How to Read the Label

The supplement facts panel

Every Veris bottle carries a supplement facts panel, the boxed table you will find on most dietary supplements. It states the serving size, the number of servings in the container, and then lists each active ingredient with the amount per serving.

For Veris, the serving size is 2 capsules, and a bottle holds 60 capsules, which is 30 servings. Reading down the panel you will see each of the six actives with its amount: Cinnamon Bark 70 mg, White Mulberry Leaf 60 mg, Juniper Extract 55 mg, Bitter Melon Extract 50 mg, Berberine HCL Extract 25 mg, and Chromium Picolinate 200 mcg.

What a proprietary blend is, and why Veris has none

A proprietary blend is a group of ingredients listed together under one combined weight, without breaking out how much of each is inside. The total is shown, but the individual amounts are not. This is legal and common, but it means you cannot tell whether a blend is mostly one cheap filler with a token amount of everything else.

Veris uses a full-disclosure label, which means there is no proprietary blend at all. Every active is listed with its own exact amount. You can see precisely how much cinnamon, mulberry, juniper, bitter melon, berberine, and chromium you are getting, with nothing pooled or hidden.

Reading the words: extract, HCL, mcg and mg

A few terms on the panel are worth translating into plain language so the numbers make sense.

• Extract: a concentrated form of a plant, where the desired parts are drawn out of the raw bark, leaf, or fruit. An extract gives a more consistent and measurable amount than dried plant material would.
• Fruit, leaf, bark: the panel often names the plant part used, such as juniper from the fruit or mulberry from the leaf. This tells you exactly which part of the plant the ingredient comes from.
• HCL: short for hydrochloride, a salt form. Berberine HCL is berberine paired with hydrochloride to make a stable, precisely measurable material.
• mg and mcg: a milligram (mg) is one thousandth of a gram. A microgram (mcg) is one thousandth of a milligram, so it is much smaller. Chromium is listed in mcg because it is needed only in trace amounts.

Reading amounts in context

Bigger numbers on a label are not automatically better, and smaller numbers are not automatically weaker. A trace mineral measured in micrograms and a botanical measured in milligrams are simply different kinds of ingredient on different scales.

The value of a full-disclosure label is that it lets you read each amount for what it is. You can compare Veris against other products honestly, because every figure is there in front of you rather than blended away.