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Fakes and fraud in commercial diets
Dan Larhammar
Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
The interest in health-food products is intense among the general public and in the media. Many products are
widely sold despite a lack of supporting scientific evidence. Several examples of fraudulent claims are given
here, such as the non-existent compound said to be the active ingredient in the weight-reduction product
called MicroMagic. Another example is Dr Peter J D’Adamo’s blood group diet, which claims to be
specifically designed for the different blood groups of the ABO system and to be able to alleviate symptoms of
serious diseases. These products are marketed without support from scientific studies, and often contain
totally unrealistic claims such as rapid and extensive weight loss without reduction in food intake. Sources are
provided that contain critical evaluation of these types of exaggerated claims.
Keywords: ABO blood groups;blood group diet;weight-reduction diet
Introduction
The general public’s interest in food, dieting and
health seems unlimited. Advertisements and com-
mercials continuously tempt and urge us to purchase
food products, follow specific diets or take certain
treatments claimed to be beneficial for our health
(1). Among the many diets and products for
promotion of health, the most cynical are probably
those that claim to achieve weight reduction. With
promises about rapid weight loss, many desperate
and disillusioned people are lured into testing useless
products. Other diets and food supplements are
claimed to ensure health and prevent diseases,
particularly illnesses that appear late in life, meaning
that many customers will be taking the remedy for
years: prophylactic products constitute a mouth-
watering business concept for manufacturers.
The health sections in the tabloid press and
newspapers frequently propagate these products
and concepts. In contrast, well-designed scientific
studies of the claimed effects rarely if ever reach the
tabloid health sections. One reason for this is
probably that very few products have been tested
with scientific methods. Another reason may be that
tests come out negative, i.e. no convincing effects
can be demonstrated, and such results are notor-
iously difficult to publish in scientific journals as
well as in news media. A reason why so few of the
commercial diets have been investigated is probably
that the manufacturers do not even try to perform
costly clinical trials that fulfil scientific criteria
because they are aware that the effects are likely
to be negligible. Stringent tests of diets may be
difficult to carry out, but the absence of well-
supported effects does not seem to deter manufac-
turers from making far-reaching claims of effects in
their marketing of the diets.
Fraudulent weight-reduction products
The list of dieting products that are sold
with unsupported or irrational claims is very long.
Only the most unrealistic claims lead to action
by federal authorities such as the Swedish National
Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) or the
Swedish Medical Products Agency (La
¨kemedels-
verket). A few examples will be mentioned here.
One is the dieting product sold under the name
MicroMagic during 1999
/2001, marketed by a
company called Body and Soul. Its miraculous
effects on body weight were ascribed to an ingre-
dient called in Swedish ‘‘krom aminosyraklat’’,
which was said to change the body’s energy
consumption so that energy would be retrieved
from fat instead of water and thereby lead to weight
loss. Anybody who says that water is an energy
source either is completely illiterate regarding
metabolism or is a bold liar. The named ingredient
does not exist. The product disappeared after its
claims were criticized in newspapers and in a
consumers’ programme on television.
Another fake product a few years ago was
Pu-Erh, tea capsules marketed by a company called
æ
Popular diets, body weight and health
78 #2005 Taylor & Francis ISSN 1102-6480 Scandinavian Journal of Nutrition 2005; 49 (2): 78 /80
DOI: 10.1080/11026480510032052
Swisstrade, based in Copenhagen. The order form
asked the customer to tick the desired extent of
weight loss: 5
/9 kg (normal diet), 9/16 kg (super
diet) or 16
/25 kg (superintense diet). The more
extensive diets were more expensive. The advertise-
ment included a weight-loss diagram which at first
glance may have given an impression of scientific
credibility, but no scientific trials have been reported
in peer-reviewed journals. Swisstrade was marketing
no fewer than seven distinct weight-loss products
with similar exaggerated claims such as ‘‘Eat what
you want
/and still lose weight’’ and ‘‘slim in no
time’’. The company’s marketing was prohibited by
the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket)
in 2002.
A regimen called ‘‘Homoeopath Sorensen’s recipe
with SyB 62i’’ was sold by a firm called Nordiska
Naturhuset AB during 2002. The advertisement
purported that one client had lost 52 kg simply by
taking the pills before every meal. No documenta-
tion was provided to support this claim. The
product was prohibited by the Consumer Agency
in 2003. During 2003 and 2004, a company called
Health Mail, based in Malmo
¨, marketed two
products called the Hollywood Diet and Algolean.
As above, the customer could simply tick the desired
extent of weight loss and pay accordingly. No
clinical studies have been published that support
the claims in the advertisements, let alone the dose
/
response relationship.
A weight-loss product that had some support for
its claims was Eat & Lose, imported and marketed
during 2002 by a company in Norrko
¨ping called
MaxiElit. The reason why weight loss may have
been achieved by some customers was that the
herbal extract contained potent components such as
thyroid hormone (T
3
) and ephedrine. However,
these compounds give rise to heart fibrillation and
tachycardia (increased heart rate) even at very low
doses. Ephedrine is thought to have caused several
deaths. After a number of reports to the Consumer
Agency, the product was removed from the market.
The dose of T
3
in each capsule was far higher than
the initial dose used in clinical treatment of reduced
thyroid function.
The blood group diet
The so-called blood group diet has been marketed
widely by the American naturopath Peter J
D’Adamo. His book ‘‘Eat right for your type’’
(1996) has sold over two million copies and has
been translated to more than 50 languages, includ-
ing Swedish in 2002 with the title ‘‘A
¨tra
¨tt fo
¨r din
blodgrupp’’. Its basic idea is that one should adhere
to one of a few specific diets that are claimed to
have been specifically designed for the blood groups
of the ABO system. The diets purportedly prevent
or cure various diseases. The author is described as
a naturopathic doctor and researcher, but neither he
nor anybody else has published scientific studies
that support his claims.
The blood group diet concept is based on two
principles. The first is that lectins in food cause
health problems by binding to the blood group
antigens of the ABO system. (Lectins are proteins
that bind to carbohydrate structures.) D’Adamo
claims that lectins in chicken can lead to agglutina-
tion of blood cells and thereby cause stroke and
immune deficiency in humans with blood group B.
He even claims that lectins can aggregate in the
kidneys and cause death. No scientific investiga-
tions are presented that support these extraordinary
claims. In fact, lectins are present on all cell surfaces
in foodstuffs as well as in our own bodies. There are
no reports that lectins in food would be taken up
from the gastrointestinal tract and cause problems
unique to individuals with certain blood groups.
The second concept of the blood group diet is
that the blood groups, particularly A and B, arose
quite recently in human evolution in conjunction
with a change in eating habits. D’Adamo claims
that blood group O is the most ancient. However,
the situation is in fact the opposite: the gene
variants that give rise to blood groups A and B
are the oldest, whereas O is a non-functional gene
variant that arose through a more recent mutation.
More specifically, individuals with blood group O
have lost the ability to synthesize the carbohydrate
groups on the body’s cells that the enzyme variants
A and B can make. The literature references in
D’Adamo’s book to studies of blood group anthro-
pology and evolution are quite old and do not
include the molecular genetic results that have been
reported during the past several years.
The most remarkable aspect of D’Adamo’s book
is probably the brief case histories that give the
reader the impression that the ABO diets can be
used to treat deadly diseases such as AIDS and
cancer. D’Adamo describes a patient with fully
developed AIDS who was advised to exclude all
types of poultry (except for turkey) and several
other energy-rich foods from his diet. Three months
Fakes and fraud in commercial diets
79
later the patient’s condition had improved, accord-
ing to D’Adamo. An HIV-positive woman who had
followed diet O was reported to have returned to
normal blood values and to have become free of
symptoms. Another women, after surgery for breast
cancer, who had developed lymphoid metastases,
was prescribed a ‘‘cancer diet’’ in accordance with
blood group AB and was reported to have lowered
her level of a tumour marker. These and additional
remarkable case histories are included in the Amer-
ican issue of the book printed in 1996 and in the
Swedish translation in 2002. The case histories
should have been complemented with the current
health status of the patients in the Swedish release.
If D’Adamo’s efforts to treat these diseases had
indeed worked, we would have learned about such
sensational medical progress through the world’s
leading scientific journals. This has not happened:
D’Adamo has not published a single scientific
report about his ‘‘treatments’’ and remarkable
hypotheses. Therefore, it is deeply irresponsible
and unethical of D’Adamo and his Swedish pub-
lisher (Andersson Information & Fo
¨rlag AB in
Karlstad) to continue to give readers the impression
that these unfounded ideas about ABO-based diets
would be able to cure or slow down deadly diseases.
A thorough evaluation of the claims of the blood
group diet have been published in the Swedish
physicians’ journal (2).
Suggestions
It is often difficult to find reliable and critical
information about the pretentious products and
regimens that are marketed by unscrupulous com-
panies. Exaggerated claims can be hazardous, either
if the products themselves cause harm or if the
customer relies on the useless products instead of
seeking evidence-based treatments. Therefore, pro-
fessional medical experts and federal authorities
must take more responsibility for evaluating and
criticizing bombastic and incorrect claims.
Sadly, neither researchers nor authorities seem to
have the necessary resources for such surveillance.
This leaves the market open for self-proclaimed
experts who may rapidly become famous media
personalities and talk-show stars. This often is
accompanied by best selling books which at best
are full of platitudes, and may contain directly
harmful advice. Critical reviews of this literature are
as uncommon as scrutiny of the claims in health-
food advertisements. Fortunately, a few websites
have assembled critical evaluations of the most
exaggerated claims (3
/7). This information will
not only lead to increased awareness of the potential
dangers with certain diets, but may also lead to an
appreciation of the ridiculous aspects of the many
ignorant and preposterous claims.
References
1. Isaksson H, Larhammar D. 2002
/sko
¨rdea˚r fo
¨r entre-
preno
¨rer inom alternativmedicinen. La
¨kartidningen 2003;
100: 144
/7.
2. Nylund K, Sjo
¨lin K, van der Ster G, Larhammar D.
Blodgruppsdieten: fantasier och kvacksalveri. La
¨kartid-
ningen 2004; 101: 3168
/72.
3. Quackwatch: http://www.quackwatch.com/
4. National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF).
http://www.ncahf.org/
5. Alternative medicine. http://www.discord.org/skeptical/
Alternative_Medicine/
6. http://www.bmc.uu.se/
/danl/pseudovetenskap.html
7. http://www.bmc.uu.se/
/danl/links.html
Dan Larhammar
Department of Neuroscience
Unit of Pharmacology
Uppsala University
Box 593
SE-75124 Uppsala
Sweden
E-mail: Dan.Larhammar@neuro.uu.se
Larhammar D
80
