contaminated with the infectious agent that causes ‘mad cow disease’?”
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