Losing £'s  The Slimming Swindle.


The reporter started her article by reporting about desperate dieters falling victim once again to conmen in their battle to beat the bulge.

These conmen aim their campaign at gullible consumers willing to 'swallow' anything from pills to outrageous claims and even when these claims are taken to Court and the Companies heavily fined, it does not stop them.
A Birmingham official, John Martin, said:- "This trade is worth at least £50 million a year, but it's probably far in excess of that.  Even when firms are fined thousands of pounds, the scam is bringing in so much money, that they just sign a cheque there and then.

Although the diet pill pushers are punished by fines, society is as much to blame for the thriving industry.  People are inundated with ideas of how they should look.  These products cash in on the need of people to look healthy and slim - by making it seem very easy to achieve this look.   But there is no easy, shortcut way to lose weight, only the normal route by eating sensibly and making sure you're taking in less energy than you're body is using.

Many days have been spent investigating adverts that promise rapid weight loss simply by swallowing tablets.  Over the last six months there have been several successful prosecutions.  In 1991, John Martin, the enforcement officer  started proceedings against Cal-Ban 3000 .  Their main ingredient was guar flour and  ground up locust beans.  The tablets were supposed to stop your small intestines absorbing the calories from food, what they didn't stop was those same calories being absorbed in your large intestine. 

The total amount of the fine was £4,000 and they wrote the cheque out straight away, claiming that they hadn't advertised  their product since 1991, but two days after the court case a catalogue advertising the products was received dated the month before.

Other claims were made for a product called Wonder Slim,  all of which were false.  After being fined they vanished from the scene, but other products containing the same ingredients have since appeared to replace them.

One product that was analysed would be more likely to cause weight loss through dehydration.  The pills just contained vitamins, minerals and laxative.   These products are still being retailed, a fine does not stop them from doing the same thing again.    The companies that manufacture these pills feel that the risk is worth the fine - there are such vast profits to be made!!

Some of the things that have been investigated are bizarre, they include everything from colon cleansers to diet sprays which when sprayed on the tongue are supposed to suppress the appetite.

Sorry ladies, they is no miracle yet, as soon as one arrives we'll let you know!
 
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