ConsumerLab is a watchdog site reviewing supplements for quality and recalls

Supplements often have issues with impurities, toxins, and inaccurate labels

Consumer Reports' tests of more than 20 supplement powders and shakes in 2025 found that more than two-thirds of them contain unsafe levels of lead. Some contained 10 times the amount of lead that's considered acceptable to ingest in a day. The levels they found, in some cases, were even higher than when they tested the products 15 years earlier.

Reporting if supplements make you ill helps FDA know what products to investigate

The US Food and Drug Administration regulates supplements like foods and can only take action about a supplement if they learn that there are problems with it after it's on the market. This website allows consumers, industry, and others to file a complaint about a product that made them ill or raised other concerns.

Dietary supplements are regulated like foods

This hour-long 2016 documentary from Frontline, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and The New York Times examined the safety of dietary supplements. It noted that this then-$30B industry (it's at least doubled since then) suffers from irregularities and impurities. It warned that many Americans are unaware of the lack of regulatory oversight over these products.

USP-verified label on supplements means a nonprofit confirmed what's in the bottle

The black-and-yellow USP-verified program seal on a dietary supplement bottle means that the nonprofit US Pharmacopeia tested a sample of the product and verified that it was made in a facility with good manufacturing practices and that it will dissolve in the body. Their certification also means they tested to confirm that the product contains the ingredients listed on the bottle at the specified levels, and that it doesn't contain harmful levels of certain dangerous contaminants.

Search this citation-heavy database of nutrition and supplement research

Explore a reference site that aggregates and summarizes peer-reviewed studies on hundreds of supplements and dietary interventions. It is ad-free and funded by subscriptions, making it a health resource without a financial stake in what you buy.

A Bay Area lab was supplying MLB players with steroids

The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, also known as BALCO, began as a modest vitamin shop, but by the 1990s it was at the center of a doping scheme that rocked Major League Baseball and other professional sports.

Humans need vitamins, but research is mixed on taking supplements

When an organism needs an organic molecule to survive, but cannot synthesize enough of it itself, that molecule is called a vitamin. Typically, we consume vitamins through food, but many resort to supplements—a common and mostly unregulated practice.

Kava, kratom, St. John's Wort, and green tea extract present health concerns

Consumer Reports, which tests supplements for safety, urges consumers to avoid these four supplements due to safety warnings from researchers and public health authorities.

See preferred supplements across different countries in 2025, by generation

Millennials and Gen Z typically took more supplements than other age groups across vitamins, proteins, minerals, and herbal supplements, according to 2025 data from a Global Consumer Insights Survey conducted in 55 countries. Roughly two-thirds of Gen Z respondents stated they'd taken vitamins in the past 12 months. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Read the FDA's statement on concerns over compound pharmacies

GLP-1 drugs popularity for weight loss and treating diabetes, led to a significant supply shortage and the rise of compound pharmacies, which produce customized drug formulations but lack formal approval from regulators. The drugs are ostensibly the same, but manufacturing methods lead to variations in concentration, filler compounds, and more.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

FDA removed its cardiovascular risk warning on testosterone products in 2025

The change came a decade after the FDA added the label. Recent work, including a gold-standard randomized trial, found that men receiving the products had similar cardiovascular risk levels as men taking placebo products. Testosterone, however, may hold other health risks, including infertility.

Biological aging tests assess the breakdown of physiological systems

Known as aging clocks, these tests compare various metrics, like DNA methylation patterns and protein profiles, to healthy baselines. However, the non-uniformity of these baselines across individuals limits testing accuracy and prevents their clinical use.

Batteries, baby wipes, and other Costco buys that might not be worth it

Costco's private label Kirkland sells just about everything at a price many customers say can't be beat. While often a cost-efficient way to buy household goods in bulk, some shoppers not all Kirkland products are created equal and there are some items that aren't worth the cost savings.

Pop Mart is the company behind the viral Labubu toy craze

Labubus, the Chinese collectible toys, are being heralded as the next Beanie Babies. Pop Mart, the company behind the Labubus, is using a few psychological tools to keep the Labubu economy booming.

Home allergy tests don’t work well and experts urge caution

Doctors do not recommend at-home allergy test kits because their results may be inaccurate and confusing, and lead people to make lifestyle changes that are not warranted. Tests that require sending in a hair sample, for example, will not be helpful because hair does not have the relevant antibodies that blood testing would detect.

Who is wellness scammer Belle Gibson?

A new Netflix drama series called “Apple Cider Vinegar” tells a story inspired by the real-life scandal of Belle Gibson. Gibson falsely claimed to have healed herself of terminal brain cancer through healthy eating. She built a successful wellness empire without any medical background until journalists eventually found inaccuracies in her story. Discover more about the woman who founded a business on deception, how she got caught, and where she is now.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking closely at BNPL

Given the lack of data around BNPL services in comparison to other financial products such as credit cards, the CFPB has conducted research to better understand BNPL products and how they could harm and benefit consumers.

How healthy is lab-grown meat?

While meat-less meat options like Beyond and Impossible burgers are known for being the environmentally-friendly alternative to real meat, it’s important to also consider their impact on human health. Health benefits of these meat alternatives...

In 2008, one writer demonstrated the fickle nature of wine reviews

Robin Goldstein submitted a fake restaurant to the well-respected Wine Spectator for a competition. He created a website for the fake Milan-based business, complete with a menu of wines the magazine itself had disparaged. That didn't stop Wine Spectator from naming Goldstein's ruse among that year's winners.

Michael Sveda discovered cyclamate by accident

When this lab researcher brought his hands to his lips to smoke his cigarette in 1937, he tasted something sweet, which he called cyclamate. It was quickly used in diet sodas, but it was banned from the US in 1969 after being linked to rodent bladder cancer in lab experiments.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Peptide TB-500, promoted for regenerative healing, is not FDA approved

Watch a board-certified sports medicine therapist detail his thinking about this synthetic peptide; he says it's "promising but unproven." He notes that this product is designed to mimic the natural protein thymosin beta-4, found in human and animal tissues, which promotes wound healing. TB-500 is classified as a research peptide for recovery, meaning it's not approved for human use and has not yet undergone rigorous human trials on its safety and efficacy.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

A 49-year-old American died at an ibogaine clinic in Mexico, underscoring its risks

The man had sought out the drug to help him overcome his substance abuse disorder. Though anecdotal reports indicate potential promise, there's been no large-scale clinical trials on ibogaine's safety and efficacy. The plant is derived from a root bark named iboga and has been used for centuries by indigenous communities in Gabon, but first entered scientific consciousness in 1901 after its alkaloid was isolated from Iboga.

A pediatric journal ran 138 fictional case studies, and 61 were cited as real stories

The Canadian journal Paediatrics & Child Health issued corrections to 138 case studies published since 2000, acknowledging the cases were entirely fictional—a practice intended to protect patient privacy that was never disclosed to readers. At least 61 of the fabricated reports were cited as fact in other peer-reviewed journals a combined 218 times, including a 2006 Lancet article alleging an infant died from opioid-laced breast milk.

Trader Joe's hired a college student to advise on health food lingo

The grocer jumped into the 1970s health food movement by selling granola, fresh juice, nuts, and raw milk. Joe Coulombe, the company’s founder and namesake, hired “a young hippie woman” from the University of California at Santa Cruz to teach employees the language of the health food movement to properly label their products.

LVMH's roughly 75 brands are categorized into six distinct business groups

The groups are as follows: Wines and Spirits, Fashion and Leather Goods, Perfumes and Cosmetics, Watches and Jewelry, Selective Retailing, and Other Activities.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.