Is it better to have cheap but fake products?
I get your point, but it doesn't matter how cheap that bottle of horny goat weed extract is, if there is no horny goat weed extract in the bottle.
I use several supplements for sports performance reasons, and I really wouldn't mind paying a tad bit extra if I could be assured that I'm getting what I am paying for. The type of stuff that I use either works (immediately - like I can feel it) or it doesn't, so it's easy to tell if it is real or not, but when it comes to most so called "natural" products, it's a lot harder to tell if it works or if it is even what it is supposed to be.
Possibly it was already higher in Canada? Seriously though, what's vitamin C good for? It doesn't cure or prevent colds (the #1 reason that most people take it), but if it did, wouldn't it be worth $12.21 (us)?
Trustworthy reviews would be the best answer, I agree. But who knows if consumer reports, WebMD, bodybuilding.com are really relyable? Bodybuilding.com sells a lot of this crap, so wouldn't it be to their advantage to give great reviews to the products that give them the most profit? And I suppose someone "sponsors" WebMD, and every other "free" source of reviews.
I prefer reviews made by actual customers, but if the customer hasn't done a chemical analysis on these types of products, I dunno how much value those reviews have, unless the product is something that should produce measurable results (might work for weight loss products or acne products but probably not for liver health because how does a layperson actually measure his liver health?).