By Serge Kreutz
Version 1.0, New York, June 13, 2011
Dr. Ray Sahelian is an American physician who makes money from his involvement in the health supplement trade. His own site and several sites that sell or promote products with which he is involved rank very well on queries with all major search engines.
http://www.physicianformulas.com
Many of the products he is involved with mix health supplements with stearic acid.
http://www.physicianformulas.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=19
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
http://www.physicianformulas.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=17
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
http://www.physicianformulas.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=20
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
http://www.physicianformulas.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=304
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
Dr. Ray Sahelian is also involved with a tongkat ali brand that uses stearic acid.
http://www.physicianformulas.com/store/Scripts/prodview.asp?idproduct=127
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
Other US tongkat ali products that contain stearic acid are:
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/SWP013/ItemDetail?SourceCode=INTL405&CAWELAID=129499540
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/SN365/ItemDetail?n=0
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/NWF851/ItemDetail?n=0
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
Dr. Ray Sahelian appears on the Internet as a proponent of the use of stearic acid in health supplements, on the basis that a negative impact on consumers has not been proven.
Under the headline "Magnesium stearate safety, side effects, toxicity, problems and review of studies by Ray Sahelian, M.D.", he writes:
"Some websites have misleading information regarding the safety of magnesium stearate. Some of these sites claim magnesium stearate, even in as small an amount as a few milligrams. as found in dietary supplement capsules, is dangerous. There is no evidence this is true, particularly the tiny amounts found in supplements. I am not aware of any human studies that show MS, in the small amounts found in capsules, has any side effects or causes any harm. There is no evidence that small amounts of stearic acid are harmful. If anyone knows of a human study that indicates magnesium stearate, in the small amounts found in capsules, has shown to have harmful effects, email me..."
"Some people regularly eat a piece of pie, cookie, or other sweet or junk food, or consume chocolate (which has tons of stearic acid) without any concerns, but get all worked up about insignificant amounts found in capsules. It defies logic."
Above quotes are from this page:
http://www.raysahelian.com/magnesiumstearate.html
A printscreen of the above link (2011-06-13)
Yes, chocolate is naturally rich in stearic acid.
But the stearic acid in chocolate is a natural component of chocolate.
The stearic acid and magnesium stearate in health supplements is an industrial chemical. Dr. Ray Sahelian himself refers to the manufacturer Hummel Croton Inc, website: www.hummelcroton.com
When it meets certain purity standards, US regulations apparently do not require mention on supplement labels how the stearic acid or magnesium stearate was manufactured.
So where does the stearic acid in health supplements come from? Not from chocolate, that is for sure. As one can read on Wikipedia and many other sites, commercial stearic acid is typically made in so-called rendering plants.
Rendering plants are the businesses of those guys who are called by the police to clean up roadkill (animals only), or by veterinarians to collect euthanized dogs and cats (or other companion pets), or by farmers who have to dispose of cattle and hog that deceased from cancer or other diseases.
They are also the guys who collect those unappetizing animal reminders which slaughterhouses cannot even work into franks of the lowest grade.
In rendering plants, all of this shit is cooked up and filtered to render protein supplements for livestock farmers or animal-based industrial chemicals like stearic acid (which may or may not be turned into magnesium stearate).
The Dark Side of Recycling - Rendering Plants
http://www.preciouspets.org/rendering.htm
What is a rendering plant?
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-rendering-plant.htm
While stearic acid has many industrial applications, it's probably just one in the direct human food chain: as additive of health supplements.
Even Dr. Ray Sahelian himself explains:
"It is often used as a filling agent in the manufacture of supplement capsules. This substance has lubricating properties and prevents ingredients from sticking to manufacturing equipment during the compression of chemical powders into capsules or tablets."
For uses of stearic acid specified on Wikipedia, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearic_acid
And a printscreen here:
Printscreen wikipedia entry on stearic acid (2011-06-13)
Dear Dr. Ray Sahelian, there are legitimate concerns about the use of stearic acid in health supplements, both ethical and hygienic.
The ethical concern is that we as civilized people in the Western tradition are not in the habit of putting our dead companions back into our food chain. That is why the corpses of our grandparents are not surrendered to rendering plants.
And why we do not even eat deceased companions when they are just dogs and cats.
They do that in China, of course.
Apropos China: when you search Google for stearic acid, you will find that all the advertisers for stearic acid are Chinese companies:
A printscreen of the Google query with Chinese stearic acid advertisers here:
Printscreen google search for stearic acid (2011-06-13)
While I do recognize that recycling dead animals is an option for disposing of carcasses, I do find it understandable that people, for ethical reasons, want none of that offered for direct human consumption.
Likewise, stearic acid from rendering plants is definitely not halal for Muslims.
And now for hygienic and health concerns. It's not just that quite probably, some manufacturers of health supplements go for the cheaper Chinese stearic acid, rather than the American one. And we do know why the Chinese produce everything cheaper, don't we?
Even when the stearic acid comes from an American rendering plant, I believe we have good reason to avoid it in anything consumed by mouth (physicians speak like that, don't they).
Yes, Dr. Ray Sahelian, I cannot come up with a human study on the ill effects of stearic acid in health supplements.
I can just come up with some common sense.
Remember the mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and where it came from?
It originated from UK rendering plants working the carcasses of infected animals, including sheep that died of scrapie, into protein-enforced animal feeds for cows and other livestock.
Yes, Dr. Ray Sahelian, nothing wrong with stearic acid. The stearic acid in chocolate, this is. Tons of it.
But I am just not in favor of having remains from euthanized dogs and cats in my supplement capsules, even not traces. They are typically killed with sodium pentobarbital which does not easily degrade, even at high cooking heat.
Furthermore, it has been doubted that workers at rendering plants remove pesticide flea belts or plastics wrapped around supermarket rejects.
Nor do I find it appetizing to consume traces of the carcasses of animals who died of some strange farm disease.
Have you ever been to a slaughterhouse? Animal eyes, the foot nails, the hides, the connective tissue around the assholes... these are parts of the carcasses that cannot even be worked into the low-grade franks mentioned above. But all of this is good enough to cook stearic acid. Makes me want to vomit after swallowing a capsule.
Stearic acid can also be made by hydrogenating coconut and palm oils. The yield is much, much smaller, the cost much, much higher... and China does not grow palm trees. So, for as long as there is no evidence that a certain stearic acid in supplement capsules is plant-derived, we have good reason to assume that is is the output of rendering plants.
Yes, Dr. Ray Sahelian, you are a physician, and I am only a writer. But there is something else that sets us apart. You are in favor of stearic acid in supplement capsules. And I am against it.
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James Morrison
52 Saad Zaghlol Raml Station
Alexandria 90001
Egypt