Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't usually review for products, but after reading all the 5-star reviews glowing with the amazing benefits of this product, I have to speak up. I'm a big proponent of natural supplements, but this particular product is the most overpriced, useless bottle of pills I have ever seen--yet it maintains a 4.5 star review on Amazon. I came across this product through someone's review of a GABA supplement, and decided to take a look for myself because its supposed mood-stabilizing and calming effects sounded promising. The reviews kept going on about how all the wonderful minerals in this product work so well because they are the nourishment that your body "so desperately needs". (reminds me of the movie Idiocracy: "Brawndo - it's got electrolytes! it's what your body craves!") Curious about what minerals are in this product, I checked Standard Process's website. Ingredients in this $45 product: Calcium lactate, kelp, magnesium citrate, alfalfa (whole plant), water, and calcium stearate. In other words, it's mainly kelp with added calcium and magnesium, with the least-occurring ingredient being alfalfa. (calcium stearate is a lubricant for the pill-making machine, not an ingredient) These amount to: Calcium 120 mg 10% Iodine 200 mcg 135% Magnesium 19 mg 4% That's it. Note: this is what you get from FOUR pills, the serving size. I'll address the calcium and magnesium first. Min-Tran has as much calcium as 1/3 of a cup of milk (or 1/3 of a cup of soy yogurt for vegans), and as much magnesium as 1/10 of a cup of spinach. Unless your diet is SERIOUSLY lacking, this amount of minerals will have no effect on you. Side note: the manufacturer heavily advertises that its supplements are "whole foods", yet these 2 minerals are added; they aren't from the "whole food" ingredients (kelp or alfalfa). That leaves only one mineral that could possibly give this product its effect: iodine. Min-Tran is definitely a good source of iodine. Iodine is a great mineral and many people can benefit from its supplementation, but I won't get into whether or not it actually offers the calming, tranquilizing, or mood-stabilizing effects claimed by this product. It might be true and even if this isn't, the "healthy" feeling supplemental iodine offers combined with the potential placebo effect can do wonders for people's stress, so I'm going to go on the assumption that this product can work for some people with mild stress. If you're not interested in what may be a placebo, look elsewhere. If you still want to try this product, read on. But why would you want to spend over $20 a month and take TWELVE of these pills a day (4 pills x 3 servings per day, as recommended by the manufacturer) when there are so many other ways to get iodine? The source of iodine in Min-Tran? The kelp. Why not just buy pure kelp? Country Life Norwegian Kelp 225 mcg, 300-Count (or any other brand of kelp) offers more iodine in ONE pill than Min-Tran has in FOUR pills. The kicker? 300 servings of Norwegian Kelp cost $6, while this $45 product only offers 200 servings. That's right, the kelp product offers 50% more servings of iodine, requires 1/4 the amount of pills, AND costs 87% less. "But what about the alfalfa in Min-Tran?" Good point! Notice how the 3 listed minerals in Min-Tran are all accounted for without even considering the alfalfa? (calcium from calcium lactate, iodine from kelp, and magnesium from magnesium citrate). That, along with the fact that alfafa is listed last on the ingredients list, is a telltale sign that there an entirely insignificant amount of alfafa in this product--that is, it offers virtually nothing nutrition-wise! However, alfalfa (when taken in significant doses) is a great health food. With the $39 you just saved by not buying this product, you could choose to invest in some real alfafa: Now Foods Alfalfa 10 Grain, 650 mg , 500 Tablets. $12 for an exponentially higher amount of alfalfa that these snake oil pills have. All that's left is to wonder why this product is so highly rated. That may be from the placebo effect and lack of research from real reviewers combined with the potentially fake reviews that plague this product. Pay attention to how many reviewers have no other reviews, how almost every one of the glowing 5-stars is marked as 100% helpful by other "reviewers", how no one mentions the ridiculous price, and how at least one user ("Bibliophile") even wrote TWO separate glowing reviews of this product! Don't let companies like this take advantage of your trust and scam you out of your hard-earned money. This is just $5 worth of kelp and even less alfalfa. Don't buy it.