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Supplement sales soared during the pandemic, alongside growing distrust of the health establishment, amplifying a trend that endures—even when some of the products don't even work.
Findings
Additional insights we found via Planet Money
This fascinating podcast traces the historical arc of supplements sold in the US, including highly toxic products in the early 1900s and the contentious history of how to regulate them.
Before the pandemic, a jellyfish-derived protein supplement, marketed as a memory enhancer called Prevagen, was not able to get US FDA approval as a supplement—a required step when it's an entirely new ingredient. So instead it first placed it in food as a shake, and then once it had already been there (as NeuroShake), it could be sold as a supplement.
Prevagen's makers were later sued by the US Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General for false advertising, a case the government won in 2024, which prevents Prevagen's makers from making false claims not backed by science about their product helping with memory loss.
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