Acai Berry Weight Loss Scam Attracts Mainstream Attention. Finally!
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...
FTC Nails Another Deceptive Supp Marketer
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. From the FTC’s press release: Marketers of dietary supplements and health-related devices have agreed to pay $3 million in...
The Healthy Skeptic
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...
Mona Vie: Any Better Than Welch’s?
Looking at the numbers, the answer is “probably not.”* There’s actually a study that’s been done on Mona Vie, which proves that Mona Vie “works.” Subjects given 120 ml (that’s approx. 4 one ounce servings) showed modest improvements in serum antioxidant capacity (about 10% by 2 h post-consumption) and a decrease in lipid peroxidation. The measured ORAC value of the juice was 22.8 umoles...
Would You Buy A Car from Dr. Suzanne?
When we last heard from “Dr. Suzanne” Gudakunst, she was offering to be our very bestest friend and promising to protect us from the perils of thunder thighs, icky parasites and medical/food industry/government conspiracies…all for the low, low price of $37. As I recently discovered (h/t to Paul and commenter “Fee“) she’s hawking her own supplement products too! Her line, “Lotus Purity”...
False Dichotomies
The Boston Globe ran a reasonably decent article on anti-aging supplements last week, called “Time in a Bottle.” There were, of course, the usual caveats about supplements being unregulated, and the usual experts making harrumphing noises about how consumers should be skeptical, etc. etc., but the author, Kay Lazar, gave the subject a more even-handed treatment than many mainstream writers do. One of the experts she...
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