Customer Reviews

Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Over all, I thought the book was excellent. I took the time to read several of the previous reviews and have to comment on one in particular. The one by Mr. Marcel Raffoul "Honest Citizen". First and foremost the review section is supposed to be a reviews of books and not of the company that is rated #1 in the book.

I did some research on some of his accusations against USANA by Mr. Raffoul. Here's is what I found.

1. Dr. Lyle is NOT on the board of directors. You can look at the board of directors on the USANA web site.

2. The "Independent Assessment" of USANA says nothing more than USANA is an MLM company. He acts like this is a bad thing. They say on their web site they are a direct/MLM company and talk about the benefits of cutting out middle men to help keep costs down on their pharmaceutical grade products. Their products are pricey but I guess you get what you pay for and would be outrageous if you had to pay for distribution, waehousing and transportion, etc.... but I digress.

3. I also looked at Mr. Marcel Raffoul's other reviews and noticed that some of the books he reviewed were on Direct Selling and MLM stategies which indicates that he is probably in networm marketing, probably in a competitive company.

4. I also read that Maleuca accusations as well as the rebuttal. The rebuttal stated that the original accusations were derived from a previous edition (Edition 2) and since then they went to other independent labratories to ask what other criteria the vitamins could be tested on. These reponses were incorporated into the testing procedures and from what I could determine in the comparison would take the possibility of Dr. McWilliams to skew the results out of the equation and therefore indicates that Maleuca is simply irritated that McWilliams revealed that their products are lacking in quality.

Another note on Centrum. Centrum is the biggest selling vitamin in the U.S. and apparently in Australia as well. It is well documented that as far as absorbability, it is severely lacking. I have talked to several nurses that call Centrum "bed pan bullets" because in patients that use them and use a bed pan, you can still read "Centrum" on the pill when it comes out. Yes, Centrum is much cheaper but again...you get what you pay for. If you want cheap vitamins, that don't work DON'T READ THIS BOOK, go down to WalGreens and buy the cheapest vitamin on the shelf.....you'll save a lot of money that way.

After doing a lot or research on the accuracy and claims by other reviewers, I believe the book and it's rating system are excellent. In addition, the book will teach you a lot on how vitamins work, oxidative stress in the body and how it promotes degenerative diseases. It will also teach you alot about anti-oxidants in supplements and how they prevent degenerative disease as well as how supplements are absobed in the body. I would consider this is a MUST READ book for anyone that is interested in their health.

My wife and I have taken nutritional supplements for years. It's always been 'up to me' to determine what brands are the best. I used to be a distributor for USANA nutritionals (rated #1 in this book) and then switched to Life Extension Foundation products (also rated high in this book). It was reassuring to me that by my own discernment, I had chosen the best. I have never found a book so complete and thorough as this book on rating nutritional supplements. I did read in one of the other reviews on this book, that someone had a problem with Denis Waitley reviewing the book when he was in fact, associated with USANA. Why? If that person took the time to do a little research, they would have found that other Doctors that made their own personal recommendations for the purpose of establishing a 'Blended Standard', were associated with several different companies. i.e. Dr. Michael Colgan is the Director of the Colgan Institute of Nutritional Science in San Diego and promotes his own brand of nutritional supplements. However, he's also associated with USANA. And Dr. Julian Whitaker, Director of the Whitaker Wellness Instituee, Inc in Newport Beach, CA, also promotes his own brand of nutritional supplements. Dr. Michael Murray, N.D. is associated with Natural Factors, a Canadian based nutritional supplement company. These doctors and others, all made their own suggestions as to what they thought went into making up the 'best' supplements. Then, an average was taken to determine the 'Blended Standard' to assess over 1000 supplement manufacturers products. This was boiled down to the best 500 and then charted in this book. USANA topped the list. So who would YOU have writing a testimonial for the book? Someone who represents a manufacturer that finished 500th? This is by far, the best book I've found on comparing nutritional supplements and their manufacturers.

I know there has been a lot of criticism to this book since many say that Lyle has ties to Usana. If Lyle wants to sell his book, why would he put in the book that he works with Usana, Douglas Laboratories, Life Extensions Foundations and Source Naturals, knowing that there are people who are going to think differently after reading the book. If Lyle was interested in the money of selling the book, he wouldn't have written that information in there. Plus, if Usana or Douglas Laboratories was paying Lyle money to put their products as top of the line, why would he say he works with them? Wouldn't that cause a problem with trusting the book in general? I think he wrote it down because he takes pride in the companies he works with. This is just my opinion. There is this document posted by Melaleuca called, "Getting to the bottom of the Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements." Melaleuca critiques the book on six pages. Anyone who has questions about the blending standards, or about the book in general should read it.
http://comparativeguide.com/melaleuca.html

IF you take vitamin supplements, you will want to compare whether it is even worth your while & MONEY to take them, once you read this!
The details in this book may be overwhelming to someone without a science background, BUT --- here is what I understand:
a) the author made an ideal list of all the proven (AND some micro-nutritionals not proven yet) and -----then
b) assayed 500+ multi-vitamins ----then
c) graded them for efficacy and the ability to be absorbed.
I was pretty shocked to discover MANY popular brands are rated under 20%. Most famous & advertised brands barely are graded 50% worthwhile. BTW, I am not a salesperson for any of the top-rated vitamins! 8-}

I found this book to be highly informative, well-written and well-researched. Desiring to find a quality supplement for my family, I read the book and then took the literature to my doctor for his perusal. His comment was that this was a well-done piece of literature, relying on research from prominent medical journals, as a means of evaluating the need for nutritional supplements. This book includes technical medical information, but is still understandable for the average person. The first part of the book focuses on the medical research on the theory of aging and degenerative diseases and the role of free radicals and antioxidants on the disease mechanisms. The second part of the book looks at the recommendations of seven leading nutritionalists, who have all published articles or books on the subject of nutrition. Each nutritionist gives his/her suggestions for the types and amounts of each different vitamin or mineral to be taken by a person each day. Those results are used to develop a blended standard for each element. Over five hundred supplements are then compared to the blended standard and given a rating, based on the perfect score of 100, which would mean that the supplement included values for each vitamin and mineral that mirrored the blended standard. Following the recommendations from this book, I am using one of the top products and am extremely pleased with the health results.

My friend who is a member of USANA showed this book to me and told me this book is written from a third party (who has nothing to do with USANA) with a non-bias opinion. After I read it, the first thing I think is this book is too specific on the comparison method. The ranking criteria only bases on one factor on which products has the ingredient best match the author's "Blended Standard". The result is USANA is the one that best match the "Blended Standard" and has the highest score.

While I am still doubt of the "Blended Standard", I read the review and some of the reviews make me do more research. I read "The author is on the MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD of USANA. Could this be fair review?" from one of the review, so I curious and I find out more fact.

What I find out will definitely catch your interest. The result makes me disappointed since this does not seem to be a third party book or a book with fair opinion any more. I am sure my friend told me sincerely based on his knowledge, but who told him and makes him believe this is a non-bias 3rd party and not related to USANA is another question.

From my research the author, and both of the editorial reviews are related to USANA. So, I really think about the question "Could this be fair review?"
1. The author himself is on the MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD of USANA
Source: http://www.usana.com/en/company/ag/mab.shtml
2. One of the Editorial Reviews (Dr. Christine Wood) is the chair of USANA's Medical Advisory Board
Source: http://www.usana.com/en/company/ag/mab.shtml
3. The other one of the Editorial Reviews (Dr. Denis Waitley) is USANA Insider
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=USNA

So, read the fact and use your judgment if you will get what you really need to know from this book or not.
If you are interested in Nutrition, I may suggest some books or 3rd party websites that might interest you

Several years ago, when I received my first copy of The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements, I went to the FDA's Adverse Events Monitoring System to see for myself if the top rated products were good.

The company which MacWilliam ranked as number one had "no adverse events" reported by consumers or health care providers.

I then looked up company #2.#3,#4,#5, and #6. The number of adverse events increased as I when down the list. This was varification enough for me of MacWilliam's findings.

Then I decided to check out Usana, the #1 listed product, as a company. What good is a product if the company is not going to be around for a while?

The report I received from a stock broker listed the founder of the company as a" world renowned expert in the field of cell culture technolgy".

Ok, I had done my research.

Now, the test is in the puddin'-right?

My husband and I began to take the products made by Usana and have never turned back.

Yes, he had tried many things but he had never had the very noticeable and long lasting health benefits which he experienced with Usana. You see he has been disabled since 1993.

We are profoundly thankful to the author, Lyle MacWilliam, for guiding us in the right direction.

As a teacher I advise you to just do your own homework and you will know the truth!

J.A.

PS
Unfortunately the federal government removed the Adverse Events Monitoring System several years ago.

Not only does this excellent guide help the reader to choose the highest quality nutritional supplements, it gives valuable information about aging, oxidative stress, degenerative disease and the need for supplementation.

There is section on advanced nutrition for those wanting to know more including bioavailability, cardiac health support and bone health among other useful topics.

There is plenty of information on how the comparisons were made, a brief bio on each of the seven authorities who developed these recommendations, grapical comparisons of 232 of the top performing multi-vitamin/mineral products, and the final comparisons of over 500 products sorted both by company name and by final product score.

This is a must for anyone serious about taking care of their health, I highly recommend it to both the professional and the lay person.

Looking forward to the Australian guide which is due out soon.

Rose Cox
http://www.healthywealthywise.com.au

This book provides what is needed in the nutritional supplement industry--information and education. It shows the quality level of health supplements of even the most popular brands in grocery stores to the health stores. Buy this book!

This book has a user-friendly yet thorough explanation of the free radical theory of aging. I was amazed at how much environmental and nutritional stress our bodies and cells undergo. I've heard much about nutrition and the need for supplements, but as my doctors have never mentioned it, I have always put it on the back burner. I'm so glad this guide was written so laymen like me can understand the need for supplementation and have a good reference as far as what products are good (and not so good). Excellent read, and excellent reference, especially since my doctor has no idea what to recommend, by way of vitamins.