FACTS, FADS AND FRAUDS IN NUTRITION 25 



Mail-order quacks usually operate under a variety of high-sounding names. 

 When they have milked a victim dry under one firm name, they later solicit 

 him under another name (and perhaps from a slightly different address), so 

 that he will not suspect that all the come-on stuff emanated from the same source. 

 Recently the Post Office Department at Washington issued a fraud order 

 against one concern operating under ten different titles. 45 Another quack 46 

 promoting a diabetic fraud started his campaign with a mail-order tabloid. 

 If a victim responded to this advertising bait he received the first of a series of 

 mimeographed form letters which gave testimonials and extravagant reports 

 of cures. Then followed a series of form letters designed to break down sales 

 resistance and allay the fears of the unfortunate victim. The nostrum, sold 

 under various names, was a mixture of sedatives, stimulants, and laxatives. 



Be skeptical of mail-order solicitations and cheap advertising of nutrition nos- 

 trums or disease cures. Reliable products will find a market through ethical 

 channels. Be skeptical of extravagant claims. The consumer's best protection 

 against fraudulent advertising is a fundamental knowledge of nutrition obtained 

 from reliable sources. Dr. Bogert 47 has aptly expressed the nutritionist's 

 attitude toward this problem in general. 



The fact is that food fads flourish because people want them. It' makes 

 little difference to the food faddist whether the particular dietary cult 

 he follows incorporates a few grains of truth along with the dross or not; 

 he is attracted to this cult because it satisfies some craving to try a novel 

 dietary, to be in fashion, to attract attention by being unusual in diet, or 

 from the desire to do something about his health. He may benefit by 

 the simpler diet, more regular living, and especially through the belief 

 that he will be helped, but this proves nothing as to the theories on 

 which the cult is based, and the same results might have been more pain- 

 lessly attained by other means. The food faddist represents a psycho- 

 logical type and often drifts from one dietary cult to another; as long 

 as we have this type of people in such large numbers, diet fads and cults 

 will persist and will be profitable to their originators. 



The way to a saner and better balanced judgment about diet lies, of 

 course, through education as to the facts about foods and the body. 

 Knowledge casts out fear and the food cultist trades on fear. Every- 

 one should know the elementary facts as to what constitutes an ade- 

 quate and balanced diet, along with a few common-sense rules about 

 how diet should be adapted to body build, and how it needs to be 

 altered to cope with adverse conditions like constipation or indigestion. 

 Then people need no longer be bewildered as to what kind of diet to 

 follow, nor agitated by food fads and fancies. 



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

 Bur. Inv. J.A.M.A. 108. 317, 1937. 

 Bogert, L. Jean. Diet and Personality, MacMillan, New York, 1934. 



