How to read a supplement label (and the four tricks to watch for)
Most supplement labels are designed to be looked at rather than read. Here's how to actually read one, and the four tricks that are used to make a weak product look strong.
1. Find the serving size first, not the ingredient list
Everything on the panel is per serving, and the serving is whatever the brand decided it was. A tub advertising 5g of an ingredient might mean 5g per four capsules, and the tub might contain 30 capsules — which is seven and a half days, not thirty.
Divide the container size by the serving size before you compare anything on price. Brands know most people don't.
2. Proprietary blends hide the ratio, and that's the point
"Recovery Complex — 500mg" containing eight ingredients tells you the total and nothing else. It could be 480mg of the cheapest one and 20mg split between the rest.
This is legal and extremely common. There's exactly one reason to use a blend rather than list amounts individually, and it isn't protecting a formula — competitors can pay a lab to reverse-engineer it in a week. It's so you can't tell how little you're getting.
If a label won't give you individual amounts, assume the actives are underdosed. You'll be right most of the time.
3. The form matters as much as the amount
Two products can both say "magnesium 100mg" and be completely different products.
Magnesium oxide is cheap, poorly absorbed, and famous for upsetting stomachs. Magnesium bisglycinate is considerably more expensive, well absorbed and gentle. Both are legally "magnesium".
Same story elsewhere. Zinc oxide versus zinc bisglycinate. Cheap synthetic vitamin E versus the natural form. If the label only gives you the mineral name and not the form, that's usually because the form isn't a selling point.
4. Compare the dose against the research, not against other products
The useful question isn't "is this more than the competitor's" — it's "is this the amount the studies actually used".
Creatine research uses 3–5g daily. Collagen studies for skin or joints typically run 2.5–15g. BCAA work usually starts around 5g. When a product contains a gram of something that's studied at ten, that ingredient is on the label for marketing rather than for you.
This cuts both ways, and it's worth saying about our own products: our creatine is at 5g, which is the researched dose. Our collagen sits at 2g, which is below where most collagen research runs. We print both numbers on the front, and we lead our marketing on the creatine rather than the collagen, because that's the honest way round.
5. In the UK, check what the claims actually say
Britain and the EU only permit health claims from an approved register, and the approved wording is usually stiff and specific — "contributes to normal muscle function", "contributes to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue".
Vague, exciting language — "supercharges your metabolism", "detoxifies" — isn't more impressive. It means no authorised claim exists, so the brand made something up that sounds like one.
Stiff, boring wording is usually the sign that somebody checked.
The thirty-second version
- Work out the real cost per day, not per tub
- No individual amounts means underdosed
- Look for the form, not just the mineral
- Compare against the researched dose
- Boring claim wording is a good sign