K3 Spark Mineral is a weight loss supplement sold on Amazon. It’s manufactured by a brand called Zelso Nutrition, and the brand claims that this supplement “promotes ketosis” and can cause the body to “utilize fat for fuel.”
But is ketosis really necessary for weight loss? Are the ingredients in K3 Spark Mineral proven in medical studies to cause weight loss? Does the supplement contain any harmful ingredients? And how do real customers rate and describe the effects of K3 Spark Mineral?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review every ingredient in K3 Spark Mineral to give our take on whether the supplement is likely to be effective for weight loss or if it's a waste of money.
We'll also discuss side effects, feature unsponsored customer reviews and share our thoughts about whether keto weight loss supplements make sense as a product category.
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in K3 Spark Mineral are shown above.
We cannot identify any ingredients in this formulation that we consider likely to support weight loss, and there are several ingredients that may be questionable from a health perspective.
Senna is a laxative ingredient that we recommend avoiding for health reasons. A medical review published in the LiverTox journal documented that senna can cause liver injury when used in high doses for too long of a period of time. What’s considered a high dose was left undefined.
Cascara sagrada bark has also been clinically shown to cause liver injury as we documented in our review of ZuPOO, another supplement which contains this ingredient.
Food ingredients like pumpkin seed, oat bran powder, cayenne pepper and licorice root may be nutritious but we cannot identify any medical studies suggesting they’re effective for weight loss, nor does the brand cite any on the Amazon product listing.
The average ingredient dose in this blend is only 45 milligrams (mg).
To give a sense of how small a dose of 45 mg of oat bran is, according to the USDA, one single cup of oat bran equals 95,000 mg of oat bran. The oat bran dose in K3 Spark Mineral is 2,100 times less than one cup of oat bran.
Overall, we do not consider K3 Spark Mineral likely to be effective for weight loss given that we cannot identify one single research-backed ingredient after a review of medical studies.
When we initially published this article, there was a different ingredient list on the Amazon listing than what one customer reported in the reviews section, which was a major concern, but it appears that the manufacturer has fixed this after our review highlighting the issue.
A YouTube creator named Brian Yeung who's a naturopathic doctor reviews the ingredients in this supplement in an engaging and animated video and comes to many of the same conclusions we do:
But will the supplement cause side effects? We'll discuss in the next section.
Does K3 Spark Mineral Cause Side Effects?
K3 Spark Mineral does not appear to have been tested in any clinical trials, so it's challenging to say for certain whether or not it causes side effects. However, we can make an educated guess based on its ingredients.
We consider K3 Spark Mineral somewhat likely to cause side effects. Senna is a laxative ingredient, so this supplement may cause users to experience an uncomfortable urge to use the bathroom, and they may experience diarrhea.
There may be a rare but serious risk of liver injury given the data we cited in the previous section on senna and Cascara's hepatotoxic (liver-damaging) effects.
We would certainly recommend that consumers intent on purchasing this supplement share its ingredients label with their doctor prior to taking it.
Is K3 Spark Mineral a Scam?
A YouTube creator named Jordan Liles investigates misleading advertising associated with K3 Spark Mineral.
It's important to note that this advertising doesn't appear to come from the brand itself, but from third-party marketers. Regardless, this "Shark Tank" scam is something that consumers should watch out for:
Real Customer Reviews
K3 Spark Mineral is sold on Amazon which is a useful resource for honest customer reviews.
The product has been reviewed over 1,500 times at the time of updating this article, with an unimpressive average review rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named “Marcelo Cordoba” who claims the supplement was effective for weight loss:
“I took them for a month, 1 in the morning 1 at night and i lost 22 pounds…They worked great i had tons of energy…I definitely recommend this product”
The top negative review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named “Kim Adkins” who gave K3 Spark Mineral a 2-star rating, and who highlighted the ingredient discrepancy that was discussed above:
“Ingredients shown in the picture are not the ingredients that came in my bottle. Bogus product…Not the ingredients shown on Amazon”
Our Issue With "Keto" Weight Loss Pills
As shown above, K3 Spark Mineral is branded as a keto weight loss supplement.
Ketosis is the state where the body is burning fat for fuel instead of glucose.
We have not come across any convincing medical research suggesting that ketosis is necessary, or optimal, for weight loss.
The manufacturer of this supplement doesn't cite any research on their Amazon product page showing that any ingredient in K3 Spark Mineral induces ketosis at the included dose, nor that such an effect would cause weight loss.
Weight loss is a simple thermodynamic process. Calories ingested versus calories burned. Whether or not an individual is burning glucose or fat for energy, if they consume fewer calories than they ingest they will lose weight (outside of extremely rare medical conditions).
It's also worth noting that nearly any dietary supplement in pill form could be considered "ketogenic," because most supplements have very few carbs due to their low total dose.
We recommend that consumers be wary of supplement brands suggesting that the keto nature or keto-diet-compliance of their supplements has beneficial health effects without providing research backing those claims.
Our Clean Weight Loss Picks
There are food-based nutrients which have been shown in medical studies to be effective for weight loss.
Dietary fiber was shown in a medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition to cause 16 pounds of weight loss in 6 months when combined with moderate caloric restriction (750 calories per day below baseline).
Supergut Fiber Mix is our recommended fiber supplement, because it contains three different types of fiber powder and no questionable additive ingredients. Interested consumers can check out Supergut Fiber Mix at this link to the product page on the brand's official website, where it retails for under $2 per serving at a subscription rate.
MCT oil is quickly absorbed by the body and increases metabolic rate, which causes fat loss. A 2015 meta-study on MCT oil documented more than one pound of weight loss over 10 weeks. This equates to potential annualized weight loss of 6 pounds per year with less than one tablespoon's worth of MCT oil per day.
Bulletproof MCT Oil is our top MCT oil product, because the only ingredient is MCT oil derived from coconuts. There are no questionable additives. Interested consumers can check out Bulletproof MCT Oil at this link to the product page on the brand's official website, where it currently costs only $15.50 for over a month's worth of product.
Coffee is one of the few whole food ingredients associated with weight loss in clinical trials. A meta-analysis published in the Nutrients journal found that coffee intake was associated with reduced body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference.
VitaCup Organic Instant Coffee Sticks is our top coffee product for weight loss, due to its convenience. No preparation or machinery is needed. The sticks can be mixed into hot or cold water (or other beverages) and consumed. The only ingredient is organic instant coffee; no questionable additives.
Interested consumers can check out VitaCup Organic Instant Coffee Sticks at this link to the product page on the brand's official website, where they retail for $1 per serving at a subscription rate.
Where to Buy K3 Spark Mineral
Unlike most supplements we've reviewed on Illuminate Health, K3 Spark Mineral only appears to be sold at one retailer.
At the time of updating this article, the only place that consumers appear to be able to purchase K3 Spark Mineral is Amazon.
The manufacturer’s website (Zelso Nutrition) is currently down, and the supplement does not appear to be available for sale on Walmart.
Here's a link to the official Amazon listing for this product.
As we've stated throughout this article, we do not recommend this supplement, but we wanted to provide a link to the official listing as a resource for consumers who are intent on purchasing it.
Pros and Cons of K3 Spark Mineral
Here are the pros and cons of K3 Spark Mineral in our opinion:
Pros:
- Affordable
- Safe inactive ingredients
Cons:
- Two active ingredients clinically shown to harm liver at high doses
- Doesn't appear clinically tested
- Brand fails to provide backing for keto health claims
- Very small doses of whole food ingredients like oat bran
- Manufacturer website has been down for 6 months
- Unimpressive Amazon reviews
