The manufacturing process of supplements (especially for plant extracts) may be sometimes producing products with more or less of the labeled ingredients, as JohnR41 correctly points out.
But to me what is more important is that whatever the manufacturers are extracting from the plant material (in this case green tea and pomegranate) is only a part of what makes the plant healthy for us. There are so many ingredients in plant materials, and nutritionists see that these plants have obvious benefits. We read that folks who drink green tea and who eat pomegranates or drink pomegranate juice are healthier than those who don't.
So along come the manufacturers, who look for the one or two "most active" ingredients in these plants, extract them, and put them into a pill or capsule. All the other nutritional ingredients are left behind, and we are led to believe that these stripped ingredients are the same as drinking all the ingredients in a cuppa tea or a glass of juice. My own "humble"
opinion is that capsules are not the same as the "real thing".
As for vitamins and minerals, I do take specific ones myself, including Vitamin D3, which has saved me from suicide since I don't get much sun up here in the grey dreary north of Germany. It
is possible to overdose on vitamin and mineral supplements (they don't just get "pooped out in the original form they were swallowed in"), so one must be careful about which ones one chooses to take, and in what combinations.
Much better is to eat lots of veggies and moderate amounts of whole grains and beans and lentils, and even drink real green tea and pomegranate juice, so that we get our vitamins and minerals and other nutritional stuff in a delicious, fiber-filled diet.
These are just my opinions, after lots of reading and seeing how things work in my own body. "Your mileage may vary" as they say.
--Rheanna
