Some More Supplement Industry Lobotomy Fun Times

You guys seem to love these, so here’s another bad products and junk science blog, because clearly I haven't been lobotomized enough to stop feeling things.

Bad Science And Terrible Supplements

The bad-science and junk-product train continues unabated. Since my brain gets assaulted daily with all of these things, yours has to as well, because I’m not suffering alone. As they say, misery loves company. 

First up, some junk-science claims from the same company that brings you mycelium supplements marketed as mushroom supplements and that puts pictures of fruiting bodies on the front of their bottles, despite having none of those fruiting bodies in the products.

One fundamental scientific principle in good research is that results from a test tube or petri dish should not be used to claim that what happens in them will occur in people. Human beings are far more complicated than cells in a lab. Companies using this type of research to make claims about what will happen to people should be ashamed of themselves. 

The company did a test tube study (in vitro) comparing Lion’s Mane mycelium and fruiting body extracts.

The mycelium extract portion used peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC’s) and cytokines to see what effect the mycelium extract had on the immune response of the cells, its antioxidant capacity, and iron chelating ability.

The fruiting body extract portion was used in a cytokine assay for interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and iron chelating tests.

They then decided to push the results from those test tubes as evidence that mycelium supplements are better than mushroom fruiting body extracts for immune health, despite the fact that this study was not conducted on people. 

Making claims that something will be better, safer, and more effective in people than something else based on a test tube study is highly unethical, but that’s not surprising behavior coming from this company.

If you want to know what to look for in a mushroom supplement, check out our blog.

A Memory Supplement That Belongs In The Trash

Next up is a product that appears to have spent an entire dragon's hoard of gold on marketing, based on how many times I have been asked about it recently. They are making people believe that there is a CNN doctor who put together a segment on the brain that is an endorsement of their product, despite it being nothing of the sort. Through some clever editing and AI, they have a nice, long video that is just an unskippable ad that people think is a news segment. Have I mentioned that I hate marketing departments? The product is marketed to support brain health and improve memory, among other questionable health claims. Without further ado, here is the masterpiece:

As with any supplement or medication, to get the benefits of an ingredient, it must be used at an effective dosage and in the form shown to be effective. If a clinical trial shows that 500 mg of a particular type of extract taken twice per day helped with a specific condition, giving 50 mg twice a day, but claiming the same benefits, as the higher amounts used in the clinical trials is a real jerk move. Unfortunately, the practice of fairy dusting is all too common in the supplement industry. A 695 mg blend of 17 ingredients is not going to have enough of any of those ingredients to actually do anything. Maca, the first ingredient, for example, requires far more than 695 mg a day to be effective.  

The next issue with the product is that the formulation makes no sense. It’s just a mish-mash of lots of popular ingredients. For example, psyllium husk is a fiber-rich ingredient. You would not want a high fiber ingredient mixed in with herbs and vitamins because it would reduce their absorption. It really seems like they went to a contract manufacturer and were like, " Give me whatever you have left in the barrel of all the ingredients, mix 'em all together, and put it in a bottle for us. Unfortunately, products like this are becoming increasingly common because people see all these good-looking ingredients and assume the product will be great. 

I’m not even going to get into all the quality-control issues that are probably going on with that product.

The next time you see a company that has a huge list of claims and makes their pages look like news articles that go on and on, please know that these are really just fancy ads, and you should avoid those companies, because almost always, the products are complete trash.

The Fruit And Vegetable Supplement Fairy

Next up is a product that was a real sweet treat for my eyes. This is a top-selling fruit and vegetable supplement on Amazon. 

I have to tell myself to laugh when I get asked about products like this, rather than cry. The six blends supply 3020 mg per serving of over fifty ingredients (I got tired of counting them, so you gotta count them to know just how many there are). This means the ingredients average 50-60 mg each. It’s excellent marketing, though, because people think they are getting all these wonderful fruits and vegetables, and it is going to make them so healthy. In reality, it's going to do absolutely nothing. Never, ever buy any supplement pills with that many ingredients.

Even better, the prebiotic enzymes blend, which totals 5 mg, contains inulin. Inulin is used in clinical trials in thousands of milligrams, whereas you are probably getting about 1 mg in this product. You are also only getting at most 1 milligram of turmeric from that blend and 1 milligram of fennel. What a deal! Remember, more ingredients do not equal a better product; it's just good for marketing.

A SaD Oyster Zinc Supplement

Here’s another product I was asked about this week:

It looks like a great product, hitting all the right notes in their advertising. However, despite the claims of natural zinc on the front of the package, it shows zinc oxide glycinate as 92% of the zinc present. This is not a natural source of zinc. I think it is actually a labeling error, as zinc oxide glycinate is not a real compound. It is most likely a blend of zinc oxide and zinc glycinate. Advertising a product as natural zinc, when 92% of the zinc present is not natural, is a really terrible thing to do. 

Another thing about this product is that they claim to be third-party tested. However, when you click on their link to view their claimed third-party test result, it’s just the certificate analysis from their contract manufacturer. Not a third-party lab test as claimed. 

In addition, the certificate of analysis claims “This product does not contain any of the 9 major allergens as defined by the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act, signed into law April 23, 2021. The FASTER Act defines the 9 major food allergens as: milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame.”

IT’S A F*****G OYSTER SUPPLEMENT, IT CONTAINS SHELLFISH! I guess it’s my favorite time of the day, lobotomy time. I hate it here. Someone please put me out to pasture. 

Further down on the certificate of analysis, it also states: “This lot was analyzed and released by our authorized Quality Control Department and was found to meet all intended specifications as given above and in 21 CFR Part 111 and the SOPs that govern those regulations in this facility for purity, potency, strength, and composition.” “Finished batches are analyzed on a rotational testing basis, every finished product receives a minimum of two tests, as not all tests are completed on every batch, some testing information on your COA may be historical data from testing gathered during the production of the product at hand.”

Basically, this means you have no idea which results are based on finished product testing and which are from previous batches. That’s not how it is supposed to be done. This is a really horrible certificate of analysis, and this product is a perfect example of why the people claiming third-party testing is the best measure of a supplement's quality need to shut the hell up. Check out our blog to learn why the third-party testing hype needs to die.

I am begging all of you not to believe the marketing nonsense that third-party testing is the way to know a product is good. There are so many freaking problems with that system. It’s just good marketing that allows companies to cover up lots of problems further up the product manufacturing and sourcing process. 

Terrible Products Wanted

If you have a product you think belongs in our Labotomy Fun Times series, email it to us at info@rooted-nutrition.com. We would love to see it!