How to Spot a Clean Supplement (Without Being a Chemist)

How to spot a clean performance supplement (without being a chemist)

Most people never learn how to tell a great supplement from a bad one.
The label looks technical, the claims sound impressive – and somewhere between “proprietary blends” and tiny footnotes, it becomes almost impossible to know what you are actually paying for.

If you are a founder, independent professional or biohacker, you probably don’t have time to live inside PubMed. You just want products that work, without wrecking your health or your sleep.

This guide walks you through the core signals we look at when deciding whether a performance product is worth trusting – and worth taking.

1. Start with the label, not the marketing

The front of the product is built to sell. The back of the product is built to tell.

If you only do one thing when evaluating a supplement, make it this:

Turn the product around
Ignore the slogans for a moment
Read the ingredients and doses first

Ask yourself:

Can I see every ingredient and its exact amount?
Or is everything hidden behind a “proprietary blend” with a single total milligram number?

If you can’t see what you are taking – and how much – you are being asked to trust the brand blindly. That’s the opposite of clean performance.

2. Beware of “proprietary blends”

“Proprietary blend” sounds sophisticated. In practice, it often means:

The brand lists a long string of ingredients
You see one combined dose for all of them
There is no way to know how much of each ingredient you are actually getting

Why that matters:

A formula might look impressive on paper – caffeine, L-theanine, choline, plant extracts, nootropics – but if each ingredient is underdosed, you will barely feel anything.
The blend can also hide filler ingredients or cheap actives behind a few premium ones.

Clean performance means:

Every active ingredient is listed with its own dose
You can verify whether the amount is in line with how it’s used in the research

If a product hides behind blends, it’s usually not designed for people who read labels.

3. Look for “job descriptions” – every ingredient should have a clear role

A simple question:

If this ingredient disappeared from the formula, what would break?

In a serious performance product, every ingredient has a clear “job description” – and that job should make sense when you look at the context:

Focus products: ingredients that support alertness, attention, stress response and mental clarity
Energy products: ingredients that support mental and/or physical energy – not just sugar and stimulants
Sleep products: ingredients that support winding down, sleep quality and recovery, without leaving you groggy the next day

Warning signs:

Long lists of trendy plant names with no clear reason for being there
Sugars, gums and colourants taking up most of the formula
Ingredients added for flavour and marketing rather than effect

If you can’t explain to yourself why an ingredient is there, chances are it’s there for the label, not for your brain or body.

4. Check the dosing against reality, not just the trend

A good ingredient at the wrong dose is, at best, a missed opportunity.

You don’t need to memorise exact study ranges, but you can ask:

Does this dose look meaningful, or is it so tiny it might just be “sprinkled” in?
If caffeine is present, is the dose aligned with how I actually use it in my day?
Do stimulant doses respect my sleep, or are they built like “pre-workouts” that ignore what happens after 6 p.m.?

Under-dosing is common because it’s cheap and hard to notice. Over-dosing stimulants is common because the short-term effect feels strong, even if the trade-off shows up later in your sleep, stress and recovery.

Clean performance is about the right dose for the right context – not the maximum dose at all times.

5. Scan for unnecessary fillers, dyes and sugars

Some fillers are technically allowed and “safe”, but that doesn’t mean they belong in a daily performance product.

If you care about long-term health, ask:

Is there added sugar where there doesn’t need to be?
Are there artificial colours just to make the product look a certain way?
Are there unnecessary sweeteners, gums or stabilisers that mostly serve texture or shelf-appeal?

You shouldn’t need to accept a candy profile just to support your brain.

A clean supplement:

Minimises non-active ingredients
Uses them only where they actually solve a real problem (for example, stability or taste)
Is transparent about what and why

6. Look for testing and sourcing – not just big claims

Any brand can say “premium”. Far fewer can show what they actually do to justify it.

Signals that a brand takes quality seriously:

They talk about independent testing: identity, potency and purity
They are willing to provide Certificates of Analysis as they scale
They are clear about sourcing – audited suppliers, allergen awareness, no grey-zone ingredients

It’s easy to talk about “science-backed” and “lab-tested” in abstract terms. It’s much harder to commit to real verification as a standard.

7. Use brands that think like you do

At the end of the day, the best “hack” is alignment.

If you see a brand:

Hiding doses
Pushing extreme claims
Treating your brain and body as marketing objects

— then that product is probably not built for high performers who care about long-term health.

If you see a brand:

Being precise about ingredients and dosing
Open about testing and sourcing
Obsessive about clarity over hype

— then you are much closer to a supplement you can build into your system with confidence.

Where Nuro fits in

Nuro was created for people who want the best possible performance supplements, but don’t have time to live inside ingredient forums or deep-dive every label.

Our approach is simple:

No proprietary blends
Every active listed to the milligram
No unnecessary fillers, dyes or sugars
Independent testing for identity, potency and purity as we scale

The first product in the system is Nuro Focus – Brain + Energy Shot (60 ml): a clean performance shot designed for sharp focus and controlled energy, built to respect your sleep and long-term health.

If you care about what you put into your system – and you’re done guessing – Nuro is built to be your filter.

How to spot a clean supplement