Showing posts with label deception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deception. Show all posts

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Cereal Killer Contains Scary Truths

Today I'm highlighting one of the great prizes we are giving away in our 2nd Annual Great Start Giveaway! Four lucky winners will receive a copy of this awesome book, so be sure you enter before the deadline of Feb. 1st!


Cereal Killer contains Scary Truths

Reprint from my Examiner.com column




I've certainly had my share of nightmares about cereal, Twinkies and Doritos chasing me and making me binge on them. (Admit it – you've have that dream too!) But you won’t find that kind of suspense and thrills in this amazing book by author Alan Watson. What you’ll read here is even more frightening.

This isn’t your grandfather’s cereal, or even your great-grandfather’s cereal. More than likely it’s because they didn’t eat cereal. They ate real food. Bacon. Eggs. Steak. In the last several decades we have been told that processed low-fat food products are better for us. So naturally we obliged. After all, who doesn’t want to be trim and healthy? After years and years of following what we assumed to be sound scientific advice, are we any healthier? No. In fact, we are one of the unhealthiest nations on the planet. Mr. Watson sees this problem. In Cereal Killer Alan gives us insight into how it all got started and helps us understand just what this so-called “healthy American diet” is really doing to our bodies.

People need to understand that reading the back of a cereal box for your nutritional advice is a bad idea. I’d laugh if I were actually kidding. Here’s a quote:


Keys to Healthy Living

Eating a balanced diet moderate in calories and getting exercise are keys to a healthy lifestyle. A cereal breakfast is a simple step you can take. (Their emphasis, not mine.) Research shows that people who frequently eat cereal have healthier body weights.



Then they explain % daily values.

DV’s tell you if a food group is high or low in a nutrient… Sugar does not have a DV.


And this means what… Eat sugar to your heart’s content?

Who’d like to take a stab at which cereal box this is on? Try Cookie Crisp. So according to the back of the Cookie Crisp cereal box, eating this sugar-filled processed junk for breakfast is perfectly fine. It will keep you at a healthy body weight and since there is no DV on sugar, you don’t have to limit it or consume a certain level. At the least, a statement like this is misleading.

Cereal Killer will change your way of thinking about our government backed nutrition and health guidelines.From the back of the book:

So! How are the children doing?

End of summer, 2008. A record number of American children are being diagnosed with asthma, obesity, diabetes, and bipolar disorder. Along with surging food and medical costs, Americans must come to grips with declining life expectancy – now 37th in the world…
In this explosive book, Alan Watson sheds new light now how corporate greed, government delusion, and slippery science are making our children sick and causing what the late Dr. Robert Atkins called “diabesity.”

Cereal Killer is a stinging indictment of the big cereal companies and drug industries who enjoy huge profits as Americans of all ages suffer from failed “low fat” federal nutrition guidelines and record levels of chronic disease.

After you read Cereal Killer, you will know:

Why obesity is epidemic.

Why diabetes is soaring.

Why cholesterol and saturated fat are not the cause of heart disease.

I could barely put this book down. It has great information and confirms what I think most of us have suspected for years. Health and obesity is big business in America and there are individuals and companies who’d like to keep it that way. We can fight back by staying informed and educated. Mr. Watson’s book is a great place to start and I highly recommend it.

You can learn more about this book and how to purchase it at Diet Heart Publishing or at Amazon.com.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Deceptive Advertising

I guess faking success stories is a marketing ploy as old as the hills. And yet it frustrates me to no end to see them.

I almost choked on my Crystal Lite today while working on my article for Examiner. After hitting the publish button, I always view the page to be sure I catch any goofs. (Which are legion, but let's all pretend I'm perfect, shall we?) So I'm reviewing everything when an ad to my right catches my eye. As you may have already guessed, it's one of those random Google ads. But the before and after picture had me shaking my head in disbelief. Here's the ad (minus the website... 'cause they ain't gettin' no stinkin' free advertising from me!)



Problem #1. This "before" photo has been circulating the Internet for a good little while. I highly doubt it is truly the lady on the right before the weight loss tea.

Problem #2. Weight loss tea? Enough said.

Problem #3.
See below:



See the nice pretty grey letters? Yeah. Most people miss that part. Not only is this probably not typical? It's probably not possible. Not with weight loss tea anyway. This would take serious workouts, a great diet (I suggest low-carb) and lots of time. And depending on the speed of loss, some surgery for excess skin.

Problem #4.
This one probably bugs me the most. Who ever this lady is, she's being used and probably doesn't even know it. Or worse she does and can do little to stop it. At least they had the class (it's really hard to use that word with this ad) to blur her face. And yet, why blur her face if she's really the same lady in the after photo?

Ah. Things that make you go puke.

The thought had occurred to me that this woman may have been paid to pose for such a picture. If so, I hope she didn't spend it all in one place. Still, I have no doubt the ad is a fraud. Reminds me vaguely of another bunch of success stories that turned out to be fake as well. How very sad it all is.