{"id":4406,"date":"2011-01-12T06:29:48","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T04:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=4406"},"modified":"2015-12-03T11:14:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T16:14:58","slug":"love-smell-plagiarism-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/love-smell-plagiarism-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"I Love the Smell of Plagiarism in the Morning!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update (1\/13\/10):<\/strong> I have been assured by someone close to the company that the documents in question will be removed from public view.<\/p>\n

I was doing some digging today on maqui – the latest and greatest “superfruit,” doncha know. Lots of people are searching for info, so Paul tagged me to write a review. As an aside, I should\u00a0have it done in another day or so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that’s not the point of this post… it’s just the background.<\/p>\n

In the course of my research, I naturally scanned various sales sites. Basically, I determined that the marketing is “Acai 2.0″… except\u00a0companies are claiming that maqui\u00a0is “better” than acai\u00a0because it has a higher ORAC score.<\/p>\n

As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, “so it goes.” Problem is, the\u00a0whole\u00a0notion of “high ORAC = good\/higher ORAC = better” is far too simplistic.\u00a0As I wrote back in 2008, “ORAC values are not yet tied to clinical outcomes.”\u00a0 I was pretty sure that this was still true, but decided to\u00a0consult “The Great Gazoogle” to be sure before I\u00a0put it\u00a0in my review.<\/p>\n

To begin, I Googled “ORAC and clinical outcomes” – which, unsurprisingly, pulled my own 2008 post on ORAC<\/a> up. But it also pulled up another page link, just above the one to my post, with the same “ORAC values are not yet tied to clinical outcomes…<\/em>” phrase highlighted. Curious to see\u00a0my precise wording\u00a0mirrored on\u00a0a different\u00a0web site<\/em>, I clicked the link to “ORAC, a Controversial Value.”\u00a0The resulting doc\u00a0turned out to be a pdf\u00a0emblazoned with the logo of\u00a0an MLM (multi-level marketing)\u00a0company: “eXfuze.”<\/p>\n

And there was a\u00a0LOT more than just one phrase from my post in that doc!<\/p>\n

Grrrr…\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0a few examples of\u00a0the content\u00a0duped\u00a0from my ORAC post:<\/p>\n

Me:<\/p>\n

To begin with,\u00a0ORAC stands for \u201cOxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0a \u201ctest tube\u201d (in-vitro) analysis that was developed by the USDA, and is a standard\u00a0assay for measuring the antioxidant capacity of a food source.\u00a0 The ORAC test uses a fluorescent probe\u00a0that can be\u00a0damaged by free radicals<\/a>.\u00a0 The change in fluorescence intensity is a measure of the amount of the damage.\u00a0 The\u00a0effectiveness of\u00a0an antioxidant is reflected by the protection it offers against that change.\u00a0 The results are compared to a standard \u2013 usually \u201cTrolox\u201d (a form of water soluble vitamin E) and expressed in terms of \u201cTrolox equivalents<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

eXfuze doc:<\/p>\n

ORAC stands for “Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.” It’s a “test tube” (in-vitro) chemical analysis that was developed by the USDA. The ORAC test has become a standard assay for measuring the antioxidant capacity of a given food source. The ORAC test uses a fluorescent probe that can be damaged by free radicals. The change in fluoresence intensity is a measure of the amount of the damage. The effectiveness of an antioxidant is reflected by the protection it offers against that change. The results are compared to a standard usually “Trolox” (a form of water soluble vitamin E known with the name of Trolox) and expressed in terms of “Trolox equivalents.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are a\u00a0few little changes, here and there, but the\u00a0“borrowing” is unmistakable.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/p>\n

There are, needless to state,\u00a0other types\u00a0of free radicals, and it\u2019s entirely possible for an antioxidant that is extremely effective against\u00a0non-peroxyl radicals to have a low ORAC score.\u00a0 Carotenoids are an excellent example.\u00a0 Carotenoids such as beta-carotene are highly effective at quenching singlet oxygen radicals<\/a>, yet perform poorly against peroxyl radicals<\/a>.\u00a0 Alpha-lipoic acid<\/a> is another excellent antioxidant that has a low ORAC value<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

eXfuze doc:<\/p>\n

Another important point to consider is the fact that it is entirely possible for an antioxidant that is extremely effective against non-peroxyl radicals to have a low ORAC score. An example of this is carotenoids, natural substances responsible for the color in foods. Carotenoids such as beta-carotene are highly effective at quenching singlet oxygen radicals, yet perform poorly against peroxyl free radicals. Alpha lipoic acid is another excellent example of an antioxidant that has a low ORAC value and yet in our human body performs as a great antioxidant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Me:<\/p>\n

A high\u00a0ORAC score\u00a0can be misleading, as\u00a0antioxidants\u00a0with\u00a0lower scores may still have health effects specific to particular organs or tissues.\u00a0\u00a0For example, the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are useful for\u00a0preventing age-related macular degeneration<\/a>\u00a0(AMD), \u00a0yet spinach, which is an excellent source of these compounds, has an ORAC value<\/a> of \u201conly\u201d 1515 (100g, raw), whereas\u00a0an equivalent amount\u00a0of raw blueberries come in at 6552.\u00a0\u00a0Thus,\u00a0when it comes to maintaining health\/preventing disease,\u00a0the\u00a0highest scoring foods aren\u2019t necessarily the best ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

eXfuze doc:<\/p>\n

A high ORAC score can be a misleading value, as antioxidants with lower scores may still have health effects specific to particular organs or tissues. For example, the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are useful for preventing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), yet spinach, which is an excellent source of these compounds, has an ORAC value of “only” 1515 (100g, raw), whereas an equivalent amount of raw blueberries come in at 6552. Thus, when it comes to maintaining health and preventing disease, the highest scoring foods aren’t necessarily the best ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more… but I shan’t bore you with ALL the side-by-side comparisons. I think y’all get the point.<\/p>\n

We’re talking serious FAIL, here, folks. I don’t know who at the company is responsible for this, but I’d like to find out!<\/p>\n

But in the meantime…\u00a0who am I to hold a grudge… especially when eXfuze is in the\u00a0“opportunity” business?\u00a0And whaddya know:\u00a0I sense a real\u00a0opportunity<\/em> here!\u00a0After all,\u00a0eXfuze\u00a0markets supplement drinks… and I<\/strong><\/em> write supplement reviews.<\/p>\n

It’s a match made in heaven, people! Stay tuned… \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update (1\/13\/10): I have been assured by someone close to the company that the documents in question will be removed from public view. I was doing some digging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[1860],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10206,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406\/revisions\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}