GNC Class Action Alleges Glutamine Products Deceptively Advertised

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A proposed class action lawsuit accuses dietary supplement giant General Nutrition Corporation (GNC) of falsely advertising its L-Glutamine products as being able to “support muscle function” and “support faster recovery after workouts.”

Instead, the complaint asserts that, “the ingestion of GNC’s Products does absolutely nothing for the recovery from exercise, recovery of muscle tissue or ability to decrease muscle wasting (anti-catabolic).”

“GNC, like many companies in the bodybuilding supplement industry, totally ignores competent and reliable scientific data regarding their products and ingredients,” declares the class action.

The GNC glutamine class action lawsuit states that GNC is the world’s largest retailer of special dietary supplements. The complaint contends that GNC makes false and misleading statements about its Pro Performance L-Glutamine Powder 5000, Powder 1500, RapidDrive 5000, and RapidDrive 2500 Power Chew products.

According to the class action, glutamine is a “naturally-occuring, nonessential, neutral amino acid” that the body uses the substance in “muscle growth, recovery, and immunity support.” That is why many people believe taking extra amounts of glutamine will help them build muscle tissue while decreasing fatigue from exercise.

However, the complaint counters that the human body produces its own glutamine, and cites numerous scientific studies that have found that ingesting extra glutamine is “completely ineffective at mimicking [the body’s] physiological responses.”

The class action discusses many scientific studies of glutamine supplements with some detail. In one test, “glutamine failed to affect muscle protein kinetics” of critically ill patients. In a second, healthy humans were given substantial amoutns of glutamine over a 2.5 hour period, but their “muscle protein synthesis” was not increased.

A third study had young adults conduct resistance training, with one group given a placebo and the other given extra amounts of glutamine. The complaint states that the researchers found signs of the resistance training in the subjects’ muscles and physiology, but found no differences between the two groups. The class action goes on to discuss at least four other tests that found no effect on humans from glutamine supplements.

The class action argues that despite all of this scientific data, GNC continues to deceptively advertise its glutamine products as stimulating muscle recovery.

Plaintiff Sean Wagner states that he is one of those consumers who believed GNC’s marketing, and purchased a bottle of GNC Pro Performance L-Glutamine Powder 5000 in July of 2016 at a GNC retail store for $29.99 as a result.

The deceptive marketing lawsuit asks the court to certify a Class of all persons in the U.S. who purchased GNC glutamine supplements. The complaint also requests a “consumer fraud mutli-state class” of residents of California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Washington who purchased those same products.

The class action seeks restitution for consumers and additional damages under state consumer protection laws, as well as an injunction from the court to stop GNC from continuing its deceptive marketing practices.

Wagner is represented by Michael L. Silverman and Klint L. Bruno of The Bruno Firm, and Nick Suciu III of Barbat, Mansour & Suciu PLLC.

The GNC Glutamine Deceptive Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Sean Wagner v. General Nutrition Corporation, Case No. 1:16-cv-10961, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.