The Proprietary Blend Nutritional Supplement

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Article Title:

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The " Proprietary Blend " Nutritional Supplement

Article Description:

====================

In a nut shell, I went onto cover each of these common marketing

terms that are used to sell supplements to unwitting consumers

and explained each in detail as to what I view as their common

misuse within the market place.

Additional Article Information:

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1088 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: Fri Feb 10 04:37:43 EST 2006

Written By: Will Brink

Copyright: 2006

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The " Proprietary Blend " Nutritional Supplement

Copyright © 2006 Will Brink

Diet Supplements Revealed

http://aboutsupplements.com

- The Shell Game that is the " Proprietary Blend " Nutritional

Supplement

Recently I wrote an article entitled " Terms, Terms, Terms, An

Inside look to buying supplements " which can be found on the

Gurus and Guests section of my private forum. The article covered

many of the misleading marketing terms buyers have to deal with

in an attempt to make informed decisions on the supplements they

spend their hard earned money on. Some of the more potentially

misleading commonly used marketing terms I covered were:

" Clinically proven "

" Patented "

" Doctor recommended "

" All natural "

" Scientifically formulated "

" Research proven "

" Used for thousands of years "

Readers interested in understanding why the above terms can be so

misleading, can read my write-up on each of those terms.

In a nut shell, I went onto cover each of these common marketing

terms that are used to sell supplements to unwitting consumers

and explained each in detail as to what I view as their common

misuse within the market place.

However, one term I didn't cover, was " proprietary blend " which

in many cases is the most potentially misleading term of them

all, though not a term always seen in ads per se, but the side of

the bottle.

Thus, why I felt it was a separate topic to be covered at a later

date as it does not fit under the classic definition of a

commonly used marketing term found in ads. I also decided to

cover this term in a separate article as it requires much more

space dedicated to it then the other terms needed for reasons

that will be apparent shortly.

Proprietary blends are not inherently a negative for the

consumer, though they are inherently confusing for the buyer in

most cases.

A supplement that lists a " proprietary blend " on the bottle can

be there for one of two reasons:

(a) to prevent the competition from knowing exactly what ratios

and amounts of each ingredient present in the formula to prevent

the competition from copying their formula exactly (commonly

referred to as a " knock off " ) or

( to hide the fact the formula contains very little of the

active ingredients listed on the bottle in an attempt to fool

consumers.

Sadly, the latter use is far more common then the former. They

see a long list of seemingly impressive ingredients listed in the

" proprietary blend " none of which are there is amounts that will

have any effects. This is commonly referred to as " label

decoration " by industry insiders. The former use of the term is a

legitimate way for a company of a quality formula from having the

competition copy or " knock off " their formula and the latter use

of the term is to scam people.

So how does the consumer tell the difference?

They can't, or at least they can't without some research and

knowledge, which the scam artists know few people have the time

and energy to dedicate to finding the answers. Although there are

a few tips the consumer can use to decide if a product with a

" proprietary blend " is worth trying, no one, not even me, can

figure out exactly how much of each ingredient is in the blend or

in what ratio of each is contained within the formula, hence why

the honest and not-so-honest companies employ " proprietary

blends " so often.

Thus, we have something of a conundrum here and conflict between

a company making a quality formula attempting to protect that

formula from other companies vs. the company simply looking to

baffle buyers with BS.

There are at least some basic tips or food for thought here

regarding this problem. A formula that contains say 10

ingredients in a " proprietary blend " is by no means defacto

superior then one with three ingredients in it. It's the dose

that matters. Clearly, it's better to have higher amounts of

ingredients that will have some effects vs. a long list of

ingredients in doses too low to have any effects.

Some times it helps to look at both what's in the blend and how

much of the blend actually exists. As an example, if say the

blend is 300mg total and contains ten ingredients, that's only

30mg per ingredient, assuming (and you know what they say about

assuming!) that each is found in equal amounts. Clearly, for most

compounds out there, 30mg wont do jack sh* & .

On the other hand, if say the blend is 3000mg (3 grams) and

contains three or four ingredients, there is at least a better

chance that the formula contains enough of each (and remember, we

can't tell how much of each is in there as that information is

" proprietary " ) to have some effects you are looking for such as

an increase in strength, or a decrease in bodyfat, etc.

Unfortunately, the above examples are so vague as to be close to

worthless as it's easy enough to formulate a 3000mg blend where

all the ingredients are worthless to begin with or a 300mg blend

that contains compounds that only require small doses to have an

effect and or can be toxic at higher doses.

For example, the mineral zinc tends to be no more then 30mg in

most formulas and no more is needed or recommended. Much of this

comes down to the consumer knowing what the various ingredients

are and how they work (to decide if they are even worth using in

the first place) then deciding if said blend appears to at least

contain a dose that would have the desired effects, which just

brings us back to my prior comment: most people have neither the

time or inclination to research all that info just to decide if

they want to use a product and thus the many " proprietary blends "

on the market that are no more then a long list of under-dosed

ingredients.

Wish I could be of more help giving specific advice to readers of

this here article as to what makes a good blend and what

constitutes a poorly made blend, but the above advice is the best

I can do under the circumstances. Although a " proprietary blend "

is not by default a negative to the consumer, it is by all means

the poster child for the well-known Latin term Caveat emptor

which translates into English as " let the buyer beware " .

See Will's ebooks online here:

Muscle Building Nutrition

http://musclebuildingnutrition.com

A complete guide bodybuilding supplements and eating to gain

lean muscle

Diet Supplements Revealed

http://aboutsupplements.com

A review of diet supplements and guide to eating for maximum

fat loss

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Will Brink writes for numerous health, fitness, medical, and

bodybuilding publications. His articles can be found in Life

Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise

For Men Only, Oxygen, Women's World, The Townsend Letter For

Doctors and many more. His website is http://www.brinkzone.com