Supplement Ad Claim of the Month PART II: “Studies have shown…”
In this post, Elissa discusses how the phrase “studies have shown” — a phrase used quite commonly by supplement retailers — can refer to whole gamut of studies that don’t necessarily prove a darn thing. These can be in-vitro studies (sometime called “test tube” studies), animal studies, in-house studies, “non” peer-reviewed studies, or studies performed with mega-doses of the pertinent ingredients — usually on rats or other laboratory animals.
But occassionally, retailers use the phrase “studies have shown” to refer to bona fide, peer-reviewed studies… performed on real, honest-to-goodness human beings. Unfortunately, even THAT doesn’t necessarily mean the product referenced is a winner. Here’s why…
Often, the study will have been performed with an amount that vastly exceeds the amount included in the product formula. One product I reviewed lately claimed to be “The Most Clinically Proven Diet Pill,” boasting 5 clinically proven ingredients.
And yes, there was some “real” clinical data for each ingredient in the formula (of course, there were no studies performed on the product itself, which you might well assume with a tagline like “The Most Clinically Proven Diet Pill,” but that’s another story altogether). Unfortunately, the retailer simply wasn’t willing to reveal the amount of each ingredient included in the formula, but a bit of simple math ruled out the possibility of most ingredients being present in all but the tiniest amounts.
This is a common practice; reference a study and toss a token couple of milligrams of that ingredient into the formula.
Another popular tactic is to reference a single, small, clinical study and present it as if it were “irrefutable” proof of a ingredient’s effectiveness. The fact is, small postive studies do nothing more than validate the need for further studies. Most often, this is the conclusion of the study’s author(s). It’s not at all uncommon for further studies to generate completely contradictory results, and worst of all, the supplement retailers know this.
What does this mean to you?
It means you need to doubly critical. You either need to review the basic study yourself (you can do your research at PubMed), or read credible reviews… like the ones we do here at UltimateFatBurner.com. Like Elissa said in her blog post…
“Don’t automatically assume that this phrase means studies on people have been done that prove the effectiveness of the manufacturer’s product.”<!– –>
