The newest diet claims...fact or fiction.

this is an advertisement, and not a news story? I do need to drop some weight again, and am trying to do so. I expect it will take me 4-6 months to even get close to losing as much as I want, and it could be as long as a year. I can't believe it could be possibly be as easy as this thing tells me. Advertisements/ripoffs like these do not help as so many do not realize that it simply takes determination and lots of it.

http://www.news7daily.tv/us/us2.php?t20 ... kw=ADSONAR

Bob - read this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/acai.berries.scam/index.html.

Bob,

Yes, that is an ad:
- across the top it says it is an "advertorial" and "This site is not affiliated with any newspaper publication."
- the site is "news7" but the alleged author says she works for News 6 (!)
- the gigantic grey-ink disclaimer at the bottom is pretty clear

I also note that the WHOIS record for that site is protected from scrutiny, which no reputable news outlet would do.

Finally, I note that both WebMD and CSPI clearly state that acai is not proven to do any of the things people say it does:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/acai-be ... h-benefits
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200903231.html

There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out.

Of two things I can assure us all:

(a) Julia whatshername will not get a Pulitzer prize for this obviously paid advertisement
(b) With all due respect to Acai berries (after all, even Acai berries have the right to exist), the claims made about weight loss are pure and simple nonsense.

As Jeff put it so well: "There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out." Beware of the quickie results and beware even more of medications that promise to reduce your appetite. That may help you lose weight but as we learned during the amphetamine diet fad, "speed kills".

Another thing....if we are somewhat overweight but not obese, let's not worry so much about that. A bit of overweight does not normally harm anyone and frankly it is not worth dieting and suffering for a lifetime to lose that extra weight so long as it is not otherwise harming us*.

Best
Rogov

*The exceptions being of course when other bodily conditions require losing weight. That best determined not by the size of the trousers or dress we wear but by our family physician.

Bob - read this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/acai.berries.scam/index.html.

Thanks for the link Howie, As it turns out I think I saw that before, and from the same source that I saw the advertisement. In fact the fact that it was a cleverly placed ad in the NYT that threw me off course in the first place.

I know that I have to lose some weight will start working on it beginning of March like every year. I've has success and JBL even more so with The South Beach Diet, at least you're not hungry.

I know that I have to lose some weight will start working on it beginning of March like every year. I've has success and JBL even more so with The South Beach Diet, at least you're not hungry.

JBL needed to lose weight? WOW, marriage must really have agreed with him! You are writing about the one and only Jason aren't you? Last picture I saw of him (granted ) it was several years ago, but he could turn sideways and disappear.

I know that I have to lose some weight will start working on it beginning of March like every year. I've has success and JBL even more so with The South Beach Diet, at least you're not hungry.

JBL needed to lose weight? WOW, marriage must really have agreed with him! You are writing about the one and only Jason aren't you? Last picture I saw of him
(granted ) it was several years ago, but he could turn sideways and disappear.

Married life and regular hours with good food will add on. I observed it with JBL.

There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out.

Actually, 'tain't that simple 'tall, Jeff. Recent studies done on mice show that the bacterial ecology of the gut can distinguish a slim sibling from an obese one. In a very telling experiment, newborn mice were raised in an aseptic environment and were found to get far less nutrition out of their diet than their littermates who were raised in a normal environment and were consequently 25% lighter. When the guts of the aseptic mice were inoculated with the bacteria taken from their normal littermates, they started metabolizing food at a higher rate and soon gained as much weight as their normal siblings.

This gets interesting because other studies have shown diet in humans to be capable of changing gut ecology. People who have a diet high in junk food end up with bacteria that extract more calories from the food. Switching their diets resulted in a beneficial change to their gut ecology.

Mark Lipton

There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out.

Actually, 'tain't that simple 'tall, Jeff. Recent studies done on mice show that the bacterial ecology of the gut can distinguish a slim sibling from an obese one. In a very telling experiment, newborn mice were raised in an aseptic environment and were found to get far less nutrition out of their diet than their littermates who were raised in a normal environment and were consequently 25% lighter. When the guts of the aseptic mice were inoculated with the bacteria taken from their normal littermates, they started metabolizing food at a higher rate and soon gained as much weight as their normal siblings.

This gets interesting because other studies have shown diet in humans to be capable of changing gut ecology. People who have a diet high in junk food end up with bacteria that extract more calories from the food. Switching their diets resulted in a beneficial change to their gut ecology.

Mark Lipton

So Dubya really was listening to his gut!?!?!

It's called truthiness, Hoke.

There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out.

This gets interesting because other studies have shown diet in humans to be capable of changing gut ecology.

Interesting. I believe you. Short of such explicit manipulations -- that is, holding gut ecology constant -- my rule applies.

And I think that the people touting The Grapefruit Diet aren't manipulating your micro-fauna.

There are no miracles in weight loss. It's just calories in, calories out.

This gets interesting because other studies have shown diet in humans to be capable of changing gut ecology.

Interesting. I believe you. Short of such explicit manipulations -- that is, holding gut ecology constant -- my rule applies.

And I think that the people touting The Grapefruit Diet aren't manipulating your micro-fauna.

100% in agreement, Jeff. There's a hell of a lot of pseudoscience and outright BS in the world of diet and nutrition. My point was that, for years I held to the "calories in" theory of weight gain, but between recent research into satiety and the aforementioned gastric ecology, I now realize that it's far more complex than I'd previously believed.

Mark Lipton