Turmeric Curcumin Buyer's Guide [Updated 2024]: We Compared The Best, Here's What We Found
Unless you've been living under a rock you know that turmeric has exploded onto the health and wellness scene. By now you know that turmeric is an amazing super spice to add to your daily routine that can give you amazing health benefits like natural pain relief, dramatically reducing inflammation, joint pain relief, heart health, clearing brain fog and more.
However, there is a trick that many manufacturers of this "Golden Spice" are using to fool customers into buying a turmeric supplement that will not work. This guide will help you find the best turmeric supplement that we're sure will work for you!
You have many choices when you're buying a turmeric supplement, it can be overwhelming. You have cheap brands, expensive brands, some come with 120 capsules, some come with 60, some contain blends, some individual ingredients, but what's right?
The #1 Trick Turmeric Supplements Use Against You
The number one question we get is, "I tried turmeric that I bought from (insert big box store), and it didn't work. Do you think your turmeric supplement will work?" We can tell you, the stuff you'll buy from Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, for $9.99 will not work. You might as well throw your money away! If you're looking for results you can feel, you have to know what you're looking for!
There's a reason some turmeric supplements can sell for $9.99 and its not because the company is so huge they can afford to price it that low. It's because the ingredients they're putting into the supplement are not high quality ingredients! That's it! It's not a mystery. Companies save money by putting cheaper ingredients into their supplements.
If you're looking for a turmeric supplement that you expect to replace Aspirin, Ibuprofen, etc, you WILL NOT get results buying a turmeric supplement that contains "Turmeric Root Powder" or better known as "Curcuma Longa".
The reason for this is simple. Turmeric root powder or Curcuma Longa contains a very small percentage of Curcuminoids! Curcuminoids is the primary reason you take a turmeric supplement. They key amount of curcuminoids you need for an effective turmeric supplement is 1000 mg of 95% curcuminoids. However, almost every turmeric supplement on the market is doing their best to trick you into thinking their turmeric supplement contains this.
Real People Like You Have Amazing Results!
How To Ensure You Buy The Best Turmeric Curcumin Supplement
Majority of turmeric supplements on the market advertise that they contain standardized 95% curcuminoids. The key here is the word, "CONTAIN". This is why it is vitally important to look at a supplement ingredient's panel. Most turmeric supplements will only contain a small amount of curcuminoids. However, we know that the key to any turmeric supplement is 1000 mg of 95% curcuminoids. Anything less and you're wasting your money!
The reason you take a turmeric supplement is to get the key ingredient curcumin and while organic turmeric root powder isn’t bad, it’s nowhere near as effective as standardized turmeric extract with 95% curcuminoids. Here’s why.
Turmeric root powder contains about 2-4% curcuminoids, remember, curcumin is the KEY active ingredient that you look for. Here's the best way to make sure that you've found the best turmeric supplement. Take a look at these two supplement facts panels. The one on the right contains 1000 mg of 95% curcuminoids while the one on the left contains turmeric root powder which as we know, only contains 2-3% curcuminoids.
Now compare that to standardized turmeric extract which contains 95% curcuminoids. This formula is almost 19 times more effective! Combine this with Bioperine (or black pepper) for absorption, and you have a much more powerful turmeric supplement than ANY organic supplement!
If you’re looking for RESULTS, you want 1000 mg of Standardized Turmeric Extract (95% Curcuminoids) per serving and be SURE it includes Bioperine because if it doesn’t, you won’t be able to get any of the curcumin into your body!
Do Yourself a Favor, Avoid Proprietary Blends
This is one way manufacturers really trick consumers into thinking they're getting a super effective supplement, when in fact, they're not at all! A proprietary formula is a fancy way for manufacturers to get away with not telling you exactly how much of a certain ingredient is in that supplement. Take a look at the supplement panel below from a very popular brand.
At first glance, this looks like a very high quality formula! But after looking it over, you'll see the first ingredient in this "Proprietary Organic Curcumin Complex" is turmeric root powder, which we know contains only 2-4% curcuminoids. That means out of the 1500 mg of this proprietary formula, 1400mg of this formula could be turmeric root powder! They don't HAVE to tell you the amount of each ingredient in their "complex." In fact, most of the time they don't even list what the formula is!
Insider Tip: Here's How To Ensure The Safety & Quality of Your Supplement
Did you know that supplements aren't required to be tested for things like safety, purity, heavy metals, etc. Unfortunately, since this is not required, many supplement manufacturers simply don't do it! You need to look for something called a "COA" which stands for a "Certificate of Analysis". What is this certificate and why is it important? This certificate is something that all QUALITY manufacturers should get with each and every batch of their supplement they create! This certificate comes from laboratory testing and is given once a supplement meets specific criteria.
For example, here's Me First Living's COA for MFL Premium Turmeric Supplement:
As you can see, we claim to have 95% curcuminoids, but Me First Living Premium Turmeric Curcumin with Black Pepper actually exceeds that with 96.49% Curcuminoids!
These tests also ensure the supplement is below the specifications for things like heavy metals and lead, but they test for more than that. The lab will make sure what the manufacturer says is in the supplement on the label, is actually in the capsule! Why is this important? This is the KEY reason people use the "Proprietary blend" loophole! If you have a proprietary blend and you don't list out how much of each ingredient is in your capsule, it's impossible to test for!
Like we said earlier, if you're just looking to simply take a turmeric supplement and you're not looking to replace NSAID's, then you'll be fine taking a turmeric root powder supplement! But, if you're looking for a turmeric supplement to help with your joint aches and pains, help relieve pain, help with inflammation, etc, you NEED to buy a supplement that contains only standardized turmeric 95% curcuminoids. This is the supplement that will have the biggest impact on your life as it is nearly 19X more effective than turmeric root powder! Here are the most popular turmeric supplements on Amazon for you to compare.
1. Me First Living Premium Standardized Turmeric Curcumin With Bioperine
- Me First Living Turmeric Curcumin contains ONLY 1000 mg of Standardized Turmeric 95% Curcuminoids per serving.
- Me First Living Turmeric Curcumin contains Bioperine as its source of black pepper.
- Me First Living is the ONLY Turmeric supplement to show their Certificate of Analysis PROVING to have 95% or more curcuminoids.
- Me First Living has a risk free return policy! If you don't love the product, simply call or email them!
★Limited Time Discount★ Me First Living is offering limited time discounts for their readers! Take advantage of discounts up to 35%, as low as $17.51 per bottle!
You can also call to order by phone, 24/7: (844) 344-6488
Or
2. Dr Tobias Turmeric Curcumin With Bioperine
In all honesty, Dr. Tobias Turmeric Curcumin is the one that comes the closest to Me First Living Turmeric Curcumin. The problem we had with Dr. Tobias Turmeric was based off internet searches and the trustworthiness of the company. There seem to be quite a few complaints regarding free bottles and unhappy customers. We know first hand how concerned our customers are shopping online. Being transparent and honest is our number one priority and if there's ever a concern with a company regarding those issues, it's normally best to either steer clear or do more research. The ingredients in this formula are good, but we'd be careful buying this as you might either be placed on a membership type of program or possibly have your information sold.
3. Dr. Danielle Turmeric Curcumin with Bioperine
Like 99% of the other turmeric supplements on the market, Dr. Danielle turmeric contains turmeric root powder which as we know contains far less of the massively beneficial curcuminoid. What does that mean for you? Well, either you're not going to feel the benefits from this supplement like you would with our number one choice or you're going to have to take a much higher dosage.
The only plus we can give Dr. Danielle turmeric is the fact that they include Bioperine.
4. Nature Wise Turmeric With Bioperine
To be honest, the only reason you would want to buy this turmeric is if you need a turmeric supplement with a large quantity of capsules. Beyond that, don't expect much from a Nature Wise turmeric supplement. We're not saying it's a bad supplement, but this is a list of the top 5 turmeric supplements on the market. Nature Wise has a main "Proprietary Blend" and you know how we feel about those. There's no way to tell how much of what is in this supplement. The plus side is that the proprietary blend is made up of good ingredients, you just have no idea how much of what it contains. We're definitely against proprietary blends and that's why this supplement lands as #4 on our list.
5. Swanson Turmeric Curcumin
Swanson's turmeric supplement would be a last resort but you'd be better off buying a bag of turmeric root powder or buying fresh turmeric and grinding it up. Swanson's turmeric doesn't even contain a form of black powder. This means that if you want to get ANY type of benefit out of this supplement, you'll have to open up the capsule and put it on some sort of healthy fatty food like avocado or something along those lines. There's no way for your body to absorb this supplement! Please, don't waste your hard earned money on this supplement.
As you can see, only TWO of these turmeric supplements contain pure standardized turmeric 95% curcuminoids. Out of those two supplements, only ONE contains the recommended amount of 1000mg per day serving! All of the other supplements contain nothing more than turmeric root powder, which you can buy at the grocery store for much less than these companies charge.
Don't let these companies fool you into buying a turmeric supplement that isn't what you need!