PC-SPES
PC-SPES is an herbal supplement that many men are familiar with—it supposedly reduces the chances of getting prostate cancer. Advertised as a pure herbal blend, it and another supplement, SPES, were later found to be laced with prescription drugs—including estrogens, painkillers, and blood thinners. Similarly, some sexual performance-enhancing “herbal” remedies like Stamina-RX and Vigor-25, actually contain dangerous levels of erectile dysfunction prescription drugs in them; others have been found to contain testosterone and estradiols. The FDA doesn’t monitor herbal supplements so it makes the marketing easy—put anything you want in there!
Taurine
Taurine isn’t a made up ingredient—it is actually found in nature—but every claim about its ability to make you strong like a bull is basically bunk. The non-necessary amino acid is widely found in the human body; dietary sources include fish and meat. Red Bull seized the idea that taurine—from the Latin taurus, meaning bull—can somehow increase energy; other energy drinks have followed suit and added it to their products. Most likely, any energy that these beverages impart is from caffeine. It’s unclear how much of the taurine in dietary sources reaches the brain and recent research indicates it acts more like a sedative—not a stimulant—when it’s there.
Pinnothin
I’ve yet to see this on a food label, but coming soon, Pinnothin, as you might’ve guessed, will be marketed as a weight loss aid/supplement/or nutraceutical. The evidence for its ability to help people eat less, like most claims from big food companies, comes from a small industry-sponsored study that came up with industry positive results. Taken thirty minutes before a meal, it reduced food intake by 9 percent (not statistically significant, so it could have occurred by chance). But what exactly is this miraculous new chemical or compound? Pine nut oil.
Green Tea Everything
Green tea is as old as dirt, but drink companies just recently realized how to make the ancient liquid trendy (usually by putting it in a mint-green, Asian-inspired package and adding high fructose corn syrup or the words “low carb” to the front). By extracting the good stuff, green tea drinks claim to burn calories (as in the Enviga drink), or antioxidant the hell out of your entire body, or boost immune system, or … do whatever it takes so you will buy their product rather than just brew a cup of tea.
Given the competitive nature of product marketing, there is no doubt we will continue to be assaulted with an endless stream of “new,” or newly discovered, ingredients designed to make old products seem healthier, better, or sexier. The question is: do we buy it?
Updated September 1, 2009
