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I have gotten some requests to review Tranont, a Utah-based multi-level marketing company that sells nutritional supplements. They also sell beauty products, provide tax and wealth management advice, scented candles and CBD based bath products. Seems like a cohesive business model, and with company ‘pillars’ of: “health, wealth, community” how could it *not* be?
Established in 2013 by entrepreneurs (remember this word): Lorne Berry, Russ Losee, and Scott Bland. While they are convincingly dressed like businesspeople, none of them appear to have any certification or training in healthcare.
They are a company with a ‘mission to impact 1 billion lives.’ In addition to their suite of products (I will get to those), they are also trying to change lives by turning us into successful entrepreneurs – just like them! You can sign up as a Tranont Associate and ‘own your own business,’ selling these products.
The company claims we can change our own life with Tranont’s transformative products and the opportunity to make an income, earn incredible rewards, and find personal fulfilment.
When an MLM company uses words like ‘transformation/transformative’ and ‘own your own business,’ it’s a red flag 100% of the time.
MLMs are a $42 billion dollar industry, yet only 25% of MLM salespeople earn money. Guess who earns the most? Those guys in suits! When you’re in an MLM, you’re working for them, and funding their lifestyle.
Of the 25% who actually make money, 14% made less than $5,000, 6% made between $5,000 and $9,999, 3% made between $10,000 and $24,999, 3% made $25,000 or more, while just .05% made $100,000 or more.
MLMs also target women. Please do not involve yourself in or support companies like these.
At Tranont (as well as most other MLMs), once you sign up as an associate, you get your own sales page and the chance to earn points to use towards attending Tranont conferences! As you sell more, you move up the levels! Diamond… Platinum… Ruby. Very fancy.
Associates who reach targets even become ‘Jeep Earners’ and are rewarded with a Jeep embellished with Tranont’s logo!
Here we have Bri, who is a Blue Diamond ranked associate, and has mastered the art of recruitment, utilises her Instagram following to round up others to join her with the ‘total body reset system bundle’.
Oh Bri, there’s no such thing as a ‘whole body reset.’
Also: going on a diet doesn’t lead to ‘overall healthier eating and living.’ Just the opposite, in fact.
New associates are provided encouraging blog posts which outline how they help them “get to convention and press their business forward”. This convention is a Tony Robins style self-help circle jerk gathering crossed with a Hollywood Award Gala set in Las Vegas.
At the conference, you are shown slides like this one, with the subtle hint of spiritual manipulation.
As you may have guessed by now, this – and other MLMs – aren’t about health and wellness. They’re about sales, recruiting, and more sales. Luckily there are regulatory bodies that MLMs fall under.
Tranont has gotten into some recent tangles with theseregulatory bodies. In the past two years, the company has had investigations by the Better Business Bureau and The Direct Selling Self Regulatory Council, as well as The Federal Trade Commision. These have apparently been resolved, but they speak to what a Wild West the MLM sales industry is.
Remember Bri? She contributed to a blog post on the Tranont website where she gave some savvy media strategy, explaining that “during the holidays, we are much more product-focused on our social-media accounts—our network loves product bundles and gift suggestions! For example, this year we’re grouping Enrich, Glow, Nourish, and Mojo together and we’re promoting them as a ‘skinny set’!”.
Yes, you read that correctly – she’s promoting a random bundle of unregulated products, and calling them a ‘skinny set’, as a gift suggestion for the holiday season.
If you feel that this is an appropriate gift to give someone, please think again.
“Backed by Science, we followed our gut”: Tranont and gut health
Tranont is all about gut health, making the statement that the body’s gut balance can have an impact on your skin, mood, weight, immunity, and brain. This is theoretically true, but despite saying they are ‘backed by science’ they regrettably don’t cite any scientific evidence to support their claims.
We can all agree that gut health is certainly a crucial part of our overall well-being, and we know that our microbiome can be impacted by our diet (and here). There is an incredible amount of research being done on this topic (including more than 500 Active clinical trials tagged with gut microbiome on www.clinicaltrials.gov) – it’s exceedingly complex and we are learning more every day.
What we DO NOT agree on is whether Tranont products will actually have a clinically relevant impact on gut health…or health in general.
Tranont review: Tranont weight loss
The Tranont weight management line includes products like ENRICH, NOURISH, AND ZEST.
A $251 USD bundle of all 3, referred to as the Goal Getter bundle, is what the company claims is a ‘triple threat combination for improved weight management.’ Tranont also claims these products will help to ‘support focus and energy, improve the gut skin connection, and optimize digestion and nutrient absorption’.
I’m skeptical.
Tranont ENRICH
Tranont Enrich is allegedly a full-spectrum enzyme, prebiotic, and probiotic blend to “help support healthy digestion, nutrient absorption, and overall wellness.”
Tranont Enrich is supposed to give us ‘digestive stability’ (not a medical term). Tranont cautions that ‘you can eat with all the best intentions, but without a diverse enzyme profile, those benefits may pass right through you.’
Isn’t it interesting how companies try to create doubt and anxiety to push products?
YOUR DIET IS GREAT, BUT TOO BAD! YOU NEED OUR PRODUCT ANYHOW! Red flag.
‘This is exactly what the body would do,’ Tranont says. Which is correct, but what they’re not telling you is that your body is probably ALREADY DOING IT.
I’ve got great news for you: unless you’ve been medically diagnosed with a specific enzyme deficiency (and yes, you’d know if you had that), your ‘enzyme profile’ is diverse enough.
As far as the probiotics in Enrich, I’m wondering what their quality and efficacy is. Some probiotics can’t make it past the acidic environment of the stomach without being destroyed. Without independent testing to prove the contents of Enrich are effective, you’re flushing your money down the toilet.
Further, supplementing with probiotics is not necessary for most healthy people who eat a varied diet.
Do you need probiotics? I break this question down.
Tranont Nourish
Here’s what the company says about Nourish:
Tranont Nourish has been clinically proven to “promote beauty from within” by helping to brighten skin tone, diminish the appearance of fine lines, and restore moisture to the skin.
Every scoop delivers a powerful combination of our advanced superfood blend and GOS, our prebiotic-fiber formula, to help nourish your microbiome and fuel the healthy flora in your intestine…because when you look after your gut microbiota, your skin will flourish.
I can’t wait to see the ‘clinical proof’ of these claims, except I can’t find any.
It’s important to note that a link between our gut, our skin clarity, and any supplements has never been found. The gut and skin seem to be connected in the case of acne, psoriasis, and other actual skin conditions, but wrinkles and skin tone are another thing entirely.
Selling a supplement claiming that it increases hydration and reduces wrinkles is absolutely ridiculous.
Tranont’s nutrition products use ‘proprietary blends,’ which I take issue with. This is mainly because by labelling groups of ingredients as ‘proprietary,’ the company does not have to disclose how much – or how little – the product has of them.
It’s not transparent, and at worst, it can be dangerous. Plus, even if an ingredient in a product was effective, how do we know if we’re getting the correct dose of it?
Tranont Nourish has 80 calories and 15 grams of protein per serving, which is absurdly low for a meal replacement. Sure, you can mix Nourish with other things, but the instructions say to simply mix it with 8-12oz of a ‘beverage of your choice.’
It’s confounding to me, as a dietitian, why anyone would choose to use this product.
Here’s the issue with MLMs and their coaches.
Tranont Zest
Tranont Zest is “motivation in the making—especially when it comes to holding strong to your weight-management goals. Along with a super-boost of clean energy, Zest delivers improved alertness, greater focus, enhanced cognitive function, and craving control.”
MLMs always seem to have supplements that they claim help with cravings. Quality research doesn’t exist to support this claim for any of these supplements, or the ingredients in them. Remember that cravings are often emotional, not physiological.
The entire concepts of ‘motivation’ and ‘willpower’ around weight loss, are patently false.
Tranont also claims that Zest can ‘improve mood,’ which is a claim I believe has the potential to be dangerous. I’d never want anyone to go off mood medication in favor of this or any supplement.
There is no convincing human evidence that the mood-enhancing ingredients in Zest – or other supplements – work consistently in that capacity.
Notably, caffeine (from green coffee beans) features prominently in Zest. The blend contains 140 mg natural caffeine per serving. To put that amount in perspective, caffeinated soft drinks are around 40mg/12oz, and a 12oz cup of coffee clocks in between 80-100 mg.
The maximum recommended intake for caffeine is 400mg /day. This drops to 300mg for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to become pregnant. In these cases, taking more than 2 scoops of Zest per day may be risky to health.
It seems like Zest is trying to get customers hopped up on caffeine, so they don’t eat food (or have the twitchiness to move around more?). If it’s the caffeine you’re after, I promise you there are cheaper ways. I’m not sure how a stimulant can provide ‘motivation,’ either.
Tranont review, in short
When you strip away the precious gem names, the sleek website, the jeeps, and ‘feel-good’ goals, what are we left with?
In my opinion, just big promises with underwhelming science to back them up.
These products may seem like cure-all wonder potions, but they’re mostly multi-vitamins with added “superfood” (a made up term) powder, and protein. The meal replacement, Tranont Nourish, is pitifully low in energy and protein. Tranont Zest is mainly just a stimulant.
Hard pass on Tranont. Seek out health services from licensed professionals who are part of a regulatory body.
Written by Lise Wolyniuk and review by Abby Langer RD
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