Grinding My Gears, Supplement Edition

It’s time for another round of supplements that shouldn’t or couldn’t exist, but you know some companies are selling them anyway. Plus a few more things that are making me mad in the supplement industry, because why not?

Supplements that shouldn't exist

First up is a bromelain tincture.

Bromelain is an enzyme complex found in pineapple. It breaks down proteins. 

As with other proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzymes, alcohol will degrade and break them down. So, an alcohol based tincture of bromelain will have almost no intact bromelain in it. As I always say, the best bromelain supplements have little to no active bromelain. 

Next up are herbal arnica capsules. Quick note: these are very different from homeopathic arnica pellets, so please don’t email us saying you take the pellets and are fine, because it’s an entirely different thing than what I am talking about here.

Arnica is a poisonous plant and should never be ingested. It can make you very, very sick. It should be illegal to sell herbal arnica capsules. What an absolutely awful idea to sell these.

Ingesting Essential Oils

Coming up third on our awful product list are essential oil pills or essential oils marketed for ingestion.

YOU SHOULD NOT INGEST ESSENTIAL OILS!

It doesn’t matter what claims the company makes or the purity of their oils. It is very dangerous to ingest essential oils, and they can cause serious damage to the gastrointestinal tract (and other things). Several popular essential oil companies claim their products are safe to ingest because they are “therapeutic grade.” There is no such thing as a therapeutic-grade essential oil. It’s just a made-up marketing term. You should also never put them on your skin undiluted. 

Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies

Apple cider vinegar gummies are the next nightmare on our list. For the love of God, if you take these, you must hate your teeth. Chewing a bunch of acetic acid in gummy form is a great way to make your dentist very wealthy. In addition, many gummy apple cider vinegar pills are spiked with additional acetic acid to cheat quality control testing. You are not getting the benefits of apple cider vinegar in a gummy. Deep down, you know this. I know you do. Listen to your gut, you know I’m right.

Poorly Packaged Supplements

Supplements in clear bottles are up next.

 This is one of the absolutely dumbest ways to package a supplement. Light breaks down lots of nutrients and compounds. If a company packages its supplements in clear packaging, it clearly (hehehehe) values marketing over quality.

Fiber Supplements That Don't Add Up

Next comes a very special fiber supplement made by a well-known, big company. This is not a bash of fiber. Fiber from whole foods (like fruits and veggies) is good stuff; it feeds your gut bacteria.

As you can see above, this product claims that 10 capsules provide 8 grams of carbohydrates, of which 5 grams are fiber. Well, the ingredients total only 3.7 grams. You cannot get five grams of fiber from 3.77 grams of ingredients. It’s even third-party tested and certified. Another excellent example of how third-party testing ensures high-quality supplements.

Questionable "Prenatal" Vitamins

Next up is a supplement being advertised as a “prenatal” vitamin.

According to their website, a whole serving contains only about 30 mcg of folate. No company should be able to advertise a product as a prenatal when it contains such a tiny amount of folate. Pregnant women must get enough folate to avoid neural tube defects in the developing baby. The daily value for folate during pregnancy is 600 mcg. Selling a vitamin with only around 30 mcg of folate and advertising it as a prenatal should be a crime. In addition, they claim it is a whole-food supplement when it contains magnesium glycinate, which is most certainly not a whole-food form of magnesium. Whole-food supplements should only contain whole foods! Another issue with it is that black haw herb can cause serious complications for a lot of pregnant women. Black haw does have some benefits for certain women during pregnancy, but it should only be used under the supervision of a doctor or midwife who knows what they are doing. I had to do a double-take when a pregnant woman asked me to look at this “prenatal” for her. Black haw should not be present in a prenatal. It should be a separate product used by those for whom it is appropriate. If I could rate this product less than zero stars, I would. I have never met a good herbalist or midwife who thought it would be appropriate to put black haw in a prenatal vitamin. This is wild stuff. However, after finding out who owns the company, it’s not surprising that they are doing crazy things. 

Fermented Multivitamins

Another wonderful class of products is “fermented” synthetic and isolated vitamins and minerals. 

"Fermenting" a synthetic vitamin or mineral does nothing to it. It does not change its structure or make it more bioavailable or absorbable because you cannot ferment an isolated molecule like ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or magnesium glycinate. You can ferment carbohydrate-containing foods like cabbage to get sauerkraut or milk to get yogurt, but you cannot ferment synthetic vitamins. Some companies will add a trace of fermented food to a traditional multivitamin and label it as a fermented supplement to trick people into thinking the product is entirely fermented. Anytime you see supplements claiming to be things like a fermented multivitamin, avoid them like the plague because they are full of crap.

Problems With Supplements Sold On Amazon

Finally, on this list of superstars, Amazon stands out for its amazing system for protecting consumers from adulterated, counterfeit, and low-quality supplements.

Twenty-two St. John’s Wort supplements purchased on Amazon were recently tested (results were released at the end of October 2025), and twenty-one of those failed testing. Nothing like a 95% failure rate.

• Nine brands contained synthetic dyes.

• Five brands had no detectable hypericin.

• None of the gummy brands had any detectable hypericin.

• Non-standardized St. John’s Wort whole herb is reported to have as low as 0.03% hypericin, and of the six products containing the non-standardized material, all had less than this amount.

Test results were confirmed by Alkemist Labs, one of the best botanical testing laboratories in the world. 

Excellent work, Amazon, excellent work, keep it up! Check out our blog to learn more about why buying supplements on Amazon is a terrible idea.

We wish all of you a very happy holiday season! Hopefully, it will be filled with delicious things, plenty of cookies, and may Santa bring you everything you asked for!