Some of the links inside a rating page — usually the retailer button near the bottom — are affiliate links. This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program, and also links to other authorized retailers under similar arrangements. If you click through and buy from one of those retailers, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The price you pay doesn't change either way; the commission comes out of the retailer's own margin, not your wallet.
Why this page exists
The Federal Trade Commission requires any site with a financial stake in a recommendation to say so clearly, regardless of how genuinely the writer means the recommendation. That rule exists because a reader can't judge how much weight to give a rating without knowing whether the publisher gets paid when it's followed. This page is that disclosure, and a shorter version of it sits in the footer of every page on the site.
What "our rating" actually means
A verification score on this site — the number shown inside the circular badge on a product page — is our editorial judgment of how well a product's label and marketing claims line up with publicly available research, checked the same way for every entry regardless of whether an affiliate link is attached. It is not a certification from a government body, a laboratory, or the product's own manufacturer, and it is not a guarantee of results. "Editorially independent" means the score is decided by our research process before anyone considers whether a commission is attached to that product — not that no affiliate relationship exists at all.
The score on an entry is decided by reading the manufacturer's claims against the available research — full human trials, thin pilot data, animal-only studies, or nothing published at all — before anyone on the team considers whether an affiliate relationship exists for that product. Commission rates aren't part of that conversation, and a product with an affiliate link attached can still land in our "Under Review" tier if the formula disclosure or the evidence doesn't hold up. Several entries in the current index do exactly that.
Not every link is an affiliate link
Links to a published study, a government agency page, a clinical guideline, or a manufacturer's own safety data sheet are citations, not affiliate links — nobody gets paid when you click one of those. The commercial links are specifically the retailer buttons on product pages and any similarly marked "check price" or "buy" link inside a report.
Research comes first
Entries are built from publicly available material — ingredient panels, published studies, manufacturer disclosures, and, where they exist, independent lab or third-party testing results — not from review units supplied by a brand and not from a paid placement. We don't accept payment in exchange for coverage, and we don't accept payment in exchange for a specific rating.
Nothing on this site, including a rating or a verification badge, is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Talk to a healthcare provider before starting any new supplement.
Where this policy comes from:
Federal Trade Commission — Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 CFR Part 255).