Fifty-seven capsules
One declared amount, two published targets, one division. This is the only page in this series of sites where the arithmetic is straightforward, and it is straightforward because the label was honest.
The panel declares 211 mg of chicory root inulin per capsule. Regulation (EU) 2015/2314 authorises the chicory inulin bowel-function claim only for food providing 12 g a day. That is 57 capsules.
The label says do not exceed the recommended dose, which is one. So the authorised dose is not reachable from this product, and nothing on this page suggests trying.
Do it yourself
One capsule is what the label says to take. The rest is what 12 g would take.
211 mg a capsule against 12,000 mg a day is 56.9 capsules, which rounds to 57. This is not a criticism of the panel. The panel is honest, and this is what it lets you work out.
Switch the target to see the other published figure. Both are somebody else’s number, not ours.
Switch the target between the two published figures. Both belong to somebody else: the 12 g comes from the European Commission’s authorising regulation, and the 28 g from FDA’s Daily Value for dietary fibre.
Where 12 grams comes from
In December 2015 the European Commission authorised a health claim for chicory inulin, on EFSA’s advice. The claim it authorised reads: “Chicory inulin contributes to normal bowel function by increasing stool frequency.”
The authorisation came with a condition of use, and the condition is the whole point: information must be given to the consumer that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 12 g of chicory inulin, and the claim may be used only for food which provides at least a daily intake of 12 g of native chicory inulin.
- What was authorised
- A bowel-function claim, about stool frequency. Not weight loss, not appetite, not metabolism.
- At what dose
- 12 g a day of native chicory inulin, defined in the regulation as a non-fractionated mixture with a mean degree of polymerisation of 9 or more.
- Does it apply in the United States?
- No. This is a US product and EU regulations do not govern it. The figure is cited because it is the most specific published statement anyone has made about how much chicory inulin does something.
- Is 211 mg therefore useless?
- That is not what this page says. It says 211 mg is about one fifty-seventh of the intake a regulator was prepared to authorise a claim at, and that this is worth knowing before you buy.
The second target, from FDA
FDA sets a Daily Value for dietary fibre of 28 g for adults and children four and over. At 211 mg, one capsule is 0.75% of that.
FDA also publishes a rule of thumb for reading its own labels: 5% of the Daily Value or less is low, and 20% or more is high. This capsule is not near the bottom of that range; it is roughly a seventh of the way to the bottom of it.
| Figure | Amount | Capsules a day |
|---|---|---|
| Declared per capsule | 211 mg | 1 — what the label says |
| EU authorised inulin dose | 12,000 mg | 57 |
| FDA Daily Value for fibre | 28,000 mg | 133 |
| 5% of the fibre Daily Value | 1,400 mg | 7 |
Scroll this table sideways →
Even the bottom of FDA’s “low” band takes 7 capsules. The label permits one.
The resistant starch does not have a dose problem
It has a structural one, and no amount of capsules fixes it.
The European Union has also authorised a health claim for resistant starch, in Regulation (EU) No 432/2012. It reads: “Replacing digestible starches with resistant starch in a meal contributes to a reduction in the blood glucose rise after that meal.”
Its condition of use is not a milligram figure. It is that digestible starch has been replaced by resistant starch so that the final content of resistant starch is at least 14% of total starch — in the meal.
A capsule swallowed with a glass of water replaces no starch in any meal. The claim is therefore unavailable to this product at any dose, which is a different and more fundamental thing than falling short of one. 100 mg of resistant starch is 100 mg of a fermentable fibre; it is not the thing the authorised claim describes.
What this page is not saying
Yes
- The panel is honest — it printed the number
- 211 mg and 100 mg are real, declared, per-serving amounts
- The ingredients are recognisable fibres with real literature behind them
- The arithmetic on this page was only possible because the label was good
Settle this first
- That the product is fraudulent — it is not, and nothing here says so
- That inulin does nothing at any dose — a regulator authorised a claim for it
- That you should take 57 capsules — the label says do not exceed one, and it is right
- That EU rules bind a US product — they do not; they are the best published figure, not the law here
The finding is narrow and it is arithmetic: at 211 mg a capsule, this product does not deliver the only intake of chicory inulin that anybody has authorised a claim at. If fibre is why you are buying it, that is the fact you needed.
Each ingredient, front and back
Front: what the thing is and what the panel declares. Back: the published figure it would have to reach.
Chicory Root Inulin
211 mg declared per capsule.
- Declared on the panel
- 211 mg per capsule
- The published figure
- 12 g a day — Regulation (EU) 2015/2314, the authorised bowel-function claim
- Finding
- 211 mg a capsule is one fifty-seventh of that. The label says do not exceed one capsule.
Potato [Resistant Starch]
100 mg declared per capsule.
- Declared on the panel
- 100 mg per capsule
- The published figure
- at least 14% of a meal’s starch — Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, the authorised blood-glucose claim
- Finding
- The claim is about replacing starch inside a meal. A capsule taken with water replaces nothing, so it is unavailable at any dose.
Sources: European Union
Probiotic Blend
36 mg declared per capsule.
- Declared on the panel
- 36 mg per capsule
- The published figure
- a colony-forming count — NIH ODS: prefer products stating CFU at the end of shelf life
- Finding
- 36 mg is a weight of powder. No CFU figure and no strain designation appears anywhere on this label.
How to do this on any bottle
Nothing on this page is specific to this product except the 211. The method works on any supplement whose label declares a per-serving amount, which is most of them, and it takes about a minute.
Read the amount off the panel, not off the front
The front of a bottle carries claims. The Supplement Facts panel carries quantities. They are different documents and only one of them is a measurement.
Find a published figure for that ingredient
An authorised health claim is the best kind, because a regulator wrote the threshold down after examining the evidence. A government fact sheet is the next best. A seller’s own website is not one.
Put both in the same unit
This is where most comparisons fall over. Labels are in milligrams and fibre research is in grams, and a factor of a thousand is easy to lose. 12 g is 12,000 mg.
Divide
The published figure over the declared amount is the number of servings a day it would take. If that number is larger than the serving the label permits, the product does not deliver the dose — whatever else it does.
Check the answer against the label’s own limit
Every label carries a do-not-exceed line. If the arithmetic asks you to cross it, the arithmetic is telling you the two things are not compatible, not telling you to take more.
Why this is a compliment to the panel
None of these five steps is possible on a label that does not declare an amount, and most labels in this category do not. This one does, three times over.
A product you can check is worth more than a product you cannot, even when the check comes out badly. That is the whole argument for honest panels, and this bottle is the example.
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
The sources behind the numbers on this page.
- 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.
- 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.