Government sues diet company for baseless claims such as “eat all you want and still lose weight”

[majamay]

FTC
11/02/2009

The U.S. Justice Department, at the Federal Trade Commission’s request, has filed suit in federal court in a case affecting consumers nationwide. The government has charged three companies and two individuals with making advertising claims for their fat and weight-loss pills, Relacore and Akävar 20/50, that violate a 2006 FTC order barring them from making health or weight-loss claims without a reasonable basis. The defendants made claims such as “eat all you want and still lose weight” and, “And we couldn’t say it in print if it wasn’t true!” on product packaging, on the Internet, and in widely read magazines such as Redbook, Star, and Family Circle. The Commission seeks to stop the defendants from making such claims and make them pay civil penalties.

“The Federal Trade Commission ordered the defendants to stop making baseless and bogus advertising claims,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We wouldn’t put our orders in writing if we weren’t going to enforce them.”

The government’s complaint alleges that Basic Research, LLC, Carter-Reed, LLC, Dennis W. Gay, and Mitchell Friedlander have advertised Relacore by claiming, without competent and reliable scientific evidence, that it reduces “stress-induced” abdominal fat more than diet and exercise alone, and reduces abdominal fat in those who diet and exercise but retain fat due to stress from dieting.

According to the complaint, Basic Research, Dynakor Pharmacal, LLC, Gay, and Friedlander also have claimed, without a reasonable basis, that Akävar 20/50 lets you “eat all you want and still lose weight,” and that it automatically restricts caloric intake with no willpower required of users to limit food or caloric intake. They also have misrepresented scientific research by claiming that a test proves those claims, and that the product causes substantial weight loss and causes weight loss for virtually all users.

More at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/basicresearch.shtm

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Good. Diets don't work. There are many factors involved.

Many hormones and autoimmune problems.

An interview with a doctor who treats weight loss, and apparently has strategies that work for the hypothyroid:

Long Term Weight Loss for Thyroid Patients: Hormonal Factors that affect Diets
http://thyroid.about.com/od/loseweightsuccessfully/a/weight-loss-diet.htm


Mary Shomon: Can you give us a sense of the weight loss results you're having with thyroid patients who, after testing, demonstrate leptin resistance, and high reverse T3, and start your treatments for these conditions?

Kent Holtorf, MD: We try and investigate and treat as many dysfunctions and suboptimal metabolic conditions that we can. We have had success with a large range of individuals, from those who need to lose a few pounds to those who are over a hundred or more pounds overweight. The most satisfying are the people who lose 50 to 100 pounds or more. It totally changes their lives.

We are also seeing more patients who come in after gastric bypass – those who either didn’t lose weight or have gained much or all of their weight back. Most have low tissue thyroid levels as well as significant leptin resistance. They can also have a growth hormone deficiency as well.

We had one person who was eating 800 calories a day after having gastric bypass and she was still gaining weight. Nobody believed that was all she was eating until they put her in the hospital and monitored her food intake. They insisted her thyroid was fine, as she had a normal TSH, T4 and T3. When we checked her reverse T3, however, and it was over 800 and her leptin was 75. We checked her metabolic rate and it was 45% below normal. Dieting alone would, of course, never work with such a patient.

Also, toxins such as biphenyl-A can block the thyroid receptors everywhere in the body except for the pituitary, which has different receptors. So due to the ubiquitous nature of these toxins, I believe that everyone has a relative deficiency of thyroid activity that is not detected by the TSH. People blame food intake and lack of exercise for the obesity problem in this country, but I think a major problem is the thyroid-disrupting toxins, as well as stress.

Additionally, dieting is shown to not only reduce the T4-to-T3 conversion and increase reverse T3, but it is also shown to reduce the numbers of peripheral thyroid receptors -- but again, not in the pituitary -- so the same amount of thyroid has less of an effect, but the TSH is unchanged. This exemplifies the importance of clinical and target tissue assessment in the determination of overall thyroid activity in an individual. Also, women have fewer thyroid receptors than men, making them more sensitive to small decreases in serum levels of thyroid hormones.

[flvegan]

2. I feel sorry for anyone that would believe a claim like that.

That's unfortunate.

[imdjh]

3. I expect TV to advertise useless shit, but I got tired of that irritating voice saying "belly fat"

[Catshrink]

4. There are no miracles for losing weight.

It takes constant effort to control what we put in our mouths and no pill will negate that. I've struggled for years, I know. It was only when I decided to do it (yeah, again) and stuck with it that the weight came off. Almost 50 pounds worth. People ask what I did -- NutraSystem? WeightWatchers? Atkins? South Beach? Nope. Calories count. No miracles. No magic potion. One day at a time. One meal at a time. One bite at a time.

Those ads appeal to desperate people and desperate people will do anything and believe anything, even though they know it won't work. They're hoping for a miracle. There are no miracles.

[LoveMyCali]

5. I agree with everything you said

except throwing Weight Watchers in with those diets. I've been maintaining about a 40 pound loss for the past 12 years with Weight Watchers. They teach you to make smart food choices and to be more active, not to cut out any particular types of food or relying on pills or prepackaged foods.

[Catshrink]

6. I agree with you...

that is the heart of WW, teaching about choices. My take was morea along the lines of expectations. Maybe I should have left it out.