As you might imagine, I receive countless questions every week and I do my best to collect and answer them during my shows at HSN. However, some of the answers are not appropriate for TV if they concern certain medical issues and/or are specific to another company’s products. And of course, those happen to be the two largest areas for questions.
As far as other products, in my last webcast, I discussed the horribly deceptive levels of CoQ10 in Theragran’s multivitamin. It contains only 250 micrograms, which is one-fourth of a milligram or one-four-hundredth (0.25%) of my CoQ10 100mg! They provide a totally useless dose of CoQ10 and they know it, but apparently they don’t care. I was the first to offer CoQ10 in the USA over 25 years ago and it is shocking that someone could make such an outrageously deceptive product. The world’s largest manufacturer of CoQ10 (Kaneka) is also disappointed that someone would offer a useless dose of such an amazing material. I am sure Theragran chose it to look impressive numerically (250), since no one would ever imagine it was in micrograms, which are one-thousandth of a milligram! In short, Theragran’s levels of CoQ10 are a joke with which they are simply trying to fool consumers. Sadly, the more you know, the more you notice these kinds of things, which is why I spend so much time explaining the details of the ingredients, quantities, units, standardization, etc. I know it can get boring, but when it comes to vitamins, the more you know, the healthier you will be. In short, it pays to be an informed vitamin consumer.
As far as other questions about other products, the largest number of questions relate to the vitamins sold by my friends at QVC. Given my respect for QVC’s remarkable organization and my desire to be neighborly, I have avoided all your questions about QVC vitamins. That is not fair to you and I am sorry. I answer questions about hundreds of other products, but I avoid QVC’s and in so doing, I realize I have shirked my responsibility to you, since regardless of the source, I have always been willing to provide my honest technical opinion about any product question I am presented. As a result, I will no longer sidestep questions that pertain to technical attributes of QVC vitamins and although some of my comments might seem critical, my intent is not to criticize, but to only fulfill my obligation to you to provide clear, reliable, factual information about the technical characteristics of any vitamin product regardless of its source. The Q in QVC has always stood for Quality and for decades was well represented by their quality products and impeccable quality service; however, it is unfortunate that QVC has now chosen to offer nutritional supplements that are both technically and qualitatively beneath their leadership role in TV retailing. Anyhow, I will limit my future discussion to the facts and the facts will speak for themselves.
Almost twenty years ago when I first appeared on QVC, I told their Founder and CEO that I was not there to sell vitamins and if they expected me go on TV and play that role, then they would have to find someone else to do that job, since I was a teacher and not a salesman. I told him that the most important role anyone could play when it comes to nutritional supplements in this country was not to sell their vitamins (too many people were already doing that), but to provide the objective, factual information upon which viewers can make better and more informed decisions about their health and their vitamins regardless of whether they purchase the vitamins being sold on TV. Twenty years later my role and my goals have not changed. And you have my most sincere apologies for not responding to any of your thousands of questions over the years regarding QVC vitamins and my assurances that I will now respond to all your questions in the future.
After this weekend’s shows at HSN, you will begin to see my personal blog postings where I will answer many of your questions relating to QVC products. Again, I am very sorry that I have not answered any of these questions in the past. I promise that I will now do so in the future.