Silver Fern Brand Review: Good Products and Bad Marketing

Silver Fern Brand Review: Good Products and Bad Marketing


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Silver Fern Brand is a dietary supplement brand that sells gut health products. The company suggests their product line is beneficial for individuals "suffering from gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, heartburn, indigestion, or other more serious digestive issues."

But does Silver Fern Brand use research-backed ingredients for gut health? Does the brand use any unhealthy additives? And how do real customers rate and describe the effects of Silver Fern Brand supplements?

In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Silver Fern Brand's probiotic to give our take on whether or not it's likely to support gut health, and whether or not it's healthy.

We'll also share some concerns we have with health claims on the brand's website, and feature real customer reviews.

Ingredient Analysis — Ultimate Probiotic

Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic Supplement active ingredients

The active ingredients in Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic Supplement are shown above.

The probiotics in this supplement are clinically shown to support gut health.

Saccharomyces boulardii is a probiotic yeast that was shown to improve gut barrier function in a medical review published in the Journal of Fungi.

Pediococcus acidilactici was shown to improve constipation symptoms and regulate the microbiome in a 2021 clinical trial.

Bacillus coagulans SC-208 is clinically shown to support gut health during a course of antibiotics when combined with another probiotic strain (though not a strain in Ultimate Probiotic Supplement).

We consider it to be a sign of a high-quality probiotic brand when the probiotic strain is listed, rather than just the probiotic species, as we discussed in our Bio X4 review article.

Because the strains are listed where appropriate in this supplement, we consider Silver Fern Brand's formulators to be high-quality.

The inactive ingredients in this supplement, shown below, should be safe and non-toxic:

Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic Supplement inactive ingredients

Overall, we consider Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic Supplement likely to support optimal gut health. This is a better-than-average probiotic formulation.

Questionable Health Claims

There are a number of highly questionable and uncited health claims on Silver Fern Brand's website at the time of publishing this article.

As shown in the graphic below, the brand claims that their probiotic supplement has 100% survivability, but competitors (including yogurt brands) have less than 1% survivability:

graphic from Silver Fern Brand's website suggesting their supplement has greater survivability than competitors

There is zero proof provided to support this claim.

The brand also claims that their probiotic is "clinically proven" to work:

graphic on Silver Fern Brand's website claiming their probiotic supplement is clinically proven to work

However, we haven't come across any clinical trials on this supplement published in peer-reviewed journals, nor can we find any trials published on Silver Fern Brand's website.

The citation associated with this claim is shown below:

citation associated with second questionable health claim referenced earlier in this article

First of all, we can't find the full Sun Genomics test result published anywhere on Silver Fern Brand's website.

More importantly, a probiotic strain having high survivability does not necessarily equate to it being proven to work in human trials. For Silver Fern Brand to claim their supplement is "clinically proven" to work, they require clinical trials with human participants showing it to be effective.

We find it to be unfortunate that Silver Fern Brand is engaging in this type of marketing that's typically associated with lower-quality products, because the supplement itself is very well-formulated and the brand could probably market it successfully on its merits.

Real People Try Silver Fern Brand

A TikTok creator named "toripram" shared her experience using Silver Fern Brand for gut health:

@toripram we’re in the healthy our guts era ladies 😎 @silverfernbrand ♬ Devil Doesn’t Bargain - Alec Benjamin

A TikTok creator named Melanie Moyer shared her favorite Silver Fern Brand products:

@atomicgrl79 @silverfernbrand has some amazing products!! Come check out some of my favs!! #SilverFernSuperFan #guthealth #health #wellness #healthjourney ♬ original sound - Melanie Moyer

Our Clean Gut Health Picks

MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ is our top fiber pick.

MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ contains 100% soluble fiber, which was described as "one of the most important nutrients for the gut microbiota" in a clinical review published in the Molecules journal.

Ritual Synbiotic+ is our top value probiotic pick.

It contains prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics, and costs under $1.50 per serving at the time of updating this article.

Probiotics "can improve in the immune, gastrointestinal...health systems in healthy adults" according to a 2019 medical review.

VSL#3 is our top premium probiotic pick.

This probiotic supplement has been studied in 25 clinical trials, and a 2020 meta-study on VSL#3 concluded the following:

"...many studies demonstrated that VSL#3 has a beneficial effect on obesity and diabetes, allergic diseases, nervous systemic diseases, AS, bone diseases, and female reproductive systemic diseases."

All of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.

Customers Rate Silver Fern Brand

Amazon is a better resource for honest customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.

Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic has been reviewed over 1,000 times on Amazon at the time of publishing this article, with an average review rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

A top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "Joel Quinones" who gave the product a 5/5 rating:

"Silver Fern Brand is a very reputable supplement company. I started using the probiotics and have found less issues with stomach discomfort. We don't always eat healthy and this really helps maintain a balanced flora in your intestines."

A top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "LaurenSLP" who gave the product a 1/5 rating:

"Last month I purchased two more bottles and the pills in both bottles are very different- very yellow with a very strong, musty stale odor. I contacted Silver Fern because I was sure they had gone bad/may have been improperly stored before getting to me.

Silver Fern Brand currently has a recommendation rating of 88% on Facebook.

Silver Fern Brand Ultimate Probiotic Supplement currently has an average review rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google.

Silver Fern Brand Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons of Silver Fern Brand in our opinion:

Pros:

  • Effectively-formulated supplement
  • Effective total probiotic dose
  • Research-backed probiotic strains
  • Should support optimal gut health
  • No unhealthy additive ingredients
  • Mostly positive online customer reviews

Cons:

  • Questionable health claims
  • Doesn't appear to be clinically tested in humans
Stay up-to-date on our research reviews

Conclusion

Silver Fern Brand is a unique probiotic supplement company, in the sense that their leading product is very well-formulated and may support optimal gut health, but the way the brand markets it is very off-putting to us.

Ultimate Probiotic Supplement contains research-backed probiotic strains at appropriate doses, and safe inactive ingredients, so it should support gut health and gut barrier function.

The brand makes a number of questionable health claims on their website to market this product, including that it has over 99% greater survivability than other probiotic supplements and food products.

No evidence is cited to support this claim.

We hope that in the future, Silver Fern Brands modifies their marketing strategy, because the product is high-quality enough (at least based on its stated ingredients) that we think it could be marketed successfully by just pointing out the research behind the active strains.

At the time of publishing this article, online customer reviews of this brand and supplement are highly favorable.