Mastic gum: reading past the serving size

How much mastic gum per serving, read off the panel

For how much mastic gum per serving, the figure that matters sits in the Supplement Facts panel, not in the banner on the front. A front label claiming 1000 mg of a proprietary blend can hide a dose of 200 mg behind 800 mg of something cheaper. The panel is legally required to tell you more than the banner does.

Walk the table with me. It takes about 30 seconds once you know which rows carry information and which are decoration.

Row one: the serving size, which everyone skips

Start with serving size, because it changes every other number on the panel. If a serving is 3 capsules and the bottle holds 90, you have 30 servings, not 90. A label quoting 1000 mg per serving is quoting 333 mg per capsule, and that gap is where price comparisons quietly go wrong.

Then find the mastic gum line itself. If it's listed as a standalone ingredient with a milligram figure, you have a real number. If it's folded into a blend, the figure beside the blend is the total weight of everything in it, and the share you care about is undisclosed. A partial disclosure is a partial claim, and it's worth saying so plainly.

Row two: the form, which changes the number

Mastic gum appears as powder, as a standardized extract, and occasionally as the raw resin. Standardized extracts carry a stated percentage of a marker compound, which gives you something to compare across brands. Plain powder doesn't, so a 500 mg powder dose and a 500 mg standardized dose aren't equivalent simply because the numbers match.

The form also affects what the milligram figure means. A resin weight and an extract weight measure different things, and a brand can quote whichever looks larger without technically misleading anyone.

Row three: the other ingredients

The list beneath the table is part of what you swallow. Capsule material, flow agents and any sweetener in a chewable all end up in the same dose. A product using 3 capsules per serving contains more of that material than one using a single capsule, which matters if you're counting your daily load.

Look for allergens while you're there. Mastic gum products are sometimes compounded with tree nut derivatives or with a cellulose capsule, and for a small number of people that distinction matters a great deal.

The comparison mistake that costs money

Someone compares a 1000 mg mastic gum blend against a 500 mg standalone product, concludes the first is stronger, and buys 2 bottles. The first product may contain less actual mastic gum than the second, and nothing on the front of either bottle would tell you.

My own rule: put both panels side by side, find the same ingredient line on each, and compare that figure per serving. If one product won't state it, ask the seller. It's one email, and the answer is informative either way.

Where the arithmetic stops helping

Getting the numbers right tells you which product contains more of a stated ingredient. It tells you nothing about whether that ingredient is well absorbed or whether more of it is what you need. That's a separate question and one I can't answer from a label.

Quick answers on serving size

How many milligrams should I look for? Read the ingredient line rather than the blend weight, and compare it against the daily value before deciding.

Does a bigger number mean a stronger product? Not always. A larger blend weight can deliver less of the ingredient itself, so the front figure isn't the answer.

Where is this printed? On the Supplement Facts panel, listed per serving, which is not the same as per capsule.