Complaint resolution service publishes case studies, recall information and consumer news.

The Federal Trade Commission is charging the sellers of the “Centro Natural de Salud Obesity Treatment” with making false and unsubstantiated claims that their product causes rapid, substantial, and permanent weight loss. The “treatment” consists of three different pills, taken with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a bar of “special soap” to “reduce dress sizes.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, in Spanish-language infomercials and on the Internet the marketers made claims, such as:

“Lose 35 pounds in 2 months”

“Everything you lose, you will never gain back”

“No diets, no skipping dinner, no calorie counting, no side effects”

The defendants, Centro Natural Services, Inc., Xavier Rodriguez, and Rocio Diaz are located in Santa Ana, California. The complaint charges they falsely claimed the Centro Natural de Salud Obesity Treatment causes users: to lose substantial amounts of weight rapidly, without reducing calorie intake; safely to lose as much as a half pound per day for multiple weeks and months; and/or to lose weight permanently. The complaint also charges the defendants had no substantiation for their weight-loss claims.

The FTC is asking the court to order a halt to the defendants’ claims pending trial. It will seek a permanent halt to their operation, and redress for consumers.

Posted under Customer Service

Kraft Foods, Inc., has confirmed that it is no longer running advertisements suggesting that dairy products encourage weight loss. In response to Kraft’s statement, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has dropped Kraft from a lawsuit that called the advertisements deceptive.

In late June, PCRM filed suit against Kraft, General Mills, Dannon, McNeill Nutritionals, Lifeway Foods, the National Dairy Council, Dairy Management, Inc., and the International Dairy Foods Association charging that the heavily advertised claim that dairy products encourage weight loss is scientifically unsubstantiated. After the suit was filed, Kraft stated publicly and then confirmed in subsequent discussions with PCRM that it had no plans to restart them. Kraft, the only defendant who has entered into discussions with PCRM to date, is the first defendant dropped from the suit. The Illinois-based corporation—along with other major dairy associations and manufacturers—has been promoting increased dairy consumption as a weight-loss method since 2003.

One of Kraft’s ads featured a giant block of cheese engraved with the words “Burn More Fat,” and another featured an hourglass-shaped package of cheese. The company is updating language on its Web site related to dairy consumption and weight. The dairy industry’s campaign has come under increased scrutiny from other health advocates and researchers.

PCRM’s lawsuit maintains that scientific evidence contradicts the dairy industry’s weight-loss claims. The only studies that support the claims were conducted by Michael Zemel, Ph.D., an industry-funded researcher at the University of Tennessee. Since 1998, Zemel has accepted nearly $1.7 million in research grants from the National Dairy Council. He has also patented his weight-loss program; consequently, advertisers pay Zemel to use his so-called “calcium key” weight-loss program.

Other researchers have not been able to confirm Zemel’s findings. They have found that dairy products either have no effect on weight or cause weight gain.

Posted under Health

Consumer Reports (CR) has taken the wraps off nine popular diets to help people wade through the sea of promises made by many weight-loss programs. In the June issue, “Rating the Diets from Atkins to Dr. Sears Zone,” CR calculated the diets’ calorie counts and nutritional composition, checked whether they conformed to U.S. dietary guidelines, and evaluated their effectiveness with a comprehensive review of clinical research.

Experts say that the best diet is the one you can stay on. CR helps readers choose a weight-loss plan that makes sense for them. Among our findings:

– Weight Watchers received the highest overall rating. A nutritionally balanced diet, plus weekly meetings and weigh-ins for behavioral support, give this large commercial weight loss program the highest long-term adherence rate of any diet studied. This plan doesn’t exclude any food group and its point system encourages consumption of low-fat, high fiber meals.

– Slim Fast, which received the second highest overall rating, is recommended for people who don’t like to cook-branded bars and drinks replace part of breakfast and lunch-and dieters need to prepare only one full meal a day. People on the Slim Fast plan lost the most weight in six months using products like 180-calorie shakes.

– The Zone is high in protein and includes copious amounts of high-fiber vegetables. Many companies offer home delivery of “Zone favorable meals.” It is recommended for those who want a short-term high protein diet plan.

– Ornish offers ultra low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian meals, which provide fairly large portions for the low calories.

– Atkins Induction and Atkins Ongoing Weight Loss are appropriate for people who want a short-term high protein diet plan. The Atkins diet worked very well in the short term, with results at least as good as our other top-rated diets. But its nutritional deficiencies-too much fat, and too little fiber and too few fruits-depressed its overall Rating and may have a negative effect on some people’s health.

In CR’s Ratings, the overall score is based on adherence to nutritional guidelines and the results of clinical studies for each diet. Nutritional content was calculated by entering a week’s worth of menus from each diet into a powerful nutritional analysis database. Analytical results include short- and long- term weight loss and dropout rates, and were derived from published clinical trials for each diet.

Several other popular weight-loss plans-eDiets, Jenny Craig, South Beach, and Volumetrics-are all low enough in calories to produce weight loss. But CR could not rate them for this report because these diets lacked data from large, long-term, published clinical trials.

CR suggests there are four ways to a winning diet: Eat high- bulk, low-calorie foods: This is a promising strategy for curbing hunger while keeping calories down. Such foods include fruits, veggies, and other water-filled foods such as soups. Control blood sugar: One way is to stay away from starchy, easy-to-digest carbohydrates, such as refined flour, white rice, and potatoes, and avoid added sugar. Eat plenty of high-fiber carbs, such as whole grains, fruits and veggies. Measure portions and seek encouragement.

CR’s recommendations for choosing the best diet for you include:

– Cut the easiest calories first. Eliminate the nonnutritive foods that are least important to you,
such as sugared soft drinks and juices and oversized baked goods.

– Choose a safe dietary plan. If you have any medical condition check with your doctor before starting a weight-loss program. Don’t strive for rapid weight loss. Increase fiber intake gradually and drink more water to avoid digestive upsets.

– Consider personal preferences: People who like variety may tire of the limited menu of a meal-replacement diet.

– Follow the rules: The more faithfully people adhere to a diet, the more successful they will be.
– Be ready to switch: If, after three weeks, you find a diet is too difficult or unpleasant to follow, or you are not losing weight-try another.

Use their interactive “Calorie-needs Calculator” to determine your daily calorie needs-free from May 10 until July 6 at http://www.ConsumerReports.org. The June 2005 issue of Consumer Reports will be available May 10

Posted under Health

According to a Federal Trade Commission staff report released today the number of obviously false weight-loss claims in television, radio, and print advertisements for dietary supplements, topical creams, and diet patches appears to have dropped from almost 50 percent in 2001 to 15 percent in 2004.

With the rapid increase in obesity in America, many Americans look to weight-loss ads for products to trim pounds. Industry sources estimate that consumers spend billions of dollars each year on products and services that purport to promote weight loss. Many of these products, however, do not deliver what they promise.

In a 2002 report, the FTC staff had found that nearly half of weight-loss ads surveyed in 2001 made claims that clearly were false. To help stem this tide of deceptive weight-loss advertising, in 2003, the FTC asked the media not to run ads containing obviously false weight-loss claims.

To judge the effectiveness of its call for media screening, the FTC staff conducted the non-scientific Weight-Loss Advertising Survey: 2004. Although the decline in deceptive ad claims is significant, the survey results show there are still areas for improvement. The FTC will continue its efforts to encourage the media voluntarily to screen out clearly false weight-loss advertisements.“Good media screening is good business,” said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. “I encourage the media to continue their efforts to identify and reject clearly false weight-loss advertising.”

The survey reviewed the nature and frequency of weight-loss advertising for certain products available over-the-counter running on television and radio or in newspapers and magazines – all media that can screen out ads before running them. In general, the 2004 survey results show a significant decline in clearly false weight-loss product claims in the advertisements surveyed.

BACKGROUND

In September 2001, the FTC conducted a non-scientific survey of weight-loss ads in selected print, television, and radio media. The FTC released a staff report entitled Weight-Loss Advertising: An Analysis of Current Trends, which analyzed the claims and techniques used in more than 300 weight-loss advertisements that ran throughout all media. The 2001 survey found that nearly half of the ads for dietary supplements, creams, wraps, devices, and patches that appeared in radio, television, or print media contained at least one clearly false claim.

In November 2002, the FTC held a workshop to explore new approaches to reducing deceptive weight-loss advertising. Following the workshop, the FTC issued a staff report, Deception in Weight-Loss Advertising Workshop: Seizing Opportunities and Building Partnerships to Stop Weight-Loss Fraud. The report contained a list of seven claims that are not scientifically feasible for non-prescription weight-loss products. The Commission also announced its “Red Flags” initiative, which, through outreach and business education, encourages the media to reject weight-loss product advertising that contains any of these seven false claims, called “Red Flag” claims.

In 2004, after working with the media on the Red Flag initiative, the FTC staff conducted a new survey, and analyzed ads in broadcast and cable television (including infomercials), radio, magazines, newspapers, supermarket tabloids, and free-standing inserts from February to May 2004. The 2004 report released today provides the results of that survey.

The 2004 Report

The 2004 survey results cover advertisements for certain non-prescription products: dietary supplements, creams, wraps, devices, and patches. The survey results found that 15 percent of the ads reviewed in 2004 made one or more of the clearly false Red Flag claims – a significant drop from the 2001 survey that showed 49 percent of similar ads contained at least one Red Flag claim. In addition, FTC staff compared ads that appeared in the February through May 2004 issues of certain national magazines with ads that appeared in the same magazines in 2001. This comparison showed that while the volume of weight-loss ads increased slightly from 2001, fewer of those ads contained Red Flag claims.The report shows that:

Five percent of the ads contained the Red Flag claim that users could lose two pounds or more per week (over four or more weeks) without reducing caloric intake and/or increasing their physical activity. In the 2001 survey, 43 percent of the ads contained such claims.

Four percent of the ads contained claims that consumers who use the product could lose substantial weight while enjoying unlimited amounts of high calorie foods. (Weight-Loss Survey Report–04/11/05)

Four percent of the ads contained claims that weight loss would be permanent (even when the user stops using the product).

Three percent of the ads contained claims that the weight-loss product would cause substantial weight loss by blocking the absorption of fat or calories.

Three percent of the ads made claims that users could safely lose more than three pounds per week without clearly conveying the need for medical supervision.

Four percent of the ads stated that users could lose substantial weight through use of the advertised product that is worn on the body or rubbed into the skin.

Four percent of the ads stated that the product causes substantial weight loss for all users.

Although the survey gives a positive report card, the FTC staff concludes that there is still work to be done. The report also provides several caveats: neither the 2001 nor the 2004 survey was designed to produce results that can be generalized to all weight-loss advertising; the absence of Red Flag claims does not mean that the advertisements contained no deceptive weight-loss claims at all; and although the results suggests that there has been significant improvement in the occurrence of Red Flag claims since 2001, they do not prove that this improvement is the result of the Red Flags initiative. Nevertheless, the FTC staff believes that report results support the FTC’s continuing to encourage the media to screen out clearly false weight-loss advertisements.

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