A lot of times people ask me what I think about specific natural health products – everything from supplements to superfood powders. What’s good? Are they worth my money? Do they really do what they say they’ll do?
At the end of the day, however, most of these issues can be avoided by simply buying 100% unprocessed, basic ingredients. Instead of buying some “fashionable” proprietary goji berry mix, just buy blueberries at your local farmers market, when they are in season. Then you know what you are getting. Anything else and you’re trusting a company to prepare food for your family.
Now, you might live in Norway or Canada, and would like to enjoy some berries in February.
Or you can’t afford to have fresh exotic berries from South America shipped to you.
Or sometimes, certain proprietary blends of foods or herbs are very useful or convenient.
In such cases, you need to make sure the company is trustworthy. Do some due diligence. Get to know the people behind it. Read their literature. Search Google. Ask other consumers in health forums. Determine whether they are just trying to make money or if they are trying to help people, also.
This may sound like too much work. But remember, you’re trusting them to prepare the food you and your family eat – for Pete’s sake. And, anyways, once you found a few good companies, the work is done and you have a source you can trust, hopefully, for the rest of your life.
You also need to make sure their idea of a truthful reputation of their product falls in line with your idea of an honest and accurate description. People may disagree, and it can be entirely subjective… but you need to make sure what you think you’re putting money out for is really what you’re getting.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to stick to products with short ingredient lists. This way you don’t have to take the calculator out and add up 45 different “kitchen sink” ingredients. Seriously, if the product is only 15g per serving, and there are 45 different ingredients, on average, that’s like one-third a gram in weight each. Even after adding water thats wouldn’t even impress a bird.
Unless you’re buying a general multi-vitamin supplement, short lists are often better.
Also, you need to keep looking at that label. Many times a company changes their ingredients without notifying consumers. Even I’ve only discovered many months too late that a company had changed the formula of products I had been using.
If you’re into raw food, then be aware: Whether the ingredients are cooked or not usually doesn’t end up anywhere on the packaging – so you should call or email the company for these details.
Furthermore, if you’re expecting the product to be 100% organic, read the ingredient list – not just the label. It will either state all the ingredients are 100% organic or which specific ingredients are.
There are plenty of great natural products out there. Don’t get me wrong. Most of them, however, you can purchase only online or through mail order. You must understand that it takes a lot of capital to get a product selling in retail stores. Many companies will cut costs where they can to make this happen.
And, sometimes, the products are just fine – just not nearly as good as the advertising and labelling have hyped it up to be. So before you put out your hard earned money… read the label and make sure you know what you are paying for (and that it’s worth it to you).
Aloha,
Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future®
RESOURCES: Along the borders and in the links of my web site you can find my books, writings, and my call-in radio show. Email your questions to: questions@drcarolyndeanlive.com.
