Nutrition Quackery

Nutrition quackery refers to fake practitioners and products and the deceitful promotion of these products. Untrue or misleading claims that are deliberately or fraudulently made for any product constitute nutrition quackery.
To help form your discussion this week, please review the following before beginning:
Section 1.5 Evaluating Nutrition Information as well as the following sections after Chapter 12 under F4 Focus on Dietary Supplements to include:
F4.1 What is a dietary supplement? (including Table F4.1) and
F4.3 thru F4.5 (including Table F4.3 Potential benefits and side effects of common herbal ingredients).
Focus on Dietary Supplements on page 478, especially pages 479 and the table on 480 as well as 486 and 488. Importantly, be aware the disclaimer which must be used to indicate a product has not been tested is: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease" (https://www(dot)accessdata(dot)fda(dot)gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.93 , see 3c).
Your task: Find, describe and explain an advertisement you find for a dietary product or anything else related to nutrition that you have seen recently (i.e radio or magazine ad, internet pop-up ad, etc.) and please analyze how it stacks up against the list of traits commonly associated with nutrition quackery. Please include:
What is the product?
What are the claims that are being made?
Why are you convinced this product is an example of nutrition quackery
Analyzing the current body of research on the proposed effective ingredients can be helpful here, remember we are loooking for reliable scientific information to inform you discussion (i.e. your textbook, peer reviewed articles, .org/.gov/.edu websites such as NIH, Mayo Clinic or Harvard websites, etc)
Note that an absence of clinical studies can be suggestive as well
If the manufacturer cites clinical studies backing their product, consider investigating further... who funded the studies? Was it based on good science?
Lastly, please take a look at how the claims stack against the questions posed in Table 1.1 (p. 26)
Remember, post one original comment in your own thread (3pts) and two responses (at least 50 well-thought, well-informed words) for full participation credit (1 pt each).
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Sample from Previous Student:

"A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement the diet when taken orally as a pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid. These supplements add essential nutrients to our diet. These products can include vitamins, minerals, herbs, plants, metabolites, amino acids, or extracts of these substances.
On Instagram an advertisement for a dietary product pops up very frequently and promoted by many celebrities. Flat Tummy Co started with some teas and now produces lollipops, cleansers, gummies, and other herbal teas to "flatten the tummy". While I considered using their products pre-pregnancy because I wanted to lose belly fat fast, I was not completely convinced this supplement would help at all and it just seemed too good to be true. The newest Flat Tummy tea product has apple cider vinegar which according to Table F4.1 it increases energy expenditure and reduces hunger and food cravings, however there’s no evidence that it influences body weight. Flat Tummy Company claims “Summer is HERE and it’s time for a tummy makeover! Maximize your results, feel confident, and get back on track.” “A Yummy gummy to slim tummy!” While it all sounds amazing, there is a ton of anecdotal evidence such as: heavy celebrity endorsements and before and after photographs of those who ‘successfully’ lost weight. All the stories are personal, and none are based on scientific trials or research. I also question the credibility of the product since the creators are not nutritionists, dieticians, or even scientists, they are a couple Bec and Tim Polmear who have a marketing background. Sketchy right? In an interview for Cosmopolitan magazine it was quoted that they “credit brand’s success in part to an algorithm targeting women in their 20’s and a very unique social media marketing strategy.” So, they haven’t even contributed their success to it working for women, but instead their success is just based on social media marketing and search engine optimization!!! Although this article is written by a registered dietitian it is published by Cosmopolitan which raises concerns for paid advertisement yet again.
With further research it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and carries more general descriptors such as “natural,” “fresh,”, and “healthy” which are used by more manufacturers. It is apparent they are selling a product. One of their top sellers is their tea which is marketed with “100% natural ingredients” and includes green tea and dandelion. Dandelion increases water loss in urine and effects are commonly upset stomach, diarrhea, and in some allergic reactions. -_- Wow right!? Green tea while safe and increases fat oxidation or reduces fat synthesis has no evidence from controlled clinical trials that tea or tea extracts promote weight loss. However, these are the pictures posted along with their tea advertisement.