Label Literacy
Everything on a supplement label is regulated. Almost nothing on it is required to be useful. These pieces teach you to read the panel the way the people who wrote it expect you not to.
A Supplement Facts panel is a legal document, and like most legal documents it is written to satisfy a rule rather than to inform you. It will tell you, truthfully, that a bottle contains cranberry extract. It is not required to tell you how much — not if that extract sits inside a proprietary blend. It will tell you the serving size is three capsules, which quietly triples the cost per day you assumed when you looked at the price. It will use the word “natural,” which has no legal definition at all, right next to “USP Verified,” which has a very precise one.
None of that is fraud. It is the difference between a document that is accurate and a document that is checkable, and almost all of the leverage a buyer has lives in that difference.
The pieces in this section are about closing it. Each one ends with something you can actually do — an arithmetic check, a comparison, a question — rather than a verdict you have to take on our word. The goal is not for you to trust us. It is for you to stop needing to.
In this section
How to Read a Supplement Facts Label
The panel line by line, in the order you should actually read it.
What a Proprietary Blend Does — and Doesn’t — Tell You
It discloses presence and order. It withholds dose. Here is the check that still works.
Ingredient Amount Versus Ingredient Presence
“Contains X” and “contains a researched dose of X” are different claims wearing the same words.
How Serving Size Quietly Changes Everything
Two capsules or three changes the dose, the cost per day, and how long the bottle lasts.
Label Terms That Sound More Meaningful Than They Are
Which words carry a legal definition, and which are decoration.