Supplements are not magic beans that solve all life’s problems, but they are nutrients you are putting in your body. That simple truth means you want to know that what you are paying to put in your body meets some pretty straight-forward and very important criteria:

1. You want supplements that contain exactly what the label claims they contain and nothing more
   1. Reputable companies utilize in-house as well as third-party testing in order to qualify and quantify the raw materials that go into their bottles and the finished product. This means that raw materials that contain contaminants or are not a genetic match for the material get rejected by reputable manufacturers on a regular basis.
   2. Are you buying from manufacturers that reject inferior raw materials? Or are you buying from the manufacturers who purchase the rejects in order to keep prices dirt cheap?
2. You want companies that put staying legal above riding the bandwagon wave of currently popular health trends, whether those trends have valid science behind them or not
   1. Health foods supplements are made possible because they are seen as foods according to the 1993 law DSHEA. This grouping of supplements means that health food labels are limited to structure/function claims and cannot make any claims that diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Except for those few claims that have been approved by the FDA, such as the importance of calcium to bone health, all other statements about a health foods product should be within these legal limits.
   2. If a product is not grandfathered in with DSHEA as an established health food supplement, it may require that an NDI, or new dietary ingredient, process is followed and filed with the FDA before the product can legally be sold in the U.S.  This is another area of concern, especially for many bandwagon supplements. CBDs are a fine example of this hot-button issue. Many companies are making claims on labels that will likely prove illegal once the FDA and or FTC catches up with them. With the approval of a CBD-based drug earlier this year, the labeling and future of CBD products in our industry will be on shaky ground for some time to come. Working with reputable companies will be of upmost importance as consumers and retailers strive to bring the best possible products forward.
   3. When labels do not follow the law, they can be misleading or even outright false. This can be particularly confusing for consumers who may not have the time or patience to know the ins and outs of a supplement or nutrition facts label. For example, many CBD companies are placing a milligram total on the front of the bottle that might lead consumers to believe that is the dose per serving. Instead, the milligrams listed on the front of those labels is the total milligram amount in the entire bottle!
3. You want the rest of the story
   1. Health food supplements are about the whole body and helping to fill nutritional gaps brought about by poor diets, lifestyle challenges and more. This means that, more often than not, not just one product is going to offer the full range of support needed for a particular nutrition-deficit concern.
   2. Supplements for the human endocannabinoid system are a prime example of needing the rest of the story. CBDs may be great, but they are only one aspect of the body’s entire ECS. More full-spectrum support, providing ECS support that goes beyond just CBD, may be of more benefit to most people than a concentrated CBD alone.
   3. Not too many people get a behind-the-scenes view of the way the product being put in your mouth actually comes to be. At Betsy’s, we have the first-hand knowledge of seeing our manufacturers in action. Offering the rest of the manufacturing story so that you have confidence in the bottles you purchase is just one of the many things we do to help you see the full picture when it comes to your supplement choices.

Supplement buying for you and your family is serious business. That’s why we at Betsy’s work hard every day to ensure our store brand offers you the best quality possible. Our store brand contains almost 60 trademarked ingredients! These trademarks mean that the ingredients have undergone even more rigorous testing, that they must meet a consistent standard, and that they have a process or feature that makes them stand out from other ingredients in a similar category.

We are so proud of our store brand and its ability to meet what you want from supplements that we like to say that our store brand is the stick by which we measure all the other brands that we carry. If a national brand does not meet the high bar of quality set by our Betsy’s Basics brand, we will not carry it in our store.

Betsy’s chooses national brands that are going to bring you the value you are looking for in supplements. We pass on manufacturer discounts to you to give you our best possible prices. We stay educated on these products so that we can answer your questions. We have chosen partners who respect the work we do to maintain the relationship between retailers and consumers, those manufacturers who understand how vital the one-to-one, in-person communication is when it comes to helping a person fill nutritional gaps and achieve a better, more balanced life.

When you shop local at Betsy’s Health Foods for your supplement needs, you help ensure that the one-on-one retailer to consumer interactions can continue into the future. Health foods supplements can be a maze, one filled with plenty of turns into dark alleys where nothing but snake-oil salesmen lurk to depart you from your money.  But, there are plenty of bright corners in the maze, too, where you can find friendly, educated people ready and willing to listen to your concerns, answer your questions and meet your health foods needs.

Let Betsy’s be your bright place, and avoid the maze. We’ve done the heavy lifting. Now, let us share with you the best products our industry has to offer. It’s your body. Supercharge what you put in it with a little help from the Betsy’s Team.

In health,
Ramona