What A Proprietary Blend Hides

Published 2026-08-06 · 8 minute read · The Sugar Reset Library

There is one line on this bottle that decides how much of the rest can be trusted, and it is not any of the ingredient names. It is the phrase "proprietary blend, 200 mg".

What The Law Requires, And What It Permits

A supplement label must list every ingredient inside a blend, in descending order by weight. It must declare the combined weight of the blend. It is permitted to withhold the individual amounts as a trade secret.

So the label in front of you is complete, lawful and accurate. It is also compatible with almost any internal split you care to imagine.

The Arithmetic You Cannot Do

Nine milligrams is the average, and averages are the wrong instrument here. Descending order means the first ingredient could plausibly hold most of the weight while the last few sit in trace amounts. Both distributions produce the identical label.

Why It Matters More Than It Sounds

You cannot compare products. Two bottles both naming gymnema tell you nothing about which contains more of it.

You cannot check against the research. Ginseng trials commonly use 200 mg to 3 g a day of standardised extract. Whether this bottle delivers anything near the low end is unknowable.

You cannot stack safely. If you take another supplement containing licorice or caffeine, you cannot add the two labels together, because one of them refuses to give you a number.

The Case For Blends, Stated Fairly

There is one, and it deserves airing. A company that has spent real money developing a specific ratio can watch a competitor copy it within a season by reading the label. Blends protect genuine formulation work, and formulators do sometimes include supporting compounds at modest amounts for interaction rather than standalone effect.

The counter-argument is that this is something people swallow daily and stack with other products, and a buyer's ability to calculate their own intake is worth more than a competitor's inconvenience. Different companies weigh that differently. This site weighs it toward the buyer, and says so on the page where it costs the most.

The One Ingredient That Escapes It

Gymnema works on contact with the tongue rather than through systemic concentration. Its effect does not depend on a generous blend share, which is why it is the one claim here you can verify on day one regardless of the split.

That is worth noticing rather than resenting. It also explains why the sweet-taste effect is the thing this category advertises hardest.

What To Do With This

Buy on the ingredient whose amount is printed and on the effect you can test, and treat the rest as unknown rather than as absent. That is a defensible position and it is the one this whole site is built on.