Adya Clarity Scam Exposed

– Adya Clarity caught deceiving Health Canada in licensing scam that hid aluminum content (Natural News, Oct. 31, 2011):

NaturalNews can now report that Adya, Inc. has been caught not only misrepresenting the composition of its product on its own label, but has now been caught committing marketing fraud that violates its terms of licensing with Health Canada. Health Canada is already investigating the issue.

In response to NaturalNews articles questioning the safety of Adya Clarity, the president of Adya, Inc., Matt Bakos, touted his product’s “NPN number” from Health Canada as proof that the product has been approved as safe for internal consumption.

NaturalNews investigated this claim.

We found license #80024735, listed on the Health Canada NPN search that you can see for yourself right here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/H…

Or you can search the license number yourself at:
http://webprod3.hc-sc.gc.ca/lnhpd-b…

As you can see from this page, Adya Clarity was licensed by Health Canada as an iron supplement. It was not submitted as, nor licensed as, a product to treat arthritis, kidney stones, cancer, heavy metals detoxification, calcification and all the other diseases that Adya has been marketed to treat by Matt Bakos, the founder of Adya, Inc., as well as top Adya distributors.

In fact, Adya Clarity is imported as battery acid as is proven by the shipping manifest here:
http://www.importgenius.com/importe…

In the “Non-Medicinal Ingredients” section of the NPN product registration, four ingredients are listed:

Biotite
Magnesium sulfate
Potassium sulfate
Sulfuric acid

Do you see what’s missing from this list? Aluminum sulfate, which is present in Adya Clarity at 1,090 PPM based on the MSDS provided to us by Adya.

In other words, aluminum sulfate is present in a HIGHER concentration than magnesium sulfate (which is only present in 400 PPM), yet aluminum sulfate was apparently not listed as a non-medicinal ingredient in the application for license submitted to Health Canada.

In other words, Adya, Inc. deceived Health Canada in order to acquire an NPN license by withholding extremely important information from Health Canada about the actual product composition, safety, and its intended use.

If all this seems familiar, it’s because the concentration of aluminum sulfate is also not listed on the Adya Clarity label — a fact we made clear in several previous articles. See the picture of the misleading Adya Clarity ingredients label yourself at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/A…

Furthermore, the high concentration of aluminum sulfate in the product makes it an immediate and urgent danger to fetal brain development and the health of expectant mothers.

“If the concentration of reported aluminum sulfate in this product is accurate, then yes this is very dangerous to a pregnant mom and the fetal brain,” published author and researcher Dr. Roy Dittman told NaturalNews. “Whatever the exposure is for an adult brain, it can be a thousand times worse for the fetal brain.”

A full interview with Dr. Dittman will be published here on NaturalNews later tonight or tomorrow.

Misleading application to Health Canada

As the Health Canada website explains: (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/prod…)

All natural health products (NHPs) sold in Canada require a product licence before being marketed. Obtaining a licence requires submitting to Health Canada detailed information on the product, including:

medicinal ingredients
source
potency
non-medicinal ingredients, and
recommended use.”

Adya, Inc. apparently did not list sulfuric acid in its application, even though it is the primary non-water ingredient in the product. It did not list aluminum sulfate, even though it is the second most common metal in the product, right after iron sulfate.

Furthermore — and here is the most severe violation — Adya Clarity was submitted for licensing as an “iron supplement” — not as a treatment for heavy metals detoxification, removing calcification from the body, and all the other outrageous health “benefits” that have been ascribed to the product by the president of Adya, Inc., Matt Bakos.

This the “recommended use” of Adya Clarity licensed by Health Canada has been grossly violated by the marketing of Adya Clarity by Matt Bakos and others.

All this adds up to is a clear case of fraud.

Massive violations of Health Canada rules and regulations

Adya, Inc. claims their product has been approved as safe by Health Canada. Matt Bakos further insists that this licensing by Health Canada “harmonizes” his product with the USA, implying that it is recognized as a safe health supplement in the United States. (It is not.)

What Adya, Inc. doesn’t tell you is that Adya Clarity is openly marketed in gross violation of Health Canada rules and regulations.

Here are just a few of the regulations that have been widely violated by Adya Clarity marketing (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/adve…).

Note: For the following text, “TMA” refers to “Terms of Market Authorization,” meaning these are the terms under which Health Canada allows licensed NPN products to be marketed:

1.2 Product Representation – An advertisement must not be misleading as to the product category under which it received its TMA, or misrepresent its therapeutic properties.

Violation: Adya Clarity is marketed way beyond merely an “iron supplement.” In fact, it is widely marketed as a “cure-all” for heavy metals poisoning, arthritis, kidney stones and much more.

The advertisement must include the product’s therapeutic indication.

Violation: Adya Clarity’s marketing never refers to Adya Clarity solely as an “iron supplement” even though that is the only use for which it has been licensed.

The advertisement must clearly communicate the intended therapeutic use of the product as per its TMA.

Violation: The marketing of Adya Clarity goes way outside the bounds of the licensed intended use as an iron supplement.

An advertisement must not be misleading by directly or indirectly exaggerating the degree of relief/benefit to be obtained from use of the advertised product.

Violation: The marketing of Adya Clarity promises wildly exaggerated claims of health benefits involving numerous diseases.

1.9 Medicinal vs. Non-medicinal Ingredients – Product benefits must not be presented in a manner that misleads the consumer as to the nature of either the medicinal (therapeutic) or non-medicinal (non-therapeutic) ingredients. No medicinal (therapeutic) benefit can be directly or indirectly attributed to a non-medicinal (non-therapeutic) ingredient

Violation: The only approved ingredient by Health Canada is iron. But the marketing of Adya Clarity promotes “full spectrum minerals” and assigns almost magical healing properties to those minerals.

2.8 Exaggeration of Product Merit – An advertisement must not mislead consumers by exaggerating product merit. It is unacceptable to exaggerate the severity of the condition that can be relieved with the advertised product. It is unacceptable to use superlative terminology to exaggerate therapeutic properties of a product unless supported by its TMA.

Violation: The Adya Clarity marketing videos and webinars are full of exaggerations of product merit. They are filled with superlative terminology. NaturalNews will soon publish videos proving this, featuring Matt Bakos himself.

2.9 Extra Strength / Maximum Strength (See also: “2.20 Power / Strength”) – An advertisement must not be misleading by suggesting that an “extra” strength product provides a greater benefit than a “regular” strength product in cases where both are indicated for the same condition. It is not acceptable to suggest that there is a correlation between the amount of medicinal ingredient and degree of efficacy unless this is part of the product’s TMA.

Violation: Adya Clarity is marketed with the recommendation that people take high-dose “super shots” to experience increased health benefits.

2.21 Risk/Safety Information Communication – In order to make informed decisions about their health, consumers should be provided with fair and balanced information about the benefits and the risks associated with the use of the advertised product.

Consumers should always :

* Be advised to read the label and follow directions of use for the advertised product.

* Where there are known risks, be provided with a general risk/cautionary statement that the advertised product may pose risks and may not be suitable for everyone (or similar wording).

Violation: Adya Clarity is not labeled with warnings for expectant mothers due to aluminum consumption, nor warnings for those genetically predisposed to iron overload.

Read more at:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/adve…

No approval in the United States

Even if the NPN license with Health Canada had been legitimately acquired, it confers no product safety approval in the United States, where Adya Clarity has been aggressively marketed and sold through wide-reaching advertising and video webinars.

Even if the NPN license were valid in the United States (which it isn’t), it was only a license for an iron supplement. In no way did it confer any applicability whatsoever for the long list of other health conditions for which Adya Clarity was aggressively promoted: rheumatoid arthritis, kidney stones, hormone regulation, colon cleansing, candida infections, and much more.

Stated another way, Adya, Inc. appears to have intentionally deceived Health Canada in its application, avoiding any mention of aluminum sulfate (even though it is the second most common in the ingredients, right after iron) and misleading Health Canada about the intended health application of the product.

NaturalNews has contacted Health Canada

Today I spoke with officials at Health Canada about the circumstances surrounding Adya Clarity’s license. They told me they were already investigating the status of the license, but had not yet had sufficient time to make a determination or a public statement.

When Health Canada contacts NaturalNews with more details, we will publish those details. I have no doubt that the license for Adya Clarity will be suspended or revoked once Health Canada becomes fully aware of the marketing of this product, the health claims that are being made for it, and the obvious deceptions that took place as part of the license application process.

Once Health Canada becomes aware of the aluminum content of Adya Clarity, it will be fully realized how dangerous this product may be for internal consumption, especially for expectant mothers.

An overview of the Adya scam

So what we have with Adya Clarity is a product that is:

1) Imported as battery acid.

2) Deceptively and intentionally mislabeled to avoid mentioning the concentration of aluminum sulfate.

3) Licensed in Canada only as an iron supplement, yet marketed and labeled far outside that scope.

4) Marketed internationally (including in the USA and Canada) as a cure-all treatment for arthritis, kidney stones, cancer, heavy metals detoxification, etc.

On that last point, NaturalNews has numerous videos of Matt Bakos and top Adya distributors making what can only be called fraudulent health claims about Adya Clarity for the purpose of selling the product for profit.

Ridiculous rebuttals that simply strain the limits of logic

Some of the responses to questions about Adya Clarity raised by NaturalNews stretch the limits of logic.

For example, when NaturalNews exposed the fact that Adya Clarity did not list the aluminum sulfate concentration in its product (over 1,000 PPM) even though it listed the iron sulfate concentration (2,000 PPM) and magnesium concentration (400 PPM), the absurd response from Adya president Matt Bakos was essentially that after Adya Clarity is diluted into water, the resulting concentration of aluminum sulfate is only a “trace” amount, therefore aluminum sulfate was listed under “trace minerals.”

This is absurd on its face. That people actually buy into this non-logic is truly astonishing. Product labels must list the contents of what’s in the bottle, not what might result if you dilute it 1,000 times with some other liquid.

This should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it. I can’t sell bottled water loaded with lead, and list lead as a “trace mineral” on the label, then claim that it’s only a trace level after you dilute it 1000 : 1. That would be absurd.

Furthermore, the claim that aluminum sulfate from rocks (INORGANIC) is equivalent to the aluminum sulfate found in foods (ORGANIC) is also absurd. Aluminum sulfate from rocks is very quickly broken down in stomach acid (acidity increases aluminum solubility) to become free aluminum.

Then again, Adya, Inc. insists its product is a “food,” and that is absurd on its face as well. The product is a collection of rocks dissolved into sulfuric acid. I have it on the record, with an audio recording, that Matt Bakos claims Adya Clarity is a food.

Millions of dollars in profits

To date, profits generated from Adya Clarity — estimated from calculations of the shipping manifests — may reach as high as $7 million. The product costs an estimated five dollars to import and bottle, and has been retailed on the internet for $149.

Import documents show Adya, Inc. had imported enough raw materials to sell another several million dollars in the product in the future.

Millions of dollars are at stake with Adya Clarity, which is one of the reasons why its importer and distributors have remains in such a state of aggressive denial about the potential for harm in people who use their product (especially among expectant mothers).

Action item: Contact Health Canada now

Do you live in Canada? If you bought Adya Clarity, immediately contact Health Canada to urge they review the Adya, Inc. NPN license:

Here are the exact phone numbers and emails:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/comp…

(You have to scroll down the page to see the numbers.)

If you live in the United States, you may wish to contact the FTC (for the fraudulent marketing) or the FDA (for the outrageous health claims) about this product:

Here is the FTC Complaint Assistant:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_W…

Here are the FDA Consumer Complaint coordinators, state by state:
http://www.fda.gov/safety/reportapr…

When you complain to these regulators, you may cite NaturalNews articles as sources. These regulators already know who we are, as we are usually attacking them for oppressing natural cures. But NaturalNews is not blindly loyal to any industry. We attack fraud wherever it may be found, regardless of the industry in which it is found.

The natural products industry is a wonderful industry with much to offer that’s safe, effective and affordable. All the more reason we must protect our industry by exposing the fraud and thereby protecting our own integrity.

There is a lot more coming soon from NaturalNews on this issue, including interviews, videos, articles, and hopefully breaking news from Health Canada this week.

Stay tuned for regular updates.

And remember: All those who are currently attacking NaturalNews about our warnings over Adya Clarity are the very same people who are making money from Adya! They have their financial interests to protect.

I, for one, would rather just report the truth and let the cards fall where they may.

Fact check: NaturalNews never marketed Adya Clarity

There is a vicious and untrue accusation being leveled against NaturalNews, claiming that I promoted Adya Clarity. This is flatly false. I never promoted Adya Clarity, never endorsed it and never marketed this product in anyway.

Adya Clarity was, however, placed on the shelf in the NaturalNews store, which is an affiliate front-end to the Raw Food World, a large distributor of Adya Clarity in the United States. This was done outside of my awareness, and when I became aware of the safety questions surrounding Adya Clarity, I immediately requested it be removed from the store and requested the email list of store customers so that they could be contacted and offered immediate refunds.

All distributors of Adya Clarity were deceived by Adya, Inc., which distributed its products with misleading labels that hid the actual aluminum content of the product and neglected to mention the sulfuric acid ingredient. This is one of the reasons why so many distributors carried the product — they trusted the label to be accurate, which it has been proven not to be.

Because I never promoted Adya Clarity, there were only a relatively small number of sales through our affiliate store. The fact that our own store had inadvertently carried this product further reinforces the commitment to customer safety that it takes for someone like me to step forward and publish these stories. It would have been in my financial interests to say nothing. Instead, I stepped forward immediately and began to ask the important questions about the safety of this product.

Even as I was doing what was right, other Adya distributors circled the wagons to protect their profits rather than protecting customers. Many distributors continued to sell the product from their own stores, or even offer “2 for 1” specials to try to clear out inventory as quickly as possible. A very small number of other distributors of Adya or “black mica extract” have now taken the product off their stores while they attempt to gather more information.

That Adya promoters would attempt to attack myself and NaturalNews by falsely claiming that we promoted the product is yet another example of the dirty, slimy tactics to which this group will resort when they are cornered by the truth.

Facts are stubborn things, however, and as the facts continue to emerge surrounding this product — its fraudulent marketing, its deceptive labeling, its outrageous profit margins and much more — it will become abundantly clear to the entire natural products community that Adya Clarity was a grand deception which hoodwinked many well-meaning people into selling a deceptively-labeled product that can only be called a fraud.