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Supplement Review Websites - Can you Trust them?

Supplement Review Websites – Can You Trust Them?

How is it Possible that SO MANY supplement review websites can be so wrong?

Buying a supplement based on a recommendation from a supplement review website can be risky.

I have seen over 90% of supplements being recommended by supplement review websites that have less active ingredients and don’t have the proper manufacturing or testing to ensure purity and to ensure label accuracy.

We are unique in the supplement industry because we are the only supplement review website that researches and consolidates all the supplements that are being recommended as #1 by other supplement review websites.

We show you the real truth and the real best products in a simple and easy to read comparison chart.

Our charts clearly show you which supplements are truly the best, but they also show you that many supplement review websites are recommending supplements that have less active ingredients or aren’t manufactured or tested properly. The charts also show you that some of these review websites are recommending expensive products that have less ingredients.

When we reviewed a supplement called Elderberry, the most recommended Elderberry supplement only had 1500mg of elderberry in the entire bottle. This may sound like a lot but we easily found many other good brands that had over 20,000mg and some as high as 69,000mg in the bottle.

In fact 17 out of 30 supplement review websites recommended an elderberry supplement with less than 5000mg per bottle. That’s over 50% of them recommending low ingredient supplements. These results blew us away!

With us, we can’t lie or recommend a supplement for any other reason than it’s the best because our comparison charts would show that we are wrong. But other review websites don’t show you a comparison chart like we do because if they did they wouldn’t be able to recommend the product they wanted to because unlike us, they may have other motives for recommending a supplement.

We use pure science and real facts and our many years of experience in the supplement industry and in dealing with supplement companies to determine if the products the other supplement review websites are recommending are as good as they say they are.

Some of these reviews are even being written, or endorsed by, or fact checked by Doctors, Dieticians, Nurses, and Nutritionists and they are still recommending low quantity supplements that are not manufactured or tested properly.

We never bash them, instead we just compare the products and make it easy for everyone to see how wrong they sometimes are.

So why do so many of them get it wrong?

We discuss the many possible reasons why I would not trust most of them and neither should you.

Our Experience And There Experience

I started working in the supplement, health, and fitness industry in 1993 and for many years it was my primary job to review products for the simple purpose of finding and buying the best products for our customers.

Some years I have purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of products annually for a health and fitness retail chain. I have also had the opportunity to help in formula design for some of the worlds best selling supplements so I’ve been around the supplement block and back a few times over now!

I have also seen the shady and crappy supplements and thanks to many supplement review websites and on-line selling there has never been a time when so may inferior supplements are being sold.

They Have No Experience And No Background In Supplements

Based on my research of the individuals and the companies doing these reviews on supplements, it’s very rare to find someone with a lot of experience or a real background in supplements. This could be one of the reason why so many review websites are recommending supplements with low active ingredients and products that aren’t manufactured or tested well.

Why don't they recommend better products?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand supplements so why are so many review websites wrong? I may say they are wrong, but the word “WRONG” can actually be a matter of opinion.

Myself and my team may believe they are wrong because the product they recommend doesn’t have as much active ingredient as another one we found, or because we can’t find any information on the company to determine if they are legit or not, or maybe because they recommended a product that wasn’t 3rd-party tested or isn’t manufactured in an FDA regulated GMP facility.

To us, after many years in the supplement industry those things are important considerations when recommending a supplement to you and this is why we would consider one supplement to be the wrong supplement and one supplement to be the right supplement.

Other supplement review websites may not care about 3rd-party testing, or who or where the company is from, or about the safety and quality in the manufacturing process. It’s also quite clear that most review websites don’t care about how much active ingredient is being used in the clinical studies either.

They have a right to their opinion, even if their opinion means they prefer a supplement that has 90% less active ingredient than the one we recommend.

That’s why, when you choose to buy a supplement from most supplement review websites you are choosing to trust their opinion, and not the facts! I believe opinion is not what you need when you’re buying a supplement that is meant to improve your health?

 

It’s impossible to know for sure what their motives and reasons are for their choices or opinions, but our research shows that these reasons I discuss below likely have something to do with their choices.  What do you think?

Affiliate Marketers

Many supplement review websites are there for the purpose of making money from their recommendations, period!

This is called affiliate marketing and we believe that just about all supplement review websites are affiliate marketers to one degree or another.

Every time you click on a link to the product they recommend and you purchase that product or not they may get a commission.

Affiliate marketing is huge business and anyone, regardless of there experience in supplements can review supplements.

I’m not saying affiliate marketing is a bad thing because yes, even we do it to pay the bills and keep us going. I’m just saying that not all affiliate marketers and their websites are good.

Without affiliate marketing we would not be able to put 40 – 60 hours a week into researching 1 single supplement for you.

But do other affiliate marketers put in that much effort and have the same years of experience in supplements like we do to actually know what it is they should be researching? Hell NO!

And the reason I say No, is because with just about every single product I research I’ll find over 50% and sometimes up to 90% of supplement review websites recommending supplements with less active ingredients, or recommending supplements that are not manufactured in FDA GMP facilities or are not tested for purity and label accuracy by a third party testing company. And all of that matters.

If you buy a supplement that is not made in a legitimate FDA GMP facility you have know idea how well or how safely that product is being manufactured and if it’s not independently 3rd-party tested you could be consuming dangerous impurities like lead or arsenic, or you could be using a supplement that has 90% less ingredients than what’s on the label.

I’ve seen expensive supplements powders that were nothing more than cake mix in a bottle and have heard of supplement capsules that where nothing but rice powder. Check out our article on 3rd-Party testing and see why it’s so important.

We put finding the best product for your health above money and will even recommend a product that we don’t make any commission on, but will they?

The answer to that question is clear when you see the comparison charts that we provide with most supplements.

The below chart is a prime example and you can clearly see for yourself how the most recommended supplements compare to the actual facts.

Bloggers and Writers

Some of the supplement reviews websites and the top recommendations are written by “for hire” bloggers or freelance writers that have little to no real experience in the supplement industry.

These people are usually specialists in nothing, except maybe researching and writing articles for websites and blogs on various topics. They are NOT supplement experts, not even close!

I’m not saying they are bad people, it’s just that they are not specialists in supplements and health and fitness products and they often miss critical points that could be important to your health.

The crappy supplements I sometimes see them recommend are actual proof of their lack of knowledge on supplements or their lack of effort researching these supplements.

Who would you want to give you information about a heart condition or other health condition, your Doctor or a heart specialist, or some person you don’t know that just spent a day researching information about heart disease on the internet?

So should you rely on some freelance writer /blogger to tell you what the best supplement is for your health condition or health goal?

I have found so many supplements being recommended by bloggers and writers that have very low active ingredients, and many that are not manufactured or tested properly, and many that are extremely expensive and clearly not the best products.

These bloggers and writers may be hired by the person who owns the website or by the a supplement company to do a little research and then come up with a top 3 , a top 5 or top 10 list of the best products for them.

It often takes us over 40 hours to research clinical trials to determine if a product actually has proof of effectiveness, then we go through hundreds of supplements to compare them all, plus research the company that makes them to be sure they are legit and that the quality in manufacturing and testing is there, and then we determine which product is the best to recommend to out readers by using comparison charts that clearly prove which ones are best. 40 to 60 hours for 1 product!

There is no way these writers are spending 40 to 60 hours of research like we do just to do an article they might get paid very little for.

And chances are the information they are using is regurgitated crap from other supplement review websites, often written by other uneducated writers that are also wrong.

Doctor Reviewed And Endorsed

Sometimes you will see written by : author/bloggers name, and then fact checked by: Doctor so-and-so. . . We all trust doctors but guess what, doctors have little to NO training in supplements and that’s probably why I have found supplements that are fact checked by doctors, made by doctors, endorsed by doctors and reviewed by doctors, but are still not even close to being the best products!

I trust my doctor when it comes to health problems but not when it comes to supplements because most doctors are no more of a specialist on supplements then they are on cars, or horses.

Nutritionists, Dietitians, Nurses to. I hate to say it but they’re often no better than the doctors when it comes to recommending supplements. Not all of them of course, but it wont take me long to find an inferior product being endorsed or recommended by someone with a bunch of capitalized letters at the end of their name like these RN, MD, MScFN, RD, BSc., PHD. So don’t be fooled into a supplement just because it’s being recommended by someone in the medical industry.

And be away that, just because a blogger or writer says it was fact checked or peer reviewed doesn’t mean it’s right, it only makes it look good to those that don’t know any better!

Some of these supplement review websites that use freelance writers are the last place you want to get your supplement information from. But don’t just take my word for it, just look at what supplement they are reviewing and then check out our comparison charts to see how accurate or wrong they really are.

Motivation - Money, Money, Money

Often I will be researching a supplement and one supplement keeps getting recommended, yet when I compare it, it’s only a mediocre supplement at best.

When I go to that supplement brands website and I see that they are offering a higher commission it becomes clear that it’s very likely the review websites that are recommending this supplement are money motivated and are not recommending this supplement because it’s the best supplement for your health, they’re recommending it because it’s the one that makes them the most money.

It doesn’t matter whether they are good or bad products, these supplement review websites only care about promoting the product that makes them the most MONEY!

Weather they are being given free products as incentive for a top review, or the get paid cash for the best review, or they get higher commissions, someone is paying them to recommend there product so it’s BUYER BEWARE with these guys! Next time you see a review website recommending a supplement, look that supplement up on our website and see the comparison chart, you may find that supplement review website is legit, or maybe not!

Money may often be the biggest motivation for many supplement review companies to recommend one supplement over another.

Fake Review Websites

Unfortunately, through our research we have seen fake supplement review websites posing as legitimate, unbiased and unaffiliated supplement review websites.

They come across as a totally separate and unaffiliated supplement review website just trying to provide trusted reviews for people and they make it look like their #1 product is from an unaffiliated brand. They even add and bunch of other brands to look legit.

But, in truth the review website and the company that owns the #1 product brand that is being recommended are the exact same company.

This is shady marketing but we have seen in many times, so buyer beware! See below for a good example of this . . . 

Ads At Top Of The Top Of The Search Page

If you do a google search for a supplement sometimes at the top or bottom of some search pages you will see relevant ads for that search. You might type in “The best turmeric supplement” and see the top 2 or 3 listings are actually ads.

It’s VERY RARE to find a best supplement in one of these ads! Many of those supplements are low dose or low quality or not 3rd party tested supplements that are relying on the ads and marketing to sell their crappy supplements, and it works! They are almost NEVER the best supplement!

Some people fall for the marketing hype and buy these crappy supplements. I know this for a fact because if people weren’t buying, these brands wouldn’t keep advertising.

I’m not saying all the ads are bad supplements, but the fact is that many of the shadiest products I have found come from those ads and I have yet to find a best product from on one of those ads!

If it’s an ad from a supplement review website, it’s probably even worse!

I have found that most of the time supplement review websites that use ads are shady and misleading and you should be very cautious about reviews from them.

I’ve yet to find a supplement review website from these ads that have recommended a true best supplement!

The most recent example that I found was from this ad seen below that claimed they tested 144 Turmeric brands. Wow, that’s more than we reviewed so I was excited and had to take a look. Here’s what I found.

Supplement Review Websites can be a scam
Actual Ad From Google

You can see a few key points from this ad that grab the consumers attention:

  • First its says “we tested 144” – I could not find any info in the article about actual tests!
  • Then it says “we reviewed 144”– So which one is it, did they review them or did they test them, because there’s a BIG difference between testing and reviewing a supplement.
  • Then is says “Scams Exposed” – But we could not find anything about scams in the article and after reading this article I think the only scam is this article/ad itself.
  • Then it says “2020’s top 5 Turmeric Curcumin Supplements” – we found this funny because their number 2 supplement was actually way better with almost 30,000mg more active ingredient than their number 1 product and our top 3 recommended products were also way better supplements.
That’s when I came to the conclusion that this article and the number 1 product they are recommending might be affiliated in some way. Of course I can’t prove that but this is about as shady as it gets because I also found:
  • A picture of the author who is dressed like a doctor with a stethoscope around his neck but for some weird reason there was no credentials like MD or PHD behind his name – Is he even a real doctor or just made to look like one? All doctors list their credentials on publications like this, but not this guy, because doing so would be very illegal especially if he is not a real doctor. Talk about shady!
A product label from a Supplement Review Website

Did The Doctor Just Lie?

In the authors review on his #1 recommended product he claims “The dosage of curcumin in this supplement comes out to 1,300 mg, which is over TWICE the amount you’ll find in other brands.”

WOW, that sounds awesome, but, I quickly found out that was a big load of BS because the bottle label seen here from the brands website actually says 1300mg of Turmeric Root, NOT Curcumin, (I guess the doctor doesn’t know the difference) because if it’s Turmeric, even at a very high percentage of 6% curcumin, that’s only 78mg of actual Curcumin, but wait – the label also says it has 100mg Turmeric standardized to 95% which is an additional 95mg of Curcumin – So the real total per serving is ONLY about 173mg of Curcumin per dose, not 1300mg as the good doctors says.

173mg is a far cry from the claimed 1300mg of Curcumin and about at least 70% less than the top 3 Turmeric supplements that we recommend.

  • At one point in his article he claims “Some studies have shown that only 400mg to 500mg is necessary to get the health benefits promised by this supplement”. So why is he recommending his number 1 product with only 173mg then?

I guess the good doctor forgot how to do his math, and I guess out of the 144 products he tested and reviewed he didn’t review our top 3 products which is funny because they are some of the most popular Turmeric supplements in the industry and they’re pretty easy to find, so I’m so not sure how he missed those ones. Or maybe he just left those ones out because they made his #1 recommended supplement look bad.

  • He also says ” The problem is that, unfortunately, curcumin doesn’t really get absorbed into the body when you just eat turmeric.” So, I wondered why is his number 1 recommended supplement is over 90% Turmeric, 1300mg of it and only 100mg of extract? Hmmm?
  • Also, I was a bit stumped because his number 1 recommended product has, at the very most(based on 6%) has 5190mg of Curcumin per bottle at whopping $6.93 per 1000 mg of curcumin, but his number 2 recommended product which he also claimed was very expensive has 37,200mg per bottle and was only .52 cents per 1000mg of curcumin. His number 2 product was over $6 dollars cheaper for a 1000mg serving and has over 30,000 mg more per bottle. WOW.. he’s not even close! So why was he saying the #2 product was so expensive?
  • Also, the good doctors recommend a #1 and #2 product that we could not find any indication that they were 3rd party tested or not. I guess he hasn’t he read our report on why 3rd-Party testing is so important?
  • The good doctor said “I am the lead content writer and product reviewer with a wealth of experience in the field of nutrition and commercial supplements, every time I read that it makes me laugh 🙂 what do you think?
  • His article also claims that it is an Advanced Research Guide to help inform the health-conscious reader about what turmeric curcumin is, what good turmeric supplements contain, how to avoid bad supplements,” yet he recommends a supplement with low amounts of Curcumin, lies about how much is in each serving, and recommends you buy a product not 3rd party tested. If this guy truly has a wealth of experience in the field of commercial supplements he makes me look and an All-Star 🙂

As you can see this whole ad/article is a BIG load of BS, but in America and on the Internet, I guess everyone has a right to their opinion and that’s his opinion!

This example shows you that as a consumer of supplements you need to be extremely cautious when looking for the best supplements from so-called supplement review websites and so-called supplement experts because as the good doctor mentioned in his ad, there are scams to be exposed. Maybe Scams like his . . .

Want to see that article. If it is still up just copy and paste this in your browser bar. https://joint-health-reviews.com/best-turmeric.php?f=adwords-turmeric&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrvHZ4pXB6gIVsuy1Ch07lwIzEAAYASAAEgLkl_D_BwE

Good Intentions, Bad Advice

I know there actually some review websites out there that are actually done by good people that truly want to help and recommend a great product for you and your health, just like we do.

Unfortunately, good intentions aren’t always enough and sometime these good people just don’t understand the nature of some supplements or they just don’t research them well enough and they end up recommending products that really aren’t the best.

I hope one day many other supplement review websites will find our website and use it to help them recommend better products which will benefit more consumers. If they do there will be less crap supplements sold!

The Copy Cats

We are very unique in the supplement review category. We are the only website out of hundreds that we have reviewed to-date that basically shows you why many other websites may be wrong and can’t be trusted and we actually show you comparison charts on all the products they recommend so you can make an educated decision.

It’s not that we want to bash other review websites or prove they are wrong so we look better, it’s just that recommending inferior products means they are playing with your health, and we believe people deserve better!

We are the first to review products like this and to provide comparisons for all the see. And we know that once these other websites start realizing we make them look bad, untrustworthy and even dumb, they will be more cautious of what they recommend next time and thhat’s a good thing for all consumers!

But we also know we are basically doing a lot of the research and work for these other review websites and they will be copying us and using our research for future reviews that they do. We are basically educating them too so they can more easily recommend better products in the future.

But we don’t care about that because we also know our valued readers will know who is leading the way and who they can get quality and trusted advice from every time they log in to SmartWaysHealth.com.

If you know anyone that uses supplement and wants to know what the true best supplements are, then send them our address. www.smartwayshealth.com

Want To See How Wrong Other supplement Review Websites Can Be?

WANT PROOF

A confused shopper wondering about Supplement Review Websites

We looked at the first 29 supplement review websites that came up on our Google search for the best Curcumin supplement.

We do this with all new supplements that we want to review. In this case we wanted to know how other websites rated Curcumin supplements.

We though that most of these supplement review websites would also like the same one that we liked because ours was so good, but we were blown away when the results of the comparisons where finalized.

We were first surprised by how many #1 products there were. 16 number 1 products – How is that possible?

We wanted to know why these websites would choose some of these products and who these reviewers were.

We wanted to know how much supplement experience and knowledge did these guys actually have?

We did a lot of research on the reviewers and the whole supplement review industry and this is what we found.

89% Were Wrong?

26 out of 29 review websites did not choose the same #1 product that we though was the best based on science and facts, so we dug a little deeper to find out why?

We believe 26 out of 29, that’s 89% of supplement review websites may have got it wrong, but why and how is that possible?

The Numbers Don't Lie

Check out this quick comparison first and you will clearly see what we are talking about.

TOP 4 BEST RATED CURCUMIN COMPARISON

These top 4 Curcumin products were chosen as the #1 products by 14 out of the 29 supplement review websites. Lets compare them to each other. Then ask yourself, WHO WILL YOU TRUST FROM NOW ON?

First, you should know that for best results most clinical studies showed using 1000mg to 2000mg daily was optimal for results.

But some review websites recommended Curcumin products that barely had 2000mg in the entire bottle, while others have 57,000mg per bottle. 2000 mg is only enough for two days worth if you wanted 1000mg of Curcumin a day.

Lets see how much these top 4 recommended Curcumin products actually have and how they compared?

Sports Research Turmeric Curcumin

OUR TOP CHOICE

  • Only 3 websites said it was #1
  • 57,000mg curcumin per bottle
  • 57 servings at 1ooomg curcumin per serving
  • .52 cents per 1000mg curcumin serving
  • YES – GMP and 3rd Party tested
Vimerson Health Tumeric Curcumin

THEIR TOP CHOICE

  • 5 websites said it was #1
  • only 4950mg curcumin per bottle
  • 4.95 servings at 1ooomg curcumin per serving
  • $4.01 per 1000mg curcumin serving
  • N/A
BioSchwartz Turmeric Curcumin
  • 3 websites said it was #1
  • only 6240mg curcumin per bottle
  • 6.24 servings at 1ooomg curcumin per serving
  • $3.01 per 1000mg curcumin serving
  • YES – GMP and 3rd Party tested
Gaia Herbs, Turmeric
  • 3 websites said it was #1
  • only 1800mg curcumin per bottle
  • 1.8 servings 1ooomg curcumin per serving
  • $16.20 per 1000mg curcumin serving
  • Yes – GMP and 3rd Party tested

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

At no point am I saying 3 of these supplements are bad and only the one we recommend is good.

You put a Mercedes-Maybach Exelero car which is priced at $8 Million dollars side by side with a fully loaded 2020 BMW 5-Series which sells for $110,000, one car is not bad and the other is good, there both pretty great cars, they just offer different things for different people, just like these supplements do.

But, with this comparison you can clearly see for yourself that there is a huge variance in the amount of active ingredients per bottle and a price range from .52 cents per 1000mg to over $16 dollars per 1000mg of Curcumin, ouch!

So if the amount of active ingredients and the price matters to you than maybe the other supplement review websites might not be for you. Remember 26 out of 29 review websites for curcumin did not recommend our top choice show here and instead recommended a product with less active ingredients!

The majority of review websites recommended products that had less the 7 daily servings of 1000mg of Curcumin.

Many review websites also recommended supplements that did not have 3rd-Party testing and were not made in cGMP facilities. Read why that’s important.

See our FULL comparison chart of all sixteen #1 rated Curcumin supplements from all 29 review websites on our Curcumin Page

Our comparison even shows that 3 websites thought it made sense to recommend their #1 Curcumin product that cost $16.20 for 1000gm of Curcumin, while other products only cost .52 cents for 1000mg of Curcumin! WOW.. How insane is that? Why would they do that?

In defense of this product, it’s not actually a Curcumin product anyway, it’s a Turmeric product and some people believe that whole Turmeric is better than concentrated curcumin, which is fine by me, but then why would a supplement review website reviewing Curcumin products include it in their best curcumin review and even make it their number 1 Curcumin choice?

And why would those websites recommend a curcumin product that is clearly so expensive for so little Curcumin?

Do they not understand what a Curcumin product is? Or did they not research to find out how much Curcumin is actually used in studies?

Maybe they make more commissions on this product?

Who knows, but let me assure you, I won’t be using those 5 reviews sites if I ever wanted good advice on supplements, will you?

Want to know who they are? I don’t want to end up in court fighting because I said something bad about another review website or a brand so I’m not going to tell you who they are but, I can’t stop you from just doing a simple google search for the Best Curcumin Supplements where you will find them yourself, at least until they realize how wrong we make them look and they change their recommendations, because nobody wants to look that bad!

Conclusion:

There are actually some great products from some great brands out there and I’m not saying don’t believe any supplement review websites because there are a few good ones out there.

All I am saying is just be careful which ones you choose to trust, especially if you don’t fully understand the product that your are trying to buy.

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Graham - SmartWays Supplement Expert

In pursuit of health and wellness!

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