Know Your Nutrition Products | Choose Quality!

Hi there! How are you? Today I want to give you some helpful information about choosing your nutrition products.  

What would you think if you found out the nutrition products you were taking weren't what they appeared to be? 

When it comes to nutrition, our common sense tells us to listen to qualified health care professionals, but many of them don't know the right questions to ask when it comes to learning about quality nutrition products. 

The next time you're looking for nutrition products, keep these 10 things in mind...your health may depend on it!

1. Who manufactures the product?The company who sells a particular product may not manufacture them.  They may only “distribute” the products.  The best nutrition products on the market will be manufactured and distributed by the same company.  
2. Does the nutrition product undergo quality control tests on their ingredients? Every batch of nutritional products should have their raw ingredients analyzed for potency and quality.  The best nutrition products will have as many as 300 quality control tests on each one of their nutritional products.
3. Does the nutrition product have independent labs verify their quality with results made available to the public?The products of nutrition manufacturers should be made available to independent labs to verify their quality.  One area that should be verified is the stated amount of a particular ingredient that is listed on a product label with the actual amount that is contained in the pill.  You’d be surprised at the number of nutrition products on the market that don’t even contain the stated amount of ingredients listed on their labels.
4. Are the nutrition products you use made from natural or synthetic ingredients?Not all nutritional products can be 100% natural; an example would be B vitamins.  No B vitamins can be 100% natural, anyone claiming so is misinformed.  All high quality nutritional products will contain as many natural ingredients as possible.
5. Do the nutrition products pass the “water test”?The water test is used to ensure nutrition products absorbability.  Many nutrition products on the market have so many artificial binders, fillers and colorings that when consumed, the digestive system cannot break down the pill so that the body can absorb the nutrients.The Water Test: Take a sample pill from your nutrition product and place it in a glass of water. Your pill should completely dissolve into a pile of powder within 20 minutes.  If it takes longer, there is a very high probability that your body will not be able to break the product down and absorb it into the bloodstream.
6. Does the manufacturer of your nutritional product have a legitimate scientific advisory board?A high quality nutrition company will have an advisory board consisting of world-renowned physicians and scientists. Many less reputable nutrition manufacturers will pepper their “advisory boards” with people who do not have accredited advanced degrees in biochemistry or nutrition and are not authorities in the nutritional field.
7. How many full-time qualified scientists does the nutrition manufacturer employ?A high quality nutrition manufacturer will have many scientists on staff with accredited graduate level degrees of a Masters or higher in an allied field of nutrition.
8. Does the nutrition manufacturer have at least one legitimate research facility?A high quality nutrition manufacturer will have separate buildings dedicated specifically to research.  The more reputable manufacturers will have them located at prestigious medical schools.
9. Does the nutrition manufacturer commission clinical studies on their nutritional products?A high quality nutrition manufacturer will commission clinical studies on their nutritional products at prestigious institutions such as: Harvard, Tufts University, Johns Hopkins, Yale, UCLA, Stanford University or University of California Berkeley. These clinical studies should be performed by outside institutions so that all results and design methods will be unbiased.
10. Does the manufacturer publish their clinical findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals?Not only will high quality nutrition manufacturers commission clinical studies on their nutritional products, they will also publish their clinical findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

NOT ALL NUTRITION PRODUCTS ARE CREATED EQUALLY!

(Thank you to Dr. Steven Chaney for this helpful information)

By the way, my family uses and recommends Shaklee nutritional products to everyone! Shaklee MEETS or EXCEEDS each one of the points listed above!