Shilajit: Yorkshire nutritionist issues warning on fake products - how to test if it’s real
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Shilajit, also known as Mountain Blood, has been used in traditional Ayurveda healing for thousands of years. Extracted from mountain ranges by locals, it’s full of naturally-occurring minerals, vitamins and micronutrients and promises big health benefits.
Nature Provides, a family-owned company, was one of the first to sell authentic shilajit in the UK.
But the Yorkshire nutritionist behind the business has warned of a rise in fake products, sold online at a fraction of the price, that are failing all the tests for authenticity.
“It was a niche product up until two years ago,” Rachel Aceso, who founded Nature Provides in 2016, told the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“We had a very solid customer base that knew this product and knew that we sell one of the best. But in the last year or so it’s really taken off on social media, and with that has come a rise in fake products.
“We know it’s not shilajit because we’ve tested these samples from all over the world. Raw ingredients are expensive - Mountain Blood is collected by local people and you can’t make it in a lab.”
Shilajit bleeds from mountains and is commonly collected from the Himalayas or the Altai mountains. Millions of years of plant matter that’s been compressed into rock is extracted using local spring water, before it’s dried off in the sun.
Nature Provides tests every batch of Mountain Blood before selling it in little pots that pack a punch.
“It’s full of ionic minerals,” Rachel, a certified nutritional therapist (DipNT, mBANT), added.
“There’s more than 90 minerals in the product and they’re in the form that the body recognises.
“If you take a mineral pill, for example, it’s often not recognised by the body and a lot of it will just get sent through, especially if it’s buffered with things like magnesium stearate or rice gram powder.
“Ours is in nature’s form. The body, being nature, recognises it. And the fulvic, humic acid transports the minerals into the body, directly where they need to go.
“You can take a tiny little pea’s worth of the product and you’re getting all your multi-minerals, more than you’ve probably ever had, in a small concentration.”
Nature Provides sells a select range of high-quality minerals, vitamins and Ayurvedic products - all natural supplements that are hand-picked and formulated by Rachel.
If it’s not the best version of the product, Nature Provides won’t sell it.
Rachel said: “The title of one of our recent five-star reviews for Mountain Blood was that it tastes like ashtrays and old tyres - and that’s what we want!
“People are starting to wake up to the fact that if it tastes sweet, it’s probably made in a lab - and it’s not shilajit.”
How to test for genuine shilajit in five simple steps
- Shilajit should be solid at room temperature, like a thick putty or resin
- Real shilajit has a pungent, earthy smell. If it smells at all sweet, it’s not the real deal
- Authentic shilajit does not burn
- Shilajit does not dissolve in alcohol, but dissolves well in almost any other liquid
- Make sure the company you are buying from is legitimate and carrying out independent lab tests
Authentic Mountain Blood
Mountain Blood® Premium Organic Shilajit is a pure Shilajit resin that encapsulates the essence of the mountains, full of naturally-occurring minerals, vitamins and micronutrients and rich in Fulvic and Humic compounds.
Buy it now from www.realshilajit.com