Word: diets
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...behemoth diet industry may be throwing too much weight around. Critics say some companies use misleading promotional campaigns and promise more than the programs can deliver. Moreover, the safety of at least a few of the plans has been called into question. Congress is holding hearings to determine whether the diet industry should be more tightly regulated, and various Government agencies are studying ways to get tough on questionable practices in the business...
Leading the congressional probe is Representative Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, who last week called diet-industry executives before his House Small Business Subcommittee and asked them to explain their hard-sell tactics. Wyden's staff raised several concerns about specific companies. For example, the Diet Center programs, which offer special foods and pills, claim to provide guidance by "weight-loss professionals." Customers may presume that these professionals are nutritionists, says Wyden, but they are "basically salespersons." Ads for the Physicians Weight Loss Centers imply that a doctor will supervise each patient's diet, but frequently the lone staff physician...
...Some diet-company executives conceded to the House subcommittee that parts of the industry have been too zealous. Chief executive Charles Berger of Weight Watchers, an H.J. Heinz subsidiary that takes a moderate approach to weight loss, likened the diet business to Wall Street in the 1980s. "Without touching on the issue of greed," he said, "some companies in our field have overpromised quick weight loss. And the promises have grown increasingly excessive." Others doubt that an industry with so many players can effectively police itself. Ronald Stern, president of the nutrition division at Slim-Fast, a firm that sells...
...Government already has the power to crack down on the diet industry through the federal truth-in-advertising and mail-fraud laws. But these weapons have generally been used just against products that are truly outrageous. The Postal Service, for example, took action against diet sunglasses, which supposedly altered food color and made meals appear less appetizing, and a satin headband designed to emit electromagnetic waves that, according to the manufacturer's claims, help customers refuse to eat calorie- laden foods...
...Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising, has started to pay a bit more attention to the diet business. After having filed a mere 13 lawsuits against the industry in the entire decade of the '80s, the FTC has brought three cases this year. One action involved a diet pill that when swallowed, according to the ads, would break "into thousands of particles, each acting like a tiny magnet." Fat cells would allegedly be attracted to the "magnets" and eliminated through the digestive system. In addition to - going after such obvious frauds, the FTC has initiated a broad investigation of diet...