Supplements II

Here’s the basic genesis of a supplement:

1. ‣A biologist doing fundamental research identifies the role played by a particular molecule in a specific biochemical pathway and publishes this in a peer-reviewed journal.
2. ‣A marketing company reads the article and begins to identify if this molecule can be cheaply concentrated from natural sources or synthesized in a laboratory.
3. ‣If so, they find a fitness model and a photographer (with some good lighting, razors, spray-on tan, oil, and photoshop) to take the before and after photos on the same day.  YES THIS IS COMMON PRACTICE AND EASILY DONE.  Ask any good portrait photographer how simple this is.
4. ‣The marketing company tenders the manufacture of the product to the lowest bidder.
5. ‣The winning bid may be a food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or supplement factory that has a slot to fill in it’s production schedule.  In any case the equipment is unlikely to be cleaned after the last batch of whatever, before the supplement is made.
6. ‣The marketing company writes an article for a handful of fitness magazines that agree to publish the story, provided the company buys a few pages of ads.  Most often, the magazine and the supplement company are owned by the same parent company, so this is really easy.
7. ‣If the supplement sells well, and goes into another production run (which, again, will be tendered to the lowest bidder), the marketing company may give some high-quality samples along with some grant money to a university lab.
8. ‣The professor will do a study, which may or may not support the use of the supplement for a particular population engaging in a specific activity protocol.  
9. ‣Regardless of the study results, as published in a peer-reviewed journal, more articles will be written by the marketing company for paid publication in the fitness magazines.  (If it “may be beneficial”, the study will be quoted in the ads as “doubled results”.)
10. ‣Perhaps a professional bodybuilder will be sponsored in exchange for endorsement.
11. ‣Other marketing companies will come out with similar or “improved” formulations, and promote them in a similar fashion.
12. ‣The promotion and sale of the product will continue until sales drop off, or there are enough deaths directly attributed to the product for the federal government to ban it.  
    Scary, huh?