Advertising Claims About Insulin Sensitivity, Other Health Benefits of AstraGin Dietary Supplement Permanently Discontinued Following NAD Inquiry

New York, NY – Dec. 20, 2018 – Following an inquiry by the National Advertising Division, NuLiv Science has permanently discontinued certain challenged advertising claims for the company’s AstraGin dietary supplement product, including claims that AstraGin “increased the insulin sensitivity by 38%” and other health-related claims. These claims were challenged by NAD as part of its routine monitoring program.

NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation. It is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

In addition to claims made regarding NuLiv Science’s incentive program, other claims challenged by NAD include:

• “AstraGin™ is the first and only natural food and dietary ingredient that has been demonstrated in cell, animal, and human studies to significantly improve the absorption of many essential life supporting and health promoting nutrients, such as amino acids, glucose, and vitamins, in digestive tracts.”
• “AstraGin™ has also been demonstrated in close to a dozen in vitro studies to safely improve the absorption of amino acids, glucose, glucosamine, and vitamins in CaCo-2 cells, the gold standard used to study the absorption rate of new drugs…”
• “AstraGin™ is a self-affirmed GRAS ingredient. It has undergone a 28 day in-vitro toxicity study where it was proven safe at 1000 times the recommended dosage. There are no known side effects to the usage of AstraGin.”

NAD, relying on the advertiser’s representation that the claims at issue have been permanently discontinued, did not review the claims on their merits. The voluntarily discontinued claims will be treated, for compliance purposes, as though NAD recommended their discontinuance and the advertiser agreed to comply.

NuLiv Science, after reviewing the NAD decision, in its advertiser’s statement, said “the challenged claims, as worded verbatim in the attached document have been discontinued. We have modified all of our literature and marketing material for clarity. In fact, New Hope Media (which hosts our industry largest conference/trade show) standards/regulatory team, has approved all of our new literature that will be handed out at their show. As of 2018, AstraGin is not available direct to retail consumers.”

Note: A recommendation by NAD to modify or discontinue a claim is not a finding of wrongdoing and an advertiser’s voluntary discontinuance or modification of claims should not be construed as an admission of impropriety. It is the policy of NAD not to endorse any company, product, or service. Decisions finding that advertising claims have been substantiated should not be construed as endorsements.