Ideal Health

THE APPRENTICE If you’re a regular visitor, then you know how I feel about The Trump Network’s dietary supplements. Not a fan.

Well now the multilevel marketing company is getting into children’s nutrition. The new business is called Snazzle Snaxxs.

“Snacks and drinks that will help your kids, not hurt them.”

You can view the entire sales pitch on SlideShare. Or click here for a copy of the sales brochure. These new snacks include BBQ seasoned and Sour Cream and Onion Snazzle Twissters, chocolate bars called Snazzle Barzzs, Cinnamon Apple Protein Puffs (a non-whole grain cereal called Snazzle Puffs), and a variety of fortified beverages, including a grape drink and chocolate vitamin drink (called Snazzle Stixxs and Snazzle Paxxs). Looks like kids are supposed to eat up to 7 of these snacks a day — “replacing the bad food with the scientifically designed nutrition in great-tasting Snazzle Snaxxs.”

The Snazzle Snaxxs starter kit — one box each of the 11 different products — costs a whopping $248. You do get a shaker to mix up the drinks and a copy of Dr. David Ludwig’s book “Ending the Food Fight.” The book is the best thing in the kit.

You would think by the way the brochure is worded that Dr. Ludwig — an esteemed expert in childhood obesity at Children’s Hospital Boston– has granted his blessing on the products. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I contacted Dr. Ludwig by email and he confirmed that he is NOT endorsing these products. He is NOT working with The Trump Network and is NOT not receiving any compensation from the company. In fact, these are exactly the types of products that Dr. Ludwig is trying to get kids to avoid.

“Nutritionally speaking, our kids have gotten in with the wrong crowd,” Ludwig writes in Ending the Food Fight. ”Instead of eating foods that nourish them and help them maintain a healthy weight, they have befriended fake food.”

Well, I don’t know anything more fake than these Snazzle Snaxxs. Yes, they may attempt to add in nutrients, along with some odd enhancements — such as dried broccoli and onion in the grape drink. But these products are far from real food. They even try to get their candy bar to look good. They compare the nutrition information to a candy bar nearly twice the size (of course your bar looks like it has fewer calories and sugar — it’s SMALLER). And here’s a look at the hefty ingredient list:

Protein blend (whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed gelatin, casein, calcium caseinate, whey protein concentrate, milk protein concentrate), sugar, fractionated palm and palm kernel oil, organic cane sugar, maltitol syrup, cocoa powder, glycerin, unsweetened chocolate, water, natural flavors, sunflower oil, enriched flour, mono- and diglycerides, modified milk ingredients, milk mineral concentrate, soy lecithin, fructooligosaccharide, vanilla extract, maltitol, pectin, salt, sodium bicarbonate, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin.

The Trump Network is gearing up for a major blitz to entice parents into buying these foods for their kids. You can read more by visiting the blog created by the clinical director of The Trump Network, a naturopathic physician named David Maccallan.

I am not writing this article because I’m vehemently opposed to multilevel marketing (as I’ve been accused by some of the Trump distributors). It’s the products themselves. I don’t care how these snacks are being sold, I just don’t want parents to think that they’ve found the answer to improving the diets of their children.

These are expensive products, fake products and not what we need. Let’s help parents make smart, affordable choices for their kids — with an emphasis on whole foods, naturally nutrient-rich foods. Let’s hope parents will get their nutrition advice from qualified health professionals, including registered dietitians, instead of distributors who are financially motivated to move up in the pyramid.

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Tagged as: David Ludwig, Donald Trump, Ideal Health, multilevel marketing, Snazzle Snaxxs, The Trump Network

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THE APPRENTICE Does Donald Trump now think he’s a nutrition expert? Looks like The Donald’s next business venture is all about selling nutritional supplements and weight loss products. And he’s doing it through multilevel marketing (MLM), otherwise known as a pyramid scheme.

The new company is called The Trump Network and it’s officially being launched in November. I only wish that I could say “you’re fired” before it gets started. As you can see from the web site, the mission of The Trump Network is to encourage its independent marketers to achieve personal and financial independence. He’s recruiting and “educating” distributors now to sell the so-called unique, cutting edge products that are described as “highly advanced, scientifically-proven health and wellness products, including customized testing and metabolic analysis, effective weight management solutions and vitamin and mineral supplements.”

Oh my. Why doesn’t he just stick to real estate.

The power of Trump’s name will likely make this nutritional Ponzi scheme a success — meaning that millions of people will be spending a lot of money on products they don’t need. They’ll likely trust his nutrition advice, and the advice of the “trained” distributors, even if much of the information is not scientifically solid.

I wish The Donald would have done more of his homework on this. He’s joining forces with a multilevel marketing company called Ideal Health that’s been around for 10+ years (and has had its share of FTC complaints). The “custom-made” nutritional supplements rely on what’s called a PrivaTest, which is an at-home urine test that claims to tell you what supplements your body needs every day. Hog wash.

trump-privatest A urine analysis is not a reliable measure of nutritional status and it certainly doesn’t do all the things that are described on Ideal Health’s web site. This misleading tactic for selling a customized nutritional supplement regimen was previously exposed by Quackwatch in 2004. Check out Quackwatch’s review of Ideal Health’s PrivaTest and Custom Essentials supplements.

On the Trump Network site it says “metabolic testing and customized supplements are no longer luxuries for the wealthy.” Oh, great. Now hard-working families can waste their money too. It says “thousands of The Trump Network’s consumers are convinced their Custom Essentials are boosting their cellular nutrition and giving them nutritional balance and optimal metabolic health. Join us.”

Go to your doctor for a physical exam. Schedule a consultation with a registered dietitian. That’s the best way to tell if your diet is inadequate in certain nutrients. Don’t take the advice of Donald Trump or a Trump salesperson who profits on the purported profile of your pee.

trump-silhouettesolution3 And if your diet does fall short in nutrients, you certainly don’t need to buy these so-called customized formulas (Donald Trump Vitamins) that can be purchased for a lot less in any supermarket or drug store. If you want to lose weight, stick to real food and not the disgusting sounding shakes, bars and snacks that are part of the Silhouette Solution Program. This fake-food fad diet will cost you $1,325.00 to get started. It’s not only expensive, but an approach I certainly can’t support. You eat only one “light” meal a day and then munch on five of these packaged snacks throughout the day — and supposedly “fat will melt off your body.” Instead of an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains — you eat BBQ Puffs, Vanilla Creme Shakes and Chocolate Delight Bars.