Journal — Transparency
There is a word that appears on thousands of supplement labels, positioned as a mark of sophistication. It reads: Proprietary Blend. What it actually means is: we are not going to tell you how much of anything is in here.
This is legal. The FDA requires supplement manufacturers to list every ingredient on the label — but it does not require them to disclose individual doses within a blend. So a company can list ten impressive-sounding compounds, give the blend a total weight of 500mg, and distribute that 500mg however it likes. Often that means 480mg of the cheapest filler and 2mg each of the nine things you actually wanted.
This practice has a name in the industry: “fairy dusting.” It refers to sprinkling just enough of a premium ingredient to justify listing it on the label — not enough to do anything physiologically meaningful, but enough to make the marketing possible.
Why clinical dosing matters
Every ingredient that has been studied in humans has a dose range at which it produces a measurable effect. This range is established through randomised controlled trials — the kind that get published in peer-reviewed journals, not the kind funded by the manufacturer and posted on their website.
For example: clinical trials on Lion’s Mane mushroom and cognitive function typically use between 500mg and 3,000mg of fruiting body extract per day. A supplement that contains 50mg — common in multi-ingredient “focus” blends — is not providing a therapeutic dose. It is providing a marketing talking point.
This matters because your body does not respond to names. It responds to doses. An ingredient you have heard of, in an amount too small to matter, does not become effective because of brand recognition.
How to read a supplement label in three minutes
1. Look for a Supplement Facts panel with individual doses listed. Every ingredient should have its own milligram or microgram amount shown separately. If you see a “blend” with a single total weight, put it down.
2. Search for the clinical dose of the primary ingredient. Google the ingredient name + “clinical trial” or “effective dose.” If the product contains 10% of what research actually uses, it is not a clinical product — it is a label claim.
3. Check for third-party testing. The supplement industry is not regulated like pharmaceuticals. A company can put anything on the label. Third-party testing (NSF, USP, Informed Sport, or HPLC verification) confirms the label actually matches what is in the capsule.
4. Count the ingredients sceptically. Fifteen ingredients in one capsule means fifteen ingredients dosed below their therapeutic range. The best formulas are focused. They do fewer things, correctly.
The uncomfortable question
If most supplements are underdosed, why do so many people feel better when they take them? Sometimes it is the placebo effect, which is real and measurable. Sometimes it is the fact that the person also changed their sleep or diet when they “got serious about their health.” And sometimes — when the product actually contains clinical doses of bioavailable compounds — the supplement is genuinely working.
The goal is to stop paying for the first two and start paying for the third. That requires reading labels with the same scepticism you would bring to any other health decision. The information is there. The industry just makes it inconvenient to find.
You now know where to look.