Shaklee Review: Multivitamins and mandatory purchases
Shaklee as we know it today began as Shaklee Corporation back in 1956.
The company’s founder, Forrest C. Shaklee, is credited with manufacturing the first vitamin manufactured and sold in the US.
This dates back to 1915 with “Shaklee’s Vitalized Minerals”.
Shaklee (right), originally from Iowa, founded Shaklee Corporation in California. The company is still headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Forrest C. Shaklee was a Professor of Chiropractic, Doctor of Naturopathy and Doctor of Divinity. He passed away in 1985 at the age of 91.
Today Shaklee is headed up by Chairman and CEO Roger Barnett.
Barnett (right) assumed his role at Shaklee in 2004, following acquisition of the company by Activated Holdings.
At the time of the acquisition Barnett was a managing partner with Activated Holdings.
Barnett has a history in finance and ecommerce. As far as I can tell, Shaklee was his first MLM executive appointment.
On the regulatory front Shaklee has had a pretty clean run.
Way back in 1970s Shaklee was pulled up by the FTC twice. Once in 1974 for false advertising and again in 1976 for retail price rigging. There hasn’t been any regulatory run-ins since.
More of a point of interest as opposed to a reflection of Shaklee’s MLM operations, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention long-time Shaklee distributor John Cranney’s eleven-year Ponzi scheme.
We’ve covered that separately in an article published earlier this week.
Read on for a full review of Shaklee’s MLM business opportunity.
Shaklee’s Products
Although it started off as a multivitamin company, today Shaklee markets products in the nutrition, weight loss, personal care and home cleaning categories.
There are far too many Shaklee products to go through here individually, so we’ll focus on two of their “challenge packs”.
The Immunity Challenge Pack retails for $246.95 (on sale for $159 for first-time purchasers as I write this). It bundles
- two Life Shakes (meal replacement shake)
- one Vitalizer (nutritional supplement range available in men’s, women’s and gold)
- one Nutriferon (immune system supplement) and
- free shipping and preferred customer membership ($19.95)
The Prove It Challenge retails at $248.15 (also on sale for $159), and bundles
- two Life Shakes
- one Vitalizer
- a 7-day Healthy Cleanse (day and night dietary supplement) and
- free shipping and preferred customer membership $19.95)
These packs appear to be entry points into Shaklee’s product range for retail customers and recruited affiliates.
A catalog spanning all of Shaklee’s products with retail pricing is provided on the company’s website.
In relation to manufacturing of their products Shaklee claims to
screen for over 350 contaminants, pesticides and impurities on every botanical ingredient (and) conduct over 100,000 quality tests a year.
The company also claims its products “are backed by more than 120 published scientific papers”. No specific examples are provided.
Shaklee does run a “Health Resource” website but studies cited there appear to pertain to ingredients used in Shaklee products, as opposed to the products themselves.
Shaklee’s Compensation Plan
Rather than provide straight forward compensation documentation on their website, Shaklee either provide too much marketing and not enough details (“opportunity brochure”), or full details with zero explanation (“dream plan reward chart”).
Because of this disjointed presentation, I had to rely on both documents to put together the following analysis.
For additional explanations, I had to rely on an additional “how it works” document published in 2013.
Note that I only used explanations provided in this document to understand the more recent documents, as I figured actual compensation figures from the 2013 document were out of date.
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions aren’t detailed in either of the two official Shaklee compensation documents provided on their website.
That said I believe retail commissions are paid out as the difference between the wholesale and retail price of products ordered by retail customers.
Preferred customers are Shaklee retail customers that receive a discount in exchange for placing a standing monthly product order (autoship).
Preferred customers pay less than retail customers but still more than the wholesale price.
This difference is paid as commissions on retail preferred customer orders.
Note that Shaklee charges preferred customers a once-off $19.95 membership fee.
Personal Group Volume Bonus
A Shaklee affiliates “personal group” is themselves, their retail customers and personally recruited affiliates.
Together, sales volume purchased by this personal group is referred to as “Personal Group Volume” (PGV).
Shaklee affiliates can earn a bonus on PGV, based on how much PGV they generate each month.
- generate 250 PGV a month and receive a 4% bonus
- generate 500 PGV a month and receive an 8% bonus
- generate 1000 PGV a month and receive a 12% bonus
- generate 1500 PGV a month and receive a 14% bonus
- generate 2000 PGV or more a month and receive a 20% bonus
Whether this bonus includes recruited affiliate volume and recruited affiliate purchases is unclear.
Shaklee Affiliate Ranks
There are twelve affiliate ranks within Shaklee’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – sign up as a Shaklee distributor
- Director – purchase 100 PV of product each month and generate and maintain 2000 PGV a month
- Senior Director – maintain Director qualification and recruit and maintain a Director ranked affiliate
- Coordinator – maintain Director qualification and recruit and maintain two Directors
- Senior Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, maintain two personally recruited Directors and generate and maintain 10,000 GV a month
- Executive Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain three Directors and generate and maintain 20,000 GV a month
- Senior Executive Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, maintain three personally recruited Directors and generate and maintain 30,000 GV a month
- Key Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain four Directors and generate and maintain 50,000 GV a month (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Key Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain five Directors and generate and maintain 75,000 GV a month (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg)
- Master Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain six Directors and generate and maintain 100,000 GV a month (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Master Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain eight Directors and generate and maintain 200,000 GV a month (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg)
- Presidential Master Coordinator – maintain Director qualification, recruit and maintain eight Directors and two Master Coordinators or higher, and generate and maintain 500,000 GV a month (no more than 50% from any one unilevel leg)
PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by sales to retail customers and a Shaklee affiliate’s own purchases.
PGV is PV generated by a Shaklee affiliate and their personally recruited affiliates.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by a Shaklee affiliate and their entire downline.
Residual Commissions
Shaklee pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Shakless caps payable unilevel team levels at six.
Residual commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these six levels as follows:
- Senior Directors earn 6% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and 3% on level 2
- Coordinators earn 6% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
- Senior Coordinators earn 6% on level 1 and 5% on level 2
- Executive and Senior Executive Coordinators earn 6% on level 1 and 2 and 4% on level 3
- Key and Senior Key Coordinators earn 6% on levels 1 and 2 and 4% on levels 3 and 4
- Master Coordinators earn 6% on levels 1 and 2, 4% on levels 3 and 4 and 3% on level 5
- Senior Master and Presidential Master Coordinators earn 6% on levels 1 and 2, 4% on levels 3 and 4 and 3% on levels 5 and 6
Infinity Bonus
The Infinity Bonus allows a Shaklee affiliate to earn beyond the first six levels of their unilevel team.
The Infinity Bonus is a bonus percentage, paid out on sales volume generated in each unilevel team leg.
- Senior Coordinators earn a 2% Infinity Bonus
- Executive Coordinators earn a 3% Infinity Bonus
- Senior Executive Coordinators earn a 4% Infinity Bonus
- Key Coordinators earn a 5% Infinity Bonus
- Senior Key Coordinators earn a 6% Infinity Bonus
- Master Coordinators earn a 7% Infinity Bonus
- Senior Master Coordinators earn a 7.5% Infinity Bonus
- Presidential Master Coordinators earn an 8% Infinity Bonus
The Infinity Bonus is coded, meaning Senior Coordinator and higher ranked personally recruited affiliates will impact Infinity Bonus rates.
E.g. a Senior Key Coordinator earns a 6% Infinity Bonus. They will be paid 6% on sales volume generated across their unilevel team legs.
If they have personally recruited Senior Coordinator or higher ranked affiliates, the Infinity Bonus paid out on those legs is reduced.
For this example, let’s say one of the legs is a personally recruited Senior Executive Coordinator.
For this leg, the Senior Executive Coordinator receives a 4% Infinity Bonus on their own downline volume.
This means the Senior Key Coordinator who recruited that affiliate only receives a 2% Infinity Bonus on that leg (6% minus 4%).
What this effectively means is that no Infinity Bonus is paid on same rank or higher ranked unilevel team legs (i.e. affiliates you’ve recruited who are at the same rank as you or higher).
Matching Bonus
Starting at the Senior Key Coordinator rank, Shaklee affiliates earn a percentage match on personally recruited affiliates.
- Senior Key Coordinators earn a 10% match on personally recruited Senior Key Coordinator and higher ranked affiliates
- Master Coordinators earn a 15% match on personally recruited Master Coordinator and higher ranked affiliates
- Senior Master Coordinators earn a 20% match on personally recruited Senior Master Coordinator and higher ranked affiliates
- Presidential Master Coordinators earn a 25% match on personally recruited Presidential Master Coordinator ranked affiliates
Prove It Bonus Program
The Prove it Bonus Program rewards affiliates with a bonus $75 on every group of three Prove It Challenge packs they sell in a month.
This comes to $150 per Prove It Bonus qualified for.
Presidential Bonus
The Presidential Bonus is an “up to 1%” volume bonus available to Presidential Maser Coordinators.
With the patent-pending Presidential Bonus, you’ll continue earning on every generation of business partners in your entire organization.
You literally get paid on everything you have ever developed!
Beyond the above marketing spiel, no specifics are provided.
Rank Rewards
Shaklee’s Rank Rewards are based on timed qualification criteria starting at the Director rank.
- Director – generate 3000 GV a month for six consecutive months in your first year and receive a trip for two to Shaklee’s Global Headquarters, plus a vineyard dinner
- Senior Director – generate 5000 GV a month for three consecutive months and qualify for a $225 to $250 monthly Car Bonus for three years (ongoing 5000 GV a month requirement)
- Senior Coordinator – generate 7000 GV a month for three consecutive months and the monthly Car Bonus increased to $325 to $375 a month for 36 months (7000 GV a month ongoing requirement)
- Senior Executive Coordinator – generate 9000 GV a month for three consecutive months and the monthly Car Bonus increased to $400 to $450 a month for 36 months (9000 GV a month ongoing requirement)
- Key Coordinator – maintain Key Coordinator rank for three months and receive a “once-in-a-lifetime trip to an international bucket list destination”
- Senior Key Coordinator – generate 13,000 GV a month for three consecutive months and the monthly Car Bonus is increased to $450 to $500 a month for 36 months (ongoing 13,000 GV a month requirement), and receive another “once-in-a-lifetime trip to an international bucket list destination”
- Master Coordinator – generate 15,000 GV a month for three consecutive months and the monthly Car Bonus is increased to $550 to $600 a month for 36 months (ongoing 15,000 GV a month requirement), receive an “exotic international destination” trip and a trip to Shaklee HQ for a private dinner with Shaklee’s CEO
- Senior Master Coordinator – receive an “international trip experience”
- Presidential Master Coordinator – receive another “international bucket list destination” trip and luxury vehicle
Note that Car Bonus tiers appear to be based on what type of car the Car Bonus is put towards (the 2013 compensation document cites the higher amount for “fuel/hybrid” cars).
Joining Shaklee
Shaklee affiliate membership is available in two options:
- Distributor Welcome Pack – $49.95 to sign as a Shaklee distributor
- Prove It Challenge – $208.95, provides Shaklee distributor membership and comes with an assortment of Shaklee products
Both options provide three months of Shaklee online retail store access. I searched high and low for ongoing costs related to maintaining access to the online store but came up blank.
This puts a question mark on whether there are any ongoing membership costs related to being a Shaklee distributor.
Conclusion
Given the length of time Shaklee has been around for, there’s obviously something to the company’s products.
Unfortunately I’m not convinced that’s the reason Shaklee has been able to pay a claimed $9 billion in commissions.
Not to take anything away from Forrest C. Shaklee back in 1915, but we’ve come a long way since then. These days multivitamins are pretty much everywhere.
Beyond multivitamins Shaklee do sell a sizable range of products in other niches, so in some ways they’ve adapted with the times.
In others, such as compensation, not so much.
In going through Shaklee’s compensation plan, I didn’t really get a sense of any particular retail focus.
The most obvious tell is retail commissions aren’t detailed in any of Shaklee’s current compensation documentation. I had to dig up the 2013 document to confirm retail commissions were even paid.
The second major red flag that jumped out at me was Director qualification criteria, as presented in the 2019 documentation currently provided on Shaklee’s website (I couldn’t find any 2020 compensation documentation);
You work with your business partners to generate at least 2000 points in purchases each month, representing about 20 monthly customer purchases.
You also buy 100 points worth of products yourself.
If we run the math here, 20 recruited affiliates each purchasing 100 PV a month comes to 2000 PGV.
It’s pretty clear Shaklee’s expectation is affiliates purchase 100 PV in product each month and, to qualify for Director, all they have to do is recruit others who do the same.
This is problematic not only because it’s pay to play, but because maintaining 100 PV and 2000 PGV is standard throughout the rest of Shaklee’s affiliate ranks.
The only additions are GV and recruited affiliate ranks, both of which can be obtained by sticking to the “purchase 100 PV a month and recruit others who do the same” formula.
If this is all the majority of Shaklee affiliates are doing, that means the overwhelming majority of commissions paid are tied to affiliate purchases with no equivalent retail.
This would make Shaklee a pyramid scheme.
Considering we’ve seen a recent ramping up of the FTC going after this exact business model over the past few years, Shaklee not making changes to their compensation plan is a significant regulatory risk.
Ironically Shaklee’s 2013 compensation document categorically states that PV can come “from your own purchases and retail sales”. Somewhere between 2013 and now Shaklee has taken a step backwards, and now it’s “you have to purchase 100 PV a month”.
The quick fix is changing the 100 PV purchase requirement to a 100 PV retail volume requirement. That is 100 PV in verified retail sales each month.
This is such a simple change it begs the question, in light of the FTC’s recent crackdowns, why Shaklee haven’t implemented it.
Perhaps the majority of Shaklee’s affiliates wouldn’t qualify for commissions if the change was implemented. Whatever the reason, this is a compliance roadblock that shouldn’t be ignored.
Another anti-retail feature is Shaklee only providing new affiliates with a replicated retail storefront for three months. I searched high and low and couldn’t confirm whether continued access to a retail storefront was available for a fee.
Whether it is or isn’t, in 2020 it is absolutely ridiculous to gimp retail viability by charging for or simply not providing affiliates with a retail storefront. The cost to Shaklee is negligible (the entire system is automated) and there’s simply no excuse.
It plays into Shaklee having no apparent retail focus and just isn’t a good look.
The final niggle I had with Shaklee’s compensation plan is the high barrier of entry. To qualify for retail commissions a Shaklee affiliate has to qualify as a Senior Director. That’s 2000 GV a month, which is pretty steep just to qualify for MLM commissions.
If we go back to the 100 PV a month mandatory purchase, that’s twenty recruited affiliates – which most affiliates are never going to qualify for.
2000 GV could of course be achieved through retail sales, however the viability as previously discussed isn’t there – at least based on examination of how Shaklee themselves present their MLM opportunity.
On the plus side Shaklee make a pretty solid commitment to stand by their products;
Every Shaklee Product Is 100% Guaranteed.
We believe in the safety and proven performance of all of our products. If you’re not satisfied with any of our products, you can send them back to us for a full refund, even if the container is empty.
This is great to see but unfortunately then brings us back to why isn’t there a stronger focus on retail sales?
Given how long Shaklee’s been around I can’t put this down to ignorance. Instead it feels like carry over for what an MLM company might have been able to get away with in the past.
From presentation of compensation material to the compensation plan itself, Shaklee needs an overhaul. It’s easily the weakest link in the company.
As a prospective Shaklee affiliate, your primary concern is figuring out how your upline are running their Shaklee business. The company literature demands affiliates buy 100 PV a month (or more) of product, so your first step will be to confirm this.
What you’re then looking for is an equal match in verifiable retail sales. Don’t take vague reassurances for an answer here, you want to see actual product orders by retail customers (non-affiliates).
If those don’t exist, unfortunately that Shaklee affiliate is running their business as a pyramid scheme. And to be honest this wouldn’t surprise me.
Pending at a minimum changes to Shaklee’s compensation plan regarding retail volume and mandatory affiliate purchases, approach with caution.
I’m betting they haven’t mandated retail sales for the same reason they mandated affiliate purchases in the first place: the retail market is practically nil. In most (if not all) MLMs, the vast majority of sales volume is to the affiliates.
Shaklee is likely hoping the FTC is looking the other way, because no one would buy their stuff without an attached income opportunity (tenuous though it may be).
I did a double-take at the example PV calculation (blue box). $81.60 wholesale is worth 55.56 PV points? They couldn’t round it up to 56 points because…why, exactly?
And unless I miss my guess, the point assignments make it impossible to buy exactly 100 PV without going over. If $81.60 gets you 55.56 PV, 100 PV will be over $144. It likely takes at least $150 per month wholesale just to qualify for commissions.
It boggles my mind that anyone would sign up for something like this, no matter how much they love the products. It reeks of a company trying to squeeze every last nickel out of their affiliates.
Why am I reading that as exactly the same thing? In each scenario, the affiliate must “order” 100 PV. More importantly, the 2013 translation is 100 PV from your own purchases OR retail sales, and I suspect the former.
Unless there was a clarification as to how much must be retail to non-affiliates, which I doubt, the point is moot.
Another translation is, you must order 100 PV and are then ‘able’ to resell that product. Whether that happens or not, who knows or cares.
If I’m correct about not tracking verifiable retail sales by the company, they were always bad vs. taking a step backwards.
Oz clearly spells it out here, “What you’re then looking for is an equal match in verifiable retail sales. Don’t take vague reassurances for an answer here, you want to see actual product orders by retail customers (non-affiliates).”
Just exactly how that is done given the concerns I just pointed out will be curious at best. Maybe if the customer is to order directly from the company using an affiliate link, that would make sense. But, if he is a “good” customer, just sign up, by it cheaper, and maybe even make a buck.
Plus, how does the company expand without recruitment? Who buys overpriced vitamins without the opportunity attached? And so on. Oh the inherent flaws of MLM.
I always give an MLM company the benefit of the doubt when PV can be retail or a self-purchase.
That is unless the rest of the compensation plan is geared towards affiliate autoship recruitment, in which case I point that out and go from there.
Like most MLM associate distributor operations, a good majority of retail sales involves selling rank qualification product purchases on Amazon, eBay, and other e-commerce platforms at cost or at a markup if the company allows it.
Thanks for this review. I came across your site looking for information on CFX Group. A friend was trying to get me to sign up and I felt uneasy about it.
I’m a Shaklee distributor and haven’t considered there being any red flags regarding the compensation plan.
From what I understand they encourage PV as a means of being able to talk to people about the products. I know it means regular income for Shaklee, but I wouldn’t buy from someone who won’t use what they’re selling.
I think most people who sign up for Shaklee do so for the small discount on their own products. There are specials at various times where one could sign up as a distributor for a special price, or order of a certain amount with no additional fee.
I signed up under an order for any amount special. There is no regular fee for membership, but of course monthly PV is encouraged.
I appreciate the work you put in to research these companies. What I’ve read so far has solidified my wariness of certain companies.
Affiliate purchases are fine, however there has to be equivalent retail sales volume being made. Preferably more.
This is a pyramid scheme defense that was shot down in both the Vemma and Herbalife FTC actions.
As per the FTC, an MLM company in which the majority of sales revenue is affiliate purchases is a pyramid scheme.
I just recently signed up, and they talk about building blocks of volume to build your business.
Now that I’m on the other side and I see it in greater detail, most of their purchases aren’t affiliates.
There’s several purchasing tiers. Straight up retail, membership pricing, distributer, and director pricing.
Also, you have to select when you order if it’s personal or retail sales. So there’s that. Yes, you can sell products retail.
Also, all of the studies that have been done have been published. I wish they’d link them too, but a google search solved the issue. Their products have been used by Olympians and Astronauts as well.
I’m sorry what? You somehow have insight into Shaklee’s company-wide sales volume?
The comp plan is the same no matter what “side” of Shaklee you’re on. Stop talking out of your ass.
Having mandatory purchases guarantees Shaklee operates as an autoship recruitment scheme.
Feel free to provide one peer-reviewed study that pertains to Shaklee’s products.
Which means nothing. Legitimacy via association isn’t a thing.
Drugs and cigarettes too, you going to claim they’re good based on that?
Wang H, Daggy BP, McManus JF, Wong LG. Telomere Length of Multiple Dietary Supplement Users – A Cross-sectional Study in Comparison with Age-matched Controls. Published in Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences 2018; 6(5): 129-134
Here is one example of a study. They do publish their research. Just not on the Shaklee website. A simple search pulls this up.
1. Everyone involved in that study has a Shaklee email address.
2. This is from the study:
This isn’t specific to any supplement. It’s a vague “supplements” study published by Shaklee.
I don’t know whether or not it’s true, but Shaklee claims that 73% of those who purchase Shaklee products are not affiliates.
They are retail (4%) and member (69%) customers. So 27% are affiliates.
That would certainly be a healthy distributor/retail customer ratio.
What we don’t unfortunately get is the order revenue spread between distributors and retail customers.
I had a quick look around and it looks like Shaklee has fixed up their compensation plan availability. Was easy to find this time around which is good to see.
I’ll probably revisit Shaklee for a review update at some point (got a lot of longer MLM reviews to get through).
You need to read that statement below again. It says otherwise. It looks like the HSU group was people who had consumed at least 5 supplement products (from Shaklee) 4-7 times per week for at least 5 years.
You literally quoted it being vague, does not compute.
@Richard
“At least 5 supplement products.”
Yeah, I stand by my “vague supplements study” comment.
If the study was aiming to show that general broad supplementation has benefits over non-supplementation or lower, less complete supplementation then it is significant.
The study even concludes that studies of broad supplementation with products from other companies would be an important next step.
The ball is in the court of those other companies.
nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/1475-2891-6-30.pdf
So what? Another vague study. The study says “multiple dietary supplements”, but they are not mentioned by name anywhere, only the fact that they were manufactured by Shaklee.
This is the definition of vague. If the names were provided, then that would be another story.
Not how it works no. For all you know 1 supplement “helps” and the other 4 are worthless.
This is actually quite a shitty setup for a few reasons:
1. This is a cross sectional based on “chronic disease biomarkers” – this is old woowoo from 2 decades ago that has been debunked.
2. The “study” conclusion does not draw any direct conclusion that the supplements helped,merely that further study is needed.This indicates a low confidence – likely because this wasn’t double blinded with placebo.
3.this is a cross sectional of multiple differing questionnaires with differing groups and criteria.
There could be more issues but this is already enough.
This is worthless for MLM due-diligence.
Randoms taking random supplements = random study results. Please stop making excuses for the fact there are no product specific studies pertaining to Shaklee.
Bugger “other companies”, this isn’t about “other companies”. Shaklee has come up with a vague study that means nothing with respect to specific Shaklee supplements.
From the Abstract
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
vague
adjective
of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning.
“many patients suffer vague symptoms”
Similar:
indistinct
indefinite
indeterminate
unclear
hazy
cloudy
fuzzy
misty
lacking definition
blurred
blurry
out of focus
murky
foggy
faint
shadowy
dim
obscure
nebulous
shapeless
formless
unformed
amorphous
nebulose
uncertain
undecided
yet to be decided
unsure
unsettled
unknown
unestablished
unconfirmed
unresolved
unascertained
pending
outstanding
in the balance
up in the air
speculative
absent-mindedness
forgetfulness
disorganization
dreaminess
inattention
abstraction
wool-gathering
empty-headedness
giddiness
confusion
befuddlement
Opposite:
clear
precise
firm
sharpness
thinking or communicating in an unfocused or imprecise way.
“he had been very vague about his activities”
Now we’ve hit the “study on ingredients isn’t a study on your products” brick wall.
A proper and actually useful study is “we had a product group and a placebo group. They took this specific supplement for blahblah days and this is what we found.”
Vague studies about vague supplements = meaningless.
I think the intent of the study was to show that there is sufficient reason to do more and even better testing of the efficacy of long-term multiple supplement usage. Why has there been so little research on this subject?
I agree that “multiple dietary supplements” is vague. But “B-complex, vitamin C, carotenoids, vitamin E, calcium with vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, flavonoids, lecithin, alfalfa, coenzyme Q10 with resveratrol, glucosamine” is not vague.
Alright,let’s play this game,since it’s not vague this should be easy:
Please explain the effect of each of these *directly from the studies presented* Line by line (no google general waffle cheating)
B-complex:
vitamin C:
carotenoids:
vitamin E:
calcium with vitamin D:
omega-3 fatty acids:
flavonoids:
lecithin:
alfalfa:
coenzyme Q10 with resveratrol:
glucosamine:
Throwing 100 things at 200 people and saying they are “healthier” based on some fairly basic standards and debunked biomarkers after doing “interviews” and comparing Shaklee to people using Vitamins for 30days is definitely not apples to apples.
There have been other studies. If Shaklee has anything specific to contribute they can certainly try doing a better study 20years later – why don’t they?
These are not ACTUAL names of supplements. These are just ingredients used in manufacturing the supplements. So this still falls into the vague category.
If the study showed something like “the group used Life Shake, Vitalizer, Meology” or any other actual names, that’s another story.
This study used Shaklee Cinch shakes, a predecessor to Life Shake.
chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTRACTS/Protein_and_Body_Composition.shtml
Studies on products are rendered useless if the product isn’t sold anymore.
Maybe so. But if the new product is very similar (the only change was to make the shake taste sweeter and generally better) and made by the same company, it’s likely to have the same benefit.
I’ve used Life Shake and it seems to help me maintain muscle mass while dieting. Since it works for me I think I’ll continue using it.
Not how that works but you do you. So long as we can agree the studies are no longer relevant and anecdotal stories are not a substitute I’m good.