In between the traditional ripping-off of the shirts and proving it’s a terrible place to work, InfoWars peddles some dodgy supplements. The network appears supported, almost entirely, by selling questionable supplements that have questionable aims, like detoxification of yeast. And unfortunately for fans that chug the stuff, like, oh, Alex Jones, it turns out these supplements might be toxic.
The Center for Environmental Health, an independent watchdog, bought and tested two supplements from the InfoWars store. That their release of the results is titled “Sperm-damaging Lead Found in Alex Jones Infowars Dietary Supplements” should tell you exactly the tone they’ve taken, but they also report actual hard numbers:
The chemical was found in the Infowars Caveman Paleo Formula and the Info Wars Myco-ZX supplements. People who take the daily recommended dose of the Formula product would ingest more than twice the daily limit for lead under California law. People who take the Myco-ZX product would ingest more than six times the daily limit for lead under California law. The products were purchased online at the infowarsshop.com website.
Leaving aside, for a moment, the irony of InfoWars selling tainted products and using the funds to rant about water fluoridation, this is a very serious accusation. Lead is incredibly toxic and it accumulates in the system over time, and lead poisoning in adults is a nasty business. Long-time users of this product likely need to go to an actual doctor immediately, and they have a long, painful process ahead of them to get this poison out of their system.
So how did this happen in the first place? Jones and whoever shops at InfoWars are the tragic victims of a lack of government regulation. Dietary supplements are seen as food products, not drugs, and so it falls to the company manufacturing the supplements to ensure they’re made properly, that any claims made about the supplements are scientifically accurate, and that the supplements comply with all relevant FDA regulations. This has gone exactly how you’d expect and to be fair, Jones isn’t the only supplement pusher: Gwyneth Paltrow, Doctor Oz, and a host of others across the spectrum of politics and entertainment do this, too. They just don’t usually sell products tainted with outright poison.
The moral of the story? If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Oh, and also, when it comes to food safety, don’t trust the guy who screams at grieving parents that their children died in a “false flag.”
(via Gizmodo)