5 rules for testing a supplement, and the one most people skip
A method, not a promise
5 rules for testing a supplement, and the one most people skip
You’ve most likely quit a supplement before without ever finding out whether it did anything. Most of us have. Do it four or five times, and it is not the products that wear you down, it is starting over with no more idea than you had last time. So here are five rules for running a fair test on anything you buy, MindBelly very much included. Rule five is the one people skip, and it is the only one you can follow with your card still in your wallet.
The bottle you finished and did not reorder
Think about the last one. Can you say what actually happened? Not whether it was any good. Just what happened.
There was probably a stretch where you took it at night instead of the morning. A few days you took none of it at all. Somewhere in the middle you started something else too, because it was on offer. And at the end of it you had spent the money and, ninety days later, you had no information. You did not get a no. You got a shrug. The tub went in the recycling, and you picked the next thing exactly the way you picked the last thing.
Ninety days and no information is the worst outcome on the menu
Three things break a self-test, and none of them is the product
Too many variables
You started it in January along with the gym and the earlier bedtime. If something shifted, you have four candidates and no way to separate them.
No baseline
You are comparing against a memory. How you felt in March is not evidence. It is a story you are telling yourself now, quietly edited by what you were hoping for.
No end date
With no date, you stop when you get bored. And the week you get bored has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with adherence and tracking.
Rule 1. Change one thing at a time
Start three things in the same two weeks, and you have not run three tests. You have run none of them. The honest read on the next two months is that you cannot give the credit to anything.
One exception, and it matters. Whatever you already take as a foundation stays right where it is. Supplements such as Vitamin D, magnesium, omega-3, your multivitamin, anything prescribed to you. MindBelly does not replace any of it, and pulling one out the same morning you add this in drops a second variable straight into your test, which is the exact thing this rule exists to stop. Keep taking them. Let the new thing be the only new thing.
Rule 2. Write down three words before day one
Three words, in your own language, somewhere you will actually find them in a month. Not a scale, not a score, and please not symptom words, because symptom language pulls you into diagnosing yourself, and that is a different activity with a different medical professional attached.
The whole of this rule is the writing it down. Three words on the back of an envelope beats any amount of remembering. Their value is not in what they say. It is that you wrote them before you knew what you wanted them to say.
Rule 3. Set the window first, and make the seller name theirs
Pick your number of days before you start, then hold to it. A window you choose afterwards is a window you chose to match whatever happened, and you will do that without noticing and then trust the result anyway.
Then ask the brand for theirs. Ours, since the rule applies to us too: the pouch holds 30 sticks, so a pack is 30 days, and our satisfaction window runs 90 days from your first order. That 90 days is a refund term. It is the period in which you can send it back and get your money. It is not a prediction about a timeline of any other kind. A brand that will not name a window is asking you to invent one, and the one you invent tends to be exactly as long as keeps you subscribed.
Rule 4. Same dose, same hour, every day, or it is not a test
Adherence is what kills self-tests, not chemistry. Four different capsules spread across a morning is four chances to forget. One stick in eight ounces of water is one. That is an argument about how hard the routine is, not an argument about your body, and how hard the routine is happens to be the only thing a format can honestly be judged on.
Thirty sticks in the pouch. One a day. Tear, stir into cold water, done. Caffeine free, so you can pin it to whatever hour suits your day instead of building it around whether you will sleep tonight. It is mango-orange, which matters more than it sounds like it should, because the thing you enjoy drinking is the thing you still take on day forty.
Rule 5. Know the whole cost of the test, and the way out, before day one
This is the one that gets skipped. It is also the only rule on the list that costs nothing to follow, because you can run it with your card still in your wallet.
A test has a price, and the price is not the number on the button. It is what running the test all the way to the end costs you, which on anything sold as a subscription means the second order as well as the first. Nobody is obliged to put that in front of you before you type your card number in. Ours is right here. The $69 sits on the card next to the $49 instead of somewhere you would stumble onto it in month two.
Then $69 a month. Cancel from your account after the second order.90-day money-back satisfaction promise, opened pouch included.
If you do not feel it has helped, email hello@mindbelly.com as you approach day 90 after your first glass, along with your order number, and we will refund what you paid. Opened pouch included.
What is in the thing you would be testing
Label facts. Read them against the panel in the gallery below, which is the same panel, photographed.
- Four psychobiotic strains, named: B. longum, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, L. rhamnosus GG
- Prebiotic: chicory root inulin
- Mango leaf extract, Huperzine-A, L-Tyrosine, L-theanine
- Caffeine free
- Micro-encapsulated for stomach-acid survival
- 30 single-serving stick packs in a resealable pouch, 139g
- One stick in 8 oz of water
- Made in the USA
MindBelly is formulated to support the gut-brain axis.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
At the end of the window, there are two answers
Both of them are printed here at the same size, because a page that prints only one of them is not asking you a question.
If you want to keep it
Do nothing. The second order ships on schedule at $69, and once it lands you can change the interval, pause, or cancel from your account. Account, then Subscriptions, then Manage. No call to make, no form to request.
If you want your money back
Email hello@mindbelly.com within 90 days of your first order. Order number in the subject line, and tell us you want a refund. An opened pouch is fine. A half-empty one is fine. We refund what you paid. You do not have to tell us how you felt about it. We trust your experience.
Your test
What buyers say
Great flavor! I drink this every morning in my sauna before exercise. The benefits I’ve experienced so far are better waste elimination, mood feels more optimistic and less desire to eat right after my exercise. I’ll check-in after I’ve been taking the supplement for 90 days.
Only one week in and I’m excited for more! Not only is it great tasting, but I have more motivation and focus than previously. Really excited that I found something that not only works, but I look forward to each morning :)
Mindbelly is the probiotic drink I’ve been looking for! The taste is delicious and fruity. Mindbelly’s price is fantastic for the high quality, tastiness, and effectiveness of the product. I start every day with Mindbelly and recommend that everyone try it. In a world full of toxins and foods laced with poisons it’s important to me to take care of my microbiome. It increases my mental clarity as well.
Questions we get
From your account, after the second order ships. Account, then Subscriptions, then Manage. You can change the interval or pause instead of cancelling.
The subscription is yours to modify from the second month, so the first two orders are committed. $49 and then $69, $118 in total.
It covers you not wanting to keep it, for any reason, with a refund of what you paid.
Printed on the panel alongside every other active. No proprietary blend hiding the amount.
The cultures are micro-encapsulated for 84% survival at pH 3.0, and both halves of that are on the pack, the figure and the pH it was measured at.
No. Vitamin D, magnesium, omega-3, a multivitamin, anything prescribed, all of it stays. Rule 1 is the reason.
Your test
MindBelly Gut-Brain Health Drink$49 first order, then $69