10 Best Selling Supplements
November 18, 2008
Ever wonder what the best-selling supplements are? Well according to a recent survey, the below supplement categories are ranked in terms of their sales from highest to lowest.
Multivitamins- Sports Nutrition Powders/Formulas/Fat Burners
- Calcium
- B Vitamins
- Vitamin C
- Glucosamine/Chondroitin
- Homeopathics
- Other Vitamins
- Fish/Animal oils
- Coenzyme Q10
SOURCE: Daily Comet
Interactive Coming To Europe
November 18, 2008
Canadian supplement company “Interactive Nutrition” has been making some waves lately with a fresh new look for their packaging and several new products. But big news hit the “supplement scene” Monday when they announced a massive European distribution deal. It turns out that they’ve signed a 5 year contract for distributing their product line throughout Europe. The distribution company they’ve partnered up for this deal is called “Sigurdur Arnason” and the contract calls for minimum purchases of $6,000,000 in product for 2009, increasing annually up to $15,000,000 in 2013. Since Interactive manufacturers their own supplements, this should result in healthy profits for their company. Being a Canadian myself and growing up around Interactive Nutrition’s supplements, it’s nice to see yet another Canadian company getting props overseas.
SOURCE: PR Newswire
Supplement Containing Human Placenta
November 18, 2008
Yes, get ready to get grossed out! According to the FDA, Human Placenta is now popping up in dietary supplements. Supplement manufacturer “Jen-On Herbal Science International” (also known as Herbal Science International) has been selling a supplement called “Seng Jong Tzu Tong Tan” (which in english means “total scam”) which contains human placenta. Unfortunately, ingestion of human placenta derived from unknown sources or prepared using inadequate processes may risk infection by blood-borne diseases such hepatitis or HIV. Health Canada has issued a warning to consumers to avoid using this product for obvious reasons.
SOURCE: EMax Health
Pepsi To Distribute Muscle Milk
November 9, 2008
What? Pepsi is going to distribute Muscle Milk ? Yes, it’s true! Pepsi has signed an 
agreement with CytoSport to distribute Muscle Milk. Under the terms of the agreement, Pepsi will have a license to distribute only the ready-to-drink line of Muscle Milk and Muscle Milk Light in its territories in the U.S. and Canada. The agreement is effective immediately and Pepsi will begin distribution in the U.S. in January. This is interesting news to us here at SupplementGenius.com as we’ve heard rumors of this brewing for some time now.
"Strengthening and diversifying the Pepsi product portfolio is one of our top priorities. By teaming up with CytoSport, we are entering a new beverage segment with attractive long-term growth prospects," said Pepsi North America president Rob King (pictured on left). "Muscle Milk has established itself as one of the leading functional nutrition beverage brands, and adding it to our portfolio will enable us to capitalize on the opportunities in this exciting category."
The Pepsi robust go-to-market system is unsurpassed in the beverage industry," said 
CytoSport president Greg Pickett . "By working with Pepsi, we’ll be able to greatly extend the reach of the Muscle Milk brand and put our products in the hands of more consumers than ever before. This is a beverage category with tremendous growth potential, and this agreement further enhances CytoSport’s leading position in the category."
With Pepsi Distributing Muscle Milk, What Does This Mean For Us?
Expect to see Muscle Milk in virtually every place you find Pepsi. It’s likely to be sold in gas stations and variety stores for much cheaper than you’d find it for in a typical 
GNC. Also expect Coke and Anheuser-Busch to seek out their own protein RTDs to match Pepsi. Labrada Nutrition and ISS Research both have similar protein RTDs (I actually prefer ISS Research’s Oh Yeah! RTD over Muscle Milk). These two companies now may become increasingly attractive to Coke and Anheuser-Busch.
SOURCE: Nutraceutical World
Does ZMA Work?
November 4, 2008
What Is ZMA?
ZMA is marketed as a “special” Zinc & Magnesium supplement containing 2 novel types of Zinc (that is “Zinc Monomethionine” and “Zinc Aspartate”) and 1 novel type of Magnesium (called “Magnesium Aspartate”). Infamous ZMA formulator Victor Conte (yes, the key guy behind the BALCO Labs scandal) also threw in Vitamin B-6 to the formula. However, this addition doesn’t make much sense as this vitamin is rarely deficient in athletes due to it’s high presence in meats, vegetables and grains.
Which Bodybuilders Have Used ZMA?
According to the SNAC Systems website, the follwoing top bodybuilders have used ZMA: Flex Wheeler, Ronnie Coleman, Mike Matarazzo, Gunter Schlierkamp, Roland Kickinger, Milos Sarcev, Eddie Robinson, Don Long, Emeric Delczeg, Vickie Gates, Nancy Lewis, Iris Kyle, Jim Quinn, Rich Gaspari, and Mike Ashley.
1999 Study Shows ZMA Works
Way back in 1999, a study was undertaken on NCAA Football players during a spring-training program. The control group was told to stop taking any nutritional supplements. Those who took “ZMA” showed greater increases in muscle strength, free testosterone, GH and IGF-1 levels than those who didn’t. (1)
Commercialization of ZMA
After this study came out, Victor Conte (pictured on left) started selling ZMA to almost every supplement company in the industry. As long as you bought your ZMA from his company “Snac Systems“, you could use the claims made in the study. Finally, there was a natural alternative to prohormones that actually worked … or did it?
2004 Study Shows ZMA Does NOT Work
Years went by and ZMA found it’s way into most of the top brands in the industry and few people stopped to question the original ZMA study that created all the hype. Could the results be duplicated? Well a study done in 2004 by the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab of Baylor University found that ZMA had no effect on strength, hormone levels, or anaerobic capacity.[2]
Scott Welch’s ZMA Prescription
“Before you throw out your bottle of ZMA, understand that Zinc and Magnesium as minerals, DO play a significant role in the production of testosterone, GH, IGF-1 and several other hormones. If your body is deficient in either of these two minerals, your hormone levels will not be optimal. ZMA is a very well-absorbed mineral supplement that will correct a Zinc and Magnesium deficiency if one exists. But if you’re not deficient, taking ZMA is a waste of money.”
Study References
1. Lukaski HC (2000). “Magnesium, zinc, and chromium nutriture and physical activity”. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 72 (2): 585s-593s. PMID 10919964.
2. Wilborn Colin D. et al (2004). “Effects of Zinc Magnesium Aspartate (ZMA) Supplementation on Training Adaptations and Markers of Anabolism and Catabolism”. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 1 (2): 12–20. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-1-2-12.
SOURCE: Muscular Development
Emergen-C Contest
October 27, 2008
For more than 35 years, Alacer has been developing dietary supplements. Their flagship product “Emergen-C” is a vitamin fizzy drink mix which sells 400 million packets annually! Well the brilliant marketing team came up with a contest with more than 100 kids where they had the chance to brainstorm great flavor names, draw packaging designs and select which flavours will make it to the shelves! The winner for best name and best artwork for each flavor was rewarded with a prize package, which included $1,000 to be donated to their school’s reading, math or science program. The events were held at Whole Foods Stores across the country.
“We wanted to create the best-tasting, most-loved kids vitamin product on the market and figured the best way to do that was to go straight to the source,” said Meghann Seidner, Emergen-C Brand Manager. “Kids had a footprint in every aspect of the product development from tasting to naming and design. The final packaging will incorporate design elements from each winner and the kids will be featured on our website.”
This idea is ingenious as it:
- Ties the retail store in with the marketing program (something few companies do in our industry).
- It engages the customer with the brand.
- Gets feedback directly from the consumer they’re ultimately trying to appeal to.
- Gets parents onboard with the company which is essential as they’re going to be the ones to buy the product for their kids. What mom wouldn’t support a company that asked for their kids help?
Attention Supplement Company Owners:
Now instead of having a bunch of hot ladeez in your booth wearing next to nothing, why don’t you copy this program? Okay, better yet, bring topless women with just body paint on to work your booth. Then recruit actual bodybuilding fans from the show floor to help you with your next product name, ad, clothing design, website, or packaging design? Do it right inside your company booth at the upcoming Arnold Classic. What bodybuilder wouldn’t love you for asking for their input? Now THAT would be a booth worth going to!
Does Supplement Use Lead To Steroid Use?
October 21, 2008
Supplements such as whey protein, Creatine and EFAs as harmless but are they? Research by Skidmore College psychologist Tonya Dodge suggests supplements may serve as a gateway to steroids. Now Dodge has won a $385,000 National Institute of Health grant to investigate that relationship in young men. She will survey 4,500 students from Penn State University and ask them what they use, how risky they perceive the substances to be and how easy they are to get. They will attempt to show a link that people that use supplements are more likely to graduate to using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Personally, I’ve never met a steroid user that didn’t use supplements before getting on juice. However, I’ve also met plenty of supplement users that wouldn’t touch steroids.
SOURCE: TimesUnion
BSN Wins 6 Awards!
October 15, 2008
At this year’s Olympia weekend, the annual 2008 Bodybuilding.com Supplement Awards took place which were based on over 200,000 consumer votes for these awards. BSN reigned supreme by winning more categories than 
any other supplement company!
BSN won the following 6 categories:
- Brand Of The Year
- Creatine Product Of The Year – CELL MASS
- Energy Supplement Of The Year – ATRO-PHEX
- Muscle Builder Of The Year - N.O. XPLODE
- Nitric Oxide Product Of The Year - N.O. XPLODE
- Best Weight Gainer Of The Year – TRUE-MASS
I would have awarded them “Best Labels Of The Year” but Universal inched them out of that win by one place. However, not to dampen their win but I wouldn’t have had their "Atrophex" product even in the energy supplement category as it’s a fat burner. In that spot, I would elected to put their Endorush RTD in the race. But of course, that’s just one bald man’s opinion!
Do You Remember The Bad Press BSN Faced This Past Year?
The bad press involved their three main products possibility not actually containing a rare type of creatine that they listed on their labels. I first read about this on the blog Inside Bodybuilding which also gave the link to the actual lawsuit (see SupplementPolice.com to view the lawsuit). But BSN did NOT hide behind the scenes and pretend the bad press didn’t exist. They issued a press release right away that addressed the negative claims being made against them like a true leader would. Now I’ve never worked for BSN and I don’t kiss anyone’s ass in the supplement industry, but I must applaud them on being a company that seems to be true to their fans. Companies like BSN , Cytosport , Optimum , Ultimate Nutrition and a few others are what I consider to be some of the "good guys" of our industry and their popularity is reflected by this business approach.
SupplementGenius.com Read In 47 Countries
October 8, 2008
Thanks to serious supplement junkies like you, our readership has grown way beyond our expectations! In fact, since launching SupplementGenius.com this summer, we’ve had over 9,000 different visitors come to our site (well 9,411 to be exact). It’s obvious that readers like you are enjoying what we’ve been serving up. Well we had a meeting at our office in Toronto last night and looked over our web stats and we were shocked to also find out that people from 47 countries are reading our blog! We wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to readers in the following countries and thank all of you for your support:
Australia- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Mexico
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Netherlands
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Romania
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
Stephen Cooper Ends Supplement Use
October 1, 2008
After serving four-game suspension, NFL superstar Stephen Cooper ends supplement use. Inside linebacker Cooper walked into the San Diego Chargers’ locker room on Monday carrying three cases of flavored bottled water. After serving a four-game, NFL-imposed suspension for testing positive for a banned stimulant, Cooper vowed never to use supplements again and to stick with water to fortify his body.
"Honestly, I’m not touching nothing," said Cooper, who took responsibility for making a mistake. "Supplements are out the door."
Noting that a second suspension would be for eight games, he said: "That’s too big on the pockets and that’s too big on my heart. I’m definitely going to stay away from that." Cooper said he took "a lot of supplements" to help with recovery after offseason workouts. His suspension was announced on April 15.
"There’s a lot of stuff that I wasn’t really educated on," Cooper said. "I really wasn’t paying attention to what I was taking and I got caught up … They tell you to watch out for what you take, but at the end of the day it’s always up to you and you’ve got to know what you’re doing."
Contaminated Supplements?
Many athletes and general consumers have been exposing themselves to steroids, banned stimulants and other contaminants by just taking supplements! To read more on this click HERE.
SOURCE: Body Of Science