by Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

A row has developed between Consumerlab and Vitamin Shoppe. Consumerlab claim that the multi-vitamin that Vitamin Shoppe market contained 15.3 micrograms per daily dose. Vitamin Shoppe dispute Consumerlabs claim.

Is it likely that it really does contain that much lead? It’s possible but quite unusual and if it does there is no excuse for it. We know that there is lead in virtually everything we eat but the 15.3mcgs is certainly way over the top. According to Consumerlab we all ingest around 3mcgs a day through food, wine etc.

California has a law limiting the amount of lead in a supplement to 1.5mcgs a day, so 15.3mcgs is way over the top.

So, what’s the problem? Well, I believe much of the problem stems from the fact that Vitamin Shoppe like most other marketers of supplements do not manufacture their own product. Instead they rely on contract manufacturers. Producing product in a ‘FDA’ approved facility means nothing as they are not required to check the heavy metal content of their ingredients.

This is a voluntary procedure and very much dependent upon the integrity of the manufacturer. Contract manufacturers rarely do this because of the costs involved and to compound this lack of testing they also tend to source the cheapest possible raw ingredients.

These cheap ingredients are often contaminated with lead, particularly herbals from some suppliers in China which can have high lead content. We are continually offered ingredients like this at very low prices but we won’t have a bar of it.

As most of our customers know we use a lot of herbals in our Total Balance and we are paranoid about their purity as we are with all the other ingredients in Total Balance.

So, do we at Xtend-Life test for lead content?

Indeed we do, and we use and independent Government Approved GMP laboratory.

What are the results for Total Balance?

Less than 10 ppb. That is 10 parts per billion. Or, another way of looking at it is if you took a full daily dose of Total Balance of 6 tablets it would amount to 0.072 micrograms, or .000072mgs.

Another way of looking at it: 6 tablets of Total Balance contains approximately one thousand, two hundred and seventy five times LESS lead than 1 tablet of the Vitamin Shoppe product.

OR…less than one twentieth of the daily permitted dose of lead in California.

I honestly doubt that you could find a multi-nutrient supplement anywhere with less lead in it than our Total Balance.

So, if you are using our Total Balance, rest easy as it is as pure a product as it is possible to get.