Three seconds. That’s all you need.

Move 1: What’s at the front?

Ingredients are listed by weight. The heaviest first. Always. That’s not a recommendation. That’s the law.

If your active ingredient isn’t right at the front, it isn’t the main thing.

If there’s a filler at the front, you haven’t bought a vitamin tablet. You’ve bought a filler tablet with a bit of vitamin in it.

There’s one limit you need to know, or someone will talk the rule to pieces for you: ingredients under 2 per cent may be listed at the end of the list in any order. So the weight rule applies at the front. And that’s exactly where it counts.

Move 2: What’s missing between the numbers?

Net weight divided by the number of tablets. That’s the weight of one tablet.

Then you add up the active ingredients on the label.

The difference? You paid for it. You didn’t want it.

And if there’s no net weight on it at all, you don’t need to do any more maths. That’s your answer right there.

Move 3: Don’t read. Count.

Just skim the list for these words:

• release agent ·
• bulking agent ·
• glazing agent ·
• colour ·
• sweetener ·
• flavouring ·
• humectant ·
• anti-caking agent

You don’t need to know what they mean. You just need to count them.

• Zero to two: Someone made an effort here.
• Three to five: The price mattered more than you did.
• More than five: Industrial product with a whiff of vitamin.