From:         Eva Hedin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: a question

<snip>

> Ben
> When I come to your reference to this Rosedale I
> know that later on in your letter there will be
> a link to a commercial site selling God knows what.
> The first thing you see on below website, that
> you gave us, is a link saying "Shop now" .....

 http://www.mannapages.com/CrossfireInternational

<snip>

> "You'll find online shopping, valuable product
> information, plus career opportunities at the
> personal Web Site of a Mannatech Associate".

> How nice, I can shop and I can have a career
> at this site. Dare I guess that I have to pay
> a membership fee in order to gain access to
> this career or buy the stuff?

While Ben is right in that the presence of hype is not necessarily linked
to snake oil and that we should look through the hype to the facts and
weight them up, I write to say that my own experience here in Canberra was
the same back in 2001.  There was a PhD selling Mannatech products in a
shopping mall and she also contributed an academic paper on the virtues of
these expensive glyconutrients to a scientific forum - without referring
in any way to the obvious conflict of interest.

Perhaps there are some places that sell glyconutrients with a sales pitch
that resembles less the Scientologists and more a respectable, open retail
operation.  Or is Mannatech (is the biblical association in the name
coincidental?) the only producer?

Come to think of it, I have not even come across any other source of info
on glyconutirients other than Mannatech and their camp followers.  Are
there any others?

Keith