Stemucrap
I saw a story for a supplement called stemusomethingorother. Short on facts, long on promises. Just like every supplement guaranteed to make you bigger, stronger, and faster, they are conspicuously shy on the hows and very prominent with the anecdotes. This stuff makes you give them your email address before they'll tell you what's in it (nothing very impressive by my reading), likely so they can continue to spam you and trade your email address off to everyone. I signed up for the newsletter our of curiosity, and because yahoo's spam filter works pretty well for this kind of crap.
The only reason they get away with garbage like this is because the FDA refuses to regulate supplements. Meanwhile, places like GNC can sell all the junk they want in a caveat emptor manner. Be on your guard for phrases like "all natural." Most supplements with no legit backing are marketed as all natural, when in fact they are. And that's ok for them, because poo is all natural, too, but I'm not gonna pay for a bottle of it and ingest two pills daily.
Another red flag I noticed in the marketing for stemucrap was the use of research on mice and how certain ingredients in stemucrap were beneficial to the mice. No link to the original research (if it was legit it would be in a scientific journal somewhere online) , never mind how it would be relevent to humans. Not all research on animals translates into human benefits.
This product also showed a link to a lab report, ostensibly to show how effective it is. I wonder how many people actually bothered looking at it. I took the few moments to open it and all I saw was a breakdown of how many carbs and how much protein, and what kind of vitamins and minerals they could find. In other words, absolutely nothing useful or substantive.
What really bothers me about all this is that SOMEBODY is going to make a pile of money on the ignorance of American shoppers because there isn't enough education about what the government does and doesn't do. Aside from that, there is the possibility that somebody will be injured by this stuff. Several countries have begun to regulate supplements, and I think it's high time the FDA did as well.
The only reason they get away with garbage like this is because the FDA refuses to regulate supplements. Meanwhile, places like GNC can sell all the junk they want in a caveat emptor manner. Be on your guard for phrases like "all natural." Most supplements with no legit backing are marketed as all natural, when in fact they are. And that's ok for them, because poo is all natural, too, but I'm not gonna pay for a bottle of it and ingest two pills daily.
Another red flag I noticed in the marketing for stemucrap was the use of research on mice and how certain ingredients in stemucrap were beneficial to the mice. No link to the original research (if it was legit it would be in a scientific journal somewhere online) , never mind how it would be relevent to humans. Not all research on animals translates into human benefits.
This product also showed a link to a lab report, ostensibly to show how effective it is. I wonder how many people actually bothered looking at it. I took the few moments to open it and all I saw was a breakdown of how many carbs and how much protein, and what kind of vitamins and minerals they could find. In other words, absolutely nothing useful or substantive.
What really bothers me about all this is that SOMEBODY is going to make a pile of money on the ignorance of American shoppers because there isn't enough education about what the government does and doesn't do. Aside from that, there is the possibility that somebody will be injured by this stuff. Several countries have begun to regulate supplements, and I think it's high time the FDA did as well.
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