"Black Raspberry Supplements Put to the Test"
The regulation of dietary supplements in the United States
has been described as too little, too late.
Dietary supplements may be adulterated
with dangerous compounds, be contaminated,
fail to contain what they say they contain,
contain unknown doses of the ingredients
listed on the label,
be sold at toxic dosages,
or produce harmful effects in other ways.
This not only messes up any research done on them,
but can put the general public at risk.
A third party company that has tested
thousands of supplements,
identified approximately 1 in 4 with a quality problem,
either not containing what it says
or contaminated in some way – 1 in 4.
For example, I’ve done a few videos
on the remarkable properties of black raspberries.
Can’t always find them fresh or frozen;
so how about black raspberry supplements?
You go to the store or look online.
How about this one?
Fresh, raw, pure— that sounds good.
Let’s look at the back.
It says it contains just seedless black raspberry powder
and absolutely nothing else – exclamation point!
It’s nice to see there are no fillers
or artificial ingredients.
So, you plunk down your $23.77,
but it turns out you’ve been had.
The first clue was that the picture
on the front was actually blackberries photoshopped
to look like black raspberries—
they couldn’t even be bothered to put a real image
on their fake supplement.
The researchers' second clue was that it sure didn’t look
like pure black raspberry powder;
and so, they put it to the test,
and indeed, there was no black raspberry at all.
Instead of absolutely nothing else,
they should have just stopped with
"This bottle contains absolutely nothing!".
Or, at least you hope it contains nothing—
who knows what’s actually in those capsules.
They tested every black raspberry product they could find,
and even ones with the right picture on the front
and powder that actually looked real,
yet more than a third appeared to have
no black raspberry fruit at all.
At the moment, a consumer who assumes
the US dietary supplement marketplace is free from risk
or even honest is unfortunately naive.
How widespread is this deception?
Researchers used DNA fingerprinting techniques
to test the authenticity of 44 herbal supplements
from a dozen different companies.
Less than half of the supplements were authentic,
containing what they said they did.
Most contained plants not listed on the label,
substitutions with cheaper plants,
contaminants, unlisted fillers, or apparently all filler.
And this isn’t just fraud;
some of this deception can really hurt people.
For example, one St. John’s wort supplement
had no St. John’s wort at all,
but actually contained Senna instead,
which is an herbal laxative
that can cause adverse effects,
such as chronic diarrhea, liver damage, skin breakdown, and blistering.
Here’s how the 12 companies did—
only tested products from 2 of the 12 companies
all appeared authentic.
Herbs only work if they’re actually present.
The supplement industry suffers from unethical activities—
by some of the manufacturers.
And by "some" they mean 80%
of the manufacturers in this study.
Until dietary supplements in the U.S. are better regulated
and quality control standards are defined and endorsed,
the safer source of phytonutrients
as a consumer is from actual food.