Salmon – and hidden studies

So I was talking to someone in the industry this week who mentioned that they used to work for one of the big cosmetic companies. The company shall remain nameless but their NPD team (new product development) commissioned a lab study with a view to developing the best anti-ageing cream available.
This is a major player – found in every high end department store – you will have something of this range in your house – guaranteed.

The lab were instructed to take a selection of best selling high-end anti-ageing creams from all the big brands and test them on two groups.
One group would be given the creams to use for a specified period and the other group were instructed to eat salmon 3 x day for the same period.
Salmon for breakfast, lunch and dinner in any form they chose.

The aim was to find out what creams actually worked, replicate that themselves and have ‘clinically proven to’ written all over the packaging.

But:

Houston we have a problem.

Not one cream matched the effects of the salmon on the skin in the time frame given.

Not one.

The study was locked away and the product was shelved.

Take your fish oil people.