The Easiest Ways to (Supposedly) Lose Weight

Many moons ago I used to work for a small network equipment reseller and systems integrator. At one point (when the Internet wasn't anything like it is today) they decided that they wanted to start up an Internet Service Provider operation. This is back when the first big dial-up Internet networks were first getting started. We sold bandwidth and we also developed web pages and hosted them as part of the business.

One day a particularly seedy-looking older fellow came in wanting us to create a commercial web site to help him sell his diet pills. He supposedly had thousands sitting in a warehouse he needed to move. This older fellow readily admitted that he had been arrested and charged by the US Postal Service for mail fraud in the past though I don't think he did any jail time or anything. He also freely admitted that the pills really didn't do much of anything. They were mostly vitamins and nutritional suplements. He was able to sell these as diet pills because tucked away in the fine print was the information stating that in order for the pills to work and for the consumer to experience weight loss they also had to follow the diet and excercise plan that accompanied the pills (a very low calorie plan that consisted of salads and plenty of vigourous excercise).

So this fellow surely sold many thousands of diet pills, knowing they wouldn't work, hinting that they would, and leaving the details to the fine print. Although the owners of the company and I eventually agreed to *NOT* be a part of this seedy fellows scam - and we sent him elsewhere for his Internet business - it gave me a real insight into who is behind so many of these kinds of diet pill scams. And the way that they take advantage of nieve innocent folks wanting instant results (without any work or pain or personal loss or even time spent working towards better health on their part). They want their weight loss in a pill. Something easy that doesn't require them to change much if at all.

This is nothing new. And thinking about some of the many diet pills you read about today makes me wonder about the veracity of these and similar diets in a pill bottle. I have no idea how effective they are or aren't. But I am a sceptic at this point. There is something honest about weight loss that actually requires work, pain, sacrifice, discipline, and actually takes time that I like. No catchy legalize in the fine print. It's simple and honest.

People have been looking for these kinds of shortcuts for centuries. I spent a few minutes on the Internet today looking about some of these kinds of quick and easy solutions in the past, and have highlighted a few I found below (I have no idea of the veracity of these, but they mostly look like real published ads or products sold).

And I also read about a number of similar potions, powders, and treatments that I wasn't able to find but read about:

• Russell's Anti-Corpulent Preparation Cream
• Jean Down's Get Slim Powder
• Every Woman's Flesh Reducer
• Howell's Reducing Paste
• George Burnwell's Obesity Belt
• Gardner Reducing Machines
• Reducing chairs
• Sugar, beeswax, lard, ox-bile (rub where needed)

Today people are really no different. They will buy slimming belts, abdominal-izers of various types, diet pills, do liposuction, get the lap band, do gastric bypass, and try all kinds of gadgets and solutions that promise tremendous and easy results. So this is nothing new, and is just more of the same for hundreds of years. Some of the potions below are simply citric acid and food coloring. Some actually contain sugar (yeah, that ought to work)! For every nieve innocent that's born there's a con man out there somewhere willing to take them for all they are worth.

Some of these are kindof funny to read about. The use of the words "Corpulent", and "Stout", and "Portly" seem to have fallen out of fashion.

"Adipose", "saponaceous", "avoirdupois", and "porcine" are rarely heard either. Yet go to Google and see how often these sort of words (like corpulent) were commonly used in the past by Herman Melville and other literary masters.

It's interesting what the latest fads are in weight loss. The latest shortcuts promising fantastic and unbelievable results. I wonder how many do nothing at all or are simply some old greasy flim flam man behind the products (running from the FTC, the postal service investigators, and the states and federal attorneys general).

An Interesting Link:

Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition By Walter Gratzer
http://books.google.com/books?id=YhqHSDjnsbYC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=russells+anti+corpulent&source=web&ots=15t9pt_wpq&sig=VxMDuJFAwh2J84oWq-gcaYDHZqs

An Interesting Article:

FTC Stops Diet Spam http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136401-c,spam/article.html