They can say what they like about Monsanto, but when a person buys Roundup®, they generally get Roundup®;
Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice. […]
Of 44 herbal supplements tested, one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle — only another plant in its place.
So, homeopathy turns out to be more like homeopathological? What a surprise.
And yet, the health food industry will carry on as if nothing is wrong.
On the plus side, one placebo’s as good as another, eh?
Maybe the lesser of evils in the “natural” medicines and foods industry. The really bad stuff is the naprosyn and valium combos labelled as “all natural” and sold to gullible dupes by mail order or by home-based sellers.
People who wouldn’t dream of putting Frank’s “home-made, all-natural” gasoline into their cars will put anything into their own bodies.
Jamieson Supplements, a Canadian vitamin and herbal company is owned by Eric Margolis of “I hate every western country” fame.
Not an accusation…just sayin.
Margolis owns Jamieson? Good to know — will not be purchasing THAT brand in the future.
No surprise here. I’ve suggested to people who swear by various herbal remedies that it’s merely the placebo effect.They usually reply,”what’s that”?
I usually don’t have the meanness to explain.
Interesting. If accurate I too will not purchase that brand of vitamins again. Is there a foolproof way to confirm this.
at least these plcebo companies don’t bully you into using their patented bio-sludge with threats of million dollar law suits.
PLACEBIN!!!
“The world’s most tested remedy!!!”
“When you buy PLACEBIN, you KNOW its true worth!!!”
That’s the pitch for my new startup. Anybody wanna invest?
A couple of years ago there was a documentary on TV about the same sort of fraud occurring in vitamin supplements. Since it was a Canadian TV production, it didn’t have the guts to name the origin of the junk vitamins. However, it did mention that all the vitamins available in the Western World came from two countries: China or Scotland.
I think I’d pick Glasgow over Guangzhou any day. A country that doesn’t give a shit about its own people has little concern about us.
There will be snake oil salesmen with us forever. Just like the poor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titzrDTfp70
So people wave their hands who take vitamin D3 because they’re only getting 2hrs or less of sunlight a day now.
I prefer Canadian soybean filled supplements as opposed to those Chinese lead filled substitutes.
Revnant Dream
My Chinese lead statement missed your reply.
For good health and general well-being, I take food. Mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains and a occasional bowl of bud in the old bong. No pills of any kind. So far so good.
I’m from Windsor and my son dated the daughter president of Jamieson’s. And Eric margolis does own it. I think he just has the dividend chieques sent to him
Personally I like the Double Double at the local In N Out. But that’s just me. And I’m good with people getting rich conning dumbace liberals. They so deserve it.
If they don’t name the brands, then this is useless information. The bad companies won’t improve and the good ones will be tarred with the same brush.
They can say what they like about Monsanto, but when a person buys Roundup®, they generally get Roundup®;
That’s not entirely true. Glyphosate is a strong chelating agent which blocks absorption of micronutrients (iron, manganese, zinc).
Although you may get the actual chemical, it doesn’t work as advertised.
So good news men, you had a big one all along.
To me the whole study seems very suspicious. People take various supplements for the botanical chemicals within the plants and not the DNA of the plants. When an individual is buying St. John’s Wort, they are interested in the Hypericin content of the capsules, not whether any of the plants DNA happened to survive the processing of the raw botanical. A truly scientific study would have analyzed material which seemed to show no trace of expected DNA for the plant alkaloids which should have been present.
Another very suspicious aspect of this study is the refusal to disclose company names. It’s illegal to knowingly sell a product which is not what the seller purports it to be. People are very interested in knowing which brands to avoid. Perhaps the reason that the names of the companies were omitted was because the authors of this study knew their work was fatally flawed by not also analyzing for the presumed active ingredients of the herbal products. While devotees of “natural plant products” claim that it’s the mixture of compounds in the plant that make this material superior to single compound drugs, for 95% of plant derived drugs one or a small number of chemicals form most of the active drug content. For example, determination of whether a sample of opium contains morphine, codeine and thebaine is adequate to determine whether the material is truly the sap of the opium poppy despite a singular lack of any poppy DNA which would be degraded in proportion to the amount of sun exposure to the drying sap on the poppy pod.
While studies like this are concerning, this is completely unlike the total placebo based practice of homeopathy where the “strongest” homeopathic product is guaranteed to not contain a single molecule of its principle ingredient. Homeopathy is the ultimate scam where one can sell insanely expensive water to people.
Here’s another on topic link…
Dietary supplement industry says “no” to more information for consumers (again)
Just saying, if RoundUp didn’t work, millions of farmers wouldn’t be using it. It works great and is cheap so nothing compares to it which results in vast overuse. Until something better comes along, expect more of the same. It’s also relatively safe to all living things and I’m tired of people trying to shut down Monsanto. After Monsanto, it’ll be Bayer and they won’t stop until farm chemicals are outlawed, food is more dangerous and super expensive because farmers aren’t going to grow your food if they can’t make a living at it, and millions are starving because yields are crap due to organic production methods being the only ones available. Rant over.
Shouldn’t it be or isn’t it already illegal to sell these things marked as something they aren’t?
Herbal supplements aren’t entirely bogus. Some of them do work as advertised. I take valerian root as a relaxant and sleep aid, and it does work. Valerian root is also easy to confirm as the real thing, because it smells horrible. Like old cheese with a hint of toe jam.