Quick and Easy? Slim Chance Awards Call Attention to Year’s Worst Diet Products

The envelope, please.

The “winners” for the 16th annual Slim Chance Awards have been announced.

These are the “Worst Weight Loss Products of 2004″ as chosen by the Weight Loss Abuse Task Force for the National Council Against Health Fraud, chaired by Frances Berg, of Hettinger, author, licensed nutritionist and family wellness expert.

The Slim Chance Awards recognize the worst diet gimmicks on the market, with the hope of promoting true health and wellness, Berg said.

The task force this year chose products such as green tea patches for your thighs and pills that target specific “problems” like abdominal fat, menopausal weight gain and the low-carb fad.

“These products and countless others promise quick weight loss with no effort. They need to be exposed as scams that lighten your wallet but not your body.

“These are quack products, but people need to be warned about prescription drugs, too,” Berg said. “We need to talk about the risks of going on any ‘diet,’” she said — disturbed eating, eating disorders and hazardous weight loss methods.

“We want to shift our national focus to health and wellness, to acceptance, respect and an appreciation of diversity,” Berg said.

Information from the Federal Trade Commission, in looking at eight national magazines, noted that weight loss ads more than doubled between 1992 and 2001. Dietary supplements comprised two- thirds of the weight loss products advertised in the same time span and the use of before-and-after photos and testimonials also had increased.

Berg’s organization, the Healthy Weight Network, started the Slim Chance Awards as a reaction to the glut of unsafe products on the market.

The products for the “worst” list are chosen by HWN health professionals from a list of nominations from readers and health professionals, Berg said.

Here are the task force’s picks and comments for the “worst” of 2004:

Worst Gimmick: Green Tea300 patches

“Four patches come free when you buy $59.99 worth of tea. Claimed to burn fat, suppress appetite, increase thermogenesis, and speed the metabolic rate without increasing hypertension or heart rate. Advertised through e-mail spam.”

Most Outrageous: EstrinD

“Billed as the first and only diet pill for menopausal and pre- menopausal weight gain, EstrinD is touted to reduce calorie intake, stop binge eating, increase metabolism, control mood swings and provide a sense of well being. Nearly full-page advertisement in USA Weekend.”

Worst Product: CortiSlim

“Falsely claims that reducing cortisol, the stress hormone, with CortiSlim will cause rapid fat loss from abdomen and thighs. Nationally aired infomercials use a deceptive ‘talk show’ format, FTC charges.”

Worst Claim: Carboburn

“For low-carb dieters wearied of living without carbs, it’s no longer necessary. ‘CarboBurn will neutralize the carbohydrates, block the storage of fat before it attaches to your stomach, waist, thighs, buns, chisel your fat away and let lean muscle shine through, and it doesn’t matter if you hate exercise.’ Advertised online.”

In the past 16 years, many of the same products have popped up again and again, recirculated with a change of names but the same ingredients, Berg said. The Internet also has become a major conduit for marketing products, she said.

The problem with getting these products off the market is that many are sold as food supplements, rather than drugs, she said. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have a very efficient way of getting these things off the market, Berg said.

“It’s hard to get them off the market” –sometimes taking years, she said.

“People are very desperate to lose weight. People often think (the advertisement) wouldn’t be in the newspaper or on the radio if wasn’t true,” Berg said.

Weight loss products can contain substances that act as diuretics or laxative or increase heart rate, she said. These can be dangerous for people, she said.

Research is showing that losing weight means changing your “set point,” the weight at which your body seems to naturally stay, but that diet is not effective in changing that set point — being more active is the key, she said.

“Some people think dieting is easier than being more active,” she said.

But “the less you do, the less energy you have. I advise people to start with five minutes a day for a full month. This helps establish the habit. Then increase slowly, maybe one more minute a day for a week.”

To be considered effective, a weight plan must be maintained for two years, she said.

For more information, visit www.healthyweight.net and click on Healthy Weight Week.

(Reach Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or krherzog@ndonline.com.)