As a follow-up to the Dr. Oz post about supplements, John Oliver's video says it best. In fact, there is little else anyone could say as directly (yet still amusingly) about either the supplement industry or Dr. Oz and his accountability. When the issue comes up, just point people to the video.

"The only problem," Oliver said, "is that magic pills don't technically exist. And Dr. Oz knows that." It wouldn't even be such a problem, he acknowledged, except that the advice and hyperbole is coming from a doctor. A trusted and likeable doctor. "Don't call your show Doctor Oz," Oliver suggested. "Call it Check This Sh*t Out With Some Guy Named Mehmet."

But the best part is once he is finished with Dr. Oz, he goes on to skewer the entire regulatory process - or lack of it - for dietary supplements. "Dr. Oz is just a symptom of the problem. The disease is that dietary supplements in the U.S. are shockingly unregulated. None of this is likely to change, because companies have access to the one genuinely truly effective wonder drug. It's called lobbying."

Surprise! The miracle weight loss solutions Dr. Oz schills are bogus. File this news story under "well, DUH."

In shocking news that's neither shocking nor news, Dr. Oz admitted to Congress that many of the products he promotes don't stand up to scientific scrutiny. He tried to defend his desire for people to part with their money by calling himself a cheerleader. Which would be fine, except that he is also a doctor (presumably one who took the Hippocratic Oath to first do no harm), and his name and credentials carry a lot of weight. Pun intended.

I've tried the crap he promotes. Garcinia Cambogia. Raspberry Ketones. Green Coffee Bean Extract. At best, they do nothing. I found the Raspberry Ketones gave me heart palpitations and made me feel funny. Not one of those products did I buy because of Dr. Oz, but on the recommendation of friends (for the latter two), or on someone in a supplements store (for the Garcinia Cambogia). The store even provided a handy glossy-print information sheet about the product. But none of these things became uber-popular until he promoted them as miracles on his show, at which point dozens of brands hit the shelves.

And therein lies the problem. For whatever reason, this man has power. He has the power to promote health, and in some cases he truly does. (I mean, he'll talk about poop. He made the term "S poop" popular. Can't argue with that!). But I now dismiss everything he says because I don't trust what's true and what's hype. If he can't distinguish between the two, how is the average person supposed to?

Tackling the issue of obesity is a two-fold process. It needs to be at a systemic level, so I'm glad that someone who is part of that system - a doctor, a celebrity, an information provider - has been called out on his questionable ethics. The entire diet industry needs more watchdogs pointing fingers at wild claims and poking holes in unscientific studies.

It also needs to be at an individual level. We are all responsible for making our own decisions, even when it means navigating through some very murky waters muddied by misinformation. Do your research. Question everything.

Especially question anything Dr. Oz says.
Unless, of course, you want a cheerleader instead of a doctor.

I got a Popeye's flier in the mail last week, advertising all the special deals this month. Normally, I chuck junk mail without looking at it, but this time I casually flipped through it. And I had an unusual reaction: desire. I wanted to buy everything. I wanted it all to work.

I wanted the magic beans.

This is surely a sign of the level of desperation I've reached, when I start considering quick fixes, or daydreaming that I can pop a fat-burning pill and still eat a cake because it will melt the fat away for me.

That's ultimately what Popeye's, and other supplement-type stores feel like to me. Magic shops. The rows and rows of pills and powders might just as well be Eye of Newt, or the Orb of Thesulah, or Lethe's Bramble. I walk in to Popeye's, as if it's the Magic Box, half expecting Rupert Giles to greet me and reveal that, for the right price and incantation, I can do what most muggles can't. I can make weight loss easy. 

It's great marketing, I have to say, because I was mentally composing a shopping list (two of everything, just to get the sale price!) and it didn't take long to add up to several hundred dollars. It's so tempting. Despite the reading and research I've done, about how few vitamins and supplements are actually effective, and how many more can be harmful, it was still hard not to look at the sections labelled 'Fat Burners and Weight Loss' or 'Probiotics' and think, "I NEED those! They would make this process easier. Faster. Did I mention easier?" With all the options laid out before you, and all the grand claims, it makes one wonder: how on earth have I manged to even function without pre-workout, post-workout, and during-workout enhancers?

Within each section of the flier is an oh-so-helpful info sheet, touting the benefits or effects of various supplements, conveniently located next to several options for purchase. Next to "the Skinny on Good Fats" are all the variations of Fish Oil that you can buy. No problem there; it's true that there are good fats and that Omega 3 Fish Oils are one of them. It all sounds so logical. So in line with what we know from other sources. Hey, the info in this advertising flier can be trusted! Until I turn the page and read all about Detoxes, which we know - we KNOW - are bad-news-bears and all kinds of harmful. But, of course, you can purchase pills to "get the right detox for you!" And while all the benefits of Creatine are outlined, none of the side-effects are. It is not, actually, for everyone and yet at the top of the flier is the bold claim that "it doesn't matter if you're a weekend warrior, a professional athlete or a bodybuilder - if you want to improve performance and get faster results then you should be using creatine!" You know what it fails to mention? The fact that creatine causes weight gain. Perhaps not for everyone, then.

I'm not actually slamming supplements in theory or in practice. There are some which are effective. There are some which are beneficial. There are equally some which are not, and others which are harmful. I've said it before, and will say it again: you have to be your best advocate and DO. YOUR. RESEARCH. Know what you're putting in to your body, and why.

What I'm taking issue with is just how easy it is to get sucked in to the marketing machine. How there is a supplement for everything that ails you. Like ... everything. All the claims make most of these supplements seem like miracles. But how much more energy is 10% really? If you're lifting weights and a pill promises 18% more power, what does that even mean? Is it significant enough to matter, unless you're a body builder in competition, or an elite professional athlete? For the average person, like me, just trying to lose weight and get healthy, how much product in a store like Popeye's is truly of value?

And, you have to think about how it all works together. I could easily line up a few dozen bottles of pills, because each one targets something specific. Blood glucose regulation. Probiotics for the gut. Fibre. An entire alphabet of Vitamins. Protein. Energy boosters. Appetite suppressants. Muscle builders. Sleep aids. Pretty much the only thing I'm sure I don't need is testosterone. Let's suppose I had the money to take all of those supplements. Which ones would cancel the others out? Could my body even absorb all of the nutrients in that kind of concoction, or would I just have really expensive urine? And what possible negative side effects might come from taking any combination of pills together?

It's hard to say, because most of the supplements are not regulated. There's very little accountability or oversight in the industry. In many cases, quality of product matters. How it's produced or extracted, matters. What part of the plant it's derived from actually matters. But anyone can slap a label on a bottle and say "this is Garcinia Cambogia" and boom - it sells. Whether it's effective at suppressing appetites or not. (With that particular one, dosage makes a difference, as well as which part of the plant and what else is in the pill).

So, it's easy to get sucked in. It's easy to believe in magic, miracles, and even the malarkey. I read the Popeye's ad. I wanted a quick fix, and I allowed myself to dream that it was possible. And then my logic kicked in. Well, that, and my bank account. I tossed it in the recycling bin. When I'm out of my VegeGreen multi-vitamin powder, when there's something I need, I'll go in with a list in hand of what I intend to buy, and not get grabby with what's on sale or what they may try to push based on a quick assessment/assumption of me.

Supplements aren't all bad, but they're just that. They are meant to top up a deficiency or fill a slight void in the diet. They're not meant to replace real, whole foods. But it's easy to believe that we need to.

I've tried lots of magic beans in my time.
I've wished, hoped, and prayed for the miracles.
I have come to the conclusion that for me, with a few exceptions, when it comes to supplements, Sheldon's assessment is the most accurate one:

Sheldon: “You know what this is? And I reserve this word for those rare instances when it’s truly deserved. This… is malarkey.”
Penny: “Wow. You’ve really struck a nerve. I’ve never heard him use the M-word before.”