Thursday, April 15, 2010

"The Terrible Truth About Diet Pills and Drugs"


by Dr. Frank B. Smoot, MA, DD

I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I play one on TV. But my education and years of experience have taught me plenty about diet drugs. I also keep current with journals, textbooks, and magazines, and I can tell you that I have yet to see a single article or study that has anything positive to say about the overall effects of diet drugs.

The potentially dangerous side-effects of diet drugs and pills has, fortunately, gotten a great deal of publicity. In the opinion of many healthcare professionals, both prescription and herbal products can be extremely risky.

Yes, some drugs produce losses in body weight. But this loss consists largely of water. Many diet pills--be they prescription or "natural"--have dangerous side effects as well. Let's remember that, just because a substance is "natural," doesn't mean it's healthy. Many plant and animal substances are toxic to humans, and some are lethal. (Poison-tipped darts are 100% "natural.".)

Any diet pill can have unhealthy side effects. If you follow your doctor's prescription perfectly, your health may not be at risk. But many people don't follow doctors' orders very well. And even doctors may not get all the "downside" information from the drug companies.

Diet pills will also cost you $40-$60 a month until you run out of money, or your doctor says you've had enough. And remember, the weight-reducing effects of diet pills disappears the day you stop taking them.

In fact, you typically gain back more weight than you lost. That's because many diet pills only suppress hunger, which is almost never the real reason we overeat (more about that later). So even when physical hunger is satisfied, all of the other reasons for excess eating (especially the psychological and emotional ones) are still there--waiting to bust your diet.

All diet pills can really offer you is a quick, expensive, possibly dangerous, and ultimately very frustrating way to lose a few pounds...temporarily. Wouldn't it be much smarter to use an approach that leads to safe, effective and permanent weight control, without any negative health consequences? Of course it would. And that's exactly what we're going to do.

Since it's clear that we're not going to get any meaningful answers from the diet, fitness, and healthcare industries, it becomes our own responsibility to get a hold of the truth. And the first, most powerful, most important truth you must understand is this:

You Didn't Fail At Your Diet…The Diet Industry Failed You!

Please, please let that statement sink in. If you have ever felt even a single moment of guilt or blame because you couldn't "stick to your diet," you really need to hear what I'm telling you. It wasn't your fault! You can't possibly lose weight by doing what doesn't work.

Remember, we now spend more than $5 billion a year on diets and related weight loss products--only to rewarded with a pathetic 4% success rate! But "they" are supposed to be the experts, the ones with the answers, right? So how come they keep telling us to do the same old things that have been proven not to work? (Well, it might have something to do with that $5 billion.)

Of course, it's not just the Diet Industry that promotes weight loss misinformation. They're just the easiest group to identify. The Fitness Industry is just as much a part of the problem, wild-eyed claims and all. Yet nine out of ten of the machines we buy are seldom used after the first few weeks. Most of them soon become dust catchers whose ultimate destiny is a yard sale.

The Diet and Fitness industries are locked in a constant battle for the hypiest headlines and most outrageous claims Yet even though both have horrible track records, they still get us to spend billions of dollars on "solutions" that don't work.

In fact, just in America, we're now spending $45-50 BILLION a year on weight loss. And what do we have to show for it? Our own government statistics reveal that:

• An incredible 96% of all weight loss end in failure.
• We gain back a heartbreaking 95% of the pounds we do manage to lose.
• Obesity has now replaced heart disease as America's #1 health concern!

Clearly, it's time for a different approach !