SupplementClarity.com

SupplementClarity.com
Joe Cannon

Hi everyone. I want to let you know that SupplementClarity.com is where I will be posting reviews on dietary supplements in the future.

All reviews are unbiased.

Jilliann Micheals Sued Because of Weight Loss Supplement

Biggest Loser Trainer Jillian Michaels Sued over Weight Loss Supplement


Joe Cannon, MS

www.Joe-Cannon.com

As you may remember, I recently reviewed one of several weight loss and appetite control supplements being advertised by Jillian Michaels, one of the trainers on the TV show, The Biggest Loser.


Now I have an update to that blog. Jillian Michaels is being sued for about $5 million by a woman in California who purchased a product called Jillian Michaels Maximum Strength Calorie Control. The woman claims that the product did not reduce her appetite or help her lose weight as it was advertised to.


I am not surprised by the lawsuit because I never thought any of the products would work. Jillian Michaels was chosen to be the spokesperson for this line of supplements, because of her role on The Biggest Loser. People see her kicking butt on TV and she’s attractive so people automatically will assume that she has some secret to weight loss. Beautiful people are also often deemed smarter than the rest of us.


NBC, which produces The Biggest Loser, sells various items on their website. The supplements endorsed by Miss Michaels are not listed although other products with her image are.

Interestingly, NBC does list a Biggest Loser Protein Powder although a woman other than Miss Michaels (I believe one of the former winners of the Biggest Loser) is on the label. In light of this lawsuit, NBC may want to rethink advertising protein powder.


The idea of Miss Michaels touting weight loss supplements on TV gets to a bigger issue that personal trainers should be aware of. All good self-employed personal trainers have liability insurance to protect them from unforeseen accidents which might occur during fitness sessions.


Most trainers don’t know that their liability insurance policies will probably not cover them against lawsuits arising from the recommendation or endorsements of dietary supplements. This makes sense because supplements do not exercise. Most fitness trainers have at the very least only a rudimentary idea about how supplements work and less of an idea about which supplements don’t work.



Fitness trainers should remember this because dietary supplement companies has been targeting them for years because the industry wants them to sell their products. This is why Miss Michaels was employed to endorse these supplements.



Does Miss Michaels have personal trainer liability insurance? If anybody any insights on this, I’d like to know who is insuring her and whether that policy covers dietary supplement endorsements. I am sure she is covered by various NBC policies because of her role on The Biggest Loser.



As for the lawsuit, I am saddened that an American citizen with access to libraries and the internet could not have discovered for herself how useless - and un-different from the rest of the pack - these products would be. A quick web search would have turned up my blog review of Jillian’s Maximum Fat Burner supplement. 



The sad thing is that people assume that personal trainers know about supplements. This lawsuit is just one example of how that assumption isn’t always true.



Go to SupplementClarity.com to see other supplement reviews 

Right Size Smoothies Product Review: Right Size Smoothie

Right Size Smoothie
Product Review

A Review Based on Evidence And Rational Thought

Joe Cannon, MS

www.Joe-Cannon.com

Note to readers. To read the updated review go to SupplementClarity.com

What you are reading here is my original review of Right Size Smoothie.


Have you seen the TV commercials for Right Size Smoothie? If yes, you may have been intrigued by the claims that these smoothies contain an “all-natural, appetite suppressant clinically proven to knock out hunger”. I know I was and that is why I decided to do some digging and see if there was any scientific proof for using this product over say, making your own smoothie.


Generally, I like the idea of using a smoothie to help curb appetite. Smoothies, if made correctly, tend to be light and buoyant. This means that they tend to fill you up while not containing many calories. This part about being “low calorie” is critical for any smoothie.


Weight loss boils down to one thing and one thing only - cutting calories. Any smoothie that is not low in calories is not going to help with weight loss. To their credit, Right Size Health and Nutrition (the company that makes Right Size smoothie and other products) actually mentions this fact on their website rightsizeonline.com and quote a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a well respected peer-review medical journal that shows weight loss is more about calories than carbs, protein or fat intake. 

Each Right Size Smoothie contains about 100 calories per scoop (29 grams or about 1 oz) so, it’s fairly low in calories.


Also, to the credit of the company, they point out that:
1. There is no “magic bullet” for weight loss
2. That weight loss is a “personal journey” and…
3. That there is no “one size fits all program”


I like statements like these because they are in line with the facts.


So, what can we say about these smoothies? What follows is what I could dig up on the product and, as far as I know, this is one of the first unbiased reviews of Right Size Smoothie.



At the company website, I discover that the active ingredient is a product called Appemine. You must remember that while the word, Appemine, sounds like a drug, it is not.


Rather, Appemine is a name the company has given to its proprietary blend of ingredients. I know this is true because when I searched the National Library of Medicine (pubmed.com) for the word “Appemine” no studies were found that contained the word Appemine. Also, when I did a Google search for “Appemine” the only stuff that came up had to do with Right Size Smoothies. That tells me, the company created the name. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just marketing.

As an aside, I’ve always found it interesting that people who take supplements tend to be very much opposed to taking prescription medications; yet, supplement companies sometimes give their products drug-like sounding names. I guess this a way to boost consumer confidence? In other words, if it sounds like a drug, people may think the FDA has reviewed it for effectiveness? I'm not sure and this is just an observation on my part. Take it for what it is.


Appemine is not a single product but is actually composed of the following ingredients, according to the company’s website:

• Gguarana,
• Fiber
• Cinnamon twig
• Ggalangal root
• Cayenne pepper fruit
• White willow bark
• 50 mgs of caffeine

I'm going to assume that the ingredients are listed in order of greatest quantity to lowest since that is how things are usually listed on food labels. If my assumption is correct, then guarana is found in the highest amount, followed by fiber, cinnamon twig, and so on.


Now that we know this, let’s review the weight loss evidence for these ingredients individually: This is the only way we have to determine if Appemine works because, to my knowledge, there is no peer-reviewed evidence published for Appemine itself. The company’s website mentions “our research” of Appemine but does not list where the research is published. A “pilot study” (preliminary study) is also mentioned about how good Appemine is but again, nowhere can we read where that study is published.


So let’s now review the peer –reviewed clinical evidence for the ingredients of Appemine and see what we can determine about how good it might be:


Guarana: This is a caffeine containing plant that shows up frequently in weight loss products. There is at least one study that guarana can help weight loss but it’s in combination with other products (not found in Right Size Smoothie). I found no peer-reviewed studies showing that guarana alone (or in combination with other ingredients in Appemine) is effective for weight loss. Nevertheless, caffeine may make people feel more awake (it does!) and a more awake person may do more physical activity, which burns more calories. That makes sense to me.


The website also says that Right Size products contain 50 mg of caffeine. It’s not clear from the website if this 50 mg of caffeine is in addition to the caffeine contained in guarana or not. Even though the website says Right Size smoothie products will not make you jittery, those who are sensitive to caffeine should be cautious.

Guarana is also known to interact with several medications so check with your doctor before using.

Fiber. It’s possible that fiber may help with weight loss because fiber contains no calories and fills people up. Right Size Smoothie mix contains about 5 grams of fiber per serving. That’s not a lot of fiber but every little bit helps I suppose.


Cinnamon twig. This is basically the spice cinnamon which some research (but not all of it) hints may help lower blood sugar levels. It turns out that most studies show that cinnamon does not lower blood sugar.

Cinnamon is generally considered safe but there is some concern that in high amounts it may damage the liver. I don’t think there is much cinnamon in Right Size Smoothie but to be safe, those with liver issues should see their doctor before using the product.

Galangal Root. This is a type of ginger. There is not much currently known about this herb and I could not find any peer reviewed studies supporting its use with weight loss.


Cayenne pepper fruit. Cayenne pepper contains Capsicum, which is the chemical that burns your mouth when you eat peppers. I'm guessing that cayenne was added to the product because of the theory that spicy foods might raise metabolic rate and help speed /promote weight loss. Whether or not this is true (I'm not convinced), I'm going to guess that the amount contained in Right Size Smoothies is not enough to do much good since cayenne is not listed as one of the top ingredients, meaning it may not contain much of this chemical.


In theory cayenne may interact with blood thinner medications but again I think the possibility of this is low. Still, get your doctors OK if you use blood thinner medications because they can be tricky to work with.



White Willow Bark. This is actually a compound that is related to the pain killer, aspirin. Specifically, white willow bark is metabolized to aspirin in the body. White willow bark frequently shows up in weight loss products because of a belief that it works synergistically with caffeine – and ephedrine.


Bodybuilders know this combination (or “stack” as bodybuilders call it) as “ECA” which stands for ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin. There is however no ephedrine in Right Size Smoothie (that’s good!). Ephedrine is a banned substance in America. I'm guessing they added white willow bark to the product because the company feels it will help weight loss even without ephedrine. I could not locate any proof one way or another on this.


Because aspirin is a known and potent blood thinner, people who are using blood thinner medications should see their doctor or pharmacist before using Right Size Smoothie. Even though there is probably very little white willow bark in the product, even a little may be enough to “over thin” the blood resulting in disastrous consequences. Likewise, those with kidney/liver issues should also speak their doctor and /or pharmacist first.


Persons sensitive to aspirin should avoid Right Size Smoothie. One case report exists where severe, life threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) occurred in a woman after using a supplement containing white willow bark.



Caffeine. Of all the ingredients in Appemine, caffeine has the most evidence for weight loss. The problem however is that most of the research is on the combination of caffeine + ephedrine (which is currently banned in America).
Also the research on caffeine (in combination with ephedrine) tends to use more than the 50 mg of caffeine found in Right Size Smoothie. For example, one study of caffeine (and ephedrine) used almost 200 mg! Caffeine would be expected to make a person more alert. As mentioned previously, this might lead to more physical activity performed and hence, more calories used.


Caffeine also has a mild fat burning effect. The fact that most studies combine caffeine with other products (like ephedrine) is a testament to its less than spectacular solo effect on weight loss.


Because Right Size Smoothies contain caffeine they should be avoided several hours before bed otherwise they may cause insomnia. Caffeine can also raise heart rate and blood pressure. Caffeine also can have multiple drug interactions so it’s always wise to consult your doctor and/or pharmacist before using any caffeine containing products.


Some have suggested that caffeine may be inappropriate for those with diabetes because of thoughts that it may make the body less able to respond to the hormone, insulin. This is admittedly, something that scientists have not fully worked out yet but I wanted to mention it just in case any diabetics were reading this.

Protein. While not touted on the website very much, Right Size Smootie mix contains about 9 grams of protein per serving. Protein might help curb appetite because it takes longer to be digested and we humans tend to work harder (metabolically speaking) to assimilate protein, which bumps up metabolism a little bit.


I was surprised to see only 9 grams per serving which is less than is in many other protein mixes out there. This might be a problem for some older adults who may not get enough protein in their diet. Older adults might gravitate to a drinkable protein shake because they may not process protein as effectively because of dentures as well as lack of stomach acid secretion.


Lack of protein can contribute to sarcopenia (loss of muscle that occurs as we get older) and other issues that can reduce the quality of life of older adults. I am, admittedly considering a worst case scenario but I wanted to mention it because as a personal trainer whose oldest “client” was my 104 year old grandmother, I’ve seen what happens when people do not eat enough calories and/or protein.


Because of the lack of calories and protein, Right Size Smoothie should not be used as a meal replacement by older adults whose goal is not weight loss.



Calories, Calories, Calories!


Ultimately it’s up to you if you want to try to Right Size Smoothie but consider this before buying. The website recommends replacing 2 meals a day with 2 smoothies. So, you could have a smoothie for breakfast and a smoothie for lunch and a regular dinner.


Each Right Size Smoothie has about 100 calories. Suppose you ate a dinner that was 1000 calories (which is a lot of calories by the way).

1000 calories for dinner
+

200 calories (from 2 smoothies)

= 1200 calories per day


That’s actually less calories than many people eat in a day!


So, are you losing weight because of anything magical about Appemeine or are you losing weight because you are eating fewer calories? Even the Right Size Smoothie website says it all boils down to calories in the end, so I think you have your answer.


We have heard this “replace one or two meals a day and eat a sensible dinner” statement before. This is the same reasoning used by Slim-Fast for their diet. Remember the “Special K Diet” where you eat a bowl of Special K cereal at breakfast and lunch and a regular dinner? Special K doesn’t have many calories either (unless you eat the whole box at once!).



I don’t mean to drag Slim-Fast or Special K through the mud. Rather I want to point out that others have used the same logic in the past. Slim Fast, Special K, Right Size Smoothie and others all work on the same premise: they get you to eat less calories. The rational is sound and will work. But what about after you go off the diet?



If by now you think I'm slamming Right Size Smoothie, technically I not. I just want to give you both sides of the argument and arm you with more information than you would get if you simply went to the website or watched the TV commercials.



I think if people do what the company recommends than yes, I'm pretty sure Right Size Smoothie will promote weight loss. The same is true for Slim-Fast, Special K, the Akins diet, the Cookie Diet, the Grapefruit Diet eating Subway sandwiches or any other calorie restriction regimen. I want people to understand that once they stop cutting calories and go back to eating like before, than the weight will come back very fast. One of the reasons for this is an elevation in an enzyme called glycogen synthase. This enzyme helps you store glycogen – your storage form of carbohydrates.



When you cut your calories, your body starts to use its glycogen to maintain its energy levels. To compensate, your body raises the concentration of the glycogen synthase enzyme so that when you eat normally again, glycogen is made very fast.



Glycogen loss will also help explain any quick weight loss you may see with the smoothie (or any other diet). As you deplete your glycogen levels, you free up a lot of water in your body. This is why you may have noticed frequent trips to the bathroom during the first several days of any diet.


Currently, Right Size Smoothie is just over $50 per container. Each container has 30 servings. So, if you make two Right Size Smoothies per day, a container will last you about two and a half weeks. That means, you’ll pay about $100 a month.



If price doesn't matter to you and your healthy then that’s fine. But if money matters, there are cheaper ways to make smoothies. In a future blog I’ll show you my own personal smoothie mix which is not only cheaper but has more protein and fiber and tastes great!


Before I end, I do want to quickly review a couple of other products I see on the Right Size Smoothie website.


1. Weight Loss Water. Generally speaking, water is water and has zero calories. The Weight Loss Water they are selling contains 50 mg of caffeine, 5 grams of fiber, some fish oil and other stuff reviewed above plus the mineral chromium picolinate which is useless for weight loss. Also this “slimming water” contains 15 calories. So it has more calories than tap water? How is that going to help? Any tap water or bottled water will be a better choice.



2. “Nutritional Supplements” At this time the Right Size Smoothie website lists several supplements that people can purchase. These currently include

a. A green tea supplement that contains Appemine

and

b. A multi-vitamin that contains Appemine.


Ok, here is the scoop on green tea. Drink the tea and forget the green tea supplements.

As for the multivitamin, how is it different than a cheapo vitamin from Wal-Mart? Has the multi vitamin been tested to see if it really curbs appetite? As far as I can see, it has not.


These supplements nothing more than added profit centers to help the company make more money. Now, let me be clear, I have nothing against capitalism. I hope everybody buys my books so I can help you learn more and make money in the process. My issue is when products are touted as being superior when there is no good proof to back it up. If you're going to choose just one product to use, stick to Right Size Smoothie and forget any other products sold.



My Thoughts


Based on rational thought and the evidence I could uncover, I draw these conclusions about Right Size Smoothie:

1. Appemine is a made up name and is not a drug or supplement.It is composed of several ingredients.


2. There is no peer-reviewed clinical evidence published on Appemine as an appetite suppressor in humans


3. The evidence in support of most of Appemines ingredients is either lacking or very little. At this time, there does not seem to be any published peer-reviewed evidence that the unique combination of ingredients in Appemine promotes weight loss in humans.


4. There appears to be no published peer-reviewed evidence in humans or animals that compares Right Size Smoothie any other weight loss product or drug proving that it is equal or superior at promoting weight loss.


5. Cutting calories by using of Right Size Smoothie – or any other low calorie meal replacement product - will likely promote weight loss.


6. Cheaper meal replacement products exist that will probably do the same thing.


7. The weight that is lost through Right Size Smoothie (or any other low calorie eating plan) is likely to return once the diet has stopped.


8. Consumers can probably due without using the added supplements marketed on the website.



Overall, I don’t think right size smoothie is bad. In comparison to most of the other weight loss products I see advertised today, the claims made for the product are tame and, as I said previously, I like how the makers of the product take the high road and discuss calories as the key to weight loss. I just don’t see any good proof that the ingredients in Right Size Smoothie are superior to anything else. Considering the price of the product, I want to see published peer-reviewed proof that Right Size Smoothie does what it’s supposed to do. Testimonials are not enough for me and they should not be for you either. Demanding published, peer reviewed proof (even if it’s conducted by the maker of the product) is the only way we will know whether a nutritional supplement really works.

See SupplementClarity.com for more reviews

Overweight, Diabetes and Sleep

Lack of Sleep and Gaining Weight

Joe Cannon, MS
www.Joe-Cannon.com

By now, just about everybody has heard that not getting enough sleep might cause us to gain weight. This, in turn, might result in more health problems. A few facts about lack of sleep and health:

• Americans today sleep about 80 fewer minutes per night than they did in 1950.

• Research suggests that people who sleep less than 5 hours a night are more prone to getting diabetes.

• People who sleep less than 7 hours a night tend to have higher BMI’s (Body Mass Index) which generally is associated with more health problems like heart disease, diabetes and the complications from these disorders.

The reasons for the apparent connection between lack of sleep and health problems are springing up all over the place and some gurus have even written books touting to have the answer. Some of these answers are quite complicated and include altered sugar metabolism and issues having to do with how the brain works. No need to go into those issues here.

I have often wondered however if there might be an easier explanation as to why lack of sleep causes weight gain and its associated health problems. A recent study may have supported my easy answer to this problem.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2009, vol 89 p 126) went like this:

• 11 men and women were kept in a lab for a month.

• For two weeks they could eat anything they wanted and were allowed to sleep for 8 ½ hrs a night.

• The other two weeks of the study was the same as before except that the people could now only sleep 5 ½ hours a night.

The Result: People ate an average of 220 more calories a day when they could only sleep 5 ½ hrs a night. Many of these calories were eaten after 7PM.

Bottom Line: For me, the take home message of this study is that people who sleep less, gain more weight simply because they are awake more and eating more calories. We can’t eat when we are sleeping (unless you sleepwalk!).

One of the basic rules of science goes like this: if you are faced with two answers to a problem, when in doubt, the simple answer is usually the correct answer. I could be completely wrong, but I have thought that eating more calories because we were awake longer was the answer all the time. It’s nice to have a little vindication.

3 Supplement Facts

3 Facts About Supplements You May Not Know

Joe Cannon, MS,
www.Joe-Cannon.com

If you watch TV, listen to the radio or surf the web, the odds are very good you’ve seen, heard or read ads touting the benefits of dietary supplements. Many of these advertisements say things that, as a supplement researcher, I just don’t agree with or feel should be explored further than a sound bite. Let’s talk about a few of those things here.

Fact #1. Natural vitamins are not better than synthetic vitamins. For some, this is the hardest pill of all to swallow. There are many gurus who would like people to believe that natural vitamins are superior to synthetic vitamins however the fact is that they are not. There are several reasons for this.

1. The chemical structure of synthetic vitamins is no different from that of natural vitamins. As such, the body can't tell the difference between them.

2. Sometimes there may be differences in absorption between synthetic vitamins and their natural counterparts but the differences do not always favor natural nutrients. For example, take the B vitamin, folic acid. Folic acid is actually the synthetic version of folate. The multivitamin that you used today probably contained folic acid because it is better absorbed that folate. Go check the label of your multivitamin right now and see for yourself.

3. Lastly, it is important to remember that the word “natural” has no legal definition in the US. Unlike words such as “organic” or “light” or “reduced fat”, the FDA has not imposed any official definition for the word “natural”. So, this word can be used just about anywhere! I've even seen loafs of bread being touted as “natural”. When was the last time you saw “synthetic bread”? I am always skeptical when I see the word “natural” on a label.

For those who want to use natural vitamins this is fine. Just make sure people deal with reputable companies because studies sometimes find natural vitamin products that contain synthetic vitamins.


Fact #2. Zinc supplements may do more harm than good. Most people don’t have a problem getting zinc into their diet. That being said, some men may use high potency zinc supplements in the hopes of strengthening their immune system, boosting testosterone levels and even heightening sexual potency. However research shows that high levels of zinc used long term may reduce levels of HDL – “good cholesterol”. This might accelerate the rate of heart disease! While it is true that diets low in zinc lead to lower testosterone levels and reductions in some aspects of male fertility, zinc is relatively easy to get in the diet, being found in meat, multivitamins and other supplements men might be taking. Thus, you may not be deficient. When taken at the onset of a cold, lozenges that contain zinc gluconate might modestly reduce the severity and duration of cold symptoms by a day or two. The evidence is strongest for zinc lozenges with several studies published being in medical journals. However, I'm not a big fan of putting zinc up your nose in the form of a spray. Some evidence suggests that zinc-laced nasal sprays might interfere with the sense of smell which potentially may be permanent.


Fact #3. Working faster does not mean it works better. Common marketing practice is to make the claim that a supplement works faster or gets into the body faster. This they say means it works better. My question, whenever I encounter this claim is to ask if it can be proven that working faster also means that the product is more effective? Working faster may mean something is superior but that fact has to be proven before I take it as gospel. The only way to prove this is to go in the lab and test it and get the results published in a medical or scientific journal.

For more see SupplementClarity.com

Chrondroitin sulfate Does it Work?

Is Chondroitin Sulfate a Good Supplement?

Joe Cannon

People often use chondroitin sulfate to help osteoarthritis. This is the reason chondroitin sulfate is often found in combination with glucosamine in supplements.

While there is some research that chrondroitin sulfate might help alleviate some for the pain of osteoarthritis, for the moment I don’t recommend this supplement. Recent research has linked chondroitin to an increased risk of prostate cancer and relapses of prostate cancer. Chondroitin may also interact with blood thinner medications. Given that older man (who are at risk of prostate cancer) often use this supplement for osteoarthritis, they should be made aware of this possibility.

For more information on chondroitin and 119 other supplements, read my book Nutritional Supplements What Works and Why at www.Joe-Cannon.com