| False campaignsMore than 50 percent of | | | | Metabolife supplement and brain damages A |
| Americans and Canadians are overweight or | | | | jury in Houston awarded $7.4 million to a |
| obese. More than a half the advertising | | | | woman who suffered brain damage in a stroke, |
| campaigns for diet pills and dietary | | | | as a consequence of taking the Metabolife |
| supplements are intentionally false or fail | | | | supplement to lose weight. She had been |
| to reveal the truth, according to the FTC. | | | | persuaded by commercials that this supplement |
| This enormous proportion reveals the | | | | was safe and had no side effects.* Mendacious |
| dimensions of this money-generating industry. | | | | campaigns for the Ephedra-based supplement |
| Consumers in North America spend more than | | | | Trimspa An American hypnotist, Alex |
| $35 billion each year on weight-loss | | | | Szynalski, and a former Playboy Bunny (Anna |
| products.The FDA investigated 300 weight-loss | | | | Nicole Smith) joined in a Trimspa commercial |
| ads from the radio, television, the Internet, | | | | which was considered "deceptive advertising" |
| magazines, newspapers, e-mail and direct | | | | by the New Jersey Attorney General. The |
| mail. The FDA report concluded that some ads | | | | hypnotist was accused of luring consumers to |
| promised significant results without surgery, | | | | his Goen Lose Weight Hypnosis seminars and |
| diet or exercise. Other companies claimed | | | | then tempting them to buy the Trimspa |
| that taking their product would be enough for | | | | supplements he produced.* Kava Kava stop |
| a quick weight loss. There was no need to eat | | | | sales. Health Canada launched a public |
| less or diet. Just take pills.Fraudulent | | | | warning that this herb, found in supplements |
| schemesThe main frauds:1. Manufacturers | | | | and sometimes in food is under suspicion. Its |
| promise that their pills will deliver | | | | consumption was linked to liver disfunction |
| spectacular results, without any effort or | | | | and toxicity. FDA warned that the Kava |
| exercise. Diet pills are presented as | | | | extract is delivered under many other names |
| miracles. Just a few mention the FDA-approved | | | | which are difficult to find on the label |
| diet pill.2. They fail to admit completely | | | | (kava, kava kava, kava-kava, kava root, |
| and honestly the risks and side effects.Many | | | | kava-kava root, kavain, kava pepper, |
| scams have been revealed so far. Here are a | | | | kavapipar, kawa, kawa kawa, kawa pepper, |
| few examples:* Bentley-Myers and three | | | | kawapfeffer, maori kava, rhizoma di |
| weight-loss products Zymax, MillinesES (both | | | | kava-kava, ava, ava pepper, ava root, awa, |
| containing ephedra), and Serotril (containing | | | | gea, gi, intoxicating pepper, intoxicating |
| St. John's wort) were brought under an | | | | long pepper, kao, Piper methysticum, |
| intense spotlight when the FTC filed a | | | | Macropiper Latifolium, Piper inebrians, |
| federal court complaint. The FTC alleged that | | | | Malohu, maluk, meruk, milik, kew, |
| these diet pills caused rapid and substantial | | | | Rauschpfeffer, sakau, tonga, Wurzelstock, |
| weight loss without diet or exercise and with | | | | yagona, yangona, yaqona, yongona).* The |
| no side effects. An additional charge | | | | invisible Zoller laboratories. Intrigued by |
| referred to another dietary supplement, | | | | the name of diet pills suggested to be taken |
| CartazyneDS, containing glucosamine. This was | | | | by Britney Spears, somebody tried to identify |
| promoted as having the ingredients to cure | | | | the producer of Zantrex 3. Zoller |
| arthritis and rebuild cartilage in just a few | | | | laboratories, apparently producing Zantrex 3, |
| days.* CortiSlim Lawsuit July 2004 Some | | | | were not listed in any database. They were |
| CortiSlim TV commercials claimed that the | | | | just a firm created by Basic Research, the |
| human body is able to manage and normalize | | | | company distributing Zantrex 3, for fear that |
| weight through Cortisol, the stress hormone. | | | | its real name would sound too scientific to |
| Charging the producer and distributor, public | | | | the public. The confusion induced by this |
| health officials argued that this supplement | | | | phantom company nevertheless affected the |
| has no substantiated scientific support.* | | | | credibility of the company. |