How to Read a Supplement Label Without Getting Fooled

Every number in a Supplement Facts panel is stated per serving, and the serving is whatever the manufacturer decided. A bottle of 60 capsules at two capsules per serving is a 30-day supply, not 60 days.

This is the single most common way a product looks stronger and cheaper than it is. Two products showing the same milligram figure are not comparable until you check how many capsules that figure requires.

Ingredients with an established Daily Value show a percentage. Most peptide and botanical ingredients have none, so you see a dagger and a footnote reading "Daily Value not established". That is neutral information, not a warning — it means no reference intake has been set, nothing more.

Watch the units. Micrograms and milligrams differ by a factor of a thousand, and a panel listing 1,000 mcg alongside another listing 1 mg is stating the same amount two ways.

A proprietary blend lists several ingredients under one total weight. You learn the combined amount and the descending order by weight. You do not learn how much of each.

That structure permits a blend to be dominated by the cheapest ingredient while the expensive one appears in a trace amount. The formula is protected; so is the manufacturer from having to justify the dose.

Blends are not automatically dishonest, and some are genuinely proprietary work. But a product that discloses each ingredient and its amount is giving you something a blend cannot.

Below the panel sits the "Other ingredients" line: capsule material, diluents, flow agents, colourants. This is where allergens live and where a vegetarian capsule is distinguished from gelatin.

A complete list is a quality signal. Vagueness here — a proprietary base, an unspecified coating — is worth noticing.

Supplement claims must describe structure or function, not treatment of disease. "Supports joint comfort" is permitted; "treats arthritis" is not. Any structure/function claim must carry the disclaimer that the statement has not been evaluated by the FDA and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

A supplement making an explicit disease claim is not being bolder. It is out of compliance, and that tells you what to expect from the rest of its operation.