FTC Charges Nature’s Way Products’ Ads for “Cantrol” Were False and Unsubstantiated

FTC Charges Nature’s Way Products’ Ads for “Cantrol”
Were False and Unsubstantiated

Company to Pay $30,000 for Medical Research, under Consent Agreement

FTC News Release
January 26, 1990

The Federal Trade Commission has charged Nature’s Way Products with making unsubstantiated claims in advertising that “Cantrol” capsules fight yeast infections. Under a consent agreement announced today for public comment, the company agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims about certain nutritional supplements in the future and also agreed to pay $30,000 to the National Institutes of Health to support research in candidiasis or the effects of yeast on health.

The complaint charges that the company advertised Cantrol with a 14-question, diagnostic “yeast test,” with such questions as “Do you feel tired most of the time?” and “Do you suffer from swing moods or depression?” The ad claimed that “If you answered 6 or more questions with a ‘yes,’ the probability is high to very high that you, like so many others, have a yeast infection.” These ads were carried in national magazines such as American Health, Shape, and Let’s Live.

The ads claimed that yeast (candida albicans) “can sometimes grow rapidly due to a variety of conditions,” but that “Cantrol’s high potency formula helps keep yeast colonies from overpopulating in the intestines where they grow.”