FDA tests Adya Clarity, confirms high level of aluminum, multiple label violations

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Adya Clarity, FDA, lab tests

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(NaturalNews) Late last year, NaturalNews went public with an explosive story about a fraudulently marketed dietary supplement product called "Adya Clarity." Made from a combination of sulfuric acid and a mineral / metallic ore mined out of the ground near Fukushima, Japan, the substance was marketed online with a bewildering array of absurd health claims. Furthermore, its label was intentionally altered to deceive consumers about its aluminum content, which happens to be the second most common element in the product.

Our original warning announcement about Adya Clarity is available here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/034005_Adya_Clari...

Our effort to help consumers intelligently read labels is here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/034014_Adya_Clari...

Our warning about Adya and "black mica extract" still being sold across the USA is here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/035664_Adya_Clari...

And our exposing of Adya, Inc. running a scam involving Health Canada is covered here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/034022_Adya_Clari...

A video compilation of the bizarre and fraudulent health claims of Adya founder Matt Bakos is available here:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=35BEAD3EF2...

We also posted a collection of bizarre quotes and health claims from Bakos:
https://www.naturalnews.com/035663_Matt_Bakos...

In the months that followed, Adya Clarity, Inc. managed to find a law firm to attempt to threaten NaturalNews into removing our original reporting. A letter received by NaturalNews contained a long list of ridiculous allegations, including things similar to "Adya Clarity is not under investigation by the FDA" (actually, they are), and "Matt Bakos never made any health claims about Adya Clarity" (actually, he made all sorts of health claims right on video), or that "the FDA tested Adya Clarity and found it to be completely safe for human consumption" (a flat-out lie). It was one of the most ill-conceived attempts at rational discourse that I've ever seen, the legal equivalent of a snot-nosed child saying, "Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks on you!"

Now, NaturalNews has once again confirmed that the US Food and Drug Administration is, indeed, investigating Adya, Inc. The FDA even directed its Detroit office to obtain a sample of the Adya Clarity product which was then sent to its Seattle laboratory to undergo lab tests and a label review. We can now reveal that the FDA confirmed the high aluminum content in Adya Clarity and has concluded that Adya Clarity has numerous label violations that have already attracted regulatory attention at the agency.

FDA finds multiple label violations with Adya Clarity

Those violations -- as well as the laboratory test results -- are spelled out in a two-page lab report acquired from the FDA by attorneys working for Matt Monarch of Raw Food World (www.RawFoodWorld.com) who has been threatened with a frivolous lawsuit by Adya, Inc.

Those results are visible here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/images/Adya-Clari...
https://www.naturalnews.com/images/Adya-Clari...

They show:

• The FDA test was conducted under the "Problem Area Flags" designation of its "Toxic Elements in Food & Foodware" rules.

• The test was requested by the FDA's Seattle office, which directed its Detroit office to obtain a product sample directly from Adya, Inc. Adya complied with the request and turned over its product to the FDA.

• Label violation #1) The font is too small on the product label. Possibly because Adya, Inc. didn't actually want anyone to read the label and notice aluminum wasn't properly listed.

• Label violation #2) The list of ingredients is incomplete and does not list the compounds used. For example, the label lists "iron" but does not list whether it is ferrous sulfate, ferrous chloride, ferrous nitrate, etc.

• Label violation #3) The label lacks the required "Nutrition Facts" section that must be present to comply with FDA regulations.

• Label violation #4) The label lacks a "Supplement Facts" section that's required for all dietary supplements.

Today, Adya, Inc. ridiculously claims it never marketed this product as a dietary supplement. We've already posted videos of the company founder, Matt Bakos, directly promoting it for internal ingestion and talking about how it would cause heavy metals to be pulled out of your body if you ingested enough. He says things like, "I had a woman who started taking our product. She started taking the super shots. She started tasting lead in her mouth after the first day of drinking the [Adya Clarity] water. And that was her own lead that she was precipitating. Within a week, her fingertips started turning lightly black. She could actually see the lead coming out of her fingertips."

He also says things like, "Believe it or not, our product is harmonized by the FDA to come into the United States. So the FDA actually knows our product's being consumed."

And this little gem:

"One thing that Adya helps with is destroying the bacterias [sic] that the parasites feed on, the internal ones. And I once had this woman who's severely obese, who started taking our product, and in the first three days, she passed out three two-to-three foot long sucker fish snakes out of her bowels. So if you really want to clean your colon, I suggest you double up, triple up, quadruple up what this lady was doing, and actually... five times that!"

Seriously, these quotes should be entered somewhere into the Hall of Fame of quacksterism, right next to "chemotherapy is good for you."

FDA confirms high level of aluminum

Also of great interest in all this is that the FDA confirmed the high level of aluminum in the product. Adya Clarity routinely lied about this, claiming the aluminum level was only a "trace" amount even though the FDA lab report now confirms it at 1040 ppm.

Adya's absurd-to-the-point-of-insanity logic was that aluminum levels would be "trace" levels after you diluted the product with water. So, in the mind of Matt Bakos, he can simply claim whatever concentrations of whatever element he wants because those elements might be diluted with whatever amount of water he dreams up in his head. This is so absurd and unscientific that it goes beyond the usual definition of "quackery." And yet, amazingly, nearly all the distributors of Adya Clarity bought into the whole scam and they, too, began parroting this line of bunk.

Here's what the FDA found in its lab tests:

• Aluminum average 1040 ppm
• Iron average 1070 ppm
• Sulfuric acid average .927 %
• Lead .012 ppm
• Arsenic .027 ppm

Question: Would you DRINK this? Adya customers did! Oh yeah, they took "shots" of it in shot glasses, then posted videos online of how great it was that they were "detoxing" by having "black stuff" coming out of their ears and fingernails. Seriously. Welcome to the world of insanely hypnotized fringe consumers who will believe anything.

In addition to the alarmingly high level of aluminum in this product, there's also the fact that Adya founder Matt Bakos admitted to me in a recorded telephone interview that he deliberately chose to avoid listing the actual aluminum content on the label because, in his own words, "I don't have to." How's that for transparency? It is the moral equivalent of saying, "F*#k our customers!"

Here's a screen shot of the product label: (notice how aluminum is not listed immediately following iron as it should be?)
https://www.naturalnews.com/images/Adya-Clari...

Adya also contains arsenic

What's really interesting about these test results is that they show Arsenic at 27 parts per billion (that's the same as .027 PPM). All sorts of Adya distributors and Adya customers were loudly defending the "safety" of drinking their product, taking oral "shots" daily, and so on. Check out the crazy lady at the end of the video link above if you really want to see somebody who has consumed way too much aluminum, an element that causes brain damage.

All these Adya distributors were making money hand over fist by peddling this stuff, which was actually imported as battery acid and then sold in total violation of FDA labeling regulations. And then they were loudly defending it, claiming it was perfectly safe and even good for you! In fact, the more money they made, the better it was for your health, it seemed.

But if you look at the whole debate about Sharon Palmer and her chickens from Healthy Family Farms, her chickens were tested at only 23 parts per billion of arsenic, and yet half the raw food community went berserk and stopped buying her chicken because they thought it was so incredibly dangerous.

So let me get this straight: 27 parts per billion of arsenic in Adya Clarity, widely consumed across the raw food community, is somehow SAFE, but then 23 parts per billion of arsenic in chicken is scary and dangerous? Huh?

A lot of the very same people who were enthusiastically defending Adya Clarity were simultaneously condemning Sharon Palmer's chickens due to the posting of a lab test showing 23 ppb of arsenic. It just goes to show you how scientifically illiterate consumers can be so easily manipulated with numbers.

A total lack of science education

One thing that has emerged from all this is that the public in America today suffers from an epidemic of "science deficiency." Most people can't even convert ppm to ppb and they are easily hoodwinked or manipulated by quacks who utter pseudoscientific garbage but somehow sound credible to those who aren't educated in basic science.

When Matt Bakos says something to me like, "Minerals have two main functions in the body: Deliver nutrients, take away toxins," (an actual quote from Bakos himself), to me that raises huge red flags. Why? Because it demonstrates extreme ignorance of the fundamentals of nutrition and biology. Yet, amazingly, that quote sounds perfectly reasonable to people who don't know much about biology.

(In truth, what Bakos quotes there is the function of WATER, not minerals.)

The natural products industry has a lot to offer us, as superfoods and nutritional therapies really are lifesaving, but just like the vaccine industry or the cancer industry, the natural products industry also has its share of quacks and habitual liars. Sadly, too many consumers within the community can't seem to tell the difference between quackery and legitimate science. Even when NaturalNews first broke this story, there was huge hesitation across the industry to believe it. Some people were sitting on the fence, wondering, "Which side should I take on this?"

Uh, how about the side of reality? Drinking aluminum dissolved in sulfuric acid is bad for your brain, folks. This is not debatable. Those who stayed silent on this issue only discredit themselves. Only a mentally deranged person would knowingly consume aluminum dissolved in sulfuric acid. Of course, most of those taking Adya were simply not aware they were consuming aluminum because the high levels of aluminum in the product were intentionally left off the product label by its founder Matt Bakos, who still operates to this day! Yep, welcome to America where honest farmers selling raw milk are arrested and thrown in jail, while hucksters selling dangerous products containing brain-damaging chemicals are allowed to freely operate (for now, anyway).

Raw Food World does the right thing

The other Matt involved in this story, Matt Monarch of the Raw Food World, is the guy who did the right thing. Once he became aware of all this, he issued a "recall" notice and started refunding the full purchase price to anyone who had bought the product. This absolutely devastated Matt financially, as he processed over $2 million in refunds, and he had already paid out a lot of the original sales revenues in commissions to marketing partners. He never saw a dime of that back. This venture cost Matt literally millions in losses.

On top of that, the Adya, Inc. company then tried to sue Matt for a few hundred thousands of dollars the company claimed Matt owed it. Matt, to his credit, refused to cave in to Adya's ridiculous demands, and this proof from the FDA should now be the final nail in the coffin of this issue, as it proves yet again that the product was never approved by the FDA in the first place. It also proves the high level of aluminum and even the existence of arsenic and other toxic elements in the product.

Matt Monarch deserves a lot of credit for doing the right thing here. There aren't very many people who are willing to give up $2 million in refunds just to protect their customers and their own integrity, but Matt Monarch stepped up to the plate and did the right thing. He couldn't cover all the refunds right away, of course, and he had to issue those refunds over time. This was all voluntary on Matt's part. Nobody forced him to do any of this. He did it because it was the right thing to do.

Adya Clarity's many distributors, on the other hand, did NOTHING. When our original story hit the internet, those distributors, many of which had profited hundreds of thousands of dollars from peddling this toxic substance, simply shut their mouths and refused to offer refunds. Instead of serving their customers, they spent their time attacking myself and NaturalNews, flat-out lying to the public by inventing whatever lies they wanted to come up with. One such lie was that I was exposing Adya Clarity because I "wanted to take over the company." Oh, right, because what I need in my life right now is to own a company whose products contain high levels of a metal that causes brain damage. Sure, okaaay. Is there no lie these pathetic people won't peddle?

See, here at NaturalNews, I'm bound by a code of ethics and moral obligation to tell the truth to the best of my ability. But the people who promoted Adya lie as easily as slipping on a pair of shoes in the morning. They lie out of pure habit. They lie to get whatever they want, to disparage anyone who doesn't support them, and to make more money selling a product to gullible consumers. They lie because they know nobody would have bought a product with 1040 ppm of aluminum if they told the truth about it. Lying has become the dominant culture of those who defended Adya.

Oh yeah, and yet they position themselves as gurus, all dressed up in robes and beards, wearing a "costume of spirituality" while poisoning their own clients and customers (and cashing checks in the back room). It's totally pathetic. These people are complete frauds. "Crooks" is probably a better term.

Here's what Matt Monarch from Raw Food World had to say about all this:

Post by Matt Monarch

Read the full post at:
http://www.therawfoodworld.com/blog/?p=3102

It's unfortunate, but somehow the product Adya Clarity found its way into the raw foods community from the start with a strong foothold. Every raw food store that I know of was selling Adya Clarity. Due to our passion for marketing the message of raw foods, detoxification, longevity and health with the mainstream, we have become the largest online raw foods and super foods company in the world. We have literally helped thousands of people to regain their health and vibrancy through our outreach efforts such as videos, newsletters, articles, blogs, books, talks and so on. When Adya Clarity found its way into our product line, we marketed the news of this product with the masses, just as we love to do with many other items.

When things later turned sour in regards to the integrity of this product, we were the ones who ended up with the spotlight beamed straight at us, as through our reach, we had introduced many people to this product; of all the stores involved in Adya sales, we thus ended up experiencing the highest consequences from selling this item. From my perspective, the entire raw foods movement was duped by Matt Bakos. Since this Adya Clarity drama unfolded, I've made our company independent from all the other raw food companies out there. This has resulted in us becoming the absolute forerunner of the industry, selecting the highest-end raw foods, super foods, and supplements in the world.

So what type of lies and false claims were made by Matt Bakos?

I decided to send a written FOIA request to the FDA, to verify the claims made by Adya, Inc., which included that the Adya Clarity label was inspected by the FDA without any citation for violation of labeling laws. Further, Adya, Inc. stated that the FDA tested Adya Clarity and found it to be completely safe for human consumption.

So, just this last week I was flabbergasted when we got the requested information back from the FDA. They sent me an entire summary lab report in regards to how inadequate the Adya Clarity label was. This report contains all of the information that the FDA had on Adya, Inc. I was in shock when I read this summary report. Now that I look back on it, not only did Matt Bakos tell myself and everyone else lie after lie, but I've witnessed countless videos and audios where other popular raw food "gurus" interviewed him and he seemingly made one false claim after another.

I've posted this FDA lab summary report further below for you to look at yourselves.

The lab conclusions are as follows:

1. List of Ingredients: Incomplete description of ingredients. Only the cations are listed, no anions. For example only iron is listed, not the actual iron compound used. An example such as ferrous sulfate, ferrous chloride, ferrous nitrate, etc.

2. Labeling: Font too small.

3. No "Nutrition Fact" label.

4. Should this product be a dietary supplement, no "Supplement Facts" label is supplied.

If you look further below this report (see link further below), it shows that there is about the same amount of Aluminum in this product as Iron, which is the top-most ingredient. Notice on the label on the image below, Iron is listed as the top ingredient and Aluminum is nowhere to be found in the listed top eight ingredients. In fact, it is located in minuscule font as one of the additional other 100 trace minerals. This is a dangerously deceptive technique to hide the fact that Aluminum is actually the second most prominent ingredient in Adya Clarity. In fact, it's just 30 ppm less than the top-most constituent, Iron. I have email after email from Matt Bakos telling me that the Aluminum level in Adya Clarity is insignificant or trace. I don't know how this can be justified, as he touts this product as an "Iron supplement" in Canada. So I guess since it has just about the same amount of Aluminum in it as Iron, then it is an "Aluminum supplement" also?!

Now that the spotlight is on Adya, Inc., suddenly Matt Bakos is stating that this product is only designed to "purify water" and not meant for use as a dietary supplement. However, again, I have email after email from him saying otherwise, while making one false claim after another, stating things like "this is the best mineral supplement in the world", "these minerals penetrate your bone marrow", "these minerals decalcify the body", "this product helps people instantly with Parkinson's disease", and much more. Bakos also appears in many videos and audios that we have access to, making these claims, and it is obvious that he was frequently recommending this product for much more than just purifying water.

I was ready to totally leave this entire drama behind us and move on with our lives until a couple of months ago when we discovered that Adya, Inc. was suing us and even had plans to sue us again for "defamation", in the future. Again, if this is all news to you, all of this background story can be found in the article here. However, Adya, Inc. and Matt Bakos just keep on maliciously attacking us for any ridiculous reason they can come up with and it is costing us literally tens of thousands of dollars in monthly legal fees to keep up with this battle.

Last month when I wrote that article informing you all about how they are suing us, we received a four-page letter from their attorney dissecting every part of my article, while making crazy demands on us and threatening to sue us for what I had written, if I didn't meet their new absurd demands. This is getting so very ridiculous now. If you would like to view this "Demand for Publication of Correction of Libel, from Adya, Inc.", you can do so by clicking here: http://www.therawfoodworld.com/adyademand.ht...

The question is now, if they drop this case, would it seem the best course of action for me to also just drop everything and walk away? Or does it seem more justified to sue them and fight for "justice" for the entire raw food/health community who got duped by this product and for every customer who ever ingested this product?

The Adya Clarity label is clearly deceptive, hiding Aluminum as one of the most prominent ingredients and the FDA disapproved this product to be used as a supplement. However, Matt Bakos concealed this information and continued to recommend to both myself and everyone else in the raw food and health community to take high dosages of this product in the form of "super shots", to help us mineralize, decalcify the body and much more.

The information revealing the truth about Adya Clarity was all first exposed in a series of articles by my colleague Mike Adams of Natural News. These articles can be viewed at NaturalNews.com. This is why Mike fights so hard for our health freedom and clarity around the legitimacy of products. It's no wonder why I keep seeing Adya, Inc attacking Mike Adams and Natural News. I've also heard that Adya, Inc. has plans to go after Mike Adams in the courts after me. However, this is nothing new to Mike, because he is constantly being attacked, as it is his passion to expose fraudulent activity happening all across the globe. Mike understands the basics to longevity, why detoxification is so important, and how you can't take a "magic bullet" to heal the body without detox. I personally feel very grateful that Mike exposed this Adya Clarity drama for us all and stopped any potential dangers with this item spreading further.

I hope that this article and our actions to voluntarily "recall" and refund all of our customers further shows to all of our clients, to everyone in the raw foods community, and to everyone who has ever ingested Adya Clarity, the integrity of our decision to protect consumers. We will continue to protect and serve you in the best possible way that we can. Additionally, as you can see below with our monthly 'At-Cost' specials, I will continue to always strive to get you wholesale pricing on the highest-end raw food and superfood products in the world, to nourish you and your family for many decades to come!

http://www.therawfoodworld.com/blog/?p=3102