Tighter Rules Urged for Weight Clinics

WASHINGTON — Overweight people need better government protection from weight-loss clinics that advertise slimness but deliver health problems, a lawmaker probing diet programs said Monday.

“This subcommittee has found the medical field riddled with hucksters who ply their dubious wares and their miracle cures while government regulators sit snoozing on the sidelines,” said Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Small Business subcommittee on regulation.

Witnesses who said diet clinics caused them or their family members medical problems told their stories to the subcommittee. One woman said she had to have a gall bladder operation after rapidly losing weight through one clinic.

Wyden said he was glad to see the Federal Trade Commission going after the most outrageous get-thin schemes, such as diet pills said to work during sleep. But he said a potentially greater threat is the trend toward commercial weight-loss clinics and physician-supervised diet programs.