Toronto actress Christina Carr is a big fan of herbal remedies. She's had trouble with doctors and traditional medicine, she says.

In trying to find alternative solutions, Carr added herbal teas and juice drinks to her diet. Her favourite is the Smart FX juice with Gingko Biloba, a herb that's supposed to help memory.

"Since I've started drinking (it), I have had an increase in memory, increase in energy, I have an increase in confidence to the point that I've added to my herbs," Carr told Marketplace.

Smart FX calls their product a "premium natural beverage." But other marketers call products with herbal extracts "functional foods." They say their products offer health benefits beyond what you would get from a juice or drink or a bag of potato chips.

The same argument was made years ago, when iodine was added to salt and vitamin D was added to milk. This was done because we lacked those nutrients. It was also done with great controls, so that we didn't get too much of any one mineral or vitamin.

A similar thing is now happening with herbal extracts. Herbs like St. John's Wort and Echinacea are being introduced to processed foods. But the monitoring is much less stringent today.

Monitoring much less stringent

Toronto dietician Rosie Schwartz has found lots of functional foods on grocery store shelves. Products like Personality Puffs which are supposed to contain a little St. John's Wort and are designed to balance your personality.

There are Kava Kava Corn Chips, which are supposed to help relax you. Gingko Biloba Rings contain the herb to help memory.

It's the labelling that concerns Schwartz. Often, there's no indication how much in the way of herbs have been added to the food.

"We don't know how much is in here and whether it's actually a tiny bit or in fact there's quite a bit," Schwartz said. "There's nothing on the package to tell you."

"Now the question is, if there is enough to make any difference, then how many servings should you be eating in a day? There's nothing there about limiting the number of servings," Schwartz added.

Michael Bain heads the company that sells Rootz n Frootz, a functional beverage. He's happy to talk about the active ingredients in his product.

"It works out to approximately five to six thousand milligrams of the active herbal ingredient within the herbs," Bain told Marketplace. "It's a huge amount of herbs that we're putting in our drinks."

But Bain suggests that if you're concerned with the amount of herbs in a product, you should take an active approach. Phone the manufacturer and demand to know what's in the product. If they won't tell you, he says, tell them you won't buy it.

Some companies are even marketing to children - products like Straight A Lollipops. The package suggests the suckers can help children think straight. The first ingredient listed on the label is sugar. The second is glucose. After that, there's an unspecified amount of Ginkgo Biloba and Canadian Ginseng. Thirty of these suckers cost $7.80.

Few regulations

These products are sold with little regulatory supervision. We took some of them to Health Canada, including a bottle of Arizona tea with what the label describes as mind-enhancing Gingko Biloba.

"This is...why we have to look at the regulations because as it is right now, this is represented as food," said Health Canada's Phil Waddington. "It's got things in it that you would think would enhance the memory. If the potency in here is too low to have that effect, then people are maybe misled when they buy it."

We asked the company that makes Arizona tea how much Gingko Biloba is in their product. They wouldn't tell us - for proprietary reasons. But they say it won't hurt you.

Dietician Rosie Schwartz is worried that drinking or eating a lot of these products just might aggravate health problems.

"If indeed there are appreciable amounts of these herbs, there could be interactions," Schwartz said. "For example with Gingko, it acts as a blood thinner so if people are taking Vitamin E, aspirin, as well as other blood thinning medication, it could enhance the action of the blood thinners."

Waddington says there's usually so little of the active ingredients, the products are rarely dangerous. His concerns are with the packaging.

"I'm not worried about the health issues with it, but I believe that the way that they're currently on the market right now doesn't best represent the information that the consumer would want about this product," Waddington said.

Waddington wants to see a clear list of the amount of herbs in the package and the possible interactions with drugs. Health Canada is working on regulations for the packaging of these products and says these should be in place in a year.

Some manufacturers do list the amount of herbs their products contain. Traditional Medicinals' Breathe Easy tea is a decongestant. Its package features a full disclosure of active ingredients. That's because the company has gone so far as to acquire a drug identification number (DIN), and is considered an over-the-counter drug.

Regulation is something Michael Bain Of Rootz n Frootz welcomes.

"I do believe that there should be some kind of regulation put on products like this," Bain told us. "And probably every one of my competitors would think I'm a complete idiot to say this. As a consumer myself I want to know what's in a product."

Need more than good packaging

Food scientist Alison Stephen wants more than just good packaging. She wants the science behind these products beefed up to the levels of drug trials.

"Traditionally that's not done in the food area or in the nutritional area," Stephen notes. "We need to start to do that kind of thing because if we have these active ingredients, if they have benefits, we have to also know if there's any down side to taking them. It's only fair to the consumer to do that."

For now, dietician Rosie Schwartz says, you should think twice before paying the premium price. You can't be sure how much of the herb you're getting, so you may be paying an inflated price for a snack food.

But back in Catherine Carr's kitchen, she says it doesn't matter if the product is just a placebo.

"I couldn't tell you 150 per cent if it's the actual herb or my belief in the herb," Carr says. "In other words, if it's the pill or a placebo but it works, and that's what matters."