17 replies to this topic

[summer stars]

I've been using Now Foods for most of my supplements and I recently decided to try something else. Nothing I have ever bought from Now Foods (primarily stuff to help me with energy) has ever had the effect I hoped for. That doesn't mean they are bad products, I know it could just be me...but I wanted to try something else anyway, just to see. I don't have a lot of money so I can't buy premium supplements, and I decided to try out Swanson products since they are cheap. I bought a bottle of Swanson Rhodiola and compared to Now Foods, the quality is night and day. Swanson's makes me feel more energetic than Now Foods, and when I open the capsules, the Swanson Rhodiola tastes very sharp and bitter (the way rhodiola tastes for most people?) whereas Now Foods barely tastes like anything.

I really gotta wonder if they are being truthful about their labels...or maybe I just have bad luck with them?

[hav]

I find now pretty decent generally and fairly priced. Same with Swanson. But the formulations you are comparing are different according to the lables. Now is a 3% while Swanson is a 5% plus whole herb mix. I use jarrow which is a straight 5% extract. Also jarrow specifies it uses Russian stock which many prefer. But it costs a bit more.

Howard

[canz]

I've had good experiences with NOW foods so that is typically all that I buy. I have not had any experience with Jarrow or Swanson though so I may be missing out. Like said above though, you have to compare the exact ingredients, which may be a factor in the difference that you're experiencing. With supplement companies, I think it's hit and miss. A certain company may be on the top with quality and vice versa, but things happen over time. Change in employees (lab techs, quality control, management, budget officers), financial issues, etc. which may cause a company to degrade it's quality in the lab testing, formulation, raw material quality etc.

[Luminosity]

I will not buy anything from NOW. I don't think their products are effective or contain what they say they do. I can't comment on Swansons, but Vitacost's store brand has been good so far. I've tried one thing but it is really good.

[niner]

I will not buy anything from NOW. I don't think their products are effective or contain what they say they do. I can't comment on Swansons, but Vitacost's store brand has been good so far. I've tried one thing but it is really good.

My experience is exactly the opposite. I've never had a problem with any NOW product. Swansons seems to be the value leader, most of the time. Didn't NSI used to be Vitacost's house brand? It had a bad reputation after a particularly bad fail on a Consumers Lab test, as I recall. Now there's a Vitacost brand with 600-ish products. They still carry a little NSI branded stuff, but my guess is that they just changed the label to create the Vitacost brand.

[Luminosity]

NSI was the Vitacost house brand and they changed the name to Vitacost. I use their Boswellia and it is excellent and cheap. I don't remember if I've tried anything else. I've tried more than one NOW product and they all were ineffective.

[absent minded]

My NOW's rhodiola tastes bitter, impossible to avoid the sour face if you dump the capsule in water or even orange juice. But I don't feel energetic on it either... I will try Jarrow's in a few months.

Edited by absent minded, 15 December 2011 - 06:19 AM.

[mikeinnaples]

I have found NOW to be one of the best price/value/quality brands and have been using them for years. I am not so sure lack of 'effect' from a supplement is indicative of brand quality. For example, a certain well know brand of reservatrol certainlly had an effect on my bowels due to the high emodin content, but another brand (revgenetics) did not. In that case, the lack of effect meant better quality. heh

[syr_]

So far I havent have had any issue with NOW products, but I havent tried many. Just look at the source of extracts carefully before buying.

Someone has experience with Jarrow formula? I just ordered some high-dose methyl B12 and it was the best deal in euroland. Google didnt help.

[Luminosity]

I've used a number of Jarrow products but not that one. I like them a lot.

[jindaknight]

Their cocunut oil is my favorite product by far. Found a deal page that comes in handy here:
http://www.squidoo.c...itacost-reviews

[Luminosity]

It's possible that NOW foods food items are authentic as it might be harder to counterfeit them, but I still believe that their supplements are fake.

[tolerant]

That's a big statement - "[Now Food's] supplements are fake". However, I somehow have the same suspicion. I only shop at iherb (because of their range but mostly because of the super fast and cheap delivery to Australia), and they seem to be swamped and totally dominated by Now Foods product. I wonder if there's an actual affiliation between the two. It just appears that iherb and Now Foods is the same project. Almost every product category is dominated by Now Foods, both in terms of number of review and the star rating. Time and time again, I'm seduced by their overwhelmingly positive reviews and every single time their product fails to work for me. However, because I am a non-responder to 99% of supplements generally, I can't make conclusions.

 

My question to other people is: has any Now Foods product ever REALLY worked for anyone? I don't mean taking their protein powder and gaining muscle at the gym or taking their Vitamin D supplement and seeing that your levels have increased. I mean products that are supposed to relieve anxiety, depression, etc.

[rebecca123]

I can't exactly remember what I bought from them - I guess it has to be something like mucuna pruriens. It had no effect whatsoever, but then again, even from other brands, I usually get no effect whatsoever. So maybe it is not the fault of NOW, just that most supplements do not have any noticable effect. 

I tried the more expensive ones too, for example solgar, but I think the ones that can be bought in stores are more often than not overpriced. 

I only buy supplements online now, or cheap drugstore ones, which is also a hit or miss.

Edited by rebecca123, 05 September 2014 - 03:32 PM.

[Sharpe]

I am using also allot of NOW Foods supplements, but i did not feel any noticeable effect.

Only when i used 3 capsules of GABA i experienced a very warm feeling.

But GABA is a waste of many because it does not cross the BBB.

 

 

[tolerant]

I can't exactly remember what I bought from them - I guess it has to be something like mucuna pruriens. It had no effect whatsoever, but then again, even from other brands, I usually get no effect whatsoever. So maybe it is not the fault of NOW, just that most supplements do not have any noticable effect. 

I tried the more expensive ones too, for example solgar, but I think the ones that can be bought in stores are more often than not overpriced. 

I only buy supplements online now, or cheap drugstore ones, which is also a hit or miss.

 

Actually, I now have to retract the statement I made in the previous post. Your post reminded me that Dopa Mucuna was one product that produced a result -- I felt more aggressive and determined but in a way that was very unpleasant. And even then I'm not entire sure the effect was produced by Dopa Mucuna. I am now trying their Holy Basil and sometimes I think it is, possibly, doing something. It's just that I tried so many of their products that did nothing at all, even at megadoses, that I forgot about these possible exceptions. And it somehow irks me and makes me suspicious that iherb.com appears to be a store front for Now Foods.

[rebecca123]

Well, I was more determined and focussed while ingesting a megadose of l-tyrosine, a precusor to L-DOPA I believe. It did not make me aggressive, but it was more a weird speedy effect that I never experienced with it again, let alone at the recommended dose. So maybe the determined feeling could have been because of the Mucuna Pruriens. The aggressiveness is interesting though, but I can understand that you don't want to take it again. I will not take Mucuna Pruriens anymore either, I read here and from other sources that it could do more harm than good. I hope the Holy Basil is not a placebo. 

[Sharpe]

Bump