Understanding Supplement Labels

Your questions… how much the beagle in me loves them.  You come in and ask me something like the very benign, “Do you know of any calcium supplements that don’t require so many pills?”  Easy enough.  I have the supplement suppliers I prefer, but I get that nudge and muse, “I’ll just check around”.  Suddenly, as if a squirrel has taken me to the edge of my kingdom,  I’m onto a whole new trail full of ‘scents’ that compel me further to a world of ‘wonder’.  Sadly, it shouldn’t be so, at least in this case. 

When I began this search, I thought, as most do, that nutritional labels had been standardized for easy comparison.  Because there can  be issues with absorbancy, I was searching for the best chelate/compound form of calcium.   While this can be a factor, there was a comment on one reputable website that stated a substance can be listed in elemental or compound form and, “Don’t be deceived by the total weight of each tablet.”  Well, that’s logical… and then I saw the ‘squirrel.’ Of the products I was researching,  the supplement lines read as follows:

Elemental calcium                  500mg       50%DV

Calcium (as calcium citrate)   500mg       50%DV

Calcium (from calcium citrate) 500mg       50%DV

Calcium (as calcium citrate)   1000mg    100%DV

Hmmmmmmm...what do they mean, and what do they want me to think?  Sniff, Sniff.

After phone calls to the various company lab technicians/ scientists I found that:

From definitely means that the amount of calcium listed, 500mg, is referring to the elemental calcium and lists its source with the word from .  No problem.

As, on the other hand, is not so easy.  One company explained that it refers to the elemental calcium and lists its presenting form with as.  There was a price difference however. so I contacted the other company using  as.  They explained it was the total weight of the product and that, upon pressing, the actual amount of elemental calcium was only 30% of the weight listed.  Explains the price difference.  Problem.

After researching the nutritional guideline laws, there is no standardized definition, therefore there is no legal misdoing.  However, both in price and in dietary requirements this can have a huge impact on you, the consumer.

There are 2 remedies.  First, you can contact your supplement maker and get a clarification as I did.  You can also ask your health care practitioner if they have verified their suppliers’ positions.  Finally, you can for simplicity’s sake, choose only those products with the words ‘elemental’ or ‘from.’

As an aside,  all research indicates that the body cannot absorb more than 600mg of calcium at a time.  Therefore the 1000mg supplement  would have been and inappropriate dosage.  (This  happened to be the combined weight product providing you with only 300mg of elemental calcium)

Sources include fda.gov, nih.gov, Mayoclinic.com, DrOz.com, drweil.com, supplementquality.com, gnc, metagenics, biotics research, douglas labs.