FACTS, FADS AND FRAUDS IN NUTRITION 11 



taric or citric acid. One such popularly advertised product claimed to be a 

 "superb combination of six separate mineral salts which help glands, nerves 

 and body organs to function properly. ... it strikes at the usual CA USE of 

 fat." This same nostrum was advertised in the British Isles as a producer of 

 "vim, vigor and vitality" for men, but when it came to the U. S. A. it became 

 an obesity cure for women. Another similar product advertises: "Now if 



you are fat you can eat your fill and yet grow thin ... by the new 



method of reducing. You can lose as much as seven full pounds the first week 

 and look pounds lighter from the first day."i 2 "— ■ is urged as a poison- 

 banishing agent ... to eliminate body moisture and unhealthy bloating . . 

 not as a reducing one." Still another offers false encouragement with vague 

 medical endorsement. "Now you can reduce 2 to 4 lbs. in a night . . . eat 

 what you please . . . Excess weight has been removed, skin more lovely, 

 bodies more shapely and minds brighter. . . . Your physician will tell you 



that is certain to do the work and is absolutely harmless. . . . 



will help your body throw off worn out fat and bodily poisons." 



The Food and Drug Administration has taken action against two such prod- 

 ucts, Dieto (N.J. 22669) and Sleepy Salts (N.J. 21537). They severely cen- 

 sure such statements as "eat big meals, yet see the inches melt away" and 

 "how to lose fat quickly, without drugs, without starving and no violent 

 exercise." There are many other similar products being advertised over the 

 radio and in the press which deserve equally severe censure. 



(b) Cathartic Drugs. Laxative or cathartic drugs have much the same 

 physiological action as the laxative salts. The ones most commonly employed 

 in reducing nostrums are phenolphthalein, cascara, senna, and licorice. 



The Post Office Department has issued a fraud order against Snyders Re- 

 ducing Products sold as Snyders Anti-Fat Tablets. 13 The government analysis 

 found this product to contain 85 percent chalk, 4.8 percent common salt, and 

 y 8 grain of phenolphthalein per tablet, with traces of other material. The ad- 

 vertising, which was accompanied by a picture of a slender girl in a bathing 

 suit, reads: "I reduced 70 lbs. . . . Many women report the loss of as much 

 as five pounds in one week, safely without drugs, dopes or chemicals, without 



strenuous exercise or dieting. are Safe, Harmless, Effective. . . . does 



not leave a flabby skin. ... A Triumph of Medical and Pharmaceutical 

 Science." 



Re-Duso and Berner's Tablets, sold by Re-Duso Sales Co. and Berner Sales, 

 were barred from U. S. Mails July 8, 1936, 14 for engaging in a scheme for 

 obtaining money under false and fraudulent pretenses. These tablets contain 

 cascara as one of the active ingredients. They claim to " . . . eliminate excess 

 fat by reducing the appetite and giving a very gentle and mild laxative action, 

 causing the most natural elimination of excess fat and waste matter accumu- 

 lated in the system." They "simply offer you an economical way to do what 

 modern doctors do in treatment of obesity ..." 



Various other reducing remedies have been criticised or condemned by 

 authorities only to be replaced by similar products under new names to de- 

 ceive the unwary victim. An amusing and informative article on the subject 

 of obesity cures is recommended for those interested. 12 



12 Cramp, A. J. Hygeia, January 1935, page SO. 



13 Bur. Inv. J.A.M.A. 107, 370, 1936. 

 » Bur. Inv. J.A.M.A. 107, 1405, 1936. 



