Finding Hypoallergenic Nutritional Supplements and Avoiding Food Allergens in Nutritional Supplements

Finding hypoallergenic nutritional supplements is very difficult because a rare few companies sell just the nutrient without any other ingredients. Without hypoallergenic nutritional supplements and having to sort through non hypallergenic supplements, you would think all you have to do is look at the ingredients listed on nutritional supplement labels and avoid the nutritional supplements containing the ingredients you’re allergic to.

This common sense strategy doesn’t work because almost all nutritional supplement companies use evasive terms on their labels to hide common food allergen ingredients their nutritional supplements contain. For example, “magnesium stearate” and “stearic acid” are extracted from corn and are terms often used in place of corn. So if you’re allergic to corn and don’t know these terms, it’s hard to avoid corn in nutritional supplements.

It’s even more serious when you’re allergic to a food and don’t know it and it’s in a nutritional supplement you’re taking. And even worse is being allergic to a non food ingredient that is used in non foods (i.e. nutritional supplements and medications) for which there are several design-to-decieve terms. And the absolute worse situation is where a brand uses an ingredient that you don’t know you’re allergic to and the brand doesn’t name the ingredeint on the label at all. Despite the fact that a decade old law mandates that all ingredients in a product have to be listed on the label, some companies still don’t list every ingredient in their product on their label. It’s impossible to discover that you’re allergic to a non food ingredient if that ingredient is not listed on the label of the nutritional supplement you’re taking.

Why do brands cause these problems? They don’t want to lose sales to the millions of people with food and non food ingredeint allergies who might buy their nutritional supplement product. Many of these people who want to or have to take nutritional supplements keep trying one brand of a bottle of nutritional supplements after the next for years and decades trying to find a brand of a nutrient(s) they’re not allergic to. Just like in the medical industry, keeping people sick is part of the money making in the nutritional supplement industry.

If you have food allergies that cause physical symptoms (i.e. rash, itch), it’s fairly easy to determine if you’re allergic to some ingredient listed on a nutritional supplement label. But a food allergen can cause emotional unrest symptoms either directly or by causing certain nutritional deficiencies without causing physical symptoms. If you have this type of allergy reaction and not aware you have this type of allergy reaction, realizing you’re allergic to an ingredient in a nutritional supplement (or anything else) is very difficult. Needless to say, food allergies and the deceptive terms nutritional supplement companies use can easily cause life long problems with nutritional deficienices and nutritional supplements.

Victory !

Stress On Immune System Raises LDL

I read an article about the immune system and cholesterol (link below). In January 2009 my LDL was 171. Also in January, I realized that a few of the supplements I was taking contained an allergen of mine, corn, but the company disguised corn on the label as “magnesium stearate”. In March 2009 I found a hypoallergenic source of nutritional supplements. I predicted that when I finished replacing the nutritional supplements I take with the hypoallergenic supplements, my LDL would go down. With no changes in my diet, in May 2010 my LDL measured 139 – a 19% drop. (Blood test for LDL below.)

Hypoallergenic

The term hypoallergenic is a very deceptive term used in the supplement industry. Believe it or not, supplement companies make up whatever definition for hypoallergenic that supports their corporate profits best, with no regard or concern at all for what a reasonable label reader thinks hypoallergenic means. There is only one definition for hypoallergenic – does not cause allergy reaction at all in anyone. Many nutritional supplement companies say this isn’t so using the definition they created for hypoallergenic. Of course their definition for hypoallergenic isn’t on the label.

Deceptive Terms For Common Food Allergens

Corn

If the tablet or powder of the capsule has any yellow color at all, it is very likely yellow from the yellow color of corn. The exception would be when folic acid is involved; like corn folic acid is also yellow.

You never see “corn” as an ingredient in nutritional supplements, even though corn is in most nutritional supplements but almost always deceptively listed on nutritional supplement and food labels as magnesium stearate, maltodextrin, stearic acid, starch, baking powder, cellulose, “mono and diglycerides”, diglycerides, sorbic acid, xanthan gum, saccharin, poly dextrose, white vinegar, citric acid, ethyl lactate, calcium stearate, alpha tocopherol, margarine, semolina (usually is wheat), sorbitol, and fibersol-2. There are many others.

Vegetable

The term “vegetable” is used to disguise pine (as in 2 by 4 lengths of wood and plywood) and birch (as in birch cabinets) just as often as it is used to disguise corn, wheat, any plant at all, including coconut oil and palm oil.

Cellulose

The term “cellulose” is used to disguise ingredients just like the term vegetable.

Microcrystalline Cellulose

See “Cellulose”

Vegetable Cellulose

See “Vegetable” and “Cellulose”

Vegetable Stearic Acid

See “Vegetable” and “Stearic Acid”

Magnesium Stearate

Magnesium stearate is made from palm oil, coconut oil, and of course corn. Magnesium stearate is a combination of stearic acid and magnesium. Magnesium stearate is used to turn a powder into a tablet and then disintegrate back into a powder during digestion to release the main ingredients. Magnesium stearate is also used as a lubricant, flow agent, anticaking agent in the manufacturing process to prevent the ingredients from sticking to manufacturing equipment.

Stearic Acid

Stearic acid is made from coconut oil and palm oil. Stearic acid is used as a lubricant in the manufacturing process. Stearic acid helps tablets hold together and break apart properly.

Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is complex carbohydrate made from the starch of different grains including corn, tapioca, rice, potatoes, often it’s corn. There are two kinds of complex carbohydrates starch and fiber. Starch is in pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread. Fiber is either soluble or insoluble. Soluble fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, oats. Insoluble fiber is ‘roughage’ and also found in fruits, vegetables, and oats, and also in bran and other whole grains.

Silicon Dioxide

Silicone dioxide is a common unknown allergen. Silicon dioxide keep powders moving through manufacturing equipment and into empty capsules or table molds. Other names for silicon dioxide are silica and cab-o-sil. Silicon dioxide is the chemical name for refined sand and refined quartz.

Silica and Cab-O-Sil

See Silicon Dioxide

Titanium Dioxide

Titanium dioxide in supplements was borrowed from the paint industry. Titanium dioxide is used as a white paint on supplements because it stays opaque at a very thin thickness and used to prevent light from getting inside the capsule or tablet. This problem was solved long ago by the invention of opaque plastic bottles supplements usually come in and by the opaque label on the opaque bottles.

Where To Find Hypoallergenic Nutritional Supplements