[raverbashing]

Well, they can't use a placebo for that, you'll starve the placebo group.

You could provide a different meal replacement powder and compare the results (provided the subjects don't know which one looks like what)

[stcredzero]

We don't need to re-research nutrition starting from verification of macronutrients. The placebo could be an imbalanced mix of macronutrients. That way, you would expect malnutrition, not starvation.

[ekianjo]

> You could provide a different meal replacement powder and compare the results

Yeah, you could at least do that.