The Sea Weed informercial, deconstructed

There's a lot of disinformation and misinformation here. Let me grab from a website and product information.

First thing that sticks out is the claim, "The state of health in this country has rapidly declined in my lifetime..." Now, maybe Scott's memory has gotten unbelievably short, but I remember a time when there was no treatment for polio, I remember deaths from winter flu epidemics, when there were a lot of deaths from breast cancer (no diagnosis methods) and in general when people died much earlier than they do today from things that would have gotten caught easily by today's technology. The increase in life expectancy that we see isn't due to a sudden fad for herbs... it's been going on for quite some time.

So, to cover his fanny, he has the following message (in teeny red print) at the bottom of his web pages: "Warning! Dietary supplements are not to be used to prevent or treat any disease. The statements on this web site have not been evaluated by the FDA. Any information provided on this website is not a substitute for the advice of a licensed medical practitioner. Individuals are advised not to self-medicate in the presence of significant illness. Ingredients in supplements are not drugs and may not be foods. This site does not advise administration of supplements to children, and no supplements should be taken in pregnancy without professional advice."

So whatever's in there isn't in sufficient quantities to treat disease or conditions and his claims haven't been investigated by anyone (and could be pure fiction.)

Inspires bunches of confidence, doesn't it?

So what's in it?

Vitamins A,B,C,D,E *** doctors certainly recommend these. Doesn't say how much in this product, though.
80 Trace Minerals *** ah, but which ones. There's lots of them our bodies can't and don't use. Doesn't say how much of the RDA is in this product. He could be using selenium or arsenic for all we know.
Plant Sterols *** SOME of these can be a cholesterol reducing agent. But he doesn't say which ones he's using and in what percentage. Half a drop of soybean oil (one of the sterols) isn't going to do anything for a 240 lb man. http://www.cyberlipid.org/sterols/ster0003.htm
Essential Aminos (sic) *** Which ones? There's tons of essential amino acids.
Xanthosphylls *** Yellowish compounds. Eat your veggies.
Ocean Lipids *** Here, we're getting silly. Again, fats from oceanic sources. How much and in what quantities?
ALA Fatty Acids *** see above
Glycosamingolycans (sic) *** he misspells this. They help form connective tissue... but to get any real effect from them, you need to eat a LOT of them in the form of several servings of veggies per day. One capsule will add a tiny bit to the amount you consume but is not that significant.
Living Enzymes *** Biologically, this is nonsense. NO enzyme is alive.
Sodium Alginate *** This is the thickening agent ("gel") for the capsule. No known health benefits from swallowing empty gel capsules: http://www.fao.org/docrep/W6355E/w6355e0x.htm
Inositol *** A B-vitamin complex. It's certainly good for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inositol
Zinc *** A mineral our body needs. Doesn't say how much in this formula.
Polyphenols *** found in lots of things. The ones in red wine are being investigated in cancer research... but he doesn't say which ones they use. http://www.aim-digest.com/gateway/pages/cancer/articles/polyph.htm
Laminarin *** carbohydrate from brown algae. http://www.fishbase.org/Glossary/Glossary.cfm?TermEnglish=Laminarin SOME of them help inhibit cancer growth (in doses that may be larger than the unlisted dose on the tablets): http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/108/11/3591
Calcium *** great stuff
Chlorophyll *** available everywhere. Eat your veggies.
Zeaxanthin *** Good for eyes. Eat your veggies. 400+ micrograms of it in corn. http://www.macular.org/nutrition/zeaxan.html
Non Essential Aminos (sic) *** Bulking things up?
Colloidal Minerals *** The ugly truth is that these are mixtures of clay and water. You could, if you liked, eat dirt. Or eat the veggies that eat the dirt for you and concentrate the minerals in their parts. http://www.immunesolutions.net/suggested_reading_resources/ingredient/ColloidalMinJan97DrShaus.pdf
Mixed Carotenoids *** plant chemicals. Good for you. Eat your carrots.
Mucoplyasaccharides (sic) *** Misspelling. Probably meant Mucoployasaccharides. It's the Stuff of Snot (yes, really.) You don't particularly want this accumulating in your body because the buildup causes serious physical disorders: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002263.htm
Growth Hormones *** The article that everyone uses in dietary supplement reference is this one: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/323/1/1 Read the editorial note and the accompanying material (basically says that the dietary supplement claims are completely wrong, but says it more authoritatively and with the stats from the original researchers.)
Mixed Tochopherols *** fancy name for compouunds, one of which is Vitamin E.
Biotin *** Water soluable B complex vitamin. Good stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotin
Gold *** chemically inert. Your body doesn't digest it and it doesn't actually do anything in the body.
Silver *** not really used by the body, and poisonous in large amounts.
Auxins *** A plant growth substance ("Hormone"). Plants can't grow without it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxin
Kalinic Acid Flavenoids *** The gods alone know what this is. No such beastie appears in the medical literature. However, "kalin" is "clay" in Greek. Eating more dirt, perhaps? There's no flavinoids in minerals or dirt.
Protein *** there are about a billion of these. Which ones is he using?
Lutein *** Good stuff.
Omega 3's & 6's *** fish oil. Good for joints. Amount not stated.
Fucoidum (sic) *** correct spelling is probably U-fucoidan. Research on positive effects is only "in vitro" (shown in SMALL petri dishes and large amounts of the chemical.) Research is being done on it as an anti-clotting agent and to see if it affects whether sperm is stored in the body.
RNA/DNA Acids *** RNA and DNA acids (sic) are found in every living thing. He could claim the RNA and DNA found in the fiber that's put in there.
Fiber *** Good stuff. Eat your prunes.
Cell Regulators *** which ones?

...and at this point, I got tired and didn't want to go through the rest of the list. The rest are similar to the above.

Bottom line: mostly snake oil. Some good stuff in there, but you can get higher concentrations of the vital ingredients plus a lot of the minerals and popular herbal stuff in measured concentrations from Centrum and other vitamin manufacturers at less than half what they're charging for the bottle of Sea Veg.

You can continue checking this out if you like... use "http://scholar.google.com" and google for the name of the ingredient and "clinical studies" or "research."