In the processing of vitamins and supplements, some companies use a substance called magnesium stearate both to lubricate machinery and also as a filler in tablets and capsules. Four months ago, several companies approached me claiming they had evidence that the ingestion of magnesium stearate is deleterious to one’s health and, for that reason, their stearate-free product was superior to those containing stearates. Last month, two larger, more established companies sent memos out stating that the claims against the use of magnesium stearate were false and they listed several anti-stearate studies they found to be both “irrelevant” and “misleading”.

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Here we have one of those issues, increasingly common in the supplement industry, where finding reliable information you know you can trust is a struggle. With so called “peer reviewed” studies I want to know where the funding comes from. If the study finds stearates to be “harmless” and it is funded primarily by companies who have a vested interest in continuing the use of stearates in their products, my “possible bogus study!!” flag pops up. I can’t spend the days and weeks that would be necessary to look over each of these studies to find out exactly how they were conducted and whether or not they were truthful in their approach. Believe it or not, even in the supplement industry, profits are the bottom line. I digress…

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Magnesium stearate, according to the Material Safety Data Sheet, is:

Hazardous in case of ingestion.
Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), or inhalation.

The dust could be combustible if exposed to flame.

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There are wild variations of opinion about mag stearate. Most of the articles claiming it’s “harmless” equate it with the substance stearic acid, which you find in cocoa and coconuts, as well as other foods, and is, in fact, something perhaps beneficial to our bodies. But not everyone agrees. And magnesium stearate is not stearic acid, nor is it magnesium. It is a combined form, and the safety of either one of its components does not assure its safety. Others site studies that indicate magnesium stearate will increase the risk of arteriosclerosis and block the absorption of vitamins and minerals.

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I can’t tell you to avoid magnesium stearate, because there really isn’t enough grounded information out there about it. I also can’t NOT tell you to avoid it, because it does seem that it most certainly is toxic at a certain level. What I can say is what I’ve always believed, that it’s best to get your vitamins from food. When that’s not possible, due to your lifestyle or the quality of the food available to you, the next best thing would be “whole food based”  vitamins (several lines of which we carry here at the store), with as few unnecessary additives as possible, which apparently would include magnesium stearate.