NEW: AJC: “Herschel Walker spent years promoting health products with dubious claims”

A new report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that U.S Senate candidate Herschel Walker has “spent years promoting health products with dubious claims” that were “not supported by medical evidence generally accepted by the medical community,” noting that “the products were commercial failures, cost Walker and his business partners millions of dollars and put his companies into deep debt, for which creditors have repeatedly sued Walker and his associates to recover.”

It’s just the latest in a long line of widely-reported falsehoods, exaggerations, and scams from Walker on everything from his businesses to his academic record. The Daily Beast released a bombshell report exposing his “previously unexamined, and particularly egregious, false claims” — including proof that Walker “claims to own companies that don’t exist.”

Read the latest report below:

Herschel Walker spent years promoting health products with dubious claims

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dylan Jackson, 4/28/22

• Senate candidate Herschel Walker has spent years promoting and developing health-conscious products with dubious benefits and skepticism from the medical community, a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found.

• He looked to “revolutionize” the health market with products he said would prevent aging, help weight loss and even protect against the damages of smoking—despite little evidence, his company admitted in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• In many cases, the products were commercial failures, cost Walker and his business partners millions of dollars and put his companies into deep debt, for which creditors have repeatedly sued Walker and his associates to recover, as revealed by previous reporting by the AJC.
• Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Walker has more recently promoted a product that he said “will kill any COVID on your body” despite no evidence for his claim.
• Walker’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
• Soon after Walker retired from professional football, he founded Renaissance Man, Inc. Through this company, Walker developed, sold and became the spokesperson for Aloe-Lu-Ya, an aloe-based drink.
• Aloe-Lu-Ya was launched through Walmart in 1999 but was a “commercial failure”, Walker’s company said in a later SEC filing.
• In 2002, the company merged with American Consolidated Mining Co. and was renamed American Consolidated Management Group (ACMG). Walker was appointed as president and CEO.
• Through this new company, Walker and his business partners began developing Sunutra. Like with Aloe-Lu-Ya, Walker and his company portrayed Sunutra as a way to ward off disease.
• In its marketing, the company boasted of the “phytonutrients” within Sunutra, a plant extract which included three to five servings of fruits and vegetables per serving. 
• “These beliefs are not supported by medical evidence generally accepted by the medical community,” the company said in an SEC filing.
• The company would continue to rack up roughly $7 million in debt until, in 2013, the agency revoked its securities status.
• But to portray the products as a way to reduce the likelihood and impact of more than a dozen different diseases and ailments is a stretch.
• “It certainly isn’t going to prevent disease,” Meister said. 
• In 2014 Walker was a brand ambassador for Livio International, a multi-level-marketing company that sold an anti-aging skincare product which promised to turn “back your biological clock”.
• In 2018, Walker served as a spokesperson for Novagen, a testosterone-boosting supplement Walker said boosts labido and strength.
• More recently, Walker promoted two COVID prophylactics that he said were EPA and FDA approved and would “kill any COVID in your body” in an August 2020 appearance on conservative host Glenn Beck’s podcast.
• “Do you know, right now, I have something that can bring you into a building that would clean you from covid as you walk through this dry mist?” Walker said. “As you walk through the door, it will kill any covid on your body. EPA-, FDA-approved.”
• On the campaign trail, Walker has frequently expressed doubt about public health policies.
• While many leading political figures urged Georgians to get inoculated from the coronavirus, Walker amplified a false tweet from performer Nikki Minaj about the vaccine causing swollen testicles and initially refused to tell the AJC whether he had received the shot.
• At a meet-and-greet with conservative voters this month, he told the audience he didn’t “get one because I don’t think the government should be telling you to get one.”
• “That’s the way I feel,” he added.

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