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Saw this on another site. Interessed in your feedback/thought.

Many supplement makers add “flow agents” and other fillers to their supplements. One potentially hazardous additive commonly used is magnesium stearate.

Magnesium stearate is essentially a chalk-like substance, which prevents the supplements from sticking together and allows the machinery to run smoother and faster, which equates to cost savings during the manufacturing process. Magnesium stearate is not a source of magnesium and has no benefits, but may have a detrimental effect on your immune function as stearic acid has been linked to suppression of T cells. The filler also stimulates your gut to form a biofilm, which can prevent proper absorption of nutrients in your digestive tract

Not really in the habit of mixing in conversations from other sites, but this is a good question.

I only speak for MASS in the following, because other companies take huge shortcuts and liberties that we flatly refuse to associate with.

That said, we ask that rice flour be used as a flowing agent if anything past a trace amount is needed, but it doesn't prove effective with 100% of applications (many tablets in particular, which we generally shy away from for several reasons).

A vital distinction the quote incorrectly assumes is using the terms "flowing agent" and "filler" as if they are somehow interchangeable terms.

They are not, and not by a long shot.

At MASS, we never, not ever, use anything that could be called "filler" in any of our items.

There is a world of difference in using rice flour in tiny, trace amounts to make production literally "flow" properly verses filling up a product with it and trying to pass it off as "Gamma Oryzanol Enhanched!", or packing in 30% of total weight magnesium stearate and attempting to play up delivering magnesium salt benefits.

Trace amounts of both of the above are essentially inert, but if I'm unknowingly taking 30 mg of either as a fraud filler, give me the rice.

I'm not going to name names, but most all of the "corporate supplement companies" and many smaller ones too think it's perfectly OK to play up whopping amounts of cheap filler material in their products, most commonly maltodextrin touted as 'new advanced carb whatever'.

~sigh~

We don't do that crap at MASS, to put it bluntly.

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Great answer John!