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Saw this coming from miles away
posted by GJ on May 1, 2009 @ 4:25PM
You've seen the ads all over TV for the last few years. Hydroxycut will make you lose weight--without exercise! If you have even a basic understanding of biochemistry and physics, you'd recognize this as the dietary supplement equal of the perpetual motion machine. What's scary about this, and practically every other junk science product out there, is this: the developers of the product actually believe they know what they are doing. They think, hey, we can add lots of caffeine, since that speeds up your metabolism and theoretically (by virtual of their rationalization, and positive-reinforcment based research) will help you burn calories faster. They add several other ingredients, some well-known, some much less known, in an effort to come up with a magic pill to do the impossible. However, these folks don't really know what they're doing--have no idea how to safely test a product--and really don't understand what the fuss is all about. And of course, due to the wild west that is the dietary supplement business, the government only gets involved when people start dying. Well, to no one's shock, especially not mine, that's where we are with this product. For those that suffered no ill effects, it's not so bad--they just got to pay a "stupid tax," since any result they got wasn't the result of this product. Want some hints as to other products in this category? Glad you asked. Cold-Eeze. Airborne. Dr. Frank's Homeopathic Spray for People/Animals. HeadOn. The list just goes on, and on, and on. Fight back by staying wary. A product shows up and claims wonderful benefits with practically no downside? Be wary--very, very wary. Ask the tough questions. You'll find they almost always resort to the same evasive answers. Watch the ads--you'll see an explosion of these soon promising protection against the swine flu. Same deal. :)
| Tags: woo, pseudoscience
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