For years, product manufacturers have added vitamins to their products as a marketing tool to boost health conscious consumers’ interest in them. Now comes a new product called Vitaminpaste®. You guessed it — a toothpaste with vitamins (and curiously, no fluoride).
Here’s how it is advertised:
The company claims that you “Get extra vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants every time you brush.” The ad also says the product is safe to swallow.
To us, what’s hard to understand is the claim that this product is going to boost your intake of vitamins. The ad doesn’t list all the vitamins in the paste, and neither it nor their website specifies the amounts of each in the product. So… we found a tube in the store and checked the back.
*MOUSE PRINT:
An inch of toothpaste delivers just 7% of the daily requirement of eight vitamins and minerals. And maybe if you ate the stuff, you would get that small boost of vitamins. But most people spit out toothpaste. And even the back of the box recommends you spit it out and rinse the residue.
*MOUSE PRINT:
So the question becomes, can vitamins and minerals be absorbed by the body just by being in your mouth for a minute or less? The company’s answer is actually on the back of the box in small print.
*MOUSE PRINT:
According to them, you only get 10% of the listed daily requirement. That means you get 7/10ths of one percent of each vitamin per brushing.
For about $4.99 for a 4.1 ounce tube, this whole thing is hard to swallow.
Only in the United States.
Is this “product” advertised in The Onion?
There is someone out there who will purchase this without thinking twice about the claims on the product. Sad.
Only in the United States? I’m sorry, but what does that even mean? Do you really think that the rest of the world is immune from hype, fads and hucksterism?
HHHHMMMMM why is that the adult version has hardly any so called vitamins, but the kids version has sooooo much more???
The kids version website fully lists the vitamins the toothpaste includes.
You mention that the back of the box recommends you spit it out and rinse the residue, yet the directions tells you to brush for one minute, rinse, then swallow normally? Which is it?
Zinc is a natural fungicide and anti-bacterial. So may help fight gum disease. No Idea why they put the other stuff in there.
Well Nora I think they put the rest in to try to get you to buy this toothpaste over a big time mega brand like crest or colgate.
Safe to swallow? Not having fluoride is actually a plus, but I wouldn’t want to be swallowing some of those “other ingredients” on a daily basis either.
Any idea of what this stuff tastes like? There are 4 sweeteners in it (Sorbitol, Xylitol (bad for dogs), Stevia, and Saccharin).
How much of the vitamins do I get with my round end (Oral B) electric toothbrush? I only put a small pea-sized amount on the bristles. Couldn’t get an inch of this stuff to stay on the end, even if I tried.
Snake oil…
Also note that the instructions say to use 3x a day, vs 2x you hear from most dentists. They want you to go through the product faster too.
Isn’t this why there’s a Federal Trade Commission?!?