How we read a label

Where the number goes missing.

Four families, four ways the same trick gets played. Here's what the big number on the front actually refers to, what the number that matters is, and how to tell them apart on any bottle, ours included.

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650 mg organic root

Ashwagandha Magnificent $23.90 400 mg polysaccharides (40%)

Lion's Mane Mushroom Magnificent $33.90 275 mg elemental magnesium

Magnesium Glycinate Magnificent $26.90

This guide is educational and does not replace advice from a qualified healthcare provider. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

MAGNIFICENT · GUIDE

Four families

Start with the percentage.

Every figure on this page is printed on the manufacturer's own label. Where the number can also be checked against molecular weight, we've checked it. Where a product doesn't declare one, we say so instead of estimating.

Mg 11.0%

Magnesium

6 ref. →

A bottle doesn't contain magnesium: it contains a magnesium salt. Ours is glycinate, magnesium bound to glycine, which comes in through the amino acid pathway instead of the mineral one.

The label says 2,500 mg. The magnesium in it is 275 mg. That is 11% of the weight, and it's the number we print, because it's the only one you can compare against another bottle. Cheap bottles use oxide, which is 60% magnesium by weight and absorbs at under 5%: the big number writes itself.

Elemental Mg: 275 mg elemental magnesium per 3-capsule serving, from 2,500 mg of glycinate.
Confused with: With "magnesium 500 mg", which is the weight of the salt, not of the magnesium.
When to take it: At night. Glycinate is the form that is gentlest on the stomach.

300 mg

Omega-3 EPA/DHA

1 ref. →

The oldest trick in the aisle: the front of the bottle shouts 1,000 mg of fish oil, and fish oil is not the active ingredient. EPA and DHA are.

Ours declares 180 mg of EPA and 120 mg of DHA per serving. That is the figure that belongs on the front, so that's where we put it.

Elemental Mg: 180 mg EPA + 120 mg DHA per serving. 300 mg of actual omega-3.
Confused with: With the total milligrams of oil, which tell you nothing.
When to take it: With meals, twice a day. Fat-soluble, so not on an empty stomach.

650 mg root

Ashwagandha

1 ref. →

Ours is whole organic root, 650 mg a capsule, with 5 mg of black pepper. Not an extract, and the label says so.

The research mostly measures withanolides, and root powder isn't standardized for them. So nobody can tell you the percentage in this bottle, including us, and it ships without a bar. An empty bar is more honest than an invented number.

Elemental Mg: 650 mg organic root per capsule. Withanolide content: not declared.
Confused with: With "1,300 mg ashwagandha", which is root powder weight, not extract strength.
When to take it: Daily, with food. It works on a timescale of weeks, not hours.

40% polysaccharides

Lion's Mane

1 ref. →

Mushroom supplements are where the gap gets widest, because "mushroom" can mean fruiting body, mycelium, or the grain the mycelium grew on.

Ours is fruiting body and mycelium, standardized to 40% polysaccharides: 400 mg per serving, stated on the label. If a mushroom bottle doesn't say what part of the mushroom it is, ask.

Elemental Mg: 400 mg polysaccharides per serving, standardized to 40%.
Confused with: With mycelium-on-grain products, which are mostly grain.
When to take it: Daily, morning or with food.

How we work

Four rules with a number attached.

A value without a number is a nice sentence. These you can check.

%

The real dose, always first

On the product page, on the card and in search. It's the only figure you can compare between two bottles, and it's exactly the one the category hides behind the weight of the capsule.
0

Proprietary blends

If a product won't say how many milligrams of each ingredient it contains, it doesn't ship. We've turned down a turmeric and two probiotics on this rule alone. That blend exists so the expensive ingredient can appear in a token amount.
FDA

Claims we can stand behind

Structure/function claims only, worded conservatively and printed with the required FDA disclaimer. Anything that sounds like treating a disease is off the table, whatever the internet says.
Blank

An empty bar beats a made-up one

Some products have no published standardization, and some have no absorption research. Those ship with the bar left short or missing. Filling it in with an estimate would be the exact trick this store exists to point at.