For those of you who don’t know any Yiddish, “chutzpah” is a word used to describe arrogant, brazen, shameless behavior.  My Mom used to use a lot of Yiddish expressions when I was growing up, so it was the first word I thought of as I examined a product site Paul linked me to: ”Right Size Online.”

It was the price of the products that blew me away…the stuff is basically like a low-sugar, reduced carb version of “Slim Fast” – you can buy either powders or ready-to-drink smoothies.  A 30-serving canister of the smoothie powder cost $54.80, which isn’t too different from a lot of meal replacement powders, I suppose…except with most MRPs you actually get the equivalent of, y’know, a meal.  Not here: one serving of the smoothie powder contains a pathetic 9 g of (mostly soy) protein and 4 g of soluble dietary fiber + 30% – 50% of a basic array of vites and minerals.  Whoop-tee-doo.

Oh, I forgot…it also contains “Appemine” – a blend of guarana seed extract, green tea extract, cinnamon twig extract, galangal root extract, cayenne and white willow bark extract. 

How much Appemine is in each serving?  They don’t say.  And how effective is Appemine?

Well, it must be pretty good, since they say “…it’s clinically proven to powerfully control appetite.”  Appemine is even compared to ”A Magic Bullet“, that can help you find your “RightSize®”  due to “…its clinically proven appetite control and thermogenic properties”.

And guess what?  They actually have a link to the clinical study! 

I won’t bore you with too many of the details.  Suffice it to say that the “appetite control” claim was based entirely on surveyed responses – not on any actual measurements of reduced food intake.  The drop out rate was apparently high, so that only 8 of the product and 7 of the placebo group completed the study (out of the original 13 recruited for each group).  The difference in weight loss between the two groups was marginal, and the results were not significant. 

And no measurements of thermogenic activity were made, either.

While I’ll give them points for putting the study online, the results are so lackluster that I’m forced to conclude they figured no one would ever read it.  Needless to state, I have a hard time seeing how a trial “…too small to detect a statistical difference” could be used to support the hype. 

And they want nearly $55 for this??? I gotta hand it to ‘em…that takes some nerve.

A good protein powder, some FiberSure and a multi will do just as well…and for less.