Monday, October 20, 2008

$5 Million Fine for Bogus Weight Loss Claims

Ever hear of Kevin Trudeau?

He's the author of many fantastical books that purport the medical establishment is hiding cures from the general public.

He purports the same to be true about weight management and wrote a book entitled, "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About".

Apparently what we don't want you to know is that the cure includes weekly injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) which certainly to date has never been demonstrated to be either safe or effective for weight loss in any well designed randomized trial.

Oh, and there's also a complicated diet plan to follow.

His infomercials certainly make it seem effortless but the Federal Trade Commission, shockingly, felt differently.

So much differently in fact that they fined Kevin over $5 million and have banned him from making infomercials for 3 years.

20/20 had a kick at Kevin a while back and thanks to Youtube, here's their piece on his remarkable "cures":