Isn’t there enough to worry about without worrying that your daily cup of coffee contains an undeclared drug? Weight loss is hard enough and,, for some a lifelong challenge. Oftentimes, something comes along that seems too good to be true, and, in this particular instance, while one would not use the phrase “have your cake and eat it too” when thinking about weight loss, maybe we should say you should be able to trust your morning Joe.
The FDA advised consumers (here) not to purchase or use Vitaccino Coffee, a product promoted and sold for weight loss and sold on various websites and in some retail stores. Why?-because it contains sibutramine, a weight loss drug that was removed from the market in October 2010 for safety reasons.
What about the pitchman Kevin Trudeau who was just sentenced to 10 years in prison for bilking consumers out of millions of dollars by fraudulently promoting and making misleading statements about various products and services (and also for violating a court order)? How much of this stuff does the American consumer have to be exposed to before some effective enforcement protects us all? The FDA is understaffed, the Department of Justice is also understaffed, and the police need a few more good men, so it looks like we just have to sit and take it. The key may be better education of the public, but there will still be those of us out there that think there is a shortcut to good health, weight loss, or making millions – but until the public realizes that the only ones making millions are the pitchmen and their companies that promote and sell these illegal unsafe and ineffective products, nothing is likely to change anytime soon.
