Guides
Everything on this site that explains rather than describes, grouped by what it answers and who it is for.
This site has one page that is useful on any bottle — the guide to reading a probiotic label — and around a dozen that are about this one. They are grouped below by theme, and every entry says what the page answers and who should read it.
If you only have time for two: Fifty-seven capsules is the arithmetic the whole site rests on, and Thirty-six milligrams is what the probiotic line does and does not tell you. Everything else is detail around those two.
Reading a probiotic label
The one guide here that is not about this product. Take it to any shelf.
- Reading a probiotic label
- What it answers: what a Supplement Facts panel is required to carry, the four things a probiotic label should give you, how to read a proprietary blend as a ceiling, and how to check a fibre amount against a published figure. Who should read it: anybody choosing between two bottles, for this product or any other.
- The label, line by line
- What it answers: every line printed on this product’s artwork, transcribed, with what each one establishes and what it does not. It includes a clickable map of the label flat. Who should read it: anybody who wants the primary document rather than a summary of it.
- The three ingredients
- What it answers: what chicory inulin, potato resistant starch and a cultured blend of organisms actually are. Who should read it: anybody who has read the panel and wants to know what the words on it mean.
The first of the three is the one worth bookmarking. It uses this product as its example, but every rule in it comes from FDA’s labeling guide or NIH’s fact sheet and applies to whatever bottle you are holding.
The arithmetic
Three pages that do division in public and show the working.
- Fifty-seven capsules
- What it answers: what 211 mg of chicory inulin buys against the only authorised intake anybody has published, which is 12 g a day. It carries a widget you can switch between two published targets. Who should read it: anybody buying this for fibre.
- Packs, and what is in them
- What it answers: what is in a one, three and six-bottle pack, in capsules, servings and days. Who should read it: anybody choosing a pack size. It carries no prices, because none was supplied to this site.
- What to expect, and when
- What it answers: what the supplied material says about timing and what it does not, set against what is actually known. Who should read it: anybody who has seen a claim about a number of weeks.
All three exist because this label was good enough to argue with. A panel that declares nothing cannot be checked; one that declares 211 mg can be checked in a single division.
The probiotic itself
The most interesting ingredient in the bottle and the least checkable.
- Thirty-six milligrams
- What it answers: what a probiotic is defined as, why weight is the legal minimum, what the descending-order rule lets you derive about each organism, and what the EU required when it looked at Akkermansia muciniphila. Who should read it: anybody buying this for the probiotic rather than the fibre.
- What it may do to you
- What it answers: what NIH records about probiotics in people who are severely ill or immunocompromised, what FDA warned about in 2023, and the signs that mean stop. Who should read it: anybody who is unwell, immunocompromised, pregnant, nursing or taking medicine.
- Who it is for
- What it answers: the label says adults 18 and over; this page is about who should settle a question with a clinician first. Who should read it: anybody in the groups the label’s own caution names.
The second and third of those are the two pages on this site that most deserve to be read before a purchase rather than after one.
The cold chain
A live product with three storage instructions and no published transit conditions.
- The cold-chain question
- What it answers: the three different storage instructions printed across the label and the pack, why the contradiction matters more here than on most supplements, and what nobody has published about the parcel. Who should read it: everybody, before buying a six-bottle pack.
- How to take it
- What it answers: the label’s own instruction, word for word, what the written pack adds to it, and which of the two this site treats as the instruction. Who should read it: anybody who has already bought a bottle.
- Shipping
- What it answers: what was supplied about how the parcel reaches you, which is tracking in the order email and a US origin, and what was not, which is the cost and the time. Who should read it: anybody who needs to know when it arrives.
These three are one argument split across three pages: the label asks for refrigeration, a parcel is not refrigerated, and nobody published a starting count from which to work out what that costs.
How this site works
The pages about the site rather than about the capsule.
- How this site is made
- What it answers: who publishes this, who does not, the three rules every page is written under, the affiliate relationship in full, and how to send a correction. Who should read it: anybody deciding how much weight to give the rest.
- Reviews, and why there are none
- What it answers: the five figures supplied with this product, the five findings that led to all of them being refused, and what a review section would have to be to be worth reading. Who should read it: anybody who noticed there is no rating here.
- What we did not publish
- What it answers: the six supplied images that are not on this site and the reason for each. The list is generated from the build itself. Who should read it: anybody who wants to see the decisions rather than the results of them.
- Quality marks, audited
- What it answers: eleven marks on the artwork, and what was supplied to back each one — which for ten of them is nothing. Who should read it: anybody reassured by a seal.
- Sources
- What it answers: every citation on this site, what each class of source is, and how much weight it carries. Who should read it: anybody checking a figure.
- Batch and lot
- What it answers: what the supplied lot and certificate references are, which is draft label codes rather than laboratory proof. Who should read it: anybody who has a bottle in front of them.
Buying, and the legal pages
Shorter pages, and the ones most likely to matter after a purchase rather than before.
- The guarantee
- What it answers: what a 60-day money-back window is, what it covers and what it does not. Who should read it: anybody about to pay.
- Refund policy
- What it answers: the mechanics — what to send, where, who pays return shipping and how long the money takes. Who should read it: anybody starting a return.
- Where to buy
- What it answers: why the refund window described here only applies to an order placed through this desk. Who should read it: anybody comparing sellers.
- The bonus covers
- What it answers: six cover images were supplied and nothing else at all — no contents, no delivery method, no statement of which packs include them. Who should read it: anybody buying partly for a bonus.
- Disclaimer
- What it answers: the FDA, medical, results, affiliate and reviews disclaimers, each with a plain explanation of what it actually means. Who should read it: anybody who has ever scrolled past one.
- Contact
- What it answers: which channel answers what, including the two phone numbers and the inbox that cannot see orders. Who should read it: anybody with a question this site does not answer.
The disclaimer page is the one most worth two minutes. The five statements on it appear in the footer of every page on this site, and each one is doing more work than its length suggests.
Where to start, by question
The four questions this site gets asked, and the page that answers each one.
| If you are asking | Start here | Then |
|---|---|---|
| “How much of this stuff am I actually taking?” | The panel, line by line | Fifty-seven capsules |
| “Is the probiotic any good?” | Thirty-six milligrams | Reading a probiotic label |
| “Do I need to keep it in the fridge?” | The cold-chain question | How to take it |
| “Can I trust this website?” | What we did not publish | Sources |
Scroll this table sideways →
One page answers most of it
If you read only one page here, read the panel. Everything else on this site is downstream of what is printed on that label, and the label is unusually good.
See the SlimTide packs
One, three or six bottles. The price is on the seller’s checkout page, because it is one of the few figures this site was never given — and a figure we were not given is not a figure we will print.
Shipping cost and delivery time were not supplied either, which matters more than usual on a product whose label asks for refrigeration. The guarantee is 60 days from purchase unless the sales page prints longer.
References
Every source below was opened and read when this site was written. Nothing here cites a study we did not read, and no identifier on this site was written from memory. Where a claim could not be verified, the page says so instead of using it.
- Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of HealthProbiotics — Health Professional Fact Sheet · sourceThe definition of a probiotic, what colony-forming units are, the fact that US regulations require total microorganism weight rather than viable CFU, the advice to prefer products stating CFU at end of shelf life, strain specificity, and the safety record in immunocompromised people.
- European UnionCommission Regulation (EU) 2015/2314 of 7 December 2015 authorising a health claim made on foods · source“Chicory inulin contributes to normal bowel function by increasing stool frequency”, authorised only for food providing a daily intake of 12 g of native chicory inulin. The source of the 12 g figure used throughout this site.
- European UnionCommission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 of 16 May 2012 establishing a list of permitted health claims made on foods · sourceThe authorised resistant starch claim — “replacing digestible starches with resistant starch in a meal contributes to a reduction in the blood glucose rise after that meal” — and its condition that resistant starch be at least 14% of total starch.
- European UnionCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/168 of 8 February 2022 authorising pasteurised Akkermansia muciniphila as a novel food · sourceOnly the pasteurised form is authorised, for adults excluding pregnant and lactating women, at up to 3.4 × 10¹⁰ cells a day, under a named strain and a required designation.
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationDaily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels · sourceThe Daily Value for dietary fibre is 28 g, and FDA's own rule of thumb that 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is low and 20% or more is high.
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationDietary Supplement Labeling Guide, Chapter IV: Nutrition Labeling · sourceWhat a Supplement Facts panel must carry, and the proprietary-blend rule: the blend's total weight on its own line with the ingredients listed underneath in descending order of predominance by weight.
- Federal Trade CommissionGut Check: A Reference Guide for Media on Spotting False Weight Loss Claims · sourceThe claims FTC says are always false, beginning with weight loss of two pounds or more a week for a month or more without dieting or exercise.
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationAvoiding Products Contaminated with Hidden Ingredients · sourceFDA cannot test products before they reach the market, its database covers only a small fraction of what is out there, and buyers are told to be wary of products carrying multiple rave reviews.