“Dateline” on Supplement Testing
When this “Dateline” episode on supplement testing was aired (March 18th), I was too busy packing boxes to pay attention. But now that Chez Lowe has been successfully relocated, it’s worth visiting.
The episode – like most mass media treatments – raised the alarm about supplement safety. Although the narrator admitted early on that most manufacturers are “responsible,” this caveat was quickly buried in menacing spin and imagery. What made the Dateline narrative different, however, is that the producers and writers didn’t rely solely on conjecture – they had a genuine supplement scandal to discuss (Total Body Formula, which contained toxic amounts of selenium), and uncovered another one – the potential falsification of test data by 3rd party laboratories (“dry labbing”) in the process.
The vid is divided into 3 parts:
Part I:
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Part II:
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Part III:
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Not surprisingly, the show elicited the usual industry denials (see here and here, for example) and my sense is that they’re mostly correct – the problem of “dry labbing” probably isn’t widespread. What I found dismaying about these responses, however, is that the industry poohbahs protesting the show didn’t seem to have any solutions. Dry labbing may not be a major problem, but it’s still an issue. This raises the obvious question: what can the industry do to weed out unreliable labs? The only concrete suggestion I’ve seen so far places the onus on manufacturers/retailers to “throw them [the testing facilities] a false sample once in a while and see if they catch it.”
Great. Even if the problem isn’t a huge one, when it comes to cases like Total Body Formula, it can be serious… deadly serious. “Throwing them a false sample once in a while” doesn’t cut it.
