Posted on 10/11/2018 12:28:35 AM PDT by beaversmom
The $36 billion U.S. supplement industry isn't subject to FDA regulation, which both facilitates experimentation and allows products that don't live up to their health claims to flourish.
Neil Thanedar has a free market solution: In 2012, he co-founded Labdoor to bring accountability to the supplements industry without quashing its dynamism. The company, which has received backing from venture capitalists Mark Cuban and Y Combinator, buys products right off the shelves, tests them, and then posts the results on its website.
The company doesn't currently have the resources to verify whether a given supplement actually delivers its promised effects, testing only for potency and purity and deferring to existing studies on efficacy. In the near future, it plans to create a decentralized network of laboratories called TEST.
"[Labdoor] provides this really nice balance between some kind of regulatory function, but at the same time, it's a free market," says Thanedar. "If you do something wrong, we'll do our best to catch you, but we're not blocking products from the market. We're not setting up a 10-year process to get to the market."
Reason's Zach Weissmueller sat down with Thanedar in one of the company's San Francisco labs to talk about the supplements market, the advantages of privatizing consumer protection, Labdoor's vision of a blockchain-based network of testing facilities, and the company's decision to test supplements marketed by InfoWars founder Alex Jones.
Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Justin Monticello.
thanks for this. I never take supplements, but if I wanted to research, this looks like a worthwhile starting place.
You’re welcome. First I had heard of it, too.
Mark
Thanks for posting
I’ve used Consumer Lab for years. They also check for concentration of the contents and compare pricing to provide a useful comparison across brands. It’s subscription only. https://www.consumerlab.com/
I swear I think the fish “oil” is made from fish scales, frikkin’ nasty crap.
Not only are anchovy fisheries being hit hard during these omega 3 harvests, but flax oil has 10x the omega 3 values and your burps don’t taste fishy.
This is an area where FReeper advice is useful. They are happy to share their own research and experience with supplements.
Thank you both!
There’s conflicting information out there, but fish oil is a better omega 3 option for boys. I don’t want risk giving my boys a daily dose of phytoestrogens.
I’m not as dilligent as I used to be, but my kids loved Carlson’s cod liver oil. I should probably get that back into our routine.
Consumers Lab has an large number of test reports on their sites. They even did CBD recently. I was surprised by how little is in some brands.
“cod liver oil”
A dose every almost day growing up. Sometimes I would take a teaspoonful and poured on a Saltine... Not bad either!
They loved the lemon flavor-said it tasted like lemon curd. To me it tasted like lemon fish. Back then we didn’t have any snacks or junk in the house...I was too strict. One day I caught my girls (around ages 3 and 5 at the time) in the basement sneaking swigs of the cod liver oil because they really wanted a treat.
I’ve since lightened up a great deal-just took the younger kids to McDonald’s. Need to find a happy medium.
Looks like Consumer Report has some competition. Sorry it took me so long.
Hurriacane gave me a blackout until last night.
All is now well at this house!
Hard working electricians, sixteen hour shifts.
TEN times fish oil?
Wow!
And if it’s cold pressed, then flax seed oil is ‘uncooked enzymes’, right?
I hear that Dynabite [an amazing pet food supplement] also uses flax seed oil.
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