Inside the Capsule: What's Really in Your Herbal Supplements?

For many, herbal supplements are a regular part of life. Whether you take cranberry pills for urinary tract health, fish oil to support a healthy heart, or echinacea for a daily immune boost, you trust the company that supplies your supplements to use ingredients that do what they are supposed to.

Throughout the past decade, however, the herbal supplements industry has been under intense scrutiny by advocacy groups, researchers, and even industry representatives for its use of fillers and substitute ingredients in many widely distributed supplements. The problem, they say, is that the FDA doesn't regulate supplements the way food and drugs are regulated.

Of course, current FDA regulations prohibit mislabeling, but there is no way for the FDA to enforce this criteria. They leave it up to the individual companies to ensure the safety of their products and the accuracy of their labels. The companies can say whatever they want about the product - all they have to do is include a disclaimer stating that the accuracy of their claims has not been evaluated by the FDA. The FDA will only take action if a product already on the market is found to pose an unexpected health risk.

In a disturbing study conducted late in 2013 by Canadian researchers, a large number of popular supplement brands throughout Canada and the US were found to contain fillers like rice, soy, and wheat. Even more disturbing, some of the products were found to contain herbs that weren't listed on the label at all. This New York Times article explains the findings of the study in more detail.

With so many brands of supplements flooding the market and no fingers pointed at any specific brand, it can be hard to know who to trust for your herbal supplements. And it doesn't just stop at herbal supplements, either; things like your daily multivitamins, iron capsules, and prenatal vitamins have also escaped the FDA's regulations.

As a consumer, you shouldn't have to worry about whether your supplements fall into the possible 30% or more of dietary supplements that are falsely labeled. Unfortunately, since the government currently does very little to protect consumers' rights in this industry, you do have to worry.

So what can you do? Most representatives within the supplement industry claim that the problem is a very small one, isolated to only a few brands or products. Still, no one is naming the companies who use fillers or substitutions, so we can't know which products to avoid.

Taking supplements that sport the USP Verified Mark is the only way to ensure the safety and purity of the herbal and dietary supplements you put in your body every day. USP, or the US Pharmacopeial Convention, is an organization that sets strict standards for supplements. A company can submit its product to USP for verification, but USP verification is not currently mandatory. Any brand that uses the USP Verified Mark uses it on a voluntary basis. With the USP Verified Mark, however, you will know that you are getting a product that has met the strictest standards in the industry.