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Reading a supplement label: what dose are you actually taking?
Reading a supplement label: what dose are you actually taking?: the single most useful page here computes elemental content for every common salt, because…
This launch guide maps the topic, the source base and the practical questions. Check the linked official authority before acting on a rule, deadline, price or safety requirement.
What this guide covers
The single most useful page here computes elemental content for every common salt, because "magnesium citrate 500 mg" is not 500 mg of magnesium: magnesium citrate, oxide, glycinate and malate, iron sulphate, fumarate and bisglycinate, zinc picolinate and gluconate, calcium carbonate and citrate.
Around it sit pages on the vitamin unit maze (IU to µg for D, A and E, RAE for vitamin A, DFE for folate, NE for niacin), what the %NRV is a percentage of, proprietary blends, "high potency" and "complex", serving size versus pack, standardised herbal extracts and their ratios, and the EU list of permitted forms. Sixteen pages plus a label-to-elemental converter.
How to use it
Use Reading a supplement label: what dose are you actually taking? as a structured learning path: begin with the vocabulary, follow the evidence map, and keep the uncertainty labels attached to claims as you compare sources.
The page keeps the main question, its evidence base and its limits together in one canonical place. That makes it useful as a quick orientation and avoids splitting a broad subject into shallow pages before each narrower answer has enough verified material of its own.
Search vocabulary in four languages
Terminology changes across borders. These are example phrases people use for the same subject in Estonian, Finnish, Russian and English; they are included as a practical vocabulary aid, not as hidden keywords.
| Language | Example phrase |
|---|---|
| Estonian | magneesiumtsitraat kui palju magneesiumi |
| Finnish | magnesiumsitraatti alkuainemagnesiumin määrä |
| Russian | сколько элементарного магния в цитрате магния |
| English | iu to mcg vitamin d converter |
Evidence and provenance
The evidence map below records the primary, official or openly licensed material chosen for this guide. It is deliberately visible so a reader can tell the difference between a rule published by an authority, a measured dataset and an editorial explanation.
Source: computed from published molar masses; Directive 2002/46/EC permitted forms and the NRV list in Annex XIII of Regulation 1169/2011; IU definitions from the pharmacopoeial standards. · checked 2026-09-09
Source names are preserved even where an authority changes its web address. No figure is added to this launch page unless it is already present in the cited source description or can be computed from a named dataset.
Scope and boundaries
/supplements grades whether a supplement does anything; this only decodes the label and computes the dose.
Connected TempoLife guides
The following paths are the intentional hand-offs named in the brief. They keep adjacent subjects separate while making the next useful reference easy to find.
Supplements
Continue to the related TempoLife reference.
Rda
Continue to the related TempoLife reference.
Why it belongs on TempoLife
/supplements, /rda.
Frequently asked questions
What does this guide cover?
The single most useful page here computes elemental content for every common salt, because "magnesium citrate 500 mg" is not 500 mg of magnesium: magnesium citrate, oxide, glycinate and malate, iron sulphate, fumarate and bisglycinate, zinc picolinate and gluconate, calcium carbonate and citrate. Around it sit pages on the vitamin unit maze (IU to µg for D, A and E, RAE for vitamin A, DFE for folate, NE for niacin), what the %NRV is a percentage of, proprietary blends, "high potency" and "complex", serving size…
What evidence does it use?
computed from published molar masses; Directive 2002/46/EC permitted forms and the NRV list in Annex XIII of Regulation 1169/2011; IU definitions from the pharmacopoeial standards.
Where does this guide stop?
/supplements grades whether a supplement does anything; this only decodes the label and computes the dose.
Turn the reference into a routine
TempoLife brings food, movement, sleep and everyday health habits into one private place when you want to track what happens next.