Word: weightness
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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...
...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 spends just one night a week at the center...
Most companies make losing weight sound much simpler than it is. The Physicians Weight Loss Centers often tells newcomers they can drop up to 7 lbs. in the first week, but the firm's president, Charles Sekeres, admitted to Wyden's committee that this range was based only on individuals who are "morbidly obese" or on men (who can slim down more quickly than women). In addition, ads for most weight-loss programs fail to mention that many customers regain weight just as fast as they lose it if they return to their old eating habits. The industry, contends Wyden...
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...
...diet products are foods or drugs, the Food and Drug Administration is a logical candidate to take the lead in overseeing the industry, but the agency has been dillydallying on this issue for years. As long ago as 1982, the FDA began drafting regulations to cover over-the-counter weight-loss products, and those proposals may at last be finalized before the end of the year. The new rules are expected to outlaw more than 100 diet- product ingredients on the market, including methyl cellulose and other bulking agents that supposedly "swell" in the consumer's stomach and curb appetite...