Using a vacuum sealer to marinate? With the vacuum sealers that have hit the market, they're have been a lot of toys added onto the products.  One such device is used for marinating meat.  It just looks like a tupperware bin with a nozzle on the lid, and you use a hose to vacuum all the air out.  The claim is that this will pull the fibers of the meat apart allowing you to marinade in half the time.

My question is, does this really work or is it just marketing hype?  If it does work, is this a better way of marinating?
This works by increasing the porousness of the meat inside the bag. When a vacuum is created, there is a natural tendency for matter to occupy that space. It does this by increasing the amount of space between particles, otherwise known as density. This increases the size of the microscopic holes in the meat, and thus effectively increases the surface area in which the marinade can contact the meat. More surface area means by marinade sticks to your food.

If you'd like to see the effects of vacuum pressure on foods greatly exagerrated, put a marshmallow in a vacuum seal bag and see what happens. :-)