Bigger Stronger Faster Page #12

Good. Give me some good

abs, Christian. That's it.

I saw "Conan the Barbarian"

when I was 11.

And at that moment I said,

"that's exactly what I want to do. "

And I started to study

Arnold and his achievements.

So I started training

with weights when I was 14.

I started taking

steroids when I was 16.

So you're advertising

a supplement.

So a guy like me goes

and looks in the magazine

and I see Christian Boeving

and I'm like, "wow, man,

I wanna look like that guy. "

so I go and take

Hydroxycut

or some supplement

because I think that

I'm gonna look like you.

But what I don't know is

that you were taking steroids.

Do you have

any problem with that?

That's a double-edged

sword, my friend.

How to answer this?

Somebody looks at an ad

with me in it

and says, "Christian

Boeving takes Hydroxycut,"

Which I did

and I do.

That doesn't necessarily mean

that I don't take something else.

If they choose

to believe

that that's the only thing

I'm taking to look like that,

then so be it. They should

be smarter than that.

Is it misleading?

Possibly a little bit, yeah.

But is it a lie?

Absolutely not.

I'd say probably 80% to

of all the stuff

I see in magazines

is complete hogwash.

It's ridiculous to me.

I don't understand why there's

this need in advertising

To really

manipulate things-

The bone-thin

fashion models

that got all kinds

of eating disorders,

and with men

it's the opposite.

They get

the Adonis complex.

And then there's all

kinds of trouble ahead

'cause you have all these kids who

are like you and me when we were young

looking at all these people

and they're perfect.

And how does that make somebody

feel who's not as perfect

as the people they're

seeing? Not very good.

So this stuff

I've tried-

loaded with sugar.

I've tried this.

I've tried this.

Of course I've

tried this.

Everybody I think's

tried muscle milk.

I've tried this.

I've tried this.

I've tried

all these drinks.

If speed stack weren't enough,

you have extreme speed stack.

REHAN JALALI:
The supplement

industry is very unregulated.

You don't have to have

F.D.A. approval

To come out with

a dietary supplement.

That gives people room

to come out

with some lower-quality

products.

This product says

"new legal formula" on it.

I don't know what

the old formula really had in it.

"Belizean Man Vine

Extract. "

I don't

want any part of that.

"Best if used by date and

lot number on bottom of can. "

Yeah.

CHRIS:
I always thought

the health industry

was about,

you know, health.

Why does it feel like

we're back in the wild west?

It'll clean your teeth

and curl your hair!

The best in the west.

I wouldn't be dead

without a bottle.

CHRIS:
Well, we can all thank the

senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch.

Look how good he looks.

I want to get his brand

is what I want to do.

CHRIS:
See, the health industry

is big business in Utah.

They make almost a quarter of all

the dietary supplements in America.

And supplements are

a $24-billion industry.

So you do the math.

Making supplements used to be

like making prescription drugs.

You had to prove your

product was safe and effective

before you could sell it. Well,

the supplement cowboys in Utah

thought that was

a real hassle.

So they asked their favorite

senator to change the rules around.

And now you don't have to prove

your product is safe at all.

And the F.D.A. has to prove

that it's not safe

If they want to take it

off the market.

What is this

red goop?

This is the Canadian version

of redline.

We had to take out some of the

ingredients that aren't legal in Canada.

CHRIS:
Thanks to this deregulation,

the supplement industry exploded

And all sorts of new and interesting

people got in on the action.

We were always a good team,

whether we were selling drugs

or whether we were selling

a supplement like we are now.

"Jekyll & Hyde" supplements,

formulated to awaken your other side.

Take this and all of a sudden

you become the freak, the monster.

Everybody wants

to become a monster.

CHRIS:
If Valentino can make a

supplement I bet anyone can do it.

Hola.

- How many guys you need?

- I need two guys.

- We're making dietary

supplements. - Uh-huh.

And I just need a hand with a

couple things. It'd be really easy.

All I need you guys to do

is take the white-

- MAN:
Put inside?

- CHRIS:
Boom.

CHRIS:
First you buy a bunch

of really popular ingredients.

But the trick is

I'm just gonna use

- a tiny amount of each one.

- Oof.

It's what we like to call in the

supplement biz "pixie dusting. "

See, I can hide

my secret formula

behind the term

"proprietary blend"

and not reveal

that it's pretty much

just a pillful

of rice flour.

It's a good way to make a lot of money.

Don't sneeze

in the supplements here.

CHRIS:
But with all those

expensive ingredients on the label

I can make this bottle

for about a buck 40

and sell it for $60.

Thanks, Orrin.

We're in the supplement

business now.

CHRIS:
The scary part is that

everything I just did is by the book-

Well, except for the

illegal-immigrant day laborers.

But hey, nobody's

regulating them either.

Now I just need a

misleading advertisement.

Do you airbrush these guys a lot

when you put them in magazines?

Definitely. There's all

kinds of techniques and tools

you can use to completely

manipulate the body.

- Really? - In fact, some of the

"before" and "after" pictures-

They could be done

on the same day.

You haven't shot them in the

same day, though, have you?

- I have, actually.

- Oh, you have?

- Yeah.

- What do they do-?

Is this the self-editing part?

I should keep my mouth shut?

I could take anybody and

take a picture of them,

make them look

their worst...

think horrible thoughts,

depression.

...and then through

all kinds of ways

make them look

their best.

Just don't

cut my nipple off.

Agh!

All right. Let me see here. Good.

One, two, three.

Good.

We can take it

a step further if we want

in the befores

and the afters.

Basically, you can

take somebody

and make them a little

fatter or shorter.

Are people falling

for this?

They fall for it

all the time.

And it's beyond

what I can understand

because it looks

so silly to me,

but of course I'm somebody

who's had sort of an inside,

backstage pass to what's

really occurred,

and I've been part of some of

these scams that have played out.

CHRIS:
So if unregulated

dietary supplements

are marketed like steroids

and sold by people

who are on steroids,

is it any wonder that so many people

are just taking the real thing?

I mean, it's not like

they're hard to get.

You can cross the border and buy

them from a pet store in Mexico.

MAN:

Testosterona, $15.

But it's for your dog,

right?

Oh, it's for my dog.

Yeah, I forgot.

Yeah yeah,

my dog's anemic.

CHRIS:
Or you can buy them

on the internet like Mad Dog.

If you order online you can

get the sh*t for $250 a kit

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