The health supplements market is on the rise in the United States, as reported by the Council for Responsible Nutrition. The nutrition industry is worth $32 billion alone in the United States. At the same time, CRN reports that as many as 150 million Americans consume dietary supplements. With that being said, it is important to know that not all supplements are made equal. While some supplements do contain vital nutrients and are manufactured excipient free, others, not so much.

Magnesium stearate is one of the excipients that supplement manufacturers use to aid mass supplement manufacturing. Studies have shown that magnesium stearate might not be as innocent as it sounds. In this article, we will highlight some of the potentially harmful effects of magnesium stearate.

What is Magnesium Stearate?

Magnesium stearate is a chemical and an additive which is used by most nutritional supplement manufacturers to act as a lubricant. Magnesium stearate can be thought of as a layer around your supplement ingredients to prevent clumping in the tableting and encapsulation equipment. Magnesium stearate does not provide you with nutritional magnesium as implied by its name. Also, it does not serve as a mineral used for health purposes. Thus, you should not be fooled by the name magnesium stearate and think of it as a source of magnesium.

Adverse health impacts of Magnesium Stearate.

1- Magnesium Stearate contains properties that reduce the rate of ingredient absorption. 

As we have discussed, magnesium stearate forms a coating around the active ingredients in capsules and tablets, this can potentially slow down the digestive enzymes. This happens because as the active ingredient is trapped in between the magnesium stearate coating, the enzymes first need to break this coating down to reach the beneficial ingredients. This can pose a severe health risk, especially for individuals with improper digestion.

2- Magnesium Stearate is derived from sources that can be risky.

While magnesium stearate is derived from both plant and animal-based sources, most companies prefer using the plant-based source. The plant-based source of magnesium stearate is mostly derived from cottonseed oil which is known to have immense pesticide residue. Another plant-based source of magnesium stearate is canola oil, which is a genetically modified crop and poses high health risks. Lastly, magnesium stearate can also be sourced from palm oil which is identified by the World Health Organization as a contributor to cardiovascular diseases.

3- Magnesium Stearate has no nutritional value.

Claims stating that magnesium stearate is broken down by the body to provide magnesium as a nutrient might be misleading. Companies endorsing magnesium stearate as a source of magnesium should know that it does not contain significant amounts of magnesium required by the body. 

4- Magnesium stearate is highly processed.

It is argued that foods that we normally consume like chicken, eggs and milk chocolate have stearic acid naturally present in them. However, this may be far from reality as the stearic acid used to synthesize magnesium stearate that is used in supplement manufacturing is different and highly processed and goes through various treatments like bleaching and deodorization. 

Here are a few suggestions for an informed and excipient free choice!

Customers want to Buy From Manufacturers that Encapsulate ingredients without magnesium stearate.

While some private label supplement manufacturers are adamant on the use of magnesium stearate for supplement manufacturing, PureNSM has been manufacturing custom nutritional supplements without magnesium stearate since 1993. With decades of private label supplement manufacturing without excipients, we assure you that supplement formulation with a variety of ingredients can be manufactured without the use of excipients such as magnesium stearate. 

We know that customers’ top concern today are supplements that are full of unnecessary excipients. According to a study, as many as 35% of the customers were concerned about the use of excipients and supplement manufacturing and preferred supplements brands that are excipient free. Despite our reputation in manufacturing excipient free supplements, we continue to offer our products at a competitive price.

Prioritize Excipient free manufacturers such as PureNSM

PureNSM is known for manufacturing clean label products. At the most, we may use rice-based fillers such as sterilized rice hulls in supplement manufacturing. We use specialized slow auger driven encapsulation machines for raw materials that aren’t free-flowing. While for free-flowing powders, we use specialized machinery that operates at higher speeds.
As customer perception is changing and the demand for excipient free supplement manufacturing grows, we are continuously expanding our capacity for excipient free private label supplement manufacturing to accommodate the ever-growing demand.