The Three Numbers That Decide a Supplement Purchase

Supplement labels contain a great deal of information and almost all of it is noise. Three numbers carry the decision.

Number one: active compound per day

Not extract weight — active compound. Extract weight multiplied by standardisation percentage multiplied by servings per day.

This is the number products work hardest to obscure, using ratio extracts, proprietary blends and prominent front-label figures that describe something other than what you are buying.

Number two: what the research used

A single search will usually tell you. For curcumin and joint symptoms it is 500 to 1,500 mg of curcuminoids daily. For other ingredients it will be something else.

Compare number one against number two. If number one is a fraction of number two, you are buying a name rather than a dose, and nothing about delivery technology changes that.

Number three: cost per unit of active

Price divided by total servings gives cost per day. Divided by active milligrams per day gives cost per milligram.

This is the only number that compares two products fairly, and it frequently differs between apparently similar products by a factor of ten or more.

What is not on the list

The number of ingredients. The crossed-out reference price. The star rating. The stated value of any bonus. The size of the discount. None of those describe the transaction.

Why three rather than more

Because a method you will actually use beats a thorough one you will not. Three numbers can be worked out standing in a shop or looking at a product page, and they answer the question that matters: is this a sensible way to buy this ingredient?