Nutrition Distribution (Anabolic Xtreme, Athletic Xtreme, Nuton): the supplement seller that pleaded guilty, then filed 83 false-advertising suits

Who they are, and what the record says

Nutrition Distribution, LLC is a sports-supplement company organised in Arizona. A federal court in 2018 found that it develops, advertises and sells fitness supplements from Arizona, and named two of them: "supplements are advanced pct and mass fx black".[1] Its own 2018 complaints call it "plaintiff nutrition distribution llc dba athletic xtreme" and give its principal "place of business at 14215 n 8th place phoenix arizona 85022".[2] Its trademark filings put it in Tempe from 2007 to 2011 and, from 2021, at a suite in Boise, Idaho, the address that the Nuton supplement site now prints as "3100 n lakeharbor ln ste 164 boise id 83703".[3][4]

It has traded under three names. The first was Anabolic Xtreme, a brand online from 2004 and run at first by a different Arizona company, Anabolic Resources LLC. In 2005 its company page said "anabolic resources was formed to bring you the best products for strength and size using pharmaceutical grade products", and that "superdrol is licensed from designer supplements".[5] Nutrition Distribution applied for the ANABOLIC XTREME trademark in May 2007, from the same Tempe street address Anabolic Resources had used on its own filings, and the trademark office also records the SUPERDROL mark in the name of Anabolic Resources LLC, doing business as Anabolic Xtreme.[3] In court in 2008 Nutrition Distribution was sued as "Nutrition Distribution, LLC, d/b/a Anabolic Xtreme", and in 2011 it was prosecuted under the same name.[6][7] The two companies are separate entities in every record we read. The FDA's 2006 letter to Anabolic Resources is addressed to an officer whom the court's 2018 findings in the IronMag case name as one of Nutrition Distribution's two corporate representatives.[8][1]

Figure 1. The Anabolic Xtreme brand in May 2005, run by Anabolic Resources LLC. Superdrol was its headline product, "licensed from Designer Supplements". Nutrition Distribution registered the ANABOLIC XTREME name two years later. [5]

The second name, Athletic Xtreme or AX, appeared in 2010. Its pages told customers to "contact nutrition distribution at 1 888 388 7566".[9] The company registered ATHLETIC XTREME in 2022, but athleticxtreme.com itself had lapsed: by 2018 it was a blog about "continuous positive airway pressure" machines.[3][10] The third name is Nuton. Its site sold "natural mct oil from organic coconuts" from "877 main street ste 606 boise id 83702" in 2018, and by 2025 it sold two capsules whose trademarks Nutrition Distribution filed, Happy Cells and Happy Dreams, from the Lakeharbor Lane suite.[11][4][3] It filed two more marks in 2026, CREALUXE and AXPRESSO.[3]

What it sold

Superdrol, under the Anabolic Xtreme name. In 2005 the brand's Superdrol page promised that "many people have packed on pounds of lean mass and increased their strength".[12] Its active ingredient, by the FDA's account below, was methasterone, a steroid the DEA later made a controlled substance; the IronMag dossier and the deep dive on designer steroids tell that story and what followed Superdrol onto supplement shelves. By August 2007 the home page carried a notice: "effective january 2006 anabolic xtreme has ceased marketing and sales of all licensed pro hormone products to include superdrol phera plex ergomax and prostanozol". It added that "it was never our objective to market supplement products for the purposes of undetectability in doping tests".[13]

Figure 2. The brand's own account, still on its home page in 2007: Superdrol and three other "licensed pro hormone products" stopped in January 2006, the same month the later criminal judgment gives as the end of Anabolic Resources' offence. [13]

Post-cycle and diet products. From 2008 the Anabolic Xtreme menu listed Advanced PCT, a capsule for men coming off a prohormone cycle: "no cycle is complete without advanced pct". The page called it the "fastest acting testosterone and sex drive restoration post cycle therapy protocol ever", and named no study.[14] The 2011 label shows what was in it: an "advanced pct matrix 600 mg" of "7 methoxyflavone 50 mg", cordyceps, L-histidine and grape seed extract, each with an amount, and a warning against use by "persons under the age of 18".[15] A complaint the company filed in 2018 says it introduced Advanced PCT "in july 2009"; the archived menu shows it in October 2008.[2][14] Alongside it ran a muscle builder, Mass FX (later Mass FX Black), and diet pills: Slim Xtreme in 2009, then Slim FX.[1][16]

Figure 3. Advanced PCT, the product Nutrition Distribution put at the centre of its SARM suits, in 2011. Every ingredient has an amount. None is a hormone or a SARM. [15]

The Slim Xtreme recall. On 11 October 2009 the company recalled every lot of "slim xtreme by nutrition distribution d b a anabolic xtreme". Its notice said the ingredient in question was one it described this way: "we have a very novel custom formulated amino acid proline ingredient in the product", printed on the box as phenyl-pyrrolindynltoulene. It said "the law is not clear as to this issue", that it had no reports of serious adverse events, and that online "suggestions were made that sx contained meth or phentermine", which it called false.[17] We found no FDA document naming the ingredient, and no test of the product.

Figure 4. October 2009: the company's own recall of its diet pill Slim Xtreme. It names one ingredient it calls "very novel" and says "the law is not clear as to this issue". [17]

Figure 5. The rebrand, August 2010: Anabolic Xtreme becomes AX, then Athletic Xtreme. The footer still tells customers to contact Nutrition Distribution. [9]

What it sells now. In September 2025 the Nuton home page showed Happy Cells, "nmn beta nicotinamide mononucleotide 500 mg" with piperine, and Happy Dreams, "rapid release and time released melatonin" with asparagus extract and Venetron. It says NMN "helps preserve and repair dna".[4] Neither product is the kind of compound its lawsuits were about.

Figure 6. What it sells now, from Boise: Nuton, an NMN capsule and a melatonin sleep formula. The footer gives the Boise suite on Nutrition Distribution's trademark filings. [4]

The 2006 warning letter and the 2011 guilty pleas

On 8 March 2006 the FDA wrote to Anabolic Resources: "this letter relates to your product anabolic xtreme superdrol containing the synthetic steroid methasteron". The letter quoted the website's "many people have packed on pounds of lean mass and increased their strength" and held that methasterone could not be a dietary ingredient: "rather it is a synthetic steroid". Its conclusion: "based on these claims fda considers anabolic xtreme superdrol to be a drug", an unapproved new drug.[8] The next day the agency's press release listed "anabolic xtreme superdrol manufactured for anabolic resources llc gilbert arizona" first among the "so called dietary supplement products" it had warned about.[18]

Figure 7. 9 March 2006: the FDA names Anabolic Xtreme Superdrol first among the "so called dietary supplement products" it had warned about. [18]

Figure 8. The letter itself. The FDA's reasoning is short: methasterone is "a synthetic steroid", so the product is a drug, not a supplement. The addressee block is cropped out. [8]

Five years later both companies were prosecuted in federal court in San Jose. The judgment against Nutrition Distribution, doing business as Anabolic Xtreme, entered on 30 November 2011, records a guilty plea to one count under 21 U.S.C. 331(d) and 333(a)(2): introducing unapproved new drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead, an offence that ended in August 2009. The court ordered a $100,000 forfeiture, paid by cashier's check in court, and a $400 assessment.[7] The same judge entered judgment the same day against Anabolic Resources, also doing business as Anabolic Xtreme, on the same charge for conduct that ended in January 2006, the month Superdrol was dropped, with a fine of $500,000.[19][13] Both judgments are scanned forms that do not name the products. IronMag's lawyers later filed the informations as exhibits and described the judgment as entered "after nutrition distribution pleaded guilty".[20] Those exhibits are not in the public mirror, so this dossier does not say which of Nutrition Distribution's products the 2011 count concerned.

Figure 9. November 2011: Nutrition Distribution, "dba Anabolic Xtreme", adjudged guilty of a felony count under the drug law, for conduct that ended in August 2009. The judgment does not name the products. [7]

Figure 10. The same day, the same judge: Anabolic Resources, the company the FDA had warned over Superdrol, fined $500,000 on the same charge. Nutrition Distribution's own judgment ordered a $100,000 forfeiture. [19]

The lawsuits

How many. Nutrition Distribution's first false-advertising suit in the federal court mirror was filed in August 2013, against Driven Sports.[21] The rest came in a burst. In September 2018 IronMag's lawyers filed a list of the complaints Nutrition Distribution had brought since 2015, 83 of them in federal and California state courts, including two against Blackstone Labs: "the complaint plaintiff filed against blackstone labs in the united" States District Court in Los Angeles in March 2015, and another in Los Angeles Superior Court that August.[22] IronMag's lawyers told the court that it "has filed not fewer than 83 other false" advertising suits, and that 49 of them "false advertising lawsuits concerned sarms", ten peptides, seven prohormones and four DMZ.[23] The Ninth Circuit put it in one sentence: "appellant nutrition distribution llc filed over eighty false advertising lawsuits between 2015 and 2018".[24] The Blackstone Labs dossier has that company's side of the period.

Figure 11. 83 complaints in three and a quarter years, counted from the list IronMag's lawyers filed in 2018. Two thirds went to San Diego and Phoenix. [22]

What they claimed. The complaints share a form. Sellers of SARMs and peptides labelled "not for human consumption" were said to be marketing them for human use and hiding the risks; a 2016 suit over DMZ complained that the defendant had marketed its "product fury dmz as" the strongest anabolic pre-workout.[25][26] Later suits took on stimulants: two products said to contain a "chemical known as dmha", and DMAA, against which the company said its own product had been designed to fill the "market void left by the eventual absence of soon to be illegal dmaa".[27][28] One went after the industrial chemical DNP, sold for weight loss by Enhanced Athlete.[16] In each, Nutrition Distribution's standing rested on being a competitor whose sales the false advertising diverted; in Arizona it told the court "it sells natural nutritional supplements" designed to boost testosterone.[25]

How they ended. We read the docket of every Nutrition Distribution suit from 2015 to 2018 that the federal court mirror holds with an outcome, 30 in all. Thirteen settled, on terms the dockets do not give. Six were dropped by Nutrition Distribution with no settlement on the docket. Six were dismissed or transferred because the court had no jurisdiction over the defendant or was the wrong venue, and one closed because the defendant was never served. Four were decided: two default judgments for Nutrition Distribution, one judgment for the defendants, and the injunction against IronMag.[29]

Figure 12. How they ended, where the docket says. Most settled or were dropped; the terms of the settlements are not in the record. Three were decided on the merits or by default. [29]

IronMag. The case that went furthest is told in the IronMag dossier. The court found IronMag's no-side-effect claims for two ostarine products literally false and enjoined them. It also found that Nutrition Distribution had shown no harm to itself: "plaintiff has not provided proof of lost profits or lost business" opportunities, and that the plaintiff and "ironmag labs were two of many competitors in an industry" of fitness supplements.[1] Nutrition Distribution's appeal of that judgment came too late. The Ninth Circuit ruled "we affirm the denial of fees and otherwise dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction", and on fees it held that the case was not exceptional: the company's failure to show injury, combined with its decision to file "80 similar lawsuits in a three year span", did not make it stand out.[24]

Figure 13. The IronMag case, December 2018. The court found IronMag's claims false and enjoined them, but found that Nutrition Distribution had not shown it lost a single sale. [1]

Figure 14. The Ninth Circuit's only published opinion in its cases, 2020. It opens with the count. [24]

The defaults. Its two money judgments came against sellers that did not appear. In August 2018 an Arizona court entered a default against NutraClipse for $33,609.87 in trebled profits, $12,795 in fees and $707.50 in costs, with an injunction.[30] In December 2018 a Nevada court entered a default against Strong Supplements of $2,033,808, with an injunction barring it "from producing licensing marketing or selling any products" containing prohormones. Six weeks later Strong Supplements moved to set it aside, saying the person served was not its registered agent; the mirror does not show the ruling.[31][29]

Figure 15. Its largest award, $2,033,808, came by default against a Las Vegas seller that never answered. The seller moved to set it aside six weeks later, saying it had not been properly served. [31]

The losses. In San Diego, PEP Research won summary judgment in February 2019: the court found no evidence that its research-use-only labels were literally false, that they deceived anyone, or that they caused Nutrition Distribution any injury.[32] PEP then asked for its fees, arguing the suit was brought to run up costs. The court refused, finding neither bad faith nor an exceptionally weak case; it recorded Nutrition Distribution's answer that "retailers like defendants are criminally convicted for their intentional schemes to defraud" and mislead.[33] In Phoenix a judge dismissed a suit against a Pennsylvania seller rather than transfer it, after Nutrition Distribution's lawyer had answered a request to move the case with "we are an arizona corp so that is where the" damage occurred, and later "we will not dismiss": "the court dismisses this case in lieu of transfer".[34]

Figure 16. Phoenix, 2017: dismissed, not transferred, because the company had refused to move the case to Pennsylvania. Four of its suits ended on jurisdiction or venue. [34]

What the courts said about its standing. No Ninth Circuit opinion we found rules on its standing or on unclean hands. The district courts drew two lines. In Arizona in 2016 a judge refused to send the SARM questions to the FDA, because sellers who denied ostarine was a drug "defendants cannot invoke the same authority to avoid a suit" under the Lanham Act; that ruling was published.[25] In Sacramento in 2017 a judge refused a preliminary injunction against the DNP seller, because the danger to buyers was not the company's own harm: "plaintiff is a competitor not a consumer", and "the court will not presume irreparable harm".[16]

Figure 17. Sacramento, 2017, in a suit over DNP: the danger to buyers was real enough to argue, but it was not the company's harm. "Plaintiff is a competitor not a consumer." [16]

What the suits achieved. On the record: one contested injunction against false claims for SARM products (IronMag, 2018), two default injunctions (NutraClipse; Strong Supplements, against prohormones), thirteen settlements of unknown terms, and no reported damages award after a contested case. The FDA's own actions against SARM and DMAA sellers in the same years are told in the IronMag dossier and the deep dive on designer steroids; we found no court or agency document crediting these suits for any of them.

What buyers report

We searched r/prohormones, r/sarmssourcetalk, r/Sarms, r/steroids, r/moreplatesmoredates and r/PEDs on 2026-10-12 through the Arctic Shift archive for "nutrition distribution", "anabolic xtreme" and "athletic xtreme". No post we found names the company or its brands; the brands' years of greatest sale, 2005 to 2012, predate most of those subreddits' archives.[35] There is no buyer record here to weigh either way.

Lab results

Athletic Xtreme said in 2012 that "strict quality control lab testing and manufacturing under tightly controlled conditions are very important to us", and published no certificate on the pages we read.[36] Nuton's 2025 home page invites buyers to "click the button below to view your lab results look up your lot".[4] We did not examine any certificate behind that lookup, and this site's lab-results section holds no test of a Nutrition Distribution product.

Allegations: who says what, why, and what we could check

• That Superdrol caused liver failure in a buyer. An Alabama man sued Nutrition Distribution, Anabolic Resources, Designer Supplements and a retailer in 2007, saying the product had caused "life threatening injuries including liver failure".[6] Who says it: the buyer, seeking damages. Nutrition Distribution denied the allegations and said it had committed no act that caused his damages.[37] What we could check: the federal court twice sent the case back to the state court in Covington County, and the federal record stops there. We found no verdict or settlement. Nothing above rests on it.
• That Nutrition Distribution had unclean hands. IronMag argued in 2018 that the company could not claim to protect the public when it had pleaded guilty in 2011, saying "plaintiff seeks to exclude evidence that it pleaded guilty to doing effectively the" same thing it accused IronMag of.[38] Who says it: a defendant it had sued, seeking to defeat its claim. What we could check: the guilty plea is a matter of record.[7] The products behind it are not in the public record, so whether the conduct was the same cannot be checked. The court never decided whether the defendants had "established their affirmative defense of unclean hands": Nutrition Distribution had already failed to prove injury, so the question did not arise.[1]
• That the suits were brought to extract settlements. PEP Research's lawyers argued exactly that in 2019. What we could check: the court found they had not shown it, and refused them fees; the Ninth Circuit in the IronMag case declined to call the case exceptional either way.[33][24] The settlement terms are not public.

If you bought from Anabolic Xtreme, Athletic Xtreme or Nuton, hold a label or a test result, or were sued by the company, rate it below or leave a note.

Figure 18. Twenty-two years in one column, drawn by us from the court record, the FDA, the trademark office and the archived sites. [29]

Still open

• Which products the 2011 guilty plea concerned. Searched the federal court mirror for the informations and plea agreements in N.D. Cal. 5:11-cr-00790 and 5:11-cr-00791 and the IronMag exhibits that reproduced them; the mirror holds the judgments only.
• What Slim Xtreme's recalled ingredient was. Searched the FDA's warning-letter index for "Nutrition Distribution", "Anabolic Xtreme" and "Athletic Xtreme", and openFDA's recall data for the same names; none found.
• The outcome of the Superdrol injury suit after its return to state court in Alabama. Not searched in state records.
• The other 53 of the 83 complaints, most in San Diego and in Los Angeles Superior Court. Not in the federal mirror with an outcome, or not federal.
• Whether the Strong Supplements default stood. The mirror's docket ends with the motion to set it aside.
• Nuton's lot certificates. Not examined.

Changes

References

1. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, Dkt 135, findings of fact and conclusions of law, 2018-12-13 — CourtListener (RECAP)
2. Complaint, Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Sarms Pharm LLC, D. Ariz. No. 2:18-cv-00243, 2018-01-23 — CourtListener (RECAP)
3. USPTO trademark records, owner Nutrition Distribution LLC: ANABOLIC XTREME (serial 77189410, filed 2007-05-24, registered 2008, cancelled 2014), SX SLIMXTREME (77654266), ATHLETIC XTREME (90757110, registered 2022), HAPPY DREAMS (98196134, registered 2024), CREALUXE (99621898, 2026), AXPRESSO (50011742, 2026); and SUPERDROL (78684116) in the name of Anabolic Resources LLC dba Anabolic Xtreme — U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
4. nutonlife.com home page, archived 2025-09-10 — Wayback Machine
5. anabolicx.com company page, archived 2005-05-24 — Wayback Machine
6. Opinion and order remanding a Superdrol injury suit against Nutrition Distribution, LLC, d/b/a Anabolic Xtreme, and others to state court, M.D. Ala. No. 2:08-cv-794-MHT, 2008-12-04 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
7. Judgment in a criminal case (organizational defendant), United States v. Nutrition Distribution dba Anabolic Xtreme, N.D. Cal. No. 5:11-cr-00790-DLJ, Dkt 13, 2011-11-30 (scanned) — CourtListener (RECAP)
8. FDA warning letter to Anabolic Resources LLC, Gilbert, Arizona, 2006-03-08 (g5736d), archived 2006-05-16 — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Wayback Machine)
9. athleticxtreme.com home page, archived 2010-08-22 — Wayback Machine
10. athleticxtreme.com, archived 2018-05-04 (an unrelated CPAP blog) — Wayback Machine
11. nutonlife.com home page, archived 2018-01-07 — Wayback Machine
12. anabolicx.com Superdrol page, archived 2005-05-27 — Wayback Machine
13. anabolicxtreme.com home page, archived 2007-08-09 — Wayback Machine
14. Advanced PCT product page, anabolicx.com, archived 2008-10-26 — Wayback Machine
15. Advanced PCT supplement facts, athleticxtreme.com, archived 2011-06-02 — Wayback Machine
16. Nutrition Distribution, LLC v. Enhanced Athlete, Inc., E.D. Cal. No. 2:17-cv-2069, order denying preliminary injunction, 2017-11-14 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
17. anabolicxtreme.com home page with the Slim Xtreme recall notice of 2009-10-11, archived 2010-04-18 — Wayback Machine
18. FDA news release P06-37, 'FDA Warns Manufacturers About Illegal Steroid Products Sold as Dietary Supplements', 2006-03-09, archived 2006-06-21 — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Wayback Machine)
19. Judgment in a criminal case (organizational defendant), United States v. Anabolic Resources dba Anabolic Xtreme, N.D. Cal. No. 5:11-cr-00791-DLJ, Dkt 11, 2011-11-30 (scanned) — CourtListener (RECAP)
20. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, C.D. Cal. No. 2:15-cv-08233, Dkt 15, defendants' request for judicial notice, 2016-02-26 — CourtListener (RECAP)
21. Docket, Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Driven Sports, C.D. Cal. No. 2:13-cv-06195, filed 2013-08-22 — Internet Archive (RECAP)
22. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, C.D. Cal. No. 2:15-cv-08233, Dkt 50, defendants' request for judicial notice listing the plaintiff's complaints, 2018-09-24 — CourtListener (RECAP)
23. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, Dkt 120, defendants' opposition to motion in limine no. 1 (other lawsuits), 2018-11-19 — CourtListener (RECAP)
24. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, No. 19-55251 (9th Cir.), order and amended opinion, 2020-10-29 — CourtListener (RECAP)
25. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Custom Nutraceuticals LLC, D. Ariz. No. 2:16-cv-00173-DGC, order on motion to dismiss, 2016-07-08 (194 F. Supp. 3d 952) — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
26. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. New Health Ventures LLC, S.D. Cal. No. 3:16-cv-02338, order on motion to dismiss, 2017-06-13 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
27. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IQ Formulations LLC, D. Ariz. No. 2:18-cv-00348-GMS, order of dismissal, 2019-03-07 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
28. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Juggernaut Nutrition LLC, D. Ariz. No. 2:18-cv-00762-JAT, order of dismissal, 2018-09-14 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
29. Federal court dockets naming Nutrition Distribution in the Internet Archive's RECAP mirror: 41 items, of which 30 are its 2015 to 2018 suits with an outcome entry; read 2026-10-12 — Internet Archive (RECAP)
30. Docket, Nutrition Distribution LLC v. NutraClipse Inc., D. Ariz. No. 2:17-cv-01087, default judgment 2018-08-28 — Internet Archive (RECAP)
31. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Strong Supplements, LLC, D. Nev. No. 2:17-cv-02603-GMN, order granting default judgment, 2018-12-17 — CourtListener (RECAP)
32. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. PEP Research, LLC, S.D. Cal. No. 3:16-cv-02328-WQH, order granting summary judgment, Dkt 75, 2019-02-15 (scanned) — CourtListener (RECAP)
33. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. PEP Research, LLC, S.D. Cal. No. 3:16-cv-02328-WQH, order denying attorney fees, 2019-05-08 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
34. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. Muscle Store Inc., D. Ariz. No. 2:17-cv-02116-GMS, order of dismissal, 2017-10-26 — GovInfo (U.S. Courts opinions)
35. Reddit searches for 'nutrition distribution', 'anabolic xtreme' and 'athletic xtreme' in r/prohormones, r/sarmssourcetalk, r/Sarms, r/steroids, r/moreplatesmoredates and r/PEDs through the Arctic Shift archive, 2026-10-12: no thread naming the company or its brands — Arctic Shift — anecdotal report, not evidence
36. athleticxtreme.com About page, archived 2012-06-09 — Wayback Machine
37. Answer of Nutrition Distribution, LLC, M.D. Ala. No. 2:07-cv-01103, Dkt 21, 2008-01-09 — Internet Archive (RECAP)
38. Nutrition Distribution LLC v. IronMag Labs, LLC, Dkt 121, defendants' opposition to motion in limine no. 2 (prior criminal actions), 2018-11-19 — CourtListener (RECAP)