This blog tracks updates to the Blood Sugar 101 Web site.


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Herbal Supplements taken to the lab: No herbs, wrong herbs, and unlabelled wheat and beans

Page Changed: Text added:Worthless or Dangerous Supplements

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In February 2015, The Washington Post (owned by the same Jeff Bezos whose company, Amazon, sells thousands of supplements) reported on what happened when the New York State Attorney General sent store-bought herbal supplements purchased at Target, Walmart, Walgreens, and GNC to the lab. As the paper explains,
The tests were conducted using a process called DNA barcoding, which identifies individual ingredients through a kind of “genetic fingerprinting.” The investigators tested 24 products claiming to be seven different types of herb — echinacea, garlic, gingko biloba, ginseng, saw palmetto, St. John’s wort and valerian root. All but five of the products contained DNA that was either unrecognizable or from a plant other than what the product claimed to be.
Additionally, five of the 24 contained wheat and two contained beans without identifying them on the labels — both substances are known to cause allergic reactions.
 You can read the entire article HERE.