In recent days I have been doing some research about the vitamin company Biotics Research Corportation.
This company is used widely by many alternative medicine doctors and chiropractors.
First according to this company's website (http://www.bioticsresearch.com) here are their claims about their products:
1. We maintain complete control over the selection of raw materials and the testing of ingredients prior to their approval for use in our products.
2. All incoming raw materials are subject to appropriate testing prior to their release for production. Tests conducted include identity, potency, biological activity, microbiological, including bacteria, yeast and mold (including aflatoxins) and heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead & mercury). Retained samples are maintained of all raw materials and finished products for future testing requirements (raw material stability and finished product expiration date verification).
3. Unlike many companies that are struggling to meet the new GMP requirements established by the FDA.--Here are the requirements.
If you noticed these supposed FDA requirements are for the regulation of medical products. If you go to the FDA website you can find that there is actually no regulation requirements for nutritional supplements so I would view this company's claim as false or wrong information.
So I called the company (800-231-5777). I spoke to Kelly.
Here are the questions I asked with her responses:
Are your supplements made from all natural raw materials? and if so can you guarantee it?
Most of our supplements contain raw materials, but it depends on what is available in the market. So we can't guarantee that every product every round will have the same amount of raw materials.
Do the ingredients in the supplements come from non-genetically altered materials which have been grown free from pesticides- are you able to guarantee it?
We can guarantee that our supplements do not come from genetically altered materials, but they are not organic.
Do you do your own testing or do you invest in 3rd party testing for purity and quality?
We do our own testing on-site for purity.
So you know where all your ingredients originate from?
No, we have several vendors we receive our individual ingredients from and then we test them here.
What are your quality standards for testing?
It would take me hours to explain that to you as it is different for every product.
How are your soy products produced? Are they heated?
We receive our soy from outside sources, but it is in the raw form. It is processed here at low temperatures.
What temperature is that at?
We don't give out that information.
Based on this information, you be the judge if this is a company you are comfortable with. For me personally I would not use this company based on their answers. For questions email me at: genesistohealth@comcast.net
Friday, February 18, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Who's Testing YOUR Supplements?
It's so tempting... You've been getting your supplements from a company that you know and trust - a company that does clinical studies on their products and performs rigorous quality controls.
You know their products are pure, safe and effective... BUT... You're shopping in your favorite drug store or discount store and you see the same supplements for just a couple of dollars! You can't help thinking... "Wow! Here's the same stuff I've been taking for a lot less money"..."Why not save my money?"..."They must have run some quality control tests on their products"... "After all, how bad can they be?"
The answer is - pretty bad! Check out the following information from Stephen Chaney, PhD.
The events of last week illustrate just how bad. On March 2nd, 2010 the makers and sellers of fish oil supplements were sued by the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation in California for not telling consumers that their products contained toxic levels of PCBs.
I find it amusing and somewhat scary that the FDA did not initiate this action and force the manufacturers to take their contaminated products off the shelves. Instead an environmental consumers group had to sue them for not including PCBs on the label! They sued them under California proposition 65 which requires a warning label whenever a product contains toxic
ingredients.
The defendants in this lawsuit were Omega Protein, a Houston-based company that is the world's largest producer of omega-3 fish oil, and the many companies that they produced fish oil for - companies like Rite Aid, CVS, GNC, Now Health Group, Pharmavite, Solgar and Twinlab.
And those aren't the only ones. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation only tested 10 omega-3 supplements manufactured by Omega Protein to date and have found PCBs in all of them. They plan to continue testing and to add other companies to the lawsuit if their products are also contaminated.
Even scarier is that many of labels on these products said that the omega-3 supplement was treated to reduce or remove PCBs. As a consumer you were lead to believe that they were safe!
The bottom line is that the manufacturer probably didn't test for PCBs and neither did the companies selling their omega-3 supplements to the consumer. The alternative - that they tested the products, knew that they were contaminated with PCBs and sold them to the public anyway - is even worse. As if that weren't scary enough the FDA announced a massive recall of products containing textured vegetable protein manufactured by a company called Basic Food Flavors because of salmonella contamination.
The problem is that there are at least 56 different kinds of consumer products containing this company's textured vegetable protein - including salad dressings, dips, packaged snacks, potato chips and soup mixes (Who knew that salad dressings contained textured vegetable protein?). That means that this recall will be huge. It will affect many foods that most people buy and use every day. Once again, the problem is that neither the manufacturer or the companies using the textured vegetable protein had run the basic quality control assays that would have detected salmonella contamination.
So What Can You Do as a Consumer?
1) Get your supplements from an established company with a reputation for quality and integrity. I would recommend choosing a company that has been around for a number of years so that you know that their reputation is based on their track record over the years rather than just on hype.
2) Make sure that they run rigorous quality controls on their products. I would choose a company that requires pharmaceutical grade quality controls on their products.
3) Make sure that they have published clinical studies on their products that prove both safety and effectiveness. Again I would recommend choosing a company that has many published clinical studies on their products rather than just one or two.
Why I Choose Shaklee Supplements
I choose Shaklee supplements because Shaklee insists on rigorous quality control tests on every one of their ingredients and on their finished products. For example, they import ultra pure, triple distilled fish oil from England and test it for PCB contamination after they receive it. They also have published over 70 clinical studies on their products in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Shaklee is very unique in the industry.
You know their products are pure, safe and effective... BUT... You're shopping in your favorite drug store or discount store and you see the same supplements for just a couple of dollars! You can't help thinking... "Wow! Here's the same stuff I've been taking for a lot less money"..."Why not save my money?"..."They must have run some quality control tests on their products"... "After all, how bad can they be?"
The answer is - pretty bad! Check out the following information from Stephen Chaney, PhD.
The events of last week illustrate just how bad. On March 2nd, 2010 the makers and sellers of fish oil supplements were sued by the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation in California for not telling consumers that their products contained toxic levels of PCBs.
I find it amusing and somewhat scary that the FDA did not initiate this action and force the manufacturers to take their contaminated products off the shelves. Instead an environmental consumers group had to sue them for not including PCBs on the label! They sued them under California proposition 65 which requires a warning label whenever a product contains toxic
ingredients.
The defendants in this lawsuit were Omega Protein, a Houston-based company that is the world's largest producer of omega-3 fish oil, and the many companies that they produced fish oil for - companies like Rite Aid, CVS, GNC, Now Health Group, Pharmavite, Solgar and Twinlab.
And those aren't the only ones. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation only tested 10 omega-3 supplements manufactured by Omega Protein to date and have found PCBs in all of them. They plan to continue testing and to add other companies to the lawsuit if their products are also contaminated.
Even scarier is that many of labels on these products said that the omega-3 supplement was treated to reduce or remove PCBs. As a consumer you were lead to believe that they were safe!
The bottom line is that the manufacturer probably didn't test for PCBs and neither did the companies selling their omega-3 supplements to the consumer. The alternative - that they tested the products, knew that they were contaminated with PCBs and sold them to the public anyway - is even worse. As if that weren't scary enough the FDA announced a massive recall of products containing textured vegetable protein manufactured by a company called Basic Food Flavors because of salmonella contamination.
The problem is that there are at least 56 different kinds of consumer products containing this company's textured vegetable protein - including salad dressings, dips, packaged snacks, potato chips and soup mixes (Who knew that salad dressings contained textured vegetable protein?). That means that this recall will be huge. It will affect many foods that most people buy and use every day. Once again, the problem is that neither the manufacturer or the companies using the textured vegetable protein had run the basic quality control assays that would have detected salmonella contamination.
So What Can You Do as a Consumer?
1) Get your supplements from an established company with a reputation for quality and integrity. I would recommend choosing a company that has been around for a number of years so that you know that their reputation is based on their track record over the years rather than just on hype.
2) Make sure that they run rigorous quality controls on their products. I would choose a company that requires pharmaceutical grade quality controls on their products.
3) Make sure that they have published clinical studies on their products that prove both safety and effectiveness. Again I would recommend choosing a company that has many published clinical studies on their products rather than just one or two.
Why I Choose Shaklee Supplements
I choose Shaklee supplements because Shaklee insists on rigorous quality control tests on every one of their ingredients and on their finished products. For example, they import ultra pure, triple distilled fish oil from England and test it for PCB contamination after they receive it. They also have published over 70 clinical studies on their products in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Shaklee is very unique in the industry.
For information about the company Shaklee or for ordering information click here.
I'd also be happy to answer any questions or to help you choose the correct supplement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)