For you smartie-pants out there

I am such a huge skeptic of wack-a-doo supplements. Unfortunately, my husband is not.

He keeps sending me links to this website that his company promotes (the company co-owns a large boxing club chain, among other things) and I just think it's ridiculous.

He just sent me a link for their most recent "new" product: ShroomTech Sport. He asked me what my opinion of it was. Honestly, I don't have time to read their "double-blind studies" and such so my initial reaction was to just e-mail back that it's a bunch of BS and I don't even need to read it.

That, and I'm just not very educated in the science of fitness. Those of you out there that know a thing or two, what are your wise thoughts on this junk?

Ugh. Supplement companies. I trust them as far as Stephen Hawking can throw'em.

 Once a decade or so there is something new and worthwhile, but for every creatine there's a thousand arginines and glutamines. I'll see if I can find the human research they're referencing somewhere - rat studies only rarely translate well to human metabolisms so I'll skip those for the time being.

...sigh...

I know nothing about any of it... but my husband has spent soooo much money on it.  He has lost a significant amount of weight and increased his mass, but I think he could have done all that without the pills since he does run and do weights.

It's just not worth the argument of me telling him it's a waste of money because he will believe what he wants to believe anyway.

Original Post by melkor:

Ugh. Supplement companies. I trust them as far as Stephen Hawking can throw'em.

 Once a decade or so there is something new and worthwhile, but for every creatine there's a thousand arginines and glutamines. I'll see if I can find the human research they're referencing somewhere - rat studies only rarely translate well to human metabolisms so I'll skip those for the time being.

I was hoping you'd respond. Thanks for looking into the study.

Stargazer, my husband would be the same way if he was in charge of our finances! I usually find some excuse to talk him out of buying the NEXT BIG THING.

I take a multi-vitamin and two OMEGA-3 pill daily.

I think a consistent, clean diet is the real magic bullet.

Just going over the ingredient list for their mushroom supplement- their top study was published in a journal with an impact factor of 0.661, where the top journals in the medical field have an impact factor of 53, and the top mycological journal has an impact factor of 6.5 or so.

 Right there you start to wonder how come they couldn't get their study into a better journal in the field.

 There's really not much there there, most of the supporting "studies" comes from fecal-matter-tier chinese alt-med journals and have been carried out by the makers of other supplements using the cordypeps mushroom as their main ingredient. When subject to real scrutiny in a good journal however, the purported effect simply isn't there.

 Green tea sort of works, ginseng does nothing, the minerals are probably a good idea but are cheaper and more efficacious in the form of bulk generic mineral supplements from the discount bin at Wal*Mart, rhodiola rhosea has some limited potential but traditional usage has been supplanted by Viagra so producers are scrambling to find something else to put it in.

 It's just a standard grab-bag supplement of green tea and some random badly-tested plant matter that can be labelled "traditional" and flogged for a premium to the naive.

Gah. Stay classy, supplement companies.

Maybe he would settle for adding mushrooms to his diet?

Original Post by solid555:

Maybe he would settle for adding mushrooms to his diet?

 

I know, right? I told him he could have a lot of fun with that...

Thanks, Melkor. I forwarded your response on. We'll see if science gets through that skull o' his.

Omg. Don't get me started. My roommate's boyfriend has gotten her into "all-natural" crap. She's been wanting to lose weight for months, and I FINALLY got her to start counting calories. So after a week, what does she do? She goes and spends probably $100 on various supplements and vitamins. 

The worst part is, if she keeps counting, she WILL lose weight. But what will she credit? Vitamin B and extra green tea.

Bah!

Original Post by melkor:

Ugh. Supplement companies. I trust them as far as Stephen Hawking can throw'em.

Classic.. The image of Stephen Hawking trying to throw anything made me laugh out loud.

Go easy guys.  They're stimulating the economy, sorta :)

Original Post by tom_murphy:

I take a multi-vitamin and two OMEGA-3 pill daily.

I think a consistent, clean diet is the real magic bullet.

I like this plan ! 

If you really want to invest in something, get a Vitamix high powered blender. Best investment I ever made. Granted, I bought my Vitamix with winnings from Atlantic City, but still, such a great product. I have 2-3 smoothies a day in this thing. Smoothies great because they are easy to make, they are refreshing, and they are satisfying. My favorite recipe is a cup of oats, 1/2 a cup of plain yogurt, a scoop of whey protein, strawberries, blueberries, and frozen spinach. I also have a spoonful of natural peanut butter with it.

Original Post by vyperman7:

If you really want to invest in something, get a Vitamix high powered blender.

I'm not on speaking terms with my blender since it mutilated my finger at the beginning of the month.  

But, I'm with you. I love smoothies and definitely prefer to put au natural things in my bod.

Once he saw Melkor's reply, he ditched out on buying the stuff.

Original Post by bierorama:

Original Post by vyperman7:

If you really want to invest in something, get a Vitamix high powered blender.

I'm not on speaking terms with my blender since it mutilated my finger at the beginning of the month.  

But, I'm with you. I love smoothies and definitely prefer to put au natural things in my bod.

Once he saw Melkor's reply, he ditched out on buying the stuff.

You know you're not supposed to put your hand in it... right :)

Original Post by stargazer1:

Original Post by bierorama:

Original Post by vyperman7:

If you really want to invest in something, get a Vitamix high powered blender.

I'm not on speaking terms with my blender since it mutilated my finger at the beginning of the month.  

But, I'm with you. I love smoothies and definitely prefer to put au natural things in my bod.

Once he saw Melkor's reply, he ditched out on buying the stuff.

You know you're not supposed to put your hand in it... right :)

 

Fittingly, I was using a hand blender.

Original Post by bierorama:

Original Post by stargazer1:

Original Post by bierorama:

Original Post by vyperman7:

If you really want to invest in something, get a Vitamix high powered blender.

I'm not on speaking terms with my blender since it mutilated my finger at the beginning of the month.  

But, I'm with you. I love smoothies and definitely prefer to put au natural things in my bod.

Once he saw Melkor's reply, he ditched out on buying the stuff.

You know you're not supposed to put your hand in it... right :)

 

Fittingly, I was using a hand blender.

That makes more sense.