Ads for diabetes supplement ruled as misleading

Sat, 10 Jul 2010
Claims regarding diabetes that have been made in an advertisement for a dietary supplement have been rules as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA has stated that claims about Diabetone, which is made by Vitabiotics, are not scientifically backed, and has informed the manufacturer the adverts must not reappear in their current form.

In the ads, it was claimed that the dietary supplement could help maintain wellbeing for diabetics, and included references about vitamins and minerals and a randomised, double-blinded clinical study on the product itself, which the ASA has said were not substantiated.

The ASA also pointed out that individual nutrient studies did not provide sufficient detail about their methodologies or show that the participants were healthy, and also didn’t substantiate the collective effect of the formulation.

The tests referred to in the ads were on 29 subjects with type 2 diabetes, where the control group reported lower levels of depression and anxiety; however, the ASA noted the researchers themselves reported that glycaemic and lipaemic profiles were not significantly improved.

The ASA stated that "We considered that the trial was, by its own admission a pilot and was therefore not sufficiently comprehensive to establish if the product could maintain the emotional or physical well-being of people with type 2 diabetes ."

"We considered that Vitabiotics had not substantiated that the product could maintain either physiological or psychological well-being and furthermore could discourage essential treatment. We concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

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