NAD Recommends HFL Solutions Discontinue Challenged Health, Performance Claims for ‘Blood Sugar Optimizer’ Supplement

New York, NY – Sept. 15, 2016 – The National Advertising Division has recommended that that HFL Solutions, Inc., discontinue a wide range of claims made in internet advertising for the company’s Blood Sugar Optimizer dietary supplement. NAD did determine that the company could support claims that its product is “all natural” and “doctor formulated.”

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

NAD opened its inquiry as part of its ongoing monitoring program and in conjunction with an initiative with the Council for Responsible Nutrition to expand the review of advertising claims for dietary supplements.

As support for its claims, the advertiser directed NAD to review the clinical references posted on the Blood Optimizer website, where the works cited included animal and in vitro studies and human clinical trials on the product’s ingredients, including bitter melon, gymenma sylvetsre, lipoic acid, taurine, chromium picolinate, biotin, bilberry leaf, and chromium picolinate.  The advertiser also conducted one unpublished study on the Blood Sugar Optimizer product that it maintained demonstrated that Blood Sugar Optimizer is effective for controlling blood glucose and HbA1c values.

NAD has consistently determined that animal studies alone are usually insufficient to support health-related advertising claims for products marketed for use by humans.

Similarly, in vitro studies are unreliable predictive tools for real world human health effects. In most cases such studies alone are not sufficient to support health claims.

Following its review of the advertiser’s evidence, NAD determined that the animal and in vitro studies cited by the advertiser were insufficient to support its health-related performance claims.  NAD further determined that neither the clinical trial on Blood Sugar Optimizer nor the ingredients studies submitted by the advertiser were adequate to support its health related diabetes claims.

NAD recommended the advertiser discontinue claims that included:

• “Supports healthy blood sugar, insulin & AlC levels.”
• “Improves carb sensitivity & glucose metabolism.”
• “Promotes insulin sensitivity.”
• “Supports lower fasting & post-meal glucose levels.”

• “Helps diminish sugar cravings & energy fluctuations.”
• “We have hundreds of scientific studies demonstrating that the ingredients and formula found in Blood Sugar Optimizer can help:
  • Optimize you blood sugar levels.
  • Support maximum glucose metabolism.
  • Provide antioxidant protection.
  • Increase insulin sensitivity.
  • Prevent mood swings & energy crashes.
  • Reduce sugar & carbohydrate cravings.”
• “What people have reported back to us as far as what they have ‘seen’ in results:
  • “Decreases in fasting blood glucose levels…
  • Improved skin tone, less blemishes and acne, tighter  skin…
  • Less hair loss and improved head hair growth …
  • Improved blood sugar levels (via glucometer) …
  • Weight loss and belly fat…
  • Decreases in postprandial blood glucose levels,  and…
  • Decreases in AlC levels too!’

In  its advertiser’s statement, HFL Solutions  said the company would “like to thank you for your detailed overview of our advertising page for our nutritional supplement, Blood Sugar Optimizer. We have taken the NAD’s recommendations into account for future advertising. We actually stopped advertising that page many months ago after receiving your letter.”

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.