Bogus diet ads prompt warning

WASHINGTON – As part of a crackdown on false and deceptive diet claims, the Federal Trade Commission sent letters to nine media companies Tuesday, reminding them to stop publishing ads for bogus weight-loss products.

The letters went to publications that ran ads for products that were the target of six lawsuits filed by the agency within the past week – pills, powders, green tea, topical gels and patches that promised significant weight loss, even if consumers didn’t decrease their food intake or increase their exercise.

The agency seeks to halt ads and consumer refunds for such products as the Himalayan Diet Breakthrough – a dietary supplement of what the manufacturer calls Nepalese Mineral Pitch, a pastelike material that “oozes out of the cliff face cracks in the summer season.” The product, which costs $39.95 for a month’s supply, promised consumers could lose as much as 37 pounds in eight weeks if taken before lunch, dinner and bedtime.

With Chinese Diet Tea, dieters were told they could lose as much as 6 pounds a week if they drank a cup after each meal to neutralize the absorption of fattening foods. It costs $24.95 for a 30-day supply.

“These claims are about as credible as a note from the tooth fairy,” said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. “But they ran in the pages of well-known national magazines and big city newspapers and on popular Internet sites, all of which lend an air of credibility to these outlandish claims.”