Three Big Diet lies can kill you
The “Advertorial” Weight Loss Super Food For Losing 27 Pounds bleeds lies. Don’t let the horrible science and nasty marketing tricks fool you into hemorrhaging money or risking your health.
- Celebrity Endorsement does not mean it works
- Brain bending marketing ploys designed to fool you
- Highly imaginative fictional science distorts reality
Big Diet Lie 1: Celebrity Endorsement does not mean it works
“Garcinia Cambogia is the latest buzz in the “battle of the bulge”. With millions of people praising this so called “miracle pill” that you take as a supplement to lose weight, it has been getting a lot of attention since it was recently featured on a popular celebrity doctor’s show.”— HealthyConsumerTips.com
My mother always told be “if your friend jumps off a bridge, does that mean you have to?” The quote from HealthyConsumerTips above has at least three problems:
Appeal to popularity — just because “millions of people .. praise” does not mean the supplement works.
Appeal to celebrity / authority — “featured on a popular celebrity doctor’s show”. Just because someone is famous, does not mean they are an expert. And just because they are a celebrity doctor does not qualify them as an expert in every medical field. How many different weight loss miracles have been featured on the Doctor Oz show? Are they all “miracles”? Can they all be the key solution to obesity?
Lack of evidence — “millions of people praising” Is this true? What evidence exists to show that millions of people are praising the supplement?
Another odd bit is that the advetorial does not name Doctor Oz specifically. Yet here is the segment from his show. I speculate that HealthyConsumerTips would have to pay Oz to mention him. Not such a ringing endorsement in my view.
Big Diet Lie 2: Brain bending marketing ploys designed to fool you
“Those that have heard of the Garcinia Cambogia diet are confused about what it is, how to use it and how to avoid falling for ineffective formulas and downright scams”— HealthyConsumerTips.com
This short quote illustrates a number of brain manipulating tools.
It assumes without evidence that people want to use the product, that “people who have heard.. of the diet.. are confused about how to use it..”
Like reporting a medication cures diabetes and automatically all the people who have heard of it want to know how to use it. This trick language can make one think there are already a lot of people interested in or already taking the supplement. This sentence trades on both authority marketing and the tricks of scarcity to draw you in.
Every marketer knows that making a product seem scarce brings attention and desire to that product. It is the “I have it and you can’t” kind of thinking. You will be left out. The quote convinces you that you will be left out if you do not learn more about this miracle pill.
Big Diet Lie 3: Fictional science
“The first way is it goes in and causes the body to burn glucose, or sugar, and burn fat, mainly in the liver…The second way, the most important way, is it slows the release of sugar into the blood stream. So when you don’t have sugar building up in the blood stream, you don’t have fat building up because sugar turns to fat…When the two are combined together, you get this synergistic effect that basically burns and blocks and stops fat, but it also is natural and safe.”
— HealthyConsumerTips.com
“Causes body to burn sugar” sounds fantastic. But what about diabetes? Burning sugar could kill a diabetic or cause dementia. Your body needs blood sugar! Too much is a problem, but so is too little.
“Slows release of blood sugar” again sounds really great. However think about sugar high or sugar crash. Considering this fantasy treatment? Get a blood sugar test and consult a physician. Manipulating your blood sugar levels without medical consult is very risky. In fact, there is some evidence that increased glucose metabolism is associated with cancers.
“You don’t have fat building up because sugar turns to fat” is completely illogical. This is saying that somehow you can burn sugar by turning it into fat and that leads to weight loss. Does that make any sense to YOU?
The advatorial contains dozens more LIES, DECEPTION, and MARKETING PLOYS. Future posts will discuss these in greater detail.
In late 2012, a United States television personality, Dr. Oz, promoted Garcinia cambogia extract as a “magic” weight-loss aid. Dr. Oz’s previous endorsements have often led to a substantial increase in consumer interest in the promoted products. However, clinical trials do not support claims that Garcinia cambogia is an effective weight-loss aid.[8] A meta-analysis found a possible small, short-term weight loss effect (under 1 kilogram).[9] However, side effects — namely hepatotoxicity — led to one preparation being withdrawn from the market.[10]
A 1998 randomized controlled trial looked at the effects of hydroxycitric acid, the purported active component in Garcinia gummi-gutta, as a potential antiobesity agent in 135 people. The conclusion from this trial was that “Garcinia cambogia failed to produce significant weight loss and fat mass loss beyond that observed with placebo”.[11]”— Wikipedia | Garcinia_Cambogia
Originally published at www.criticalarmy.com on January 30, 2014.
