…You get up with fleas.  It’s an old, old saying, but there’s truth to it.

Earlier today, I was exchanging e-mails with a friend, Will Brink.  He drew my attention to a recent study published in JANA – the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association.  While scanning the list of papers, I came across one that made me do a double-take…

Inhibitory Effects of a Novel Nutrient Mixture on MMP Secretion and Invasion on Human Thyroid Cancer Cell Line SW 579

Ok, it wasn’t the title… it was the list of authors that caught my eye… specifically the senior author.

M Waheed Roomi PhD, Bilwa Bhanap MD, Vadim Ivanov PhD MD, Aleksandra Niedzwiecki PhD and Matthias Rath MD.

Dr. Rath Research Institute, Cancer Division, Santa Clara, California

I looked up the Dr. Rath Research Institute to verify that it was the same Matthias Rath I’d read about… and nearly gagged.  It was: there was NO mistaking that face, and the address on the paper matched the one on the site.

OMFG.

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According to Reuters, the “Smart Choices” labeling program has  “voluntarily” postponed “active operations” - pending an investigation by the FDA.  Some companies, like Kraft, intend to continue using the system on existing products, but will not expand its use. Kellogg, however, intends to phase it out completely.

It’s funny what a little public scrutiny can accomplish, isn’t it?

Paul sent me a link to this YouTube vid from skeptic, author and professor Michael Shermer.  No, it has nothing to do with supps, diet, exercise or health per se… but it IS relevant to those subjects.  Basically, the vid is about the kinds of questions people need to ask themselves when confronted by claims… so the mental steps Dr. Shermer discusses are quite applicable to the claims made in supp ads and other health-related info you find on the internet.

It’s a tad long, but worth every minute.  Enjoy!

About time, too.

As a part of its ongoing monitoring program and in conjunction with an initiative with the Council for Responsible Nutrition to expand the review of advertising claims for dietary supplements, NAD – the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum – requested that the company provide supporting evidence for advertising claims that included:

People who take Stemulite Experience:

• Deep REM Sleep
• Increased Muscle Gain and Endurance
• Increased Weight Loss and Fat Loss
• Increased Wellness and Energy

…NAD was also concerned about testimonials on the Stemulite website, including:

• “Within Two Days of Using Stemulite, I Slept Great!”
• “I Have Noticed A Tremendous Energy Boost.”
• “Using Stemulite, I Have Seen Results in 2-3 Weeks”
• “In Three Days, Suddenly My Sleep Was Fantastic.”
• “I Am Getting Eight Hours of Restful Sleep, It’s A Miracle”
• “I Had A 6 Pound Loss In A Short Period Of Time”
• “In Just 5 Days, My Endurance Has Increased 25%”

The advertiser contacted NAD, and despite requesting and being given an extension of time within which to file its response, failed to do so. The advertiser represented to NAD that it would be conducting a study in the future and would participate after the completion of the study.

Wonder why they decided to stonewall?  Anyone want to take a guess?

First, Oprah… according to the Chicago Tribune:

Alleging Internet marketers are using her name without permission, Oprah Winfrey–through her corporate vehicle, Harpo Inc.–on Wednesday filed a federal trademark infringement suit against 40 peddlers of dietary supplements.

…Last year, Oz praised the anti-aging properties of the acai berry.

Not long after, Internet marketers began to sell acai products with implications that they had been endorsed by Winfrey or Oz, said Marc Rachman, an attorney for Harpo. But neither has ever sponsored such a product, he said.

The same phenomenon has occurred involving the health benefits of other substances aside from acai berries. “The subject is discussed on the show, then the scams start. It’s brazen,” Rachman said. But acai berries have been a particular magnet for alleged misdeeds.

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Needless to state, I rarely stroll down the cereal aisle at the supermarket… it’s been years since I’ve eaten anything more processed than old fashioned rolled oats.  Roald Dahl neatly summed up my opinion of most ready-to-eat breakfast cereals in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”…

“Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It’s made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!

It’s only a slight exaggeration.  As far as I’m concerned, most of ‘em are fortified junk food.  So I’m definitely with the author of this Washington Post article…

Kellogg’s has reformulated its Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereals, fortifying them with vitamins A, C, and E and a bunch of B vitamins. The boxes and ads now tout that “each and every box” of Krispies has ingredients that “help support your child’s immunity.”

…Rice Krispies aren’t the worst cereal in the world. They’re pretty low-calorie and less sugary than most. But to suggest to parents that feeding them to kids will help protect the little ones against disease — and that’s what they mean when they talk about “boosting immunity” — seems absurd.

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I’ll be curious to see how this one plays out…

The Food and Drug Administration is being sued. (Not for the first time.) This time, it’s by supplement companies who don’t like the way the agency denies or waters down the “qualified health claims” they can put on their wares.

…You can see why the companies don’t like the way the FDA alters the qualified claims they allow. One claim cited in the lawsuit started out as “Vitamin E may reduce the risk of bladder cancer. The scientific evidence supporting this claim is convincing, but not conclusive.”

It was changed to: “One small study suggests that vitamin E supplements may reduce the risk of bladder cancer. However, two small studies showed no reduction of risk. Based on these studies, the FDA concludes that it is highly unlikely that vitamin E supplements reduce the risk of bladder cancer.”

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This time it’s FXsupplements.com, the makers of Acai Berry Maxx.

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Kewl: someone’s actually gone and developed comprehensive criteria for superfruit status… and the few relatively fruits that actually merit the title might surprise a few people.

The creator of the rubric is Dr. Paul Gross.  It consists of the following measures:

• Popularity and sensory appeal of the whole fruit
• Nutrient diversity and density
• Phytochemical diversity and density
• Basic medical research intensity
• Clinical applications

And the winners are:
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Which is something that certain supp manufacturers/retailers evidently don’t understand.

Earlier in the week, I clicked through an interesting presentation given at the recent International Society of Sports Nutrition conference.  Entitled “Sports Supplements, Science, and the Politics of New Washington“, it offered some explicit warnings to the supplement industry.  As authors Rick Collins, JD, CSCS and Alan Feldstein, JD put it in a section headed “Self-Regulation or More Regulation”:

If companies making unsubstantiated claims continue to be reported in the press, and lawsuits and class actions proliferate, FDA and FTC may ratchet up their scrutiny.

Indeed. 

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This press release sez it all…

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Michigan business owner pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a conspiracy to fraudulently market dietary supplements over the Internet with illegal claims that these supplements could prevent, treat or cure a number of diseases. Several Web sites were used to sell nearly $12 million worth of the products in 2005 and 2006.

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I was idly surfing though the Natural Products Insider site (an online trade publication) today, and stopped to read an article about the recent ”All Candy Expo” in Chicago.  Despite the “down” economy, apparently candy is still dandy…evidently over 2,000 new products were introduced and attendance was up by 7%.

But my eye was caught by these paras:

Which got me to wondering if there were any healthy candies being showcased. Sure enough … well, at least candy with “healthful” flavors such as acai, pomegranate and green tea. And a few wholesome and/or organic snack mixes.

But then this caught my attention: BrightSpot Brands (great name, isn’t it?), The World’s First Nutritionally Enhanced Candy Company. Its Gimme line of bite-sized candies delivers a substantial dose of calcium, omega-3 and probiotics. The company is owned and operated by Tim O’Connor, who, after a great career marketing fruit snacks with General Mills and launching Tropicana’s Pure Premium Plus OJ, decided to be an entrepreneur with a mission. That is, to use candy as a delivery vehicle for health and nutrition.

Candy as a “delivery vehicle for health and nutrition”???

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Introducing Devotion Vodka…”the world’s first protein-infused spirit”. made with Pepto Pro, a casein (protein) hydrolysate. 

 Who would invent such a product – and why? According to the company,

Recognizing that those interested in their fitness and physical appearance are the same social beings that enjoy nightlife, Mr. Adelman has an intimate understanding of the conflict that comes with ordering a cocktail that is not conducive to a fitness regime. A former body builder whose daily diet at one time consisted of 135 grams of protein per day, Mr. Adelman would take his own protein out with him for a night out on the town to supplement his vodka and soda cocktails.

135 grams of protein – lol!  As if someone needs to snort down protein-infused hooch to manage that one.

Bottom line: there’s no such thing as as a cocktail that’s “conducive to a fitness regime”.  Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy one any way, every once in a while, but those interested in “their fitness and physical appearance” will keep their intake in the low-moderate range…period.  Gimmicky drinks not required.

I published this article in a recent newsletter. It is of sufficient importance that it warrants a reprint, here on the blog. Enjoy!

Just a few years back, I could count the number of prominent web sites entirely dedicated to reviewing supplements on one hand. Now, a search for just about any product – especially those dedicated to weight loss – brings up dozens of sites. Many have names like “consumer-something or other”, and give the impression they offer a “consumer advocate” type service in the genuine best interests of their visitors.

Most don’t.

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As recently witnessed by Elissa in this superb post, things are really heating up on the HCG feedback page over at Real-Customer-Comments.com (if you’re interested in learning about HCG and the Simeons protocol, you can read the full review of HCG here!)

Seems I’ve really irked a few folks by pointing out that ALL the documented evidence shows that HCG does not provide any benefit over that provided by a placebo. While these folks may have experienced great results on the protocol, it’s likely they are directly attributable to the Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) and not the effects of HCG.

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About a month or so back, I reported on my experience with a McDonald’s grilled chicken salad. It was truly the most pathetic salad I have ever encountered and still remains so. I was most disappointed at the effort Mickey-Dees was making in providing real alternatives to the usual high-calorie, high fat offerings. The salad was, plain and simple, a joke.

At the time, I remembered Wendy’s competitive offerings in a much more favorable light. Well, guess what? A recent road trip forced me to stop at a highway rest stop for sustenance.

And as luck would have it, this one featured a Wendy’s.

Game on!

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This is the title of a chapter missing from Ben Goldacre’s new book, “Bad Science.”  Why is it missing?  I’ll let the author tell the story:

This is the “missing chapter” about vitamin pill salesman Matthias Rath. Sadly I was unable to write about him at the time that book was initially published, as he was suing my ass in the High Court. The chapter is now available in the new paperback edition, and I’ve posted it here for free so that nobody loses out.

Although the publishers make a slightly melodramatic fuss about this in the promo material, it is a very serious story about the dangers of pseudoscience, as I hope you’ll see, and it was also a pretty unpleasant episode, not just for me, but also for the many other people he’s tried to sue, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and more. If you’re ever looking for a warning sign that you’re on the wrong side of an argument, suing Medecins Sans Frontieres is probably a pretty good clue.

(Note: Medicins Sans Frontieres is better known in the US as “Doctors Without Borders.”)

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Acai, if you haven’t heard, is another one of those trendy, exotic “super fruits” that are all the rage these days. And while acai is a great source of anthocyanins (antioxidants) and does have a high ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) “score”— it’s being marketed by some unscrupulous folks as being a cure all for just about everything.

The greatest offenders are on the Internet, who hawk acai as THE solution for weight loss, detoxing and colon cleansing (there is, of course, no evidence it helps with weight loss, and “detoxing” is a meaningless marketing term that has already been thoroughly discredited by scientists – see here and here).

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Wow.  Just wow.

I just got through eyeballing the FTC complaint against Roex, Inc. – a dietary supp marketer charged with making false and misleading advertising claims.  They’re being fined $3 million, but, in my opinion, they could have doubled it, and it still wouldn’t have been enough.

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Just thought I’d pass along a link to a feature in the LA Times: The Healthy Skeptic.  The author, Chris Woolston, is a freelance science/medical journalist with a Masters in Biology.  His columns examine the science (or lack therof) behind various health products – both supplement and non-supplement (such as laser combs, infrared saunas, etc.). 

Click the above link and check it out!