Spring Valley® brand of supplements makes several different turmeric curcumin products, and in this review article I will share my evaluation of each one of them.
Spring Valley uses similar-looking labels for most of these curcumin supplements, so distinguishing them from one another takes a little bit of extra attention on our part. On top of that, they also sell the same product using different-labeled bottles in a couple of cases.
May the Force be with you. You may need it to keep all these Spring Valley turmeric products sorted out.
Science resources included
As is my custom here on heydayDo, I will provide links to all of the relevant sports science & medical resources, clinical studies, and nutritional data used in this article.
My 2¢:
I’ve done quite a bit of research into curcumin & the clinical studies that have been done testing how effective it is (or isn’t) for different medical issues.
I’ve also product-tested over a dozen different turmeric supplements, taking each for weeks at a time to test their effectiveness, including a couple of the Spring Valley line.
Other than trying them out, I don’t use them. Instead I take CurcuminMD made by the physician-owned 1MD.org, as does my clinical researcher wife.
I wrote an in-depth product review of its ingredients, dosages, & effectiveness in an article here on my site, if you want to learn more:
A Detailed Review of CurcuminMD Plus By A Longtime Customer
Table of Contents
ToggleHow many Spring Valley curcumin products?!
I can’t say for sure for sure exactly how many different variations of turmeric supplement Spring Valley sells, but I’ll tell you what I’ve found so far in a sec.
Spring Valley makes dozens & dozens of vitamins & herbal supplements, I found 364 listed on Walmart.com:
Yet Spring Valley the company doesn’t even have a website where you can peruse their product line.
Anyway, as far as turmeric curcumin supplements go, I found nine curcumin supplements total at Walmart.com & in their stores.
All told there were seven types of products in capsule form, one in gel caps, and one where the turmeric was in adult gummies.
(I didn’t count the same products twice when they came with a different quantity of pills in the bottle.)
All of them were on Walmart’s website except for one of the capsule formulas, which I saw in my local store but not on their site.
Amazon doesn’t have all of them…
…not today anyway, while I was over there poking around.
I believe (until I come across facts to the contrary) that Walmart is the only licensed retailer of Spring Valley vitamins & supplements.
All of the Spring Valley products I see listed on Amazon are being sold there by re-sellers but not by Amazon.
Bottom line on re-sellers:
Without Amazon themselves selling these to us, this all but guarantees that if you buy Spring Valley products there you’ll be paying much more than you would at Walmart.
And currently on Amazon I see only five of the nine Spring Valley turmeric curcumin supplements there.
Spring Valley turmeric curcumin products
Below is my list of all the ones I tracked down at Walmart.
Note:
- That they list the same “turmeric + ginger powder” product three times with three different names;
- How similarly Walmart names all of the capsule versions even though they each have their own unique formula. 😳
Um, OK.
And when I show you a pic where I line all of Walmart’s Spring Valley turmeric curcumin products together, you’ll see why you have to check the label closely while shopping.
Walmart’s Spring Valley curcumin products
The product names you see below I copied verbatim off their listings on Walmart’s website, except for one that I only saw in the store.
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Vegetarian Capsules, 500 mg
(This one’s made with Longvida®)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Capsules
(This one’s made with BCM-95®)
Spring Valley Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex Vegetarian Capsules with CucuWIN
(This one’s made with CurcuWin® and yes, Walmart misspelled it on their product page)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Vegetarian Capsules, 500 mg
(This one’s made with ginger)
Spring Valley Standardized Extract Turmeric Curcumin Vegetarian Capsules
(Same ginger product #2)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Vegetarian Capsules with Ginger Powder
(Same ginger product #3)
Spring Valley Cognitive Health Omega Turmeric Softgels
(Made with Longvida® & Fish Oil, hence the softgel capsule)
Spring Valley Ultra-Strength Turmeric Curcumin, 1,500 mg
(Made with absorption enhancer BioPerine®)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Complex Softgels, 1000 mg
(Made with absorption enhancer BioPerine® at a lower dose than Ultra)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Vegetarian Gummies, 200 mg
(Made with Longvida® in gummy form)
You may not be familiar with the various additives you see. But no worries, I know them well, and soon you’ll know about them too.😉
10 Spring Valley Turmeric listings online for 8 products
Walmart’s online store has more Spring Valley curcumin product listings (10) than there are actual products (8).
This is because the same turmeric & ginger supplement has three listings using different words in its title.
And there’s a 9th ‘in-store only’ curcumin too
And to muddy the waters just a bit more, let me point out that none of the products listed online are Spring Valley’s basic plain turmeric curcumin product.
For some reason Walmart.com doesn’t carry it, but it was in the Spring Valley aisle of the store I was creeping around in.
It’s called Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex like a couple of their other ones, but this one is the only one that doesn’t have an additional pizazz ingredient in it.
You’ll see 9 Spring Valley curcumin products in the Walmart.com group pic below (that’s a garlic product I crossed out, no curcumin in that), but the first three you see are all the same turmeric + ginger version.
And there was another one further down that page that didn’t make it into the shot.
Family photo
Here’s the image I mentioned:
At first glance many of them are remarkably similar-looking, aren’t they?
As I said, there are significant differences in each of their “recipes”, which I’ll cover with you.
What’s next
Here’s what’s in store in this Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin review article.
Spring Valley Turmeric FAQ
To kick things off I’d like to share a little info on the Spring Valley brand, and I’ll do it by addressing a few of the frequently questions asked about Spring Valley supplements.
Then we’re onto evaluating all the supplements.
Review of each Spring Valley curcumin product
There are a few key areas I’ll going over with each of these different versions:
- Ingredients / Supplement Facts
- Dosage
- Labeling
- Manufacturing quality
- Buyer reviews
Comparing the Spring Valley curcumin products
Even though the Spring Valley curcumin line is pretty varied, I’ll discuss comparisons where I can: cost, curcumin potency, etc.
Overview of turmeric-based ingredients
I’ll also provide a little Turmeric 101, in case you aren’t real familiar with the world of turmeric supplements.
I’ll briefly go over each of the common ingredients you’re most likely to run across when you’re checking out a curcumin product’s Supplement Facts label.
This’ll give you a good handle on what numbers are worth paying attention to, and which ones are marketing smoke just there for show.
Overview of each of the unique added ingredients
Those patented formulas I pointed out when I listed Spring Valley’s different curcumin supplements are worth getting to know a bit about.
They have a lot to do with how effective the curcumin they’re mixed with is when you take it.
I’m familiar with them because my ongoing curiosity about curcumin’s health benefits had me poking around our National Library of Medicine database, looking up curcumin clinical trials.
So I’ll share a little about what makes each one of them tick, and a couple of facts on how effective they’ve actually proven themselves to be.
Spring Valley Curcumin FAQ
Here are answers to a few of the commonly asked questions regarding Spring Valley turmeric curcumin products & Spring Valley the brand.
Who owns the Spring Valley supplement brand?
Walmart owns the vitamin & herbal supplement brand Spring Valley which isn’t surprising, considering the fact that Walmart is the only official retailer of Spring Valley products. (1)
You will see some Spring Valley supplements for sale on Amazon, but if you look closely you’ll see that all of those products are being offered there by 3rd-party resellers.
Who makes Spring Valley supplements for Walmart?
Walmart doesn’t own a giant factory that produces their own vitamins, & they don’t publicly disclose who manufacturers either their Spring Valley or Sundown lines of vitamins & supplements.
There are online rumors of all sorts on this topic.
At Reference.com it’s reported that Walmart uses well-known supplement company Nature’s Bounty to handle the manufacturing of their Spring Valley product line. (2)
However a USA Today Fact Check report stated that Walmart did not respond to USA Today’s inquiry about this.
Is Spring Valley a good brand?
Spring Valley has a few positives worth considering:
* It’s owned a very large & reputable retailer in Walmart.
* Because of Walmart’s scale, Spring Valley can sell most of their products for much cheaper than their competitors.
* I checked up on 10 of their products with independent supplement tester ConsumerLab.com:
- Lysine
- Lycopenes
- Menopausal supplement
- Ginseng
- Fish Oil Omega-3
- Vitamin A
- Prostate supplement
- Vitamin B
- Selenium
- Goldenseal & Berberine
They verified the quality & potency of 9 of these Spring Valley supplements.
And Consumer Lab made a handful of them their top pick for their respective category, due to their optimal dosages as well as being real inexpensive.
Where is Spring Valley turmeric made?
Not all Spring Valley turmeric curcumin products list a source country for their turmeric, but several of the labels do say either “Product of India” or “Product of China and India”.
Other Spring Valley products also have labels stating that the supplement was a “Product of China & USA.”
This reflects the fact that India is the world’s leading producer of turmeric and China ranks 4th. (3)
What’s in Spring Valley Curcumin?
OK the reviews are up next, so first I want to briefly go over each of the ingredients you’ll be coming across when comparing these different types of Spring Valley curcumin.
I provide more thorough explanations of these following the product reviews if you’re interested in learning more about what you’re swallowing…always a good thing. 😄
Two types of ingredients
Spring Valley has a few different things in their curcumin supplements, and to make it easy I’ve sorted them into two groups: turmeric-based ingredients and additives.
Turmeric-based ingredients
These all come from the root-like underground stems of the curcuma longa plant. You’ll see:
*turmeric root powder, turmeric rhizome powder, or just plain turmeric powder;
*curcumin, curcumin extract, curcuminoids – this is where the action is, or more specifically, where the bioactive compounds are.
Additives to Spring Valley Curcumin
*ginger powder – the familiar root spice, comes from a close cousin of the turmeric plant;
*patented curcumin extract formulas, and Spring Valley uses 3 different ones:
- Longvida® (used in 2 products)
- BCM-95®
- CurcuWin®
*patented absorption enhancer made from black pepper extract:
- BioPerine® (used in 2 products)
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Reviews
Here are Spring Valley’s 9 curcumin supplements listed in the order I’ll be reviewing them.
If their product name is in blue, that means they’re on Amazon if you want to click on it & check its current price there.
One small note: Online buyer reviews for all of these Spring Valley turmeric curcumin products are very positive across the board.
I mention that because when I do a review of several products in the same article, I typically track down all the online ratings I can find and calculate an overall buyer’s ⭐ rating for each of them.
But there’s no need for me to do that here, since all the buyer ratings for Spring Valley curcumin supplements are all similarly very good.
Spring Valley Curcumin supplement line
The names in blue link to their product page on Amazon, if you want to check them out over there. The ones without the link are Walmart-only as of now while I’m writing this.
Spring Valley Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex
This is their only ‘plain’ curcumin product.
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin with Ginger Powder
This is similar to the plain product with ginger powder added & a little turmeric powder subtracted.
Spring Valley Ultra Strength Turmeric Curcumin
One of two Spring Valley curcumin supplements that uses BioPerine®, the absorption enhancer. Not a lot of actual curcumin in it though, mostly powder.
Spring Valley Extra Strength Turmeric Curcumin
Similar to Ultra with BioPerine as well, this has less powder but a little more extract than what’s in Ultra Strength.
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin with 500mg of Longvida
A 100% Longvida® curcumin extract product.
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin with 500mg BCM-95
And this is a 100% BCM-95® curcumin extract product.
Spring Valley Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex with CurcuWin
Almost a 100% CurcuWin® curcumin formula product, but they threw in 50mg of plain ol’ turmeric powder for some reason.
Spring Valley Cognitive Health Omega Turmeric
Consists of two ingredients: a 400 mg dose of Longvida, and 2000 mg of fish oil.
Spring Valley Adult Gummy Turmeric Curcumin Extract
You can get a clinical dose of 400 mg of Longvida for every four gummies you knock down.
Turmeric Curcumin Must-Know Information
Although I’ll go into this in more detail after the reviews, I have a couple of things to pass along to you if you aren’t real familiar with turmeric curcumin supplements.
1. Turmeric powder has almost NO curcumin in it
The active compounds inside curcumin (they’re called curcuminoids) are what can provide health benefit to you…not the orange powder.
Curcumin is inside the turmeric root & powdered root you see of course, but makes up only 3% of it. (4)
3%. Which means 97% of that powder you see does little to nothing for you, health benefits-wise.
Sharpen your math pencil
You want to keep that 3% fact handy because you’ll need to use it to figure out how much curcumin is actually in that supplement you’re looking at buying.
I’ll show you the math during the review for Spring Valley products that are using plain turmeric powder.
Just remember: 1000mg of turmeric powder = only 30mg of curcumin (1000 x 3% = 30).
2. Curcumin’s clinically-effective doses are 950-1500mg per day
Those numbers are a lot bigger than 30 mg is. (5)
3. That’s why there are extracts @ 95% curcumin
Taking a couple of capsules that use 95% extract is a lot easier than trying to down ounces of powder every day to get the same effect, agreed?
4. And that’s why there are unique formulas too
The patented curcumin formulas Spring Valley uses are used by many supplement companies as well, besides the more common Standardized to 95% Curcumin products you’ll see.
These unique curcumin formulas have proven they’re better absorbed than regular curcumin supplements. (6)
And absorption enhancers like the black pepper extract BioPerine® are used a lot by curcumin supplement makers too, including Spring Valley.
Remember: Absorption problems are a huge obstacle in the way of curcumin actually doing anything beneficial for us. (7)
Alrighty then, let’s look at each one of these a little more closely.
Spring Valley Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex review
Label notes
Standardized
This tells you there’s a 95% curcumin extract in the ingredients.
Complex
Sounds impressive, but all they’re getting at is that there’s a combo of turmeric powder + turmeric extract in it.
Hundreds of turmeric supplements are made this way, just sayin’.
Ingredients
Somebody went bonkers with the parentheses I sees 😜. There are two ingredients:
- turmeric root powder
- turmeric extract
How much curcumin?
The first number you see is that 500mg they put up on top, but this product doesn’t have anywhere near 500mg of curcumin in it, you’ll see…
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 1 capsule
Math time
450 mg root powder @ 3% curcumin
= 13 ½ mg curcumin
50 mg turmeric extract @ 95% curcumin
= 47 ½ mg curcumin
Total curcumin per serving/capsule of the “500 mg Complex”:
61 mg
Bottom line:
*Remember that effective clinical doses of enhanced curcumin have been in the range of 950 mg – 1500 mg per day;
*That means you’d need to take 16 capsules of this just to hit the low end of the clinically-effective range;
*Worse yet, this product contains no absorption enhancer like black pepper extract or fat molecules like Longvida or BCM-95;
*So the curcumin absorption by your body will be very poor, and any benefits will be hard to come by.
Check Amazon for current price – Not listed on Walmart.com, but I’ve seen it in the store.
Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin with Ginger review
Label notes
500 mg per serving
I think by now you can guess what that doesn’t mean. 😉
This product is similar to the “plain” turmeric curcumin version we just looked at, with one small change.
Ginger Powder
A familiar spice and a close relative of the turmeric plant, curcuma longa.
They swapped out 50 mg of turmeric powder for 50 mg of ginger powder for better or for worse, depending on your body’s feelings about ginger. (8)
Ingredients
- turmeric root powder
- turmeric extract
- ginger powder
How much curcumin?
This will have a little less curcumin in it than the first one we looked at, since they swapped out some of the turmeric powder.
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 1 capsule
Math time
400 mg root powder @ 3% curcumin
= 12 mg curcumin
50 mg turmeric extract @ 95% curcumin
= 47 ½ mg curcumin
Total curcumin per serving:
59 1/2 mg
Bottom line:
*Very similar shortcomings curcumin-wise as the previous Spring Valley turmeric supplement we looked at:
- nowhere near a strong enough dose;
- no absorption enhancer.
Check Amazon for current price
Spring Valley Ultra Strength Curcumin review
Label notes
Ultra Strength
I’m no marketing guru, just a regular dude — but I think they put the Ultra Strength on the label because they also put a big number (1500 mg) on there too.
1500 mg
Most of this “1500 mg” is just powder, so you know how that’s going to shake out.
10 mg BioPerine®
As mentioned, this is a patented black pepper extract that can greatly improve your body’s ability to absorb curcumin. (10)
Ingredients
- turmeric root powder
- turmeric extract
- BioPerine®
How much curcumin?
Eyeballing the numbers before I do the math, I’m guessing this will have over twice the curcumin the previous two products had…still not close to effective strength though.
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 2 capsules
Math time
1350 mg root powder @ 3% curcumin
= 40 ½ mg curcumin
150 mg turmeric extract @ 95% curcumin
= 142 ½ mg curcumin
Total curcumin per serving:
183 mg (2 capsules)
Bottom line:
*Unfortunately, although the daily curcumin serving is a lot more than the two previous products, it’s still very low compared to the doses used to provide health benefit (183 mg vs. 950-1500 mg)
*You’d need to take 5 servings per day (10 pills) to get to 915 mg of curcumin, which is a little below the low end of clinically-proven dosing;
*The addition of BioPerine is a big plus, too bad it’s kind of wasted on a small curcumin dose.
Check Amazon for current price — Walmart.com has a 90 capsule bottle for around $9.
Spring Valley Extra Strength Curcumin review
Label notes
Extra Strength/ 1000 mg
At first glance I thought “Extra” was a step down from Ultra because the big number on the front dropped from 1500 mg down to 1000 mg.
Check my Math time section to see how I was mistaken.
BioPerine
Spring Valley’s using the black pepper extract again here, but with half the dose (10 mg vs. 5 mg).
FYI – the BioPerine curcumin studies that put it squarely on the map as a proven absorption enhancer used 20 mg per dose. (11)
Complex
Same use of Complex like Spring Valley did earlier — just a fancy way of saying they combined a few ingredients.
But again, with most of their turmeric supplements they’ve done the same thing too.
Enhanced Absorption
They have this on the front label in small font down in the lower left section.
They don’t have to put the “FDA disclaimer” asterisk (*) next to it like they do for “Antioxidant Support” because BioPerine has flat-out proven it can improve absorption. (12)
Ingredients
Same three main ones that were in Ultra, just with different amounts:
- turmeric root powder
- turmeric rhizome extract*
- BioPerine
* – Not sure why they felt like they needed to break out the word ‘rhizome’ for just this one, since all turmeric products come from the rhizomes anyways. Nothin’ to see folks, nothin’ to see…
Secret bonus sauce
Also, down in the actual Ingredients list, note the first ingredient: Sunflower Seed Oil.
Being listed first means it’s the #1 product by weight.
And you can see that it actually contributes a gram of fat, which is why they had to create a macronutrient (calories, carb, fat, protein) table.
This little bit of fat will also help improve curcumin’s absorption, like its use in Longvida & BCM-95’s extract recipes.
Both of those two formulas wrap their curcumin in fat molecules (phospholipids) to greatly improve their absorption & bioavailability. (13)
How much curcumin?
This actually has more curcumin in it than the Ultra Strength version does, go figure.
Still not on par with the curcumin amounts that have been shown to actually do something like improve osteoarthritis symptoms, but we’re heading in the right direction I s’ppose.😊
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 2 capsules
Math time
800 mg root powder @ 3% curcumin
= 24 mg curcumin
200 mg turmeric extract @ 95% curcumin
= 190 mg curcumin
Total curcumin per serving:
214 mg (2 capsules)
Bottom line:
*More curcumin than the first three, but you’ll still need to take 9 capsules a day to get to ‘clinical potency’ level;
(9 x 107 mg = 963 mg/day, which gets you past the 950 mg clinical low-end number.)
*That’s a lot of pills to swallow plus it’s not very cost-effective.
*The fat from the sunflower seed oil & the BioPerine are positives for sure.
No Amazon listing at the time I’m writing this. I see today that Walmart.com has a 90 capsule bottle for about $12.
Spring Valley Curcumin with Longvida review
Label notes
Superior Bioavailable Extract
This phrase is here because Longvida’s here too.
There’s quite a bit of research behind Longvida that shows that its unique formula allows it to be much better absorbed than typical Standardized to 95% Curcumin extracts. (14)
Supports 95x increased bioavaila…
This is jumping onto the larger Bioavailable phrase’s bandwagon.
But it’s using scientific jargon almost no one’s going to understand and in small font to boot…whatever, it’s their label not mine.
500 mg of Longvida
Hooray, we finally have a number that is what it claims it is.
This 500 mg actually means 500 mg of pure Longvida, and this is a great dose of it too.
Ingredients
Just one, no Complex going on here:
- Longvida®
How much curcumin?
500 mg of Longvida, which’ll have about 115 mg of curcumin in it, if my math brain’s working right.
(500 mg x 23% = 115 mg)
Big distinction
Longvida’s a unique formula, and it does not have to hit those clinically-effective numbers we’ve been using for those first four typical curcumin extracts so far.
Longvida’s curcumin extract has studies showing it providing benefit at doses as low as 400 mg. (14)
(Remember, that’s 400 mg of Longvida, not 400 mg of curcumin.)
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 2 capsules
Math time
No need for math with this, or for the other patented curcumin extract formulas we’ll be seeing next, BCM-95 & CurcuWin.
As long as the supplement maker — be it Spring Valley or whoever — provides the clinically-proven dose, you’re getting the same amount that had been used in a research study (or multiple studies).
No smoke & mirrors from manufacturers playing with turmeric powder numbers is nice.
Bottom line:
Longvida has shown itself to be effective for some people in several research studies. (15)
In fact it’s the main ingredient in the turmeric supplement I take that I showed you earlier, CurcuminMD Plus.
500 mg of it is well within the range of 400 mg-800 mg a day that I’ve seen used in clinical trials, with 400 mg being used often.
Walmart.com’s price (today) isn’t the cheapest but it’s probably cheaper in the store.
I don’t see it on Amazon today.
Walmart.com has a 60 capsule bottle (1 months’ worth) for around $17, and in-store’s probably cheaper.
This is a decent price, though high-quality supplement company NOW Brands is currently selling Longvida’s clinical dose of 400mg a day on Amazon for about 12 bucks a month here.
Spring Valley Curcumin with BCM-95 review
Label notes
Superior Absorption
This phrase is here for the same reason it was on the Longvida product we looked at.
BCM-95® has a ton of research behind it that clearly demonstrates it helps your body absorb curcumin several times better than typical curcumin extract supplements. (16)
Up to 7x Bioavailability…
Tagging onto the Superior Absorption phrase, I’m glad they toned it down compared to what they splattered on their Longvida bottle.
Joint health
This phrase is alluding to the clinical research that has repeatedly shown that curcumin can improve osteoarthritis symptoms like pain & limited knee flexion. (17)
(And this is assuming it gets absorbed properly into the bloodstream AND that the dosage is sufficient.)
Ingredients
Another one ingredient product:
- BCM-95
How much curcumin?
Same message here as with Longvida: we’re only looking to get BCM-95 in its clinically-effective dose, not the dose of typical curcumin extracts.
This has 500 mg of BCM-95®.
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 1 capsule
Math time
None needed.
Bottom line:
*BCM-95 has a few dozen studies that have been conducted on it, and clinical dose amounts showing benefit are all over the board. (18)
*A nice summary listing the ranges can be seen in this PDF from the American Botanical Council.
*You’ll see the range from 500 mg on up to 4000 mg, with most doses at least 1000 mg or higher.
*So you’d probably need to take at least 2 serving’s worth per day of this Spring Valley supplement, depending on what ailment you’re targeting.
*Taking that into consideration & looking at its current price, that makes this product pretty dang pricey (to me anyway).
I don’t see it on Amazon today.
Walmart.com has a 30 capsule bottle for about 18 bucks, so that’s over $35 a month @ 1000mg/day. Maybe it’s cheaper in the store. I saw it there, but forgot to write its price down…sorry ’bout that.
Spring Valley Turmeric with CurcuWin® review
Label notes
Superior Bioavailability
Same idea as what we saw on Spring Valley’s Longvida & BCM-95 labels.
Up to 46x Greater Absorp…
Same tagline idea also.
Though with this product I have a beef, not with Spring Valley but with the CurcuWin formula itself, which I get into in a bit.
Standardized
Almost all quality extracts are standardized; it’s part of a normal process any decent extract manufacturer will do…so I’m calling this a scientific-sounding fluff word here. 😜
Ingredients
Two main ingredients:
- CurcuWin
- Turmeric powder
(Though adding 50 mg of turmeric powder is a real head scratcher: after all, it’s only contributing a “whopping” 1.5 mg of curcumin.)
NOTE: In the Other Ingredients section you’ll see Povidone listed.
I believe this is the “carrier” mechanism used to get the CurcuWin through your digestive tract intact so it can get absorbed.
I know Povidone is a type of iodine used as a surgical scrub and as a topical antiseptic.
Don’t know much about taking it down the hatch with a supplement every day, though…
How much curcumin?
Not applicable here, similar to the BCM-95 & Longvida products.
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 2 capsule
Math time
None needed.
Bottom line:
*I have my own biased doubts about the effectiveness of CurcuWin, but I don’t want to hijack this Spring Valley turmeric curcumin review to wail away on that here.
*In a nutshell — I believe this product’s on the market thanks to one very small clinical study that was done several years ago. (19)
*The study didn’t even test it on specific health conditions like BCM-95 & Longvida clinical trials have done multiple times.
* A second study led by the same investigator 5 years later found CurcuWin did not provide significant benefit to the people participating. (20)
*I can’t find any current clinical trials being conducted on CurcuWin at this time when checking with the U.S. Library of Medicine.
*I’m not going to take a CurcuWin product until I’m “enlightened” with much more concrete evidence than I have now.
Check Amazon for current price — Walmart.com has a 60-count bottle (1 month) for around $15.
Spring Valley Cognitive Health Omega Turmeric review
Label notes
Cognitive Health Omega
The Omega part is there thanks to the fish oil, which is one of the two ingredients in this: fish oil is loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids.
The Cognitive Health phrase is probably partially due to the fish oil too, since there is a little evidence (though it’s no slam dunk, to be sure) that eating fish can slow age-related mental decline.
The other contributor to the Cognitive Health label is Longvida.
Since it has shown it can cross the blood-brain barrier and literally “get into our head”, there’s been a flurry of research done to see if it can slow mental decline diseases like Alzheimer’s. (21)
I’m no expert, so here’s a video from Longvida’s manufacturer Verdure Sciences that goes into this a lot better than I could:
Brain, Heart & Joint Health
These three areas are where research has found that both fish oil & Longvida have been able to demonstrate positive effects in some people.
WAY more research is needed before the “Magical Mystery Pill That Does It All” shows up.
But supplement makers can make claims like these on their labels as long as they appease the FDA by putting one of these * things next to them, and then issuing this disclaimer on their product:
Ingredients
- Fish oil
- Longvida®
How much curcumin?
Well, this has Longvida & a very healthy dose of Omega-3s (1000 mg).
And the Longvida amount of 400 mg is a clinical dose I saw used in a number of research studies. (15)
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: 2 softgels
Math time
None needed.
Bottom line:
*This has a good dose of both Longvida & Omega-3s, and both have shown promise in providing health benefits to us humans.
Check Amazon for current price
Walmart.com has a 60 capsule bottle (1 months’ worth) for about $15 as of today.
I think that’s a real good deal since the cheapest monthly Longvida price I’ve seen was $12+, and Omega-3s @ 1000mg/day range are from approx. $8-$20 or so per month by themselves.
Spring Valley Turmeric Gummies review
Label notes
May Support Brain Health
This is due to the promising results in a couple of different Longvida studies on mental functions such as this one here, as well as the research discussed in that YouTube video I shared.
The one caveat to this is that curcumin research into brain benefits has a looooonng way to go before it’s proven anything solid, in my opinion.
95x More Bioavailable
The “X Times More Bioavailable” numbers seem to change for the same formula, whether it’s Longvida or someone else.
This refers to being more bioavailable than typical Standardized to 95% curcumin extracts, as Longvida’s track record has demonstrated.
And while ‘bioavailable’ & ‘absorption’ don’t mean the same thing when it comes to curcumin, piling on with Optimized Absorption in a teeny font is well…um, piling on.
Natural Peach Mango Flavor…
And in more fine print we have a blurb about peaches & mangoes.
Don’t get me started on a manufacturer’s use of the word Natural…I wrote an article on misleading food labels & I took the often-used phrase Natural Flavors to task.
I’ll ignore that one and we’ll all be better off. So all I’ll mention in passing is, there isn’t one speck of a peach or a mango anywhere near this supplement.
Ingredients
*The main attraction is of course the Longvida. It’s been wrapped in a tapioca syrup, sugar, & carnauba wax cocoon, but there’s Longvida in there somewhere too.
How much curcumin?
Not applicable.
Amount per serving
Daily dose serving size: It says 2 gummies or 4, and you’ll need 4 to get to the clinical dose of 400 mg per day.
Math time
None needed.
Bottom line:
*As mentioned you’ll need 4 gummies to hit the clinical “400 mg of Longvida” dose.
*That means you’d burn through a bottle of these every two weeks or so.
*At its current price I see ($15 on Walmart.com), you’d be dropping 30 bucks a month for your Longvida…and that’s more than you need to spend by a long shot.
*Current low-price, very high quality “400 mg of Longvida” product (NOW Brands) is a little over $12/month on Amazon.
Check Amazon for current price — Walmart.com has a 60 gummy bottle for about $15.
Spring Valley curcumin review summary
My current subjective opinion breaks down this squadron of Spring Valley turmeric curcumin supplements as follows:
Best daily doses
Spring Valley Curcumin with Longvida, Spring Valley Cognitive Health Omega Turmeric
Best bang for my buck
The Cognitive Health Omega Turmeric by far.
It costs less than the pure Longvida product AND it has a very good dose of Omega-3s in it…surprising.
Surprising but very cool, especially for cost-conscious types such as myself.
Adequate daily doses
Spring Valley Curcumin with BCM-95 (almost)
Adult Gummy Spring Valley Turmeric
Not ever buying
All the rest.
Four are far too weak with their curcumin delivery, and the one with the CurcuWin is definitely no bueno for me, given the reasons I discussed earlier.
I won’t ever buy the gummies’ product either, because:
- it’s too processed;
- I don’t eat added sugar;
- it costs way too much.
And no go on Spring Valley’s BCM-95
Probably won’t buy this version of BCM-95, though I’m keen to experiment on myself and try a good BCM-95 supplement for a few months.
Not this Spring Valley rendition though, since you need to take double the dose to get to 1000 mg per day, making Spring Valley’s product too expensive.
If I find any cheaper BCM-95 brands I’ll write up an article on them, and update the Spring Valley BCM-95 section here accordingly.
Top quality curcumin supplement brands
Prior to writing this Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin review, I evaluated over 30 brands of curcumin supplements in detail.
I picked the 11 best ones and split them into two articles, which you can read here on heydayDo:
7 Best Curcumin Supplements with the Curcuminoids We Need
4 Best Longvida Optimized Curcumin Brands
Spring Valley curcumin ingredients
Here’s a refresher course of what I shared with you earlier, with a little more info about each of those ingredients Spring Valley uses in their curcumin supplement line.
Turmeric ingredients
Here are the most common turmeric-based terms you’ll see on Supplement Facts labels.
Curcumin, curcumin extract, & curcuminoids
*Curcumin is found inside the turmeric root, and its active ingredients — the curcuminoids — are the compounds that have shown the ability to provide certain health benefits. (22)
*Doses of “regular curcumin**” that have been used in human clinical trials demonstrating health improvements have been in the range of 950 mg – 1500 mg per day. (5)
** regular curcumin – By this I mean typical curcumin made with a 95% standardized curcumin extract and paired with an absorption enhancer like a black pepper extract.
KNOW THIS: Most regular turmeric curcumin supplements on the market these days fall well short of the effective clinical doses I listed above.
Turmeric root powder, turmeric powder, turmeric rhizome** powder
(** – A rhizome is a type of root/stem hybrid that grows horizontally under the surface, like what turmeric & ginger plants have.)
All three of these terms mean the same thing: the ground up yellow-orange powder you’re probably very familiar with.
Some supplement makers try to wow the naive curcumin supplement consumer by showing off high amounts of turmeric powder in their Supplement Facts label.
KNOW THIS: Those high numbers aren’t impressive once you’re aware of the fact that turmeric powder is only 3% curcumin. (4)
For example, the Spring Valley Ultra-Strength Curcumin above shows 1,350 mg of turmeric root powder.
This sounds impressive until you do the math like I showed you & realize that it doesn’t provide anywhere near the amount of curcumin that was used in successful clinical trials.
1350 x 3% (.03) = 41 mg
vs.
Clinical dosages: 950 mg – 1,500 mg
Overstating the obvious, but that scrawny 41 mg is not contributing anything in the way of providing significant health benefits for you.
Special ingredients
You’ll see several names of formulas on the various bottles of Spring Valley turmeric curcumin supplements, and I’ll explain a little bit about them here.
Actually only one Spring Valley curcumin product out of the nine available doesn’t use some kind of additive, their plain “Standardized Turmeric Curcumin Complex”.
Ginger powder
Well OK, this isn’t a patented formula like the rest of them, but it is an additive so I figured I’d say a bit about it.
Health uses for ginger
Ginger has shown it can be effective for some people in treating digestive issues & nausea, but I doubt that it’s in this curcumin supplement for that. (23)
There is some evidence it is able to provide some antioxidant benefit, and also act as an anti-inflammatory, both of which curcumin has demonstrated too. (24)
Regular heavy consumption of a concentrated ginger powder can bring about some unwanted side effects for a few people (25).
This is unlike curcumin, where many studies have been run with researchers noting that “no adverse effects” were reported with regular curcumin supplementation. (26)
Longvida®
(I cover all things Longvida in great depth in my article 4 Best Longvida Optimized Curcumin Brands, so this here is just a very brief introduction.)
*Invented by neurologists at UCLA working on Alzheimer’s disease in 2007, Longvida is backed by quite a bit of clinical research conducted on its use for treating various health issues. (27)
*There have been in the neighborhood of thirty clinical studies performed on Longvida so far, with another 10 Longvida trials currently in the pipeline. (28)
*Longvida’s formula has demonstrated its bioavailability in our body is up to 285 times better than regular curcumin extracts.
BCM-95®
*This is the patented curcumin extract formula with the most research backing it, I do believe. (18)
*BCM-95 has proven in clinical trials to have 700% greater potency than standard 95% turmeric extract. (16)
*Whereas Longvida uses a lipid (fat) molecule to improve the curcumin’s bioavailability and regular turmeric extracts use black pepper, BCM-95 uses turmeric oil & is thus a 100% pure turmeric product. (29)
CurcuWin®
*CurcuWin is the third type of unique patented formula Walmart puts in one of their Spring Valley curcumin supplements.
(Longvida’s in two of them since its also been added to the Spring Valley Adult Gummy Turmeric Curcumin Extract.)
*A small study (only a dozen people participated) found that CurcuWin had the best bioavailability of any curcumin extract formula, per a published review of curcumin studies in 2018. (6)
*CurcuWin doesn’t have anywhere near the same breadth of clinical research behind it or being conducted on it right now, like Longvida & BCM-95 do.
NOTE: I only see that 1 small curcumin study from 2014, and that alone apparently fuels the marketing of the CurcuWin product (30).
BioPerine®
*Unlike the three previous formulas I went over, BioPerine is not a curcumin extract formula.
*Instead it is known as an absorption enhancer, and it is made up of piperine extract, which is the active compound in black pepper fruit.
*Multiple studies over the past several years have shown that black pepper extract can improve curcumin’s absorption, and BioPerine has its own studies showing it does it quite well. (31)
Spring Valley adds it to two of their curcumin formulas, their Ultra-Strength 1500 mg and their Extra Strength 1000 mg products.
One last Spring Valley turmeric question answered
While researching Spring Valley the brand I came across this question being asked online several times, so I thought I’d research the answer to this one like I did the previous FAQs.
Was Spring Valley Turmeric recalled?
Spring Valley’s turmeric curcumin supplements have never been subject to a product recall, which can be verified by searching the database of the FDA Recalls page.
While there were a few small turmeric spice brands recalled back in 2016 for lead contamination, Spring Valley’s turmeric supplements had nothing to do with that incident. (32)
Turmeric & lead
Turmeric contaminated with lead has arrived on our shores in recent years per the FDA’s Import Alert page, though from what I saw there the FDA hasn’t had to crack down on anybody lately.
An article published in the Public Health Reports Journal states that “financially-motivated” exporters in India & Bangladesh use lead chromate to enhance their turmeric’s color & appearance — which causes the contamination.
This of course is to take advantage of the explosive increase in American consumption of turmeric the spice & turmeric curcumin supplements.
Wrapping up
Related turmeric curcumin articles here on heydayDo
My Detailed Review of CurcuminMD
7 Best Curcumin Supplements with the Curcuminoids We Need
4 Best Longvida Optimized Brands
Primal Force Curcumin Triple Burn
BioSchwartz Turmeric Curcumin Review
Life Extension Super Bio Curcumin
Terry Naturally CuraMed Review
I hope that my product evaluation of Spring Valley’s Turmeric Curcumin supplement line is useful to you, and I wish you well on your fitness journey.
– greg