People often stereotype generic brands as less tasty of poor quality or less...
effective than their brand-name counterparts, but given that trusted...
brands demand more of your money, is there really a difference between...
brand-name and generic food or drugs?
When it comes to food, while there are...
many companies dedicated to producing generic brands, the truth is that many...
large brand-name manufacturers often use their excess capacity and expertise...
to produce generic label products as well.
In fact, in 2007, the Peter Pan brand...
of peanut butter was found to be contaminated with salmonella and...
recalled and, as a result, Wal-Mart's Great Value brand of peanut butter was...
also taken off the showels.
Next time you're at the grocery store, try compare the...
ingredient list and nutritional information of a generic item with its brand counterparts.
Even if they aren't identical which they sometimes are,
it'll give you a sense of how similar they can be.
And studies show that on average generic brands run 30% cheaper.
Furthermore, many staple food products
like sugar and salts are regulated by the FDA and think about it
table salt also known as sodium chloride only contains two elements from the
periodic table how variable could it really be? Think they taste different
Fancier brand name packaging may play a role. In one study, university
students were given free coffee and asked to rate it. It turns out that if
the cream and sugar were placed in fancy containers on a silver tray vs placed in
styrofoam cups with haphazardly written labels, they would prefer the fancy brew
despite the coffee being the exact same the placebo effect can be quite strong
when it comes to your taste preferences but when it comes to drugs
things are a little different
in fact generic drugs have to be the same as the brand name for example
ibuprofin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that treats
headaches fevers and minor aches and pains it's also sold under brand names
like Advil and Nurofen but at the base of these pills is the exact same thing. two
hundred milligrams of ibuprofen the same dosage safety strength and intended use
the generic drugs go through a series of stringent regulatory testing to prove
their bioequivalence to the brand name the only way in which the pills meet
difference between their filler ingredients which may include starch or
gelatin, flavoring or different colors so while they aren't exactly the same they
are effectively the same and studies routinely prove that generic drugs are
as effective as the brand name in fact some studies show that individuals are
more likely to stay on course with generic drugs because of the lower cost
of course there are some very specific drugs that have a narrow therapeutic
index which requires certain brands in these cases a doctor can help you decide
and yet many people still remain skeptical in one study participants were
given painkillers that were actually just blank placebo pills and
administered a small electric shock when they were told that the pill costs $0.10
only 61% of people felt pain relief but if they were told that the pill cost
$2.50 a whole 85.4% participants claimed to feel relief from the pain at the end
of the day
generic products whether food drugs or otherwise can be but aren't always equal
to their branding counterpart so save those dollar bills and buy something
special we actually put together our own taste test to see if anyone could tell
the difference between their favorite brands and the generic counterpart in
our new ASAP Thought video. Use the link in the description to see that video
and subscribe for weekly science videos