Posted on 02/03/2015 5:07:03 PM PST by Mount Athos
DNA testing on hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble found that four out of five contained none of the herbs on the label. Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants.
Based on the testing commissioned by his office, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday he has sent letters to the four major store chains involved — GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreens — demanding that they immediately stop selling adulterated or mislabeled dietary supplements.
Nutritionist David Schardt of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the tests show that the supplement industry is in urgent need of reform, and until that happens, consumers should stop wasting their money.
Schneiderman said tests found no echinacea or any other plant material in bottles of Walmart's Spring Valley Echinacea. He said no ginseng was found in 20 tests of GNC's Herbal Plus Ginseng, which is taken to boost energy.
DNA tests found such substances as rice, beans, pine, citrus, asparagus, primrose, wheat, houseplant, wild carrot and unidentified non-plant material — none of which were mentioned on the label.
The store chain with the poorest showing was Walmart, where only 4 percent of the products tested showed DNA from the plants listed on the labels.
The DNA tests were done on three to four samples of each supplement purchased. Each sample was tested five times. Overall, 390 tests involving 78 samples were conducted.
But Arthur Grollman, a physician and pharmacology professor at Stony Brook University, called the study "a well-controlled, scientifically based documentation of the outrageous degree of adulteration in the herbal supplement industry."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
” Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants. “
And they work as good as the real ones ...
Another “no shit Sherlock” moment brought to you by the Attorney General of New York.
Translation: We cooked up a study so that you ingest what we tell you to ingest and that’ll be expensive petrochemical drugs that make us rich. The end.
What, no kelp in my kelp tablets? At least my Chlorophyll capsules have real grass in them!
I only get supplements from my Chinese herbal doctor. He mixes them specially for me from the herbs he keeps. Supermarket herbs are cr@p!
it is still just ROTTEN that there are sellers who mislabel and fail to deliver the products people want and pay for
this is why we get more govt regulation, and frankly if this report is accurate...if it is borne out by other studies and tests......then yes we (regretfully) do need some more govt
some of these herbs and vitamins and powders can help people sometimes (but obviously not if cheap fillers are substituted for the real stuff)
so this sort of krap in the agora hurts people not only in their pocketbooks but, in some instances, with their health too
very very rotten situation, methinks, and the govt has to clean this up!
I take kelp too.
I bought a few grams of hash from a guy on the street in Amsterdam back in 1976.
Ended up paying $50 for a chunk of rubber gum eraser.
Can't trust the Dutch ever since.
Blond blue-eyed weasels.
If true, this is massive fraud. Why aren’t people doing perp walks?
To save money on Herbal cures and homeopathy, I just write the magic word on a piece of paper, and put it under my pillow.
My kelp is “Nature’s Way,” and my chlorophyll is GNC brand. (The label says it has alfalfa in it.) A quick search shows that Spring Valley products are sold at other discount retailers such as Walgreens.
I know their Tea Tree Oil has real tea tree in it: can’t mistake the smell or the tingle, and it cures everyone’s funguses.
No one tests these things. No one.
A lot of the US fabricators probably have good intentions.
The REAL problem:
CHINA supplies far more than 90% of the inputs for the final products. Though their role is huge, the Chinese payment cut is tiny and naturally they are constantly to squeeze more profit out of the arrangements by lowering their costs.
Why not just sell the foolish, greedy Americans NOTHING..?
And so they DO.
If you really, really need some herbal product, buy the seeds off of Ebay and then GROW the plant —cheaper and you can TRUST the end product.
Indeed. And it’s amazing even to a seasoned olde cynic like me - that such large and reputable merchants are selling fake or adulterated products of any kind- and especially when some of them are purchased for health purposes.
You should get what you pay for. No matter what you are buying.
Only 4% of Walmart herbals had DNA of the herb advertised on the label. 4 bottles of every 100 were correct. Do you think that’s a good thing? I’m not an enemy of Walmart, but dammit, When I pay for something, I expect to get it. This junk probably comes from China where they used to put a poisonous chemical used in making plastic as an additive to dog food with an attitude of how can they come after us here in China.
I use Nature’s Way Kelp as well. The brand seems to be well thought of.
That Dr on Noorys show said half of it is bs.
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