Getting the skinny on miracle-diet drugs
You’ve heard the hype before: “Eat all you want and still lose weight!”
It’s the Holy Grail of diets and just about as obtainable, according to the Federal Trade Commission. But the peddler of a new pill -- Akavar 20/50 -- is advertising just that on late-night TV, in print and online. And the company says it has scientific proof to back up the claim.
It had better, if the diet company doesn’t want to eat its claims.
The FTC has gone after numerous weight-loss concoctions in recent years, including the well-known TrimSpa (its commercials starred the late Anna Nicole Smith), One-A-Day WeightSmart (from the folks who make the vitamins), CortiSlim and Xenadrine EFX.
The companies behind these products did not admit wrongdoing, but each agreed to pay as much as $12.5 million in settlements announced this year.
None of these pills has gone away -- all are still available in drugs stores or online. They’ve just changed their tune, softening the hype. And in some cases, the companies have even discovered the added benefit of diet and exercise.
But there will always be a new pill, patch or drink coming to market, promising you a life of bon bons and coach potato-ing, while automatically making you svelte.
“We all want to believe its possible because changing lifestyle behavior is so difficult,” said Sue Baic, a registered dietitian and lecturer at Bristol University in England.
Here’s a look at the upstarts in the over-the-counter weight-loss field, and some of the oldies.
Akavar: Dynakor Pharmacal in Salt Lake City backs up its product’s no-diet, no-exercise claims two ways.
First, its television advertisements exclaim, “We couldn’t say it on TV if it wasn’t true!” Perhaps Dynakor’s executives have never watched TV during political campaigns.
Advertisers have been using variations on that statement for decades. “It’s a popular misconception that there is a federal agency that reviews advertisements before they appear,” said Peter G. Miller, an FTC staff attorney.
The agency has not taken any action in regard to Akavar, nor would it say if it or any other weight-loss products were currently under investigation. Dynakor representatives didn’t respond to requests for an interview.
The second Akavar claim gets into the realm of science.
“This is not marketing fantasy, this is scientific fact documented by medical findings,” the company states on its website. It goes on to say that the research study was a “controlled, randomized clinical trial.”
The site does not name the research study, but statistics it mentions match those in a report featured in 2001 by the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, a publication of the British Dietetic Assn.
The report has been used by several herbal weight-loss products to substantiate claims. It described a Danish study testing the ability of three herbs -- yerba mate, guarana and damiana -- to curb appetite. And indeed, the report found that after 45 days, a group taking the herbal capsules lost a mean average of about 11 pounds, while the control group taking placebos lost nearly nothing.
The herbs are among the ingredients listed on the Akavar package.
But the study was published in the journal as a “short report.”
“That can be a designation for a preliminary report that is about something interesting,” said Catherine Collins, chief dietitian at St. George’s Hospital in London. “It can indicate further, scientifically robust study is needed.” The British Dietetic Assn. referred requests for comment on the report to Collins.
She said the number of people taking the herbs in the Danish study -- 24 -- was far too small for scientific proof. And the report, she said, lacked detailed examination of the test group.
“One of those people could have been fasting for a wedding,” Collins said. “That kind of thing could throw the numbers off.”
Doing your own test of Akavar would not be cheap. The off-the-shelf price is $40 a bottle, which would last about two weeks at the recommended dosage.
TrimSpa: In their settlement, the marketers of the product, including TrimSpa Inc., agreed to no longer make claims about the effectiveness of hoodia, a type of succulent plant that is used in several diet-product formulas.
The product’s current site shies away from directly extolling the virtues of hoodia, but does say that its fruit bar containing the ingredient allows the taker to “stave off hunger just like the San tribe,” an ancient tribe of sub-Saharan Africa.
CortiSlim: Its marketers, including Window Rock Enterprises Inc., agreed to give up at least $12 million in assets, including cash, real estate, a car and a boat in FTC settlements. The agency had charged them with deceptive advertising that included claims that CortiSlim and sister product CortiStress could reduce the risk of maladies such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
No sign of those claims exists on the current site, which notes that the product is not intended to “treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
Also, there is lots of extolling of exercise and diet, including meal plans. On this post-settlement site, the pills seem almost an afterthought.
One-A-Day WeightSmart: Bayer Corp. agreed to pay a $3.2-million civil penalty to settle allegations it had violated a 1991 FTC order requiring all health claims for One-A-Day products to be backed by scientific evidence.
The agency charged that advertising for WeightSmart included statements that a green tea extract in the product could help manage weight loss.
The current site describes WeightSmart as a multivitamin to support diet and exercise. There’s no mention of green tea virtues, although the ingredient is still part of the formula.
Xenadrine EFX: The marketers of this product, including Robert Chinery Jr., agreed to pay as much as $12.5 million to settle with the FTC.
The agency had levied a number of charges, including that the product could not back its claim that it was clinically proven to bring about rapid and substantial weight loss. The FTC also charged that the company failed to disclose that endorsers had been paid as much as $20,000 each for testimonials.
The current webpage for Xenadrine proclaims at the top, “Real Science.” It also says that the product, which includes about as much caffeine per dose as a cup of coffee, is “clinically proven to increase the body’s metabolic rate and energy expenditure.”
But the tab under “Clinical Studies” on the site just says, “Returning shortly.” Ditto, the tab marked “Testimonials.”
