When in the office, I try to keep up with the world by listening to the talk radio guys that make their audio available on-line. There’s a limit to how much Rush Limbaugh type of commentary I can take, so I switch it up and listen to some sports or maybe a local chat show. I’m working, so it’s more background noise than anything else, but it give me some idea of what my fellow citizens are interested in at the moment. That way I can do small talk with them without sounding like a visitor from another planet.
An ad that seems to turn up all over is for some sort of weight loss drug. It may be a dietary supplement, I don’t know as I never pay attention until the end. The pitch at the end of the ad is a warning about the possibility some fat people will lose weight too quickly, so they should use caution while using the drug. It’s an obvious lie, but they are playing on people’s desperation. It is a spin on the four hour erect claims from Cialus. The idea is to get the sucker thinking the worse possible result is their dreams come true.
It is a terrible thing to do, but it is a staple of the supplement business. The “male enhancement” ads always warn about users suddenly having super models flocking to them for a little bit of that raging manhood they will get from the drug. At least the Cialus guys can claim to be defending themselves against a possible side effect. The weight loss drug is just a scam with exactly zero science behind it. In fact, all of them are scams, as most are just common herbs or maybe even nothing at all. Just filler.
I’ve been into health and fitness, off and on, for over 30 years and I have seen all sorts of crazy fads. The one that has always baffled me is supplements. The best source of vital nutrients is food. A properly constructed diet provides all of the vitamins and minerals a human requires. Even athletes can get everything from food. The use of steroids and growth hormone changes some of the math, but food remains the only supplement you really need. Eat a low-carb diet with plenty of green vegetables and you’re good.
According a massive new study, there’s no evidence to even make a weak correlation between supplements and good health. Even taking a multivitamin is a waste of effort, because most Americans have too much of everything in their diet. Most of those vitamins and minerals in the pill will be broken down in your stomach and passed throughout as waster product. There’s some evidence that vitamin-D is of some help to white people in the winter, but you can get that from fruit and vegetables too.
This will have no impact on the sale and use of these magic potions. People want to believe in miracle drugs. The core of every confidence game is the willingness of the sucker to think he is special. That’s always at the heart of these marketing plans for pills, magic diets or exercise fads. That’s the diet pill pitch. Most people, they claim, will lose weight, but you could be special. You could be the exception, who loses tons of weight. It is the same element that allowed Victor Lustig to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap.
Food cults are nothing new and that is what the supplement business is when you examine it. The Greeks and Romans were fond of food cults. Pythagoras was a vegan, for example. Sacrificing animals and food offerings to the gods are part of it. Five thousand years ago, the cult would sacrifice a bull and leave some food at a shrine. This was followed by a feast. Today the cult arrives as Whole Foods to sacrifice their wallet for organic bananas and a variety of supplements, almost always “all natural.”
The truth is, humans are omnivores. Our bodies evolved over a very long time eating meat, fish and wild greens. That’s what we’re good at digesting. If you want to maintain a healthy diet, cut out the carbs and focus on meat, fish and eggs. Nuts and cheese add variety and fresh produce, when in season, as a source of carbs when you’re using that body as it was designed. That’s the other piece of the health puzzle. Exercise. We are made for lifting heavy things and short bursts of activity.