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Choosing A Digestive SupplementChoosing A Digestive Supplement: A Ten-Point Checklist
Ten questions you can answer from a photograph of a label.
Each one is worth a point. A product scoring eight or more is unusually transparent; one scoring under five is asking you to take it on trust. The checklist is applied at the end to three kinds of product, including DigestFlow, with the points it loses shown.
A scoring method that works on any label in this category, and a worked example that does not flatter the product this website sells.
The ten questions, each worth a point
Ten, in the order a label usually answers them.
| # | The question | Score the point if |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is there an amount against every active? | Every row has its own milligram figure. A blend total scores zero |
| 2 | Are plant extracts standardised? | A percentage appears in brackets, so the compound weight can be worked out |
| 3 | Is the form of each ingredient named? | Leaf or root, seed or fruit, extract or whole. The part decides the chemistry |
| 4 | Is any stimulant declared prominently? | Caffeine, senna, cascara or aloe named where a buyer will see it, not only on the panel |
| 5 | Is the other-ingredients line short and named? | You can read it and recognise everything on it |
| 6 | Is the capsule shell stated? | Gelatin or a plant cellulose, said plainly rather than left to be guessed |
| 7 | Is there a storage instruction with a figure? | A temperature, not just the words cool and dry |
| 8 | Is a lot code and a date printed on the bottle? | Both, and legible |
| 9 | Is a certificate of analysis published? | An actual document naming a laboratory and a date. A reference number scores zero |
| 10 | Are the claims structure and function statements? | Supports or promotes, never treats or cures |
Ten points. Nine can be answered from the label itself and the ninth needs the seller’s website.
Questions one, two and nine are the heavy ones. The first two decide whether anything on the label can be checked at all, and the ninth decides whether anybody has actually checked it.
Question four is the one most often missed and the one this desk would add if the list were shorter. A stimulant in a product sold for comfort changes who should take it, and a panel is not where most buyers look.
Three worked scores, including this one
Ten rows, three columns, and the product this website sells does not come first.
| # | The question | DigestFlow | A typical blend product | A plain psyllium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amount against every active | Yes | No, one blend total | Yes |
| 2 | Extracts standardised | Yes, four of five | No | Not applicable, scores |
| 3 | Form of each ingredient named | Yes, seed, fruit and leaf | Partly | Yes |
| 4 | Stimulant declared prominently | No, panel only | Usually not | None to declare |
| 5 | Other-ingredients line short | Yes, one item | No, six or more | Yes |
| 6 | Capsule shell stated | Yes, hypromellose | Sometimes | Not applicable, scores |
| 7 | Storage instruction with a figure | Yes, below 30C | Rarely | Usually |
| 8 | Lot and date on the bottle | Yes | Usually | Usually |
| 9 | Certificate of analysis published | No, a reference only | No | No |
| 10 | Structure and function claims only | Yes | Often not | Yes |
| Score out of ten | 8 | 3 | 9 |
The middle column is a composite of the blend products common in this category rather than a named competitor. The right-hand column is plain bulk psyllium, which wins on transparency because there is one ingredient to be transparent about.
DigestFlow scores eight, and the two it loses are worth naming rather than rounding away. It loses question four because the caffeine appears on the panel and not on the seller’s front page, which is the reason this website prints the figure in its first paragraph. It loses question nine because no certificate of analysis is published, only a reference number.
A plain psyllium scores nine, which is the result an honest checklist produces and is worth sitting with. Transparency is easiest when there is one ingredient, and a five-row panel that prints every amount is doing something harder than a one-row product that prints its only one.
What a high score does and does not tell you
Four things on each side, and the second list is the longer one in practice.
What eight out of ten tells you
- That the label is falsifiable: its claims can be checked against published work.
- That the manufacturer has chosen to publish rather than to hide.
- That you can work out what you are actually taking, in compound weight.
- That the claims stay inside what a dietary supplement is allowed to say.
What it does not
- That the ingredients work. Transparency is not efficacy.
- That the amounts match the trial amounts. They often do not, and checking that is a separate job.
- That anybody has measured what is in the bottle. Only question nine addresses that, and almost nothing scores it.
- That the product suits you. A caffeinated capsule can score highly and still be the wrong choice.
After the checklist: three questions about you
Three questions no label can answer, and they matter more than the ten above.
What exactly is the complaint?
Stool that is too hard is a fibre and fluid question. Symptoms tied to a specific food may be an enzyme one. A general sense of things not settling is the vaguest and the one the polyphenol shelf is aimed at, which is also why it is the hardest to judge afterwards.
Has it been looked at?
A pattern that has changed and stayed changed is worth one conversation. The NIDDK sets out which patterns are ordinary and which warrant it, and a supplement taken for a year instead of one appointment is the expensive route to the same answer.
Can you tolerate what is in it?
A stimulant, a fermentable fibre or a live culture each rule the product out for somebody. This is the question the checklist cannot answer for you, and it is the one that should be asked before the price.
A label that scores ten on a product that does not match your complaint is a well-documented mistake. The checklist filters out the products that cannot be checked; these three questions filter out the ones that can be checked and are still wrong for you.
Four things the checklist deliberately leaves out
Four measurements that look useful and are not.
The number of ingredients
A long panel is not a better panel, and a short one is not a worse one. What matters is whether each row has an amount, a standardisation and a reason to be there. A twenty-row product with a blend total tells you less than a one-row product with a figure.
The word natural
It has no agreed definition in supplement labelling and it appears on products whose actives are synthesised at industrial scale. Raspberry ketone is the standard example: it occurs in fruit in quantities far too small to extract, so essentially all of it sold in capsules is made rather than harvested.
The price
A cheap product with a printed panel is easier to judge than an expensive one with a blend total, and the reverse happens just as often. Price belongs in the decision, but not in a transparency score.
The review count
A score out of five describes how buyers felt about a purchase. It is not evidence about a formula and no number of reviews turns it into one. Treat it as a measure of the shopping experience.
The common thread is that all four are easy to measure and none of them predicts whether you can check what you are taking. A checklist made of them would score quickly and tell you nothing, which is how most supplement comparison content works.
The ten questions above are harder to answer and answer something. NCCIH’s overview of the category is worth ten minutes if you want the regulatory background to why a label is the only document you get.
Scoring a label you are holding, in five minutes
Four steps, and eight of the ten need nothing but the bottle.
Photograph the panel and the other-ingredients line
Both, in focus, including anything in brackets. The brackets are where the standardisation percentages live and they are the difference between a figure and a decoration.
Work through questions one to eight from the photograph
All eight can be answered without a website. That is deliberate: a label that needs a marketing page to be understood has already told you something.
Search the brand name plus certificate of analysis
That is question nine. A published document naming a laboratory and a date scores. A reference number, a batch code or a page saying tested for purity does not.
Read the claims on the front of the pack
That is question ten. Supports and promotes are permitted. Treats, cures, prevents and any named condition are not, and a product making one is telling you how carefully the rest of it was written.
Two products scored this way, side by side, will usually separate by three or four points, and the gap is almost always questions one, two and nine. Everything else is a tie-break.
Sources for this checklist
Five, all public.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/irritable-bowel-syndrome
- Dietary and Herbal Supplements. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/dietary-and-herbal-supplements
DigestFlow scores eight of ten, and the two it loses are on this page
Five printed amounts, four standardised, and 60 days from the date of purchase.
Two bottles $158 · six bottles $294 · 60 days from the date of purchase
Order DigestFlow On The Official WebsiteOne capsule a day · 30 per bottle · lot DIG-26/DI-5237