Disclaimer: None of the information in this article constitutes medical advice, and is just the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that patients follow their doctor's guidance in regard to blood sugar management.
Glucotrust is a dietary supplement used for blood sugar management. It’s sold on the brand’s website and on Amazon, and the brand claims their supplement can “help support healthy blood sugar level” and “promote healthy weight loss.”
But does Glucotrust contain ingredients proven in medical studies to support healthy blood sugar levels? What about for weight loss? Does it have any risky or unhealthy ingredients? And how do real users rate and describe the effects of Glucotrust?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review the ingredients in Glucotrust based on medical studies to give our take on whether or not the supplement is likely to improve blood sugar levels and cause weight loss, or if it’s a waste of money.
We’ll also share our concerns about the brand generally, and highlight real, unsponsored user reviews of Glucotrust.
Ingredient Analysis
About half of the active ingredients in Glucotrust are a blend of vitamins and minerals, including biotin, zinc and manganese amongst others.
We haven’t come across any medical research suggesting that the vitamin and mineral ingredients in Glucotrust are effective for reducing blood sugar at their included doses.
As one example, vitamin C is included in Glucotrust at a dose of 52.5 milligrams (mg). A 2017 meta-study found that vitamin C was effective in modestly reducing blood sugar levels, but the average dose used in the examined trials was around 1,000 mg, or over 19x the amount in Glucotrust.
The remaining 11 active ingredients are included in a herbal blend totalling 82.5 mg, or an average ingredient dose of 7.5 mg per ingredient. This is too low of a dose to have any effect on blood sugar in our opinion.
As an example of how low a 7.5 mg average ingredient dose is, consider one of the included ingredients: cinnamon bark powder. According to the USDA, one teaspoon of cinnamon has a dose of 2,600 mg. This means that one teaspoon of cinnamon powder has a dose 347x higher than the amount likely in Glucotrust.
There are some ingredients in Glucotrust which have been studied for weight loss, but again we consider them to be included at too low of a dose to be effective.
Alpha lipoic acid has been clinically shown to cause weight loss, but as we documented in our Truvy weight loss article on another supplement containing this ingredient, the minimum effective dose appears to be 300 mg, or 40x the average ingredient dose in Glucotrust.
Overall we do not consider Glucotrust likely to be effective for blood sugar support or weight loss, and we do not recommend the supplement. While some of its active ingredients have been shown to have favorable effects on blood sugar and weight loss, we consider them to all be significantly underdosed (in some cases by hundreds of times) and unlikely to have any positive effects.
Unable to Determine Official Manufacturer of Glucotrust
One of our concerns about Glucotrust is that there are a number of supplements with different formulations sold under this name. This suggests that there is not one official manufacturer which has trademarked their product.
This increases the risk of fraudulent products in our opinion, and is a sign of a low-quality brand.
If you search “Glucotrust” on Amazon, you will note a number of products with different bottles and different ingredient lists being sold under the same name. The one we reviewed in the previous section appears to be sold by a brand called “Maximum Edge Nutrition,” but there’s another one from a brand called “Max-Bio” and another from a brand called “Justified Laboratories” also showing in the top 20 results.
We recommend that consumers avoid supplements without a clear manufacturer, because it may increase the risk of being scammed and reduce any recourse or potential claims in the event of a harmful supplement.
Our Concerns About ClickBank Products
Glucotrust uses an affiliate marketing platform called ClickBank to help promote their products. ClickBank allows essentially anyone to get commission from selling a product without any pre-approval process.
A TikTok user named “connor_auld” shows how easy it is below to start promoting Glucotrust on ClickBank:
@connor_auld Follow for more side hustle ideas!🔥 #sidehustle #entrepreneur #hustle #workfromhome #debtfreecommunity #smallbusiness ♬ Sunroof - Nicky Youre & dazy
This creates an incentive structure that is harmful to consumers in our opinion, because it allows people with zero medical or scientific qualifications to promote health products and make specific health claims that may be untrue.
We recommend that consumers be extremely wary of ClickBank products.
Here’s how to check if a health supplement you’re considering is a ClickBank product.
Visit the manufacturer’s website. You can typically do so by searching “x brand website,” so in this case “Glucotrust website” and click on one of the top links or one of the top ads. Search the page for the word “ClickBank.” It’s usually in the footer of the site. On Macs the command to search a page is holding the “command” key and the “f” key at the same time. It’s different on every device.
Will Glucotrust Cause Side Effects?
Glucotrust does not appear to have been studied in any clinical trials, so it’s challenging to say for certain whether or not it will cause side effects. However, we can make an educated guess based on its ingredients.
All of the vitamins and minerals included in this supplement are safe and well-studied, and we consider the herbal ingredients to be included at too low of a dose to cause any side effects.
However, taking supplemental vitamins and minerals daily without evidence of a deficiency may increase the risk of side effects.
As we documented in our Focus Factor reviews article, another supplement company was forced to recall several of their products from the market in early 2022 because all of the supplemental vitamins and minerals were causing toxicity in some consumers.
Glucotrust provides 105% of the Daily Value (DV) of vitamin E which is a fat-soluble nutrient, and 68% of the DV of zinc. Taking such doses may cause blood levels of these nutrients to rise to an unsafe range over time.
Real, Unsponsored Glucotrust Customer Reviews
Glucotrust is sold on Amazon, which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand’s website in our opinion.
The supplement (at least the version from Maximum Edge Nutrition that we’re reviewing) has been reviewed over 70 times with an unimpressive average review rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named “Susan Burgess” who claims the supplement reduced their blood sugar and had weight loss effects:
“This product is working to lower blood sugar levels and also seems to be curbing my appetite.”
The top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named “Dee Bee” who has complaints about the supplement being ineffective and a scam:
“False advertisement it DOES NOT WORK! My sugar levels rose higher not lower. Please this is a hoax do not buy and you can't return product. The product it says it is made of IT IS NOT LISTED as ONE of the ingredients. Total SCAM do not spend your money or risk your HEALTH”
A TikTok user named Stephan Miske tried Glucotrust and found it to be ineffective:
@djdrtaylor #glucotrust #type1diabetes #type2diabetes #Glucotrust ♬ original sound - Stephan Miske
