How to Read a Supplement Label

It’s important to have high standards—especially when it comes to supplements. But, with so many out there, lining aisle after aisle at the store and popping up frequently on our social feeds, it can be difficult to cut through all the noise and find a supplement that’s safe, effective, and suited for your needs.

In the quest to find the right supplement for you, we first recommend assessing your needs and goals, possibly consulting a healthcare professional. Are you addressing a deficiency revealed by recent routine blood work? Are you hoping to improve energy levels? Banish brain fog?

Before you press ‘PURCHASE’ on the first supplement that search results yield, take a moment to dive deeper, starting with the nutrition label. With food, the label’s where we can see added sugars, fiber, and protein. With supplements, it’s where we can deduce quality, efficacy, and safety.

Both food and supplement nutrition labels are established with standards set by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Yet, dietary supplements are under a different set of regulations than those covering "conventional" foods and drug products; they’re not reviewed for their safety and effectiveness or their labeling before they are sold to the public. 

The company itself is responsible for making sure their supplement is safe and accurately labeled—which is why it’s crucial to find a trustworthy brand that’s willing to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed choice.

Below, some of the jargon you’ll need to navigate the supplement space and ensure your supplement is checking all the boxes. 

Similarly to food, this indicates the amount considered one serving. The “Servings Per Container” shows how many servings are in the package; this helps you estimate how long the product will last. (For example, if a multivitamin has a serving size of two capsules and a Servings Per Container of 30 capsules, you'll have 15 servings in total. If you take one serving per day, the multivitamin will last you 15 days.)

Pro Tip: If you’re always on the run and have trouble making supplements a consistent part of your routine, consider ones that are pre-packaged into single servings. This will make it easy to toss your daily dose in your bag on the way out the door. Another option is to set aside time at the start of each week to portion out servings of your supplement into a pill organizer. 

The Percent Daily Value, denoted as “%DV” on the label, represents how much a nutrient in a serving of the supplement contributes to your daily diet based on a 2,000-calorie daily intake. This can help you understand how the supplement fits into your overall nutrition.

One thing to note here is that if there isn’t a recommended daily value for a particular nutrient, it means that the FDA has not established a %DV for that ingredient and it cannot be calculated. This often applies to certain herbs, botanicals, and non-essential nutrients.

Under “Other Ingredients” you’ll see the remaining non-active ingredients, like fillers, binders, artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives. Try to avoid artificial colors and flavors, which are added to make supplements more palatable (in look, feel, and taste) but can be linked to health concerns.¹ If you’re curious, we recommend reaching out to a brand if you have any questions about a supplement’s contents. 

Purity refers to how untouched the ingredients within a supplement are—from any additives, fillers, or contaminants. The more pure an ingredient, the closer it is to its original form, the purer the supplement. A purer supplement is safer, free from any health-harming contaminants like heavy metals or pesticides, and more likely to work as intended, with active ingredients in their correct amounts. Any impurities or fillers can weaken a supplement’s effectiveness. 

Bioactive compounds, or simply bioactives, are the natural chemicals found in plants and other sources that can impact your body for the better—like polyphenols, carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids, and prebiotics. Bioactives can range in the health benefits they provide. For example, antioxidants help protect against oxidative stress, magnesium supports relaxation, and probiotics promote gut health.² What’s more, some bioactives are synergistic—they work better together, enhancing each other's effects.

Look for the percent of bioactives on the ingredient label. Some, but not all, supplement companies will list it there.

Potency is about how strong or concentrated the supplement is. A more potent supplement has more of the active ingredients in it, so you don’t need to take as much to feel the effects. To deduce potency, look at the ingredient dosages and compare it to those shown to be effective in clinical studies or recommended by healthcare professionals. 

This is how easily and quickly a substance is absorbed into the bloodstream and used by the body (i.e., how effective it is). A substance that is highly bioavailable means that a large portion of it enters the bloodstream and can be effectively used by the body. The more bioavailable, the better. 

If you see a supplement saying it’s “standardized”, this means it’s a concentrated substance with a specific percentage of one or more active ingredients. Standardization ensures that each batch has the same levels of the active components, increasing the reliability and effectiveness of the product. If a company doesn’t standardize and test for it, there can be varying amounts of these compounds from batch to batch, meaning you may experience inconsistent results. We encourage you to reach out directly to a supplement company you’re considering and ask if they standardize their ingredients to bioactives.

Take Lion’s Mane for example: Many supplement brands only standardize it at 1-3%. A supplement that offers many multiples of that standard, such as 10-12%, could be considered highest quality.

Full spectrum means that the ingredient includes a variety of natural compounds from the entire plant, not just one part. This approach aims to give more balanced benefits by using all the plant’s compounds working together, rather than focusing on just one specific part of the plant.

An example of this is Shoden Ashwagandha®, which uses both the roots and leaves of the ashwagandha plant. Withanolides are the primary active compounds believed to be responsible for ashwagandha’s therapeutic effects, and Shoden® boasts an industry-leading 35% withanolides (others are at about 5% withanolides). This standardization helps ensure that each dose of Shoden® provides a consistent and reliable amount of withanolides.

To ensure quality and safety, some companies will third-party test their supplements, meaning an external, unbiased organization or laboratory that is not affiliated with the supplement manufacturer will conduct tests on ingredient verification, contaminants, potency, bioavailability, allergens, and more. Third-party testing acts as a safeguard for both consumers and manufacturers.

A lot of companies say they third-party test their ingredients, but they’ve only ever done it once and/or don’t test every batch. As a result, their product may not be consistently safe or effective.

If you can’t find adequate details on a supplement company’s website, here’s a few questions we recommend reaching out and asking: Do you test all raw ingredients in your formulations? How frequently? Is every ingredient in every batch tested? Do you refuse shipments that don’t meet your expectations? 

Before you buy, here’s a quick run-down of questions to ask yourself (or ask the supplement company you’re considering):

• Consider the key ingredients: Are they used in their clinically studied dosages? What benefits are they known for, and do they align with your goals?
• Check the ingredient list for purity: Are there any questionable additives, fillers, or artificial ingredients?
• Think format: Do pre-packaged pills fit into your lifestyle more than a tincture?

• Ensure safety and credibility: Does the supplement brand third-party test every ingredient in every batch? 

1. Warner J. O. (2024). Artificial food additives: hazardous to long-term health. Archives of disease in childhood, archdischild-2023-326565. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2023-326565

2. Pizzino, G., Irrera, N., Cucinotta, M., Pallio, G., Mannino, F., Arcoraci, V., Squadrito, F., Altavilla, D., & Bitto, A. (2017). Oxidative Stress: Harms and Benefits for Human Health. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2017, 8416763. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8416763