If you follow me on twitter or like my Facebook page then you’ve probably seen all the posts and tweets about that new mouse study that made it’s way in the LA Times and various other media outlets.
(If you don’t follow me, but like random misspelled thoughts on health and fitness, then you need to get on my face book page –> www.facebook.com/BradPilon It’s kind of like my blog, only a little more distracted)
In this particular study mice who were made to extend their overnight fast so they were over 16 hours fasted every night had less obesity, less disease markers and performed better on exercise tests then mice who didn’t fast.
Sounds great right? More proof of the awesomeness of Eat Stop Eat and other styles of fasting.
Well…not really..there is one small problem… mice aren’t people.
Consider the following: Many people consider the advertising in the supplement industry to be some of the most misleading in the world (especially the weight loss supplements), but even they don’t use animal research in their advertising. And trust me, they could if they would. These people are all about pushing the envelope so if they don’t do it, it’s probably for a very good reason.
The agency who oversees advertising in the US (The FTC) generally frowns upon the use of animal trials in advertising. It can get you into a LOT of trouble. And I won’t even waste my time refuting people who bash fasting using findings from mice trials, so I can’t then use mice trials to support fasting, no matter how cool the results were.
Bottom line and reason for this email – Yes, I was excited to see the results of that trial, and Yes animal research play an important role in science, but they should not be used in advertising or to infer possible outcomes (good or bad) in humans. And remember if you sell a product on line, whether supplements, ebook or training courses pretty much everything you write is advertising.
So be extremely suspect of ANYONE who uses animal research in their advertising. Whether they are using it to promote their product, or bash a competitors work. Doing so is simply unethical.
Animal research is an extremely important part of science, and can lead to some amazing human research, but it simply does not belong in advertising.
BP
