Sally Harper

  Senior Editor

  Health & Wellness Advice

  [email protected]

With the growing popularity of supplements for addressing the issue of high glucose levels, many manufacturers are creating blood sugar formulas which are more beneficial for their profit margins than for their customers’ health. They may skimp on ingredient quality or quantity, leaving you with cheap ingredients that aren’t actually effective. Some will even manipulate the facts to claim their product is the best. Many times, their claims are not backed by science and they have no valid explanation for why or how they formulated their blood sugar support supplement.

Navigating the supplements market can be beyond confusing. Consumers often find themselves lost and unsure of which products are worth buying and which are worthless fakes. We’ve all been there before. Now that we know our way around the market, we want to help others find what they are looking for. We felt it was time to examine some of the blood sugar products available in order to discover more about which ones will likely deliver results and which you would do better to stay away from.

6 Things To Look For In An Effective Blood Sugar Supplement

It should contain:

• Berberine HCL which helps decrease insulin resistance, slow absorption of carbs, and reduce sugar production in the liver.
• Chromium which is often deficient when blood sugar is high and it benefits insulin sensitivity. 
• Cinnamon which helps regulate glucose levels. High supplementation with cinnamon powder may be harmful but the extract has been found to be safe in clinical trials.
• Mulberry Leaf which blocks carb digestion and boosts antioxidants.
• Gymnema inhibits sugar absorption and helps reduce sugar cravings.
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)  which helps lower fasting glucose levels and reduces the risk of nerve damage from high blood sugar.

What We Uncovered

With a little research, we were able to spot the companies that provide genuine, high-quality products. Unfortunately, we mostly found companies that were trying to cash in on the latest health trends.

1. In short, many blood sugar supplements do not contain ingredients that have been shown to get great results such as Berberine, Chromium, Cinnamon, Mulberry Leaf, Gymnema, Magnesium, and Alpha Lipoic Acid. Furthermore, their formulas often do not even have any scientific or clinical support.

2. Moreover, these products are often not 100% certified for purity and include unnecessary ingredients hidden in a proprietary blend that provide zero benefit. Some formulas do not contain the same potency as they claim on their labels with many companies even hiding their labels or supplement facts to prevent consumers from better understanding their formulas.

Some companies think that sticking a label on their bottle with the words ‘Blood Sugar Support’  is enough for consumers to want to buy their products. They expect customers to look no further than the fancy title and never question the weak formula. Unfortunately, many consumers fall for this misleading marketing and are later disappointed by a lack of results.

Our Research

Our research identified key areas that we felt raised concerns when purchasing a blood sugar support supplement. With so many products out there, we felt that we needed clear parameters in terms of what to look out for when investing in a blood sugar support product.

• Will it be effective? This is perhaps the main concern for consumers. Why waste your money on something that is useless? Unfortunately, there are many products that simply don’t work, which is a real concern for many potential buyers. Consumers need to be aware that there is a precise science to creating an effective formula.

• Will it be too expensive for me to purchase? Our research uncovered many manufacturers selling blood sugar support products for well over $100. People often think that higher price indicates higher quality. This is not always true. Don’t risk your hard-earned money on something that has a price which is over inflated and unrealistic.  

• Is the company open and transparent? You need to be consumer savvy in order to establish which are the best manufacturers to purchase products from and which are not worth your while. This means manufacturers have to be transparent and open, providing you with as much information and guidance as they can.

Finding Effective, Quality Blood Sugar Supplements?

There are several key elements to look out for that can pretty much guarantee the product’s authenticity.

1. Monitoring By A Third Party: There are organizations that will independently monitor and track the reputation of a company and assess their customer satisfaction levels. A company’s reputation is incredibly important within the health industry, make sure you select a top provider, one that has an impeccable reputation and one that is backed by an independent third-party monitoring organization.
2. 100% Money-Back Guarantee: Many companies offer you a money-back guarantee if their products do not bring the results that you are looking for. Some are better than others. Choose a company that has a solid satisfaction guarantee. A strong guarantee demonstrates the confidence that manufacturers have in their products and the results you will experience.
3. External Testing: This is not the same as a monitoring company. Third-party testing substantiates and verifies the quality of the manufacturer’s product. It can be very expensive for manufacturers to undertake and even disqualify entire shipments of products that don’t reach the correct standards. That said, when manufacturers don’t have independent quality control and testing, there is no way of knowing if their products are effective, or indeed, safe.

Research On Blood Sugar Support Products

Thorough research takes time and money, which most people don’t have an endless supply of. So we did the work for you – saving you both!

We researched numerous blood sugar supplements to ascertain an in-depth understanding of what is available on the market. To determine the products that we could rate as beneficial, we looked to see if they contained the correct ingredients, how potent they were, and their grade of purity. We eliminated products that we found to contain synthetic fillers, unnecessary ingredients, and useless proprietary blends.

However, we didn’t stop there. We understand that facts and figures don’t always tell the whole story. Therefore, we looked for real consumers who had purchased and used the products and asked them for their feedback. Their testimonials helped us to establish a list of the best possible products currently available on the market.

Our Research Results

An effective blood sugar supplement should contain top quality, clinically proven ingredients in significantly potent doses for optimal effect. These are significant herbs, vitamins, and minerals that can help you maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Some of the most effective ingredients for reducing insulin resistance and regulating blood sugar include Chromium which is often deficient when blood sugar is high, Berberine which slows carb absorption, Gymnema which inhibits sugar absorption, as well as the ingredients Magnesium and Alpha Lipoic Acid. We also looked for the inclusion of Mulberry Leaf for preventing carbs from being broken down into glucose. Having the right ingredients isn’t always enough. Therefore, we looked for the inclusion of a bioavailability enhancer such as BioPerine® to strengthen the main ingredients.

Most products failed to pass our specific criteria.

There are some manufacturers who actually include some good ingredients in their formulas. However, they fail when they weaken the potency by adding an unnecessary blend of useless ingredients. Other manufacturers simply failed by using less of certain ingredients than has been proven effective in higher amounts. Others filled their pills with binders, additives, or preservatives. All but a few of them avoided quality control testing.

We are very confident in the brands that we did pick. Given our stringent parameters when choosing our top products, we are sure our top picks will help you achieve the results you are looking for.

Why Did We Select Our #1 Choice As Our Top Blood Sugar Support Product?

Our top pick not only met all of our strict criteria for a quality blood sugar supplement, but it also beat it!

Look at what it contains:

• 255 mg BerineAbsorb™ – a unique trademark blend of Berberine HCL with BioPerine® for boosting nutrient absorption
• 400 mcg Chromium Picolinate – a higher dosage than most others and the amount found to improve blood glucose control
• 50 mg Aqueous Cinnamon Extract –  not only is this powerful ingredient included, but it is in extract form to increase safety and reduce the risk of side effects
• 50 mg Gymnema Leaf – for assisting in long term sugar control
• 250 mg Mulberry Leaf  standardized to include 5% DNJ – most products don’t have this highly beneficial ingredient that naturally contains 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) that helps block carb absorption   
• 50 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid – for lowering blood sugar and protecting against nerve damage

Our Top Blood Sugar Product Choice

We think you will agree that our top choice stands above and beyond the competition. The company’s excellent reputation, top quality product, external independent monitoring and testing, coupled with an incredible money-back guarantee policy, makes this an undoubtedly solid pick for our #1 choice.

Glucosyl Report APPROVED Rating: Excellent ✓ Effectiveness ✓ Potency ✓ Money Back Guarantee ✓ Value ✓ Consumer Feedback ✓ Company Reputation

Editor’s Choice Approved Science Glucosyl If you are looking to improve your overall health by lowering your blood sugar levels, then Approved Science’s Glucosyl is something that deserves your undivided attention. Of all the blood sugar support supplements currently available on the market, this is the one that deserves a closer look and very likely, the one that will change your life! Glucosyl contains the highest quality natural ingredients with dosages and potencies based on scientific research. It features BerineAbsorb™ with 250 mg Berberine HCL for regulating carb and glucose metabolism, and BioPerine® for increasing the bioavailability and effectiveness of the Berberine. Glucosyl also contains 3 blood sugar regulating herbal extracts: Mulberry, Gymnema, and Banaba. It also includes 50 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid which helps reduce insulin resistance and decreases the risk of serious damage caused by high blood sugar. Last but not least, Glucosyl includes B12, Magnesium, and Chromium Picolinate for eliminating deficiencies associated with high blood sugar. These ingredients target several causes of high blood sugar to ensure results. Essentially, this product ticks all the right boxes for an effective blood sugar support formula. Quality: Glucosyl contains high grade, 100% natural, clinically verified ingredients that are GMP certified. All Approved Science products are manufactured in an FDA approved facility. Reputation: Their reputation is top quality. This manufacturer has several third-party monitoring services, including buySAFE, Norton, and Trustee, as well as an A+ rating from the quality monitoring company QualityTrusted. Money Back Guarantee: Every item sold is supported by a 60-day 100% money-back guarantee. Such guarantees from manufacturers show strong confidence in their products’ ability to deliver results – great news for consumers! Additionally, they are well known in the industry and an established company that provides great customer support service, secure and easy checkout, as well as prompt, efficient delivery. Their commitment to the health industry and consumers is excellent, providing further qualification of efficacy by producing their products in an FDA registered laboratory. If you are looking for a product that ticks all the boxes for an effective blood sugar support supplement, from an established reputable company with an excellent money-back guarantee, this is the supplement for you. It would be good to note that, due to high demand, Glucosyl is often sold out. To avoid having to back order, don’t hesitate to make that purchase when you see it in stock. See The Full Review

Rating: Good

Dr. Whitaker’s Berberine+ GlucoGold This product states that it is for helping maintain blood sugar levels that are already in the normal range. It is not intended for lowering blood sugar levels. It contains just 5 active ingredients: Calcium, Chromium, Berberine HCL, Banaba, and Cinnamon. To their credit, most of those ingredients are based on clinical studies and clinical dosages. However, some are not. Furthermore, this product as a whole underwent a clinical study and was found to effectively provide blood sugar benefits.  Dr. Whitaker’s Berberine+ GlucoGold is manufactured by Healthy Directions. It is an averagely priced blood sugar supplement. However, Healthy Directions employs a subscribe & save type offer which oftentimes is difficult to cancel or may even charge you for more than you intended to purchase. The label boasts that it has an unconditional guarantee for purity and potency but this doesn’t seem to have any practical meaning. Nevertheless, there is a Satisfaction Guarantee period of 90 days.  Despite its testing and guarantees, there were a few matters that knocked this product down into second place.  This product might not be as strong as you need it to be. For starters, it includes more inactive ingredients than active ones. Those inactive ingredients are fillers and binders that it would be better without. Continue reading our full review to see where this product stands up to its claims and where it fails to meet our expectations. Click here to read the full review

Rating: OK

VirMAX Blood Sugar Stabilization Formula Promoted as a product that decreases the effects of chronic blood sugar imbalance, Blood Sugar Stabilization is our #3 choice. It also claims to help increase the body production of insulin. Like our top choice, this product also contains an impressive list of 9 active ingredients. Some of those, like Berberine, Cinnamon, Magnesium, and Chromium are on our “must-have” list. Unfortunately, some of the inactive ingredients were on our “should-not-have” list. Is this product really as good as most of the Amazon reviews think it is? When reviewing this product, we were confused to see that VirMAX lists this product among it’s men specific products but we suspect it is fine for women as well. VirMAX provides few details about their product, without any explanation of why the product should work. Fortunately, they do make the label available so we were able to glean some understanding of how this product should work, based on the ingredients. This product is on the cheaper side and we could easily tell why. This product comes with no satisfaction guarantee. Furthermore, there is no mention of third-party testing or even internal testing for that matter. Some of VirMax’s products are manufactured outside of the US and we have no reason to believe that this product is made here. We could not find any mention of the qualifications of the lab that this product was made in. Continue reading our review for an in-depth assessment of this product. Click here to read the full review