Dr. Oz… again?!?! How is this possible… Coconut Sugar
I am as shocked as anyone to have to bring up Dr. Oz again, so quickly after the last time he humiliated himself recommending ‘miracles in a bottle’ for weight loss. Just the fact that he has recommended so many miracles recently is enough to make it clear that there is something wrong with him. Either he doesn’t know the definition of miracle or he is an idiot. Here is the definition of miracle… you decide which it is:
mir·a·cle [mir-uh-kuhl]
nounan effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
In any case, this current blunder of his has nothing to do with miracles (and if I was being honest, I am not surprised at all that he is back here). It has to do with his complete lack of research. I have no idea if some idiot in his staff picks some crazy idea and Dr. Oz just reads the cue cards. I saw his over selling of palm sugar today and I cringed through the whole thing. You can see some quotes from the clip below:
I have something new today that will change everything you know about baking and sweetening coffee and tea. This delicious simple switch can prevent the sugar crashes that make you hungry and then cause you to gain weight. There is a new tropical sweetener to hit the market and doctors are taking notice. It can help stabilize your blood sugar.
Why Coconut Sugar Really Isn’t Anything New
Those are pretty bold words… change everything I know… This must be a pretty impressive sugar. And listening to Dr. Oz, it seems like it is. Look at this chart:
Holy Crap!! Look at the difference between the table sugar and the coconut sugar! Of course there is no scale on the blood sugar axis so the image is literally meaningless, but if I didn’t know better I would say that the coconut palm sugar will actually single handedly reduce the GI response of foods that you have eaten, at least it appears to judging by Dr. Oz’s graph…
Of course coconut sugar does no such thing. Coconut sugar is simply a version of unrefined table sugar taken from coconut flowers. It is made up mostly of sucrose, which is the same substance that makes up table sugar. Sucrose is an equal combination of a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule. Sucrose typically has a GI range of 58 to 65. Understanding that Glucose is pretty much defined as being a GI of 100 (it is what the whole scale is based on), and fructose, which has a GI range of 12 to 25, it makes sense that sucrose falls right in between. Do remember though, sucrose is very refined.
Palm sugar is not and is often quoted as having a GI of 35, but that is the first warning sign. There is no way that any food product has one GI number. There are so many variations between people that multiple studies of any product will produce multiple numbers, or a range. These ranges are reported for almost all sweeteners, but quite often the extreme in the range is suggested to prove a point. Here the Sugar Association reports sucrose at 58, while here they report it at 80. The bias of each of these people is clearly evident in the evidence they chose to present. That is the problem with the GI of 35 for coconut sugar. The number comes from a study done in the Philippines that measured 10 test subject. The description of the test can be found here. There is nothing particularly wrong with the study, except the low sample size. Of course, the location of the study is important because, according to Wikipedia:
The world’s largest producers of coconuts are the Philippines.[1] and Indonesia
I am not accusing them of wrong doing, it is just there is clear motivation for the country to select the best data and we have seen poor data done in countries that had a benefit from the outcome. Remember Dr. Oz and the African Mango that had research done in Cameroon, the largest producer of African Mango?
In fact a little more digging turns up a range of 35 to 54 for coconut sugar, based upon tests from the Philippines, USA Australia, and Japan. With these new figures, we are getting awfully close to sucrose, which makes sense. What makes even more sense is when you look at evaporated cane juice (which is what coconut sugar essentially is), it has a GI of 55 (I can’t find a range for it by the way, so I am a little skeptical of how much research has been done on it). 55 is awfully close to 54. Beyond the lack of refining, another explanation of the lower GI could be the amount of fructose to sucrose. Maple syrup has a GI of 54, honey has a GI of 30 and brown rice syrup has a GI of 25 so, lower GI sweeteners have been around for awhile, it doesn’t change what we know about sugar at all.
What Makes This Segment Offensive
Fructose has a GI of 22, yet nobody is recommending using it as a miracle sweetener. We know that Fructose is dangerous when consumed in moderate to large quantities because it is not absorbed and used in the blood stream but instead is metabolized by the liver and stored as fat. You can read all about it here (and if you don’t understand what fructose is and what it does, I highly recommend you read that article, it sums it up well). The point is, fructose is dangerous and it has a low glycemic index so you would have to be an idiot to recommend a sugar just because it has a low glycemic index, especially when you point out that it has the same calories as table sugar! This is what Dr. Oz does with coconut sugar. If that wasn’t bad enough, then he gets a self professed sugar addict and the rest of his audience to eat blondies (light coloured brownies) and cupcakes baked with coconut sugar instead of table sugar. The level of cognitive dissonance is astounding. It really appears that he is promoting eating baked goods just so long as they are made with coconut sugar (Try to cut out baked good entirely)!!!! This is INSANE!! Almost as insane as the line he uses to close his bit on coconut sugar:
Next, would you like to put your coconut palm sugar in a special tea that will help you lose weight all day long?
Don’t put sugar in your tea. Tea and coffee are excellent opportunities to cut your sugar dependence. I did it. It was hard, one of the hardest things I have done. It took awhile, to get used to it, but now I would never go back. It was a necessary first step in cutting my dependence on sugar and if you want to get fit, you are almost guaranteed to have to go down this road, oh and drinking tea won’t help you lose weight, no matter what the crackpot on TV says.
Early next week, Dr. Oz is going to have Kirstie Alley on his show and I cannot imagine how that is going to go. Here an actual doctor will have the opportunity to ask her about her missing science behind your ridiculous product, a product which has no explanation whatsoever as to how it works. Of course Dr. Oz is the last doctor on earth I would want conducting this interview so I am guessing there will be some crazy demonstrations/props, a lot of hand holding (am I the only one who is creeped out by how he has to grab onto every girl on the shows hand and not let go no matter what?), and dancing. After all, who needs evidence and science and answers when the two of them can get fabulously wealthy and dance around the stage….
You see, weight loss is easy, just ask Jessica…
Before I begin this article, I want to be clear right up front…. I love Jessica Simpson. I know I have said before I really like Oprah, and Kirstie Alley, and I admitted to having a thing for Jillian Michaels, and I said this right before pointing out how horribly these people have cheated you or misled you or just plain abused your trust. Well, that isn’t going to happen here because I love Jessica and even if she was out to screw you, I would throw you under the bus to protect her. Lucky that isn’t the case because she has done nothing wrong…. She is a good wholesome mother who just wants to be herself, only better…
And the even better thing is that she had ‘unfortunately’ gained 70 pounds with her pregnancy, which just makes her so much more lovable and human. After hearing about her struggle to lose the weight after giving birth, Weight Watchers came to rescue and taught her the number system for foods so she could lose weight. According to Weight Watchers:
“From the point when we started speaking with Jessica before she became pregnant, to now when she’s had baby Maxwell, Jessica has made clear her commitment to establishing a healthier lifestyle for herself and her family. We look forward to supporting Jessica as she embarks on this next chapter in her life.”
Oh… wait a minute… She actually was in negotiations with Weight Watchers before she was even pregnant?!?! …and she still ended up gaining 70 pounds during pregnancy?!?! That doesn’t make any sense at all. In the discussions with her, did they not tell her how many points a bagel is? She says in numerous interviews that she thought all the baby weight would go with the baby. She was repeatedly meeting with Weight Watchers… didn’t anyone tell her? Sure, someone cynical could imagine that the 70 pound gain was an attempt to inflate the appearance of weight loss… could there have been an incentive to the weight gain/loss? I actually don’t know because all I know about her contract is what some source recently told US Weekly, which apparently is that:
Simpson’s contract requires a 20- to 30-pound loss by the end of August or no payday
The specificity of the details from that source (give or take 10 pounds) lets me know that I shouldn’t hold my breath to learn any other parts of the contract, other than the contract is worth $3 to $4 million!! I guess though if they weren’t talking about local meeting locations or revisions to the points plus system for 2012 for the months while they were in discussions with her, there must be a lot of details to the contract that probably involve payments for weight gains and losses. Even how much weight she gained was a little unclear, as some reports have it at 50 or 60 pounds, not 70. The thing is, I would like to ask Weight Watchers to reveal the contract. After all, they are using that contract to snow so many people into signing up for their program, it would only be fair to know what incentives their spokesmodel had for losing weight…
Whatever, Jessica had struggled just like every other woman who has gained weight during pregnancy and has to lose it. Well, almost like every other woman, except for the fact that she could enjoy knowing that each ice cream sundae she was putting away during the third trimester might bring her a cool $100,000. Not too sure whenever I have binged that I could find any upside, instead of that feeling of self disgust… Still, if you listen to the rhetoric from Weight Watchers, or hear Jessica’s disturbingly cute slightly vacuous southern drawl, it is clear that she is just like you. According to Time magazine in reference to Jessica Simpson on the first episode of the Katie Show:
It was a trademark daytime-TV moment: the story of a Woman Who Is Just Like You, except that she’s not at all. Much of Katie’s audience can identify with trying to shed baby weight, not to mention the body-image pressure placed on women. But when Katie asked Simpson, “How do you focus on losing weight and taking care of your baby, because they’re both very demanding jobs, right?” you had to assume that being paid a zillion dollars to lose the weight probably helps. The balancing act continued when Katie brought out Simpson’s Weight Watchers coach, who, Katie said, “helped me lose a few L-B’s as well. She works with plenty of normal people though. Not that we’re not normal, but…”
It was her first interview by the way, so you can’t fault her for forgetting that she is supposed to pretend to be a normal person. So, they even brought out her Weight Watchers coach. How cool. Apparently her independent trainer and most likely nutritionists and chefs weren’t available. The best news is that the specialty Weight Watchers coach that the celebs get (Katie and Jessica) also does from time to time slum it up with us normal people.
I have been checking with Weight Watchers to see if I, or an every day average woman who say, has just given birth, will have the same resources that Jessica had. So far I haven’t found her incentives, but I am still looking. According to their website you will get:
| An integrated approach emphasising good eating choices, healthy habits, a supportive environment and exercise. | |
| A plan that allows you to eat what you like, with an emphasis on nutrition and advice on staying satisfied by choosing the foods you enjoy. | |
| A sensible plan to help you lose weight at a healthy rate plus the knowledge and info you need to help you keep it off for good. | |
| A time-tested approach informed by analysing years of scientific studies. | |
| A food plan that can adapt to any lifestyle or unique needs. |
Those all look like awesome things, but I can’t find the 3 to 4 million dollar incentive that Jessica got. Maybe it is in the small print. Oh, and she has been training at a gym with a personal trainer. Some guy named Harley Pasternak. Apparently he is a celebrity trainer, which in this case means he trains celebrities, as opposed to the other celebrity trainers who we see all the time who really just play trainers on TV… I am guessing he doesn’t come cheap. I wonder, does my Weight Watchers membership give me training sessions with a personal trainer? I will have to ask them. I do wonder though, do I have the same access to my coach as she did? Does Weight Watchers care as much about my weight loss as hers? Was she eating those little Weight Watcher meals that I can get in the freezer section of my grocery store? Oh, well, I am sure that isn’t too important, what is important is that I can do the exact same program as Jessica!!
Well, the interview was just filmed in the last few days and she looks good. She has apparently lost over 40 pounds!! CAAA-CHING!!! Time to start running the ads (The ad was filmed just two months after having her child) and run the magazine article at the start of this page.
I just love her screwed up mouth thing… so cute… She is sooo real, just a real girl in the real world… Okay, lay off people, seriously. She is awesome and make no mistake, I would sell you out for $4 million. This blog would be the Vitamin Water and Triple Whopper with Cheese diet blog if someone was willing to give me $4 million. I must say though, Weight Watchers has done a great job of bringing all of this together in perfect timing. Very well orchestrated….
Don’t fault me for finding this irresistible…
That said, Weight Watchers is a pretty good program. They are definitely getting their value with Jessica. After all, the first episode of the Katie Curic show played like an infomercial for Weight Watchers. How much would an ad like that cost (they even played the ad apparently)? So, who is losing here? Well, I guess we are. The people who want to believe that we can lose 70 pounds in just months. The people who want to think that the weight will just melt off when we join Weight Watchers. The people who at the end of the day, buy the magazines, watch the shows and then pay money for things that are nowhere near as effective as we want to believe. Obviously celebrity spokesmodels are a joke. They know that they are totally different from you. They don’t even think of you as being the same. You are normal, they aren’t, they are super. They know that. They get paid millions of dollars in cash to lose weight and that is beyond the millions of other incentives they have. It would be literally INSANE to join Weight Watchers because Jessica Simpson tells you it works. That is like taking investment advice from a lottery winner. Of course, when you struggle to lose weight without the incentives you will just have to grant that these celebrities are just better than you, they are super and you are just pathetically normal…. After all, Kirstie Alley, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Hudson, they had no problems losing weight.
Ironically this all just proves how smart Kirstie Alley is. She put on all of that same weight as apparently intentionally as Jessica Simpson, but rather than take a $4 million dollar payday (which she previously did for Jenny Craig), she smartly created a ridiculous pink drink and sold it herself. She used her brand to make money for her and only her. Unfortunately her insane program appears to be of almost no value, at least no value that I can find, whereas Weight Watchers has a lot of thought behind it.
Please, I keep saying stop buying magazines and programs that are recommended by celebrities. That may not be enough. Let them know how upset you are that they are lying to you and using huge contracts and celebrities to dupe you out of your money. At some point this has to stop. We just can’t be this stupid, can we?
Taxing soft drinks…
I get a lot of emails from promoters of diets and products and studies asking me to report on their stuff. Between 30 and 40 a day. Most of the stuff is pure crap. A little hint to the promoters… if you put, ‘fact or myth’ in the subject line, I am going with myth without doing any further looking. In any case, I am printing the following press release as is to stimulate a discussion. My mind is far from made up on the issue of taxing soft drinks. I honestly don’t know where I stand on the issue. The press release is a well reasoned discussion on some of the pros and cons. How do you stand on this issue? What are your thoughts and concerns?
By the way, most news agencies print press releases as news. In fact the bulk of what you see as news on the internet is simply press releases. There is no journalism and no reporting going on, just reprinting and sometimes repackaging of a corporate statement. I bring your attention to this because the press release below isn’t news. It is just what it says it is, and I am only printing it here because it is an excellent discussion on some of the pros and cons in a very difficult issue. Let me know what you think.
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Dr. Lindsey Duncan has only recently come up on my radar, and yet he has already guaranteed himself a spot in this years Rogues Gallery class of inductees. It is remarkable that he has achieved this position so quickly without having reached the criminal levels evidenced by others who had achieved this feat in years past, such as Heidi Diaz… Now she was a piece of work.
I would have put Lindsey Duncan in the Rogues Gallery for his unparalleled work at talking out of his ass about ‘super foods’, detoxification, ‘anti-aging’ foods and constantly reminding people that he is the nutritionist to the stars. This guy has a superfood for each and every ailment known to man. It is astounding to me that we even need regular doctors and medicines with the quick fixes this guy finds. Who needs more reasons?
In any case, I recently posted about Lindsey Duncan’s appearance on Dr. Oz and what a vacant, over acted and completely embarrassing performance Dr. Oz put in shilling this product for Lindsey Duncan. There were no shortage of questions about what Dr. Oz is up to,as this was at least the 4th, ‘Miracle in a bottle’ that Dr. Oz has hyped recently. The complete lack of research on his part and that of his staff is amazing. In the previous misstep he missed almost everything to do with the ‘Raspberry Ketones’ that he was pitching in an earlier miracle episode. Simple things like the fact that they are almost guaranteed to not be natural raspberry ketones, but instead are most likely made in a lab (source):
Raspberry Ketones (also known as 4-(4-hydroxyphenyl) butan-2-one) are an extract from Red raspberries usually used as a scenting and flavoring agent in foods and cosmetics.[1] It has a structure similar to Capsaicin and Synephrine, sharing a 1,3,7-cyclohexene group with a carbon tail.[2]
It can naturally be found in many foods, most notably raspberries (in which case it is synthesized from coumaroyl-CoA), however most raspberry ketone is synthesized[3] or produced via bacteria[4][5] due to its high demand in cosmetics and as a flavoring agent.
But how could he have missed this:
The Facts:
Genesis Today (for full disclosure, I am the Founder & CEO of Genesis Today)
If you want to experiment with green coffee extract, we recommend the Source Naturals brand product from iHerb, and not Dr. Lindsey’s own formulation. Why? Source Naturals contains the precise, proprietary extract used in the study (GCA®), contains a larger dose per pill (500mg vs. 400mg) and is cheaper (when purchased at iHerb).
“I was overwhelmed by the response from my appearance last week on national TV, myself and my team have been inundated with calls and emails asking for information on where to find ‘pure green coffee bean extract in a vegetarian capsule’ and how to make sure that you are not purchasing from a scam website. We have done extensive research and confirmed that the following companies are reputable and well-established (they were ‘founded’ more than 6 days ago), and they offer PURE green coffee bean extract with no additives, no binders, no fillers and no artificial ingredients:
- Pure Health
- Online www.purehealth100.com
- Phone: 1-888-323-9355
- Pure Health product is also available at Walmart stores nationwide
- www.BestPriceNutritionOnline.com
- www.iHerb.com
- Genesis Today (for full disclosure, I am the Founder & CEO of Genesis Today)
- Online: www.genesistoday.com
- Phone: 800-916-6642
- Your Local Health Foods store! I suggest you call before you make the trip as many locations have sold out of product.
He has done his research and Pure Health is number one. My first thought on this was that he was wisely doing the anti-trust thing. Suggest another competing product first. People will still buy from you as likely as not but you don’t look like you are scamming people, only helping them. After all, think about it, if you pushed this green coffee bean story as being a revolution in weight loss after one study of 16 people, you got many if not most of your facts wrong when you presented on TV and you were ridiculously specific about the dosage of the product, even though there is NO evidence anywhere to suggest that 400 mg capsules are a good dose and in the end it turned out you were the only one selling this product that you were hyping, well that wouldn’t look good at all. That would look like you manipulating a market, quite possibly working with Dr. Oz to create a multi-million dollar market out of thin air. Lindsey Duncan opened the whole show saying (taken from Lindsey Duncan post on Dr. Oz.com)
Normally, I don’t recommend “weight-loss” supplements, especially weight-loss supplements that claim “easy” weight loss or “fast” weight loss.
You Probably Won’t Believe this Next Turn of Events
At this point he said something else. I had to stop and rewind the video segment several times to make sure I heard him correctly; Duncan reports that participants consumed 2400 calories and states “they burned only 400 calories, now that’s weight gain, not weight loss.”
Wow.
Is Duncan seriously suggesting that an average 170-180 lbs individual only needs 400 calories per day to survive? A simple test with a BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculator will show you that the amount of calories required is actually closer to 4 times that number!
Think about that for a second. A so called Dr., a nutritionist of all people, is claiming these people only burned 400 calories a day… yet they ate 2400… How in the world would that be possible-are these people in a cryogenic sleep state? Dr. Lindsey even thought about it and realized that they are storing 2000 calories a day, which is what he calls weight gain…. He thought about people burning 400 calories a day as normal… Still, this misstatement is showing up everywhere on sites associated with Lindsey Duncan’s products. I would have let it go, anyone can misstep with language once on national TV, but he keeps making this claim, even after ultimatefatburner has brought it to his attention. You can’t say that he may not have seen the blog entry because his team responded to it here.
I love that response by the way. My favourite part is where they throw Dr. Oz under the bus:
“I understand your frustration with some of the products or some of the herbs that are seen on Dr. Oz and their efficacy, but Dr. Lindsey is very careful about what he brings to the public light – and just because there might be holes in the study that you want to attack, Dr. Lindsey shouldn’t necessarily be the brunt of your attack. As they say, don’t kill the messenger
“
With a smiley face emoticon even! If there are holes in the study and this is the study that Lindsey Duncan is bringing to the public, and calling earth shattering, in fact, it is the only thing on which he bases all of the hype that HE IS CREATING, then by definition you HAVE to kill the messenger because he is the entire problem. Still, I love how even Lindsey Duncan’s people think that Dr. Oz is a pathetic in the products he is shilling!
Getting back to the issue at hand though. If Lindsey Duncan is in fact promoting 2 brands of green coffee extract and admitting out of the need for full disclosure that he owns one of the brands, is there anything wrong with him not disclosing that he owns the other brand as well?
SERIOUSLY!!
Again, I would have let this go, but a very astute reader of mine, Katrina noticed something a little more coincidental:
KatrinaAugust 2, 2012 1:12 pmDear Mark,
This was an interesting article. After also watching the segment on Dr. Oz with Dr. Duncan I started searching the Internet and found an article that stated the 2 best coffee bean supplements that he recommends (Genesis Today and Pure Health). It does state that he is CEO of Genesis but I decided to check out the Pure Health website as well. This website doesn’t mention who the owners are but If you dig deep enough the address is the same as Genesis (I think they were both in Austin, TX). Interesting, huh?????
Katrina,That is interesting. I did a bit of digging and yes, they do have the exact same address:
Genesis Today Inc.
14101 West Highway 290
Building 1900
Austin, TX 78737Pure Health LLC
c/o 3PL Distribution
14101 W. Hwy. 290, #1900
Austin TX 78737I checked out the location on google maps. It is a small warehouse in Texas, there is no way that there are 2 companies there, or that Pure Health coincidently uses the same fulfillment centre as Genesis today. Great digging.
Still, I have had products for sale before (nothing related to weight loss, in fact it was for poker) and we used a fulfillment centre (sometimes if you make a product you don’t want to be shipping it out of your garage, so you pay a company to store the product in their warehouse and fill the orders as they come in. This is a fulfillment centre), so this could be a coincidence. I did get a good look at the business centre and that building isn’t a fulfilment centre. Even if it were, why would Genesis today list it as it’s legal business address? A fulfilment centre has nothing to do with your legal business address, in fact it is that fulfillment centres legal address . As well, Austin Texas is a strange location for a fulfillment centre.
It is the white roofed building in the upper left corner there.
So, I am now pretty sure that Lindsey Duncan used his ‘full disclosure’ to actually trick us into thinking that he was actually fully disclosing his conflicts of interest, when in fact he was hiding that he had business interests in both of the companies that he is promoting. I don’t know if that would be so bad either if he hadn’t spent so much of each of his videos and press releases admonishing us to avoid fillers, get 400 mg, avoid scams, “use well-established companies (that were ‘founded’ more than 6 days ago)”, which all might have seemed like good, doctoral advice, when in fact it was all part of a scam to get you to buy his product instead of anyone else’s. Here he is spending minutes and an entire press release, literally stating:
My mission is to make the world a healthier place by educating on natural health and wellness and to make affordable healthy, all-natural products available and accessible for everyone. It is unfortunate that when the natural, medical or scientific community uncovers one of Nature’s most incredible natural secrets that has the potential to make a significant impact and improve the lives of millions of people around the world – that so many scammers and marketeers jump on the bandwagon with only the mission to take advantage of innocent consumers who are searching for hope and seeking to improve their health and happiness.”
Yes, he literally stated that. I wonder, was that little voice inside his head laughing and saying, and I am one of those scammers and marketeers…
If only I could find some evidence that he has some financial connection to the Pure Health company. The problem is though, the website does not even list the real company name that sells the products. Is it Pure Health, is it Pure Health 100, or some other variation. You would be astounded at how many variation there are in Texas. Is the company even founded in Texas or were they devious enough to found it somewhere else? When was it founded even, was this a newly hatched plan or something thought up long before?
I was getting nowhere on the computer and had a list of people I could follow up with by phone over the next week or so. I had landlord’s numbers, IT professionals who handled the website, etc. I would get to the bottom of this. I had done a lot of research into company ownership back when I was doing a report on a scam ring of websites run by Henny Den Uijl and Bryan Corlett, including Lypozene and a dozen others, so I kept looking. After awhile, I became heartened when I came across this. Do you see the words in the url?:
On the pure Health website, on an obscure link, when clicked, you get a link that includes Genesis Today. This was evidence, but easy for them to clean up and certainly not proof. Still, I knew I had the good Dr.
Some complaints for Pure Health (a lot of complaints: “Since the beginning of May 2012, BBB has received a high volume and pattern of complaints regarding non-delivery of products ordered online. Many of these complaints are currently pending response from the company” source) in the BBB and a website registration led me to Nevada, . Once I had that, I had the whole picture:
PURE HEALTH LLC.
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Why I was having no luck finding them was because they were only created at the end of February, 2012. Coincidently, the press release from Dr. Lindsey Duncan (the one advising you to use well established companies) was dated May 4th and he appeared on Dr. Oz in April. So, this company was created before the Dr. Oz show aired, but certainly after he knew he was doing it, possibly after it was taped… very tricky, but even he would have to admit that this certainly was not a well established company!
I actually was quite suspicious that his wife was involved in this scam earlier because as I searched through Lindsey Duncan’s associated companies and business associates I found some interesting connections, including a holding company owned by Cheryl Wheeler-Duncan. At this point I assumed she was his wife, and that holding company made me suspicious (although to tell you the truth, it probably has nothing to do with the whole Pure Health thing, just that holding companies are ALWAYS suspicious).
The Owner of Pure Health 100
Complainants allege products are purchased via the company’s website, payment is received, sometimes overnight, and products are not delivered by the promised delivery date. Complainants also claim the inability to contact the company to inquire about their purchase.
“As you are reaching out to these companies, please be patient. They are also being inundated with orders and inquiries, and will serve you as quickly as they possibly can.”
Hey Everyone. Check out celebrity nutritionist and natural health expert Dr. Lindsey Duncan talking about Superfoods that will help you slim down this summer. Like Pure Saffron from Pure Health! Thanks for the support Dr. Lindsey!
Conclusion
To Illustrate a Point (or I Hate Candy Posing as Healthy)
I have written many times about not listening to the things you read on the outside of a package. Ignore the bubbles and the big print. These messages are just there to cover up what they don’t want you to read. To quote the book, ‘You Are Not A Fit Person’:
This food is rich in… You are going to hear claims all the time that this food is rich in this or full of that.
Dr. Oz is on the fast train to the *Rogue’s Gallery (with Lindsey Duncan coming along for the ride)
*The Rogues Gallery can be found here for those who would like to know more about it or see who has already been inducted.
Seriously, when did Dr. Oz start becoming a shill for the worst weight loss supplement ideas? I want to like Dr. Oz but he has come up on my radar so many times before and I gave him a pass each time, but this is too much.
I recently read a junk email I had been received that blurted out PURE_KEYTONE. I normally junk any email with all caps in the subject, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why my junk mail filter can’t figure out this simple rule, but for some reason I read this one. It reads:
Just released: Dr. Oz discovers new weight loss miracle
Now, there is enough in that heading alone to make me ignore the junk email, but I was feeling curious and there was a link to this video:
This video is so full of warning signs of a pure scam I am not sure what to think of Dr. Oz (Seriously, did I hear him say, #1 Miracle in a Bottle… how many miracles have been bottled??!?!). I don’t think he is a con artist. I don’t think he is being paid by the makers of Raspberry Keytones to say what he says…. Could he really be this stupid? I don’t know how. I figured I would research this product and then disprove everything in the video, but I didn’t even have to. This guy, Andrew Lessman, already did and you can read all about it by clicking on the link.
I don’t know which of the main facts bother me the most. This is not a natural raspberry ketone, but a synthetic manufactured one. The real product is ridiculously expensive, but this cheap knock off obviously isn’t, yet everyone is touting this stuff as if it comes from real raspberries. That is so bad it really does deserve extra mention, along with the fact that there is apparently almost no research behind this product even though Dr. Oz and Lisa Lynn talk so much about research, but I think what makes me the most mad about this Dr. Oz segment is the way he puts balloons in liquid nitrogen and explains that is exactly what is happening in your body… SERIOUSLY DR. OZ?!!?!? Did you just get a liquid nitrogen kit for your birthday and you were eager to try it out??? That has nothing to do with how fat loss works in any circumstances… Balloons shrink because the atoms in them slow down as a consequence of cooling and therefore apply less pressure to the wall of the balloon… how in the world does this relate to raspberry ketone?!??!? Please explain this to us!
I was already suspicious of Dr. Oz when he proclaimed that African Mango was a ‘Breakthrough supplement’, in First For Women Magazine. I don’t want to slam First For Women Magazine here, because they are such a pathetic rag of a magazine, I will save them for a whole entry. In any case, it seems that every week Dr. Oz has a new miracle diet that they are happy to share with us. In fact, Dr. Oz even thought that African Mango is one of the 3 supplements you need in your medicine cabinet… seriously
Dr. Oz African Mango; Irvingia Gabonensis; In this segment of the Dr. Oz show today Dr Oz African Mango, Vitamin B And A Multi Vitamins In Your Medicine Cabinet Dr. Oz talked about the 3 must have’s for the medicine cabinet. There is interest in using supplements containing Irvingia gabonensis for weight loss, lowering cholesterol levels, and improving control of diabetes. weight loss and diet miracles that you find in your medicine cabinet including Vitamin B, African Mango(or Irvingia Gabonensis) and a multivitamin. source
He called this one a miracle in your medicine cabinet… I get the impression that Dr. Oz throws around the word miracle a little too easily. In any case, if you want to hear about the problems with African Mango, you can read about them here when I went after him in 2010.
That is 2 straight up scams he fell for… hopefully he has mended his ways, realized what a bozo he looks like being duped over and over again. After all, he has an audience of millions who run out and buy whatever products he recommends. I am sure he feels terrible for having these people spend their money and more importantly put their hope and their faith into something he assures them is an actual miracle, only to find out later that it does not do anything that it claims.
Wait… here he is selling a new Green Coffee Bean Extract as a weight loss supplement… opening up with claims like,’Magic Weight Loss Cure for EVERY Body type and Miracle Pill (there is a bunch of those miracle pills apparently). You can see the embarrassing video for yourself, below:
Here you can read an unbiased reporting of the study that is apparently shaking the science community to their core! Notice first and foremost the size of the study. Only 16 overweight individuals. Otherwise, the weight loss seems to be reported correctly, but look at how the study was run. It was a ‘cross over study’ with each person taking each of the 3 treatments during the study, Placebo, High Dose and Low Dose.
It was a so-called “cross-over” study in which people cycled through the two doses and the placebo, each for six weeks. Such studies have advantages because each person serves as his or her own “control,” improving the chances of getting an accurate result.
For the life of me I cannot figure out how this makes each person his or her own ‘control’ unless they are reporting the data as a 6 week outcome. Even then, how are they varying the treatment, is it random? Do they report the weight loss during each portion of the study? I can’t find that out because even more disturbingly, the study does not appear to have been published. It has only been presented and all of the material for the article was sourced from this press release.
So, at best we have some intriguing information to follow up on with other studies. It would be criminal for a doctor to jump from that to calling this a weight loss miracle and suggest that ‘this little bean has scientists saying they have found the magic weight loss cure for every body type.’ You can see him say that in the video above, I am not making this up. I have no idea what network he is on, but I cannot imagine that this recklessness isn’t opening them up to some terrific litigation possibilities.
Of course, they could always blame it on Lindsay Duncan, the certified nutritionist who is so excited about green coffee beans. Who is Lindsay Duncan? Well, according to his bio:
With over 28 years of clinical experience naturopathic doctor and celebrity nutritionist, Dr. Lindsey Duncan is often called the “Indiana Jones of Medicine,” and is one of the world’s leading experts on superfoods, herbal medicine, natural remedies and natural health.
With an intro like that, you KNOW I am going to bury this guy. Often called, the Indiana Jones of Medicine… maybe if you count the times he pays people to say it to him. This guy is remarkable. He claims that he doesn’t often offer weight loss supplement advice and this appears to be mostly true, until you dig a little deeper and find out he too is in on the Raspberry Ketone deal and he also appears to be recommending Resveratrol, the much touted active ingredient in Red Wine, for weight loss (and there is the MLM scam, but that comes later). Still, compared to how many other products he recommends for cures for just about every ailment, I am going to give him a pass on this one. Comparatively he doesn’t recommend weight loss supplements as much as every other type of supplement on earth! If you have the endurance to sit through it, this is an amazing self promotion video:
You even get to hear him called the Indiana Jones of Medicine… So, other than the fact that this guy is spouting off about how ingredients work like he actually has a clue (it is this jump from the results of a study to this sureness of how the product works that makes nutritionists like this guy so detestable), you get this really annoying soundtrack that keeps on touting this ‘Genesis Pure’. I will get to that in a second, but in the meantime I want to talk about his demo reel he is peddling on You Tube. The thing is, if he had discovered a product that actually worked, touted one discovery that was of any value or performed any research on anything, that would be worthy of a demo reel and I would expect to see it in his video. Of course I don’t believe he has done any of this, instead his demo reel consists of whatever promotional spots he can get on vapid shows like The View and the celebrities he has had his photo with. He can’t even help himself but he has to look at the camera when he is being filmed climbing a palm tree.
All of this makes me hate the guy, and the fact that he states that he is ‘one of the world’s leading experts on super foods’, and I have said repeatedly that super foods are a scam and anyone who tries to pitch them to you is a con artist… well, by that definition, Lindsay Duncan is the world’s leading expert! Further, what makes this guy even more suspect is the fact that he is an expert on the alkaline diet, a diet based upon such misinformation as to be mind boggling. I had thought that everyone associated with this diet had hidden their heads in shame.
This is all bad, but possibly forgivable, but you see, what you didn’t find out from the Dr. Oz bit, you know the one about green coffee bean extract, is that this Lindsey guy likes it so much he is helping legitimate supplement companies by giving them a video telling people how to buy the right type of Green Coffee Bean Extract. You can see the video here. It is on the website of Genesis Today. They sell green coffee bean extract and they have posted a video of the good doctor, not only explaining exactly how this supplement works, but more importantly what to look for when you are buying it. I am sure he performs this service for every supplement company because he is such a believer in this product, there isn’t a reason why he would be doing it just for Genesis today… Mind you, that name does ring a bell…
Wait, wasn’t that part of the song in the self aggrandizing video he has of himself? OMG, a quick search on LinkedIn and low and behold, he is CEO of Genesis Today. He makes money (I would think lots of money) selling the same green coffee bean extract he was touting to Dr. Oz!!! I am not making this up. NOWHERE in the video does he admit this. He does not state his clear conflict of interest in the interview with Dr. Oz, and true to form, the crack squad on that TV show failed to pick this up before broadcast. In fact, nowhere on the website can you find the corporate information that would tell you that Lindsey Duncan is the CEO of this company. Any real profession would at the least censure someone for such a clear failure to disclose your relationship with the product you are promoting. No wonder he likes the green coffee beans… he is sitting on tons of them! Oh, and by the way, this guy also likes the raspberry ketones at the end of this video, so rest assured he is probably selling that too. I was wondering if there was a connection between himself and the girl from the raspberry ketone segment on Dr. Oz, Lisa Lynn, but I haven’t found one yet. Mind you, she sells raspberry ketones too. It appears that Dr. Oz is literally a shill….
If that was all, Lindsey Duncan, the Snake Oil Salesman of the Medicine industry (by the way, so far as I can tell, he has been called that as many times as Indiana Jones), would have vaulted himself right into the Rogues Gallery,but there is more. Lindsey Duncan has now gone into the Multilevel Marketing business with his green coffee bean extract leading the way. Everyone knows that MLM’s are scams. They are bad for everyone but the person who starts them. What these guys are selling is the water filter or 2012.
Some of the crap they sell:
| Cell Water | |||
| Item #: GS046 | |||
| Cell Water effectively transports nutrients, enzymes, and proteins into cells while removing toxic buildup that accumulates in cells. |
| CardioClean | |||
| Item #: GP00087 | |||
| Genesis PURE CardioClean is the world’s first liquid dietary cardiovascular support supplement. 32 oz bottle of CardioClean |
| HealthTrim- Metabolic Boost | |||
| Item #: GP00050 | |||
| HealthTrim® Metabolic Boost is a comprehensive and complete weight control formula that addresses weight loss from seven critical angles. Most effective when used as part of the complete HealthTrim Natural Detox and Weight Loss Program.* 60 Capsules |
|||
| Your Price: $36.95 | |||
Cell Water?!?!? Come on… at least try!! That is pathetic. I love how the weight control formula addresses weight loss from seven critical angles… 7 huh? Why not eight? Well, that is trying at least.
It would take me another entry to go through the Genesis PURE website, but it appears to be a standard MLM scam with terrible products run by a guy who loves green coffee beans and climbing palm trees.
I love it when I get 2 inductees for the price of one. Welcome to the Rogues Gallery Drs. You will find yourself in good company.
For Shame!! An Open Letter to Whole Foods
I love Whole Foods! I absolutely love it!! If you haven’t been in a Whole Foods I feel for you. The produce is so fresh, so perfect it seems impossible, doubly so when you realize that they only sell organic food! The meat is incredible, I can’t even begin to describe it. The Virginia Ham, the Rib Eyes, the Peppered Roast Beef… I could go on about the seafood as well… Even better than all of this is the hot food bar.
The thing is though, Whole Foods has a problem. They are part of the belief that Organic is Healthy. I am not suggesting here that organic foods may not be healthier than non-organic foods, but that unhealthy foods are still unhealthy even when made from organic ingredients. This seems obvious to everyone in general, but somehow, you end up in a Whole Foods and suddenly the organic candies at the end caps and the cash register just don’t look so bad. Their candies scream of their benefits and their ingredients rarely contain any sugar… just organic evaporated cane juice.
I hate how easily fooled people are by these things and how Whole Foods is happy to present itself as a healthy food store while pushing candy as much as any other store, but that isn’t the reason I am mad at them right now. This is:
An Open Letter to Whole Foods:
Dear Margaret Wittenberg and Joe Rogoff,
First and foremost I want to commend you on all of the great things that you have done with your stores. I was recently shopping in my local Whole Foods at Park Royal, a store which I enjoy very much when I happened to run into this end cap:
Worst End Cap Ever
This cute little summer beach display looks so harmless. Full of toys and towels… what kind of cold hearted bastard would have a problem with it you are probably wondering? Well, the thing is, as I was walking by I noticed the ‘Sharkies’ in the middle of the display.
Yes, right here under the cute octopus backpack:
I remembered having some sharkies in a pack that was given to me once before a running a long endurance event. They were some sort of energy chew, kind of like a ‘GU’ but in gelatin form. I actually tried them and found them nearly inedible, so the name stuck out fir ne when I was walking by. Why in the world would you place a quick, salty energy source in a display of young children’s beach stuff? Then I noticed the packaging. These aren’t your ordinary energy replacement chews, these are specifically marketed to children!!!
To my shock and amazement, Whole Foods is actually selling candy to kids under the guise of sport chews!! For the life of me, I cannot imagine what in the world a kid would be doing with sports chews. What kind of exercise would a young child be doing that they would need a large influx of sugar in their system? I have taken energy gels before when running, but never at a distance less than a 1/2 marathon. I can’t imagine the distance that a kid would have to run to deplete his or her glycogen stores, but it would have to be substantial. I wonder, do you have anyone on your staff that would recommend these or find a legitimate need for them?
I don’t imagine that a kid who is playing with an octopus bucket would be up to that kind of distance, do you? Kids shouldn’t be taking energy gels or gelatins except under the most extreme conditions. These are not items that parents should be giving to kids at half time of a soccer game for example. All of the exercise experts know this, you at Whole Foods should know this.
What may be more disturbing than the fact that you are selling energy gels marketed to children, is the fact that these aren’t even energy gels, they are straight candy.
According to allaboutrunning.net:
Gels provide a way for your body to take in energy during times of extreme endurance. Many forms of carbohydrate (e.g. glucose) can trigger an insulin production reaction in the body which can result in a feeling of energy loss – this is the mechanism behind the famous ‘two o’clock slump’ experienced after a big lunchtime meal. However, gels are mostly made up of maltodextrin or some other form of carbohydrate which breaks down very easily in the body and does not cause a sugar overload.
In face, GU the leading energy gel manufacturer agrees:
The maltodextrin, which makes up 70-80% of the carbohydrate blend (depending on flavor), takes several minutes longer. Because of this delay, your muscles enjoy a steady stream of energy instead of one gigantic sugar rush and a corresponding crash.
So, true energy supplements contain a high amount of maltodextrin, but not Sharkies for kids, no, they are all kinds of sugar:
Organic Sugar, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic White Grape Juice Concentrate… All of the first 3 ingredients are all sugar. We know better than to eat foods that have sugar listed in the first 3 ingredients and this one has all 3! Although this is dressed up as a ‘Sport Chew’ it is nothing more than candy.
In fact, the salts usually present in sports chews and not surprisingly actually present in the adult version of this candy are even missing. One of the most important ingredients in an actual sport chew/gel is the electrolytes that replace the electrolytes that your body sweats out. The problem is, they taste like what they are, salt. They make the sport gel taste rather unpleasant. There is no reason to be removing the salts from the chews unless it is a tacit admission that these are a tasty treat, not a sport chew at all. The thing is, there really is no reason why a child wouldn’t be able to run an endurance race such as a half marathon or a marathon. After reading the differences in the ingredients for these I am not entirely sure they would be safe for that purpose given that the salt has not been added.
Shame on you Whole Foods! I am not at all surprised by Sharkies by the way. What they are doing is terrible, but there are no shortage of unethical companies that are trying to sell to our marketplace. When you invite them in though, they become your problem. You are vouching for them. You have banned Red Listed Seafood and GMO foods because you understand that you have an obligation to the consumer. This is an obligation that has come from the trust you have asked us to have in you and your products. A trust I did have until recently.
I love being in a place that loves food and loves the feeling you get when you are around it at it simplest and purest forms. My children and I were fortunate enough to get a seminar from a local beekeeper who had samples of his local, organic honey, real honey, which is apparently rarer than you would think. I want to believe that you aren’t just ‘Greenwashing’. That you believe you are making your consumers healthier. I don’t expect you to not sell candy. I don’t even expect you not to put it on end caps and at tills to make more money from our impulse buys (although to be honest with you I am a little disappointed every time I see this). I do expect you to know candy when you see it and not allow it to be marketed in your store as otherwise and I really expect you not to make cute displays out of it. If there were any value at all for kids sport chews, there is no world in which they should be marketed to parents of kids as young as the ones who would have been buying those products. Don’t think that this is a little issue either. We all know sports drinks are sold to children who believe that drinking them will help them become athletes and all they achieve is to help them become obese. This is no different, in fact probably worse.
I expect more from you. A lot more.
Sincerely,
Mark Vaughan
