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Matt Cahill
Potentially edible! Food woo |
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Fabulous food! |
Delectable diets! |
Bodacious bods! |
Matt Cahill (along with Jason Sacks) is a woo-meister of the worst kind. His products, largely bodybuilding dietary supplements, are not just simply ineffective woo; many are actually dangerous. Cahill has a record of putting questionable products onto the market:
“”Over the course of a nearly 12-year career, Cahill has continued to launch new and risky products, flourishing in the $30 billion dietary supplement industry as federal regulators struggled to keep up with his changing series of companies.[1]
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Products
Despite legal problems directly related to dangerous ingredients in his supplements,[2] Cahill is peddling a new line of products from his company, Driven Sports. Given the Google hits for both Driven Sports[3] and its marquee product "Craze"[4] (named Supplement Of the Year by bodybuilding.com), it seems as though his products are still highly popular. Craze is widely available, though its ingredients are difficult to find, and are not listed on the bottle.
Cahill describes his new product with lots of scientific accuracy err umm, babble:
“”From first view it may look like any other concentrated pre-workout product, but that could not be further from the truth. Craze™ is an entirely new paradigm for pre-workout nutrition. Rather than simply trying to make you jittery or forcing a pump, Craze™ aims to give you the best workouts possible.[5]
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Cahill's ability to put new products onto the market shows a weakness in the oversight of the natural "supplement" industry, where products can be put onto the market with little to no testing.
Criminal history
Cahill and his wife were convicted in 2005 of introduction of a misbranded drug into interstate commerce, and sentenced to 24 month sentences.[6] The specific drug, DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol), is considered to have a "high acute toxicity", and has caused suuch pleasant effects as "formation of cataracts and skin lesions, weight loss, and has caused effects on the bone marrow, central nervous system (CNS), and cardiovascular system". It's toxic enough to be used as a pesticide.[7]
Despite these events, Cahill is talking up his products over the Internet and developing new products.[8] Cahill faces federal charges yet again, this time for marketing unlicensed drugs.[9]
References
- ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/25/bodybuilding-supplement-designer-matt-cahill-usa-today-investigation/2568815/
- ↑ Those who have taken his supplements have complained (and in some cases, sued for) such ailments as liver damage and blindness [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/supp-of-the-month-driven-sports.html
- ↑ Matt Reynolds, The Shady World of Diet Supplements. courthousenews.com, 26 August 2013.
- ↑ EPA
- ↑ Sports supplement designer has history of risky products
- ↑ United States District Court, Northern District of California