Natural Remedy Fraud: Take Lipozene with a Grain of Salt

February 7, 2012, 3:30PM. By Jane Mundy

Washington, DCSome companies practicing Natural Remedy Fraud are as sneaky and slick as snake-oil salespeople. Take Lipozene, for example. Its website is rife with referrals about clinical studies endorsed by the Obesity Research Institute. It appears that this "institute" is the manufacturer of Lipozene.

The Obesity Research Institute must have weighed their financial odds when it comes to fraudulently marketing this weight-loss "natural" supplement. Lipozene must be making them substantial profits: why else would they be able to afford yet another multi-million dollar charge by the Federal Trade Commission for making false and unsubstantiated claims?

In June 2005, the marketers of the dietary supplements FiberThin and Propolene settled Federal Trade Commission charges that their misleading weight-loss claims violated federal laws. As it turns out, one of the principal defendants was the Obesity Research Institute. According to the FTC, the defendants were barred from making false claims about any dietary product in the future and were required to pay $1.5 million in consumer redress. (Here is more information on the FTC Ruling.)

The makers of Lipozene state, that besides being "endorsed by the Obesity Research Institute" (a.k.a. themselves), a major university conducted double blind studies. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, no one at the institute is available to back those claims. It does, however, "not ask that you change your daily life, just take Lipozene."

If it were possible to lose weight by not changing your daily life, by not decreasing your calorie intake, by not exercising, the makers of Lipozene would win the Nobel Prize for science and be gazzilionaires.

Back to company profits. The only (purportedly) weight-loss ingredient that Lipozene contains is Glucomannan, which is available at most any local health store for a fraction of the cost of Lipozene.

And don't be fooled by these comments from the Lipozene makers:

1. "If you're doing your homework before deciding which weight loss product to use, you may have come across a number of positive and negative reviews on Lipozene and other weight loss products."

2. "If you've encountered negative Lipozene reviews, it's important that you take them with a grain of salt and consider the source."

3. "Many web sites that claim to be diet product review sites are actually disguised affiliate sites created for the sole purpose of advertising or selling the affiliate's products. These sites are obviously biased and do not always give you the whole truth."

Rather, the comments should read:

1. When you do your homework, you will come across the FTC ruling, and you will find out that you can save a lot of money by simply adding more fiber to your diet and not buying Lipozene.

2. Consider the source of Lipozene's clinical studies and do not take that with a grain of salt.

3. The "Obesity Research Institute" is set up to sell its product Lipozene. Its sole purpose appears to be created for the selling and advertising of Lipozene. And that constitutes fraudulent advertising.