By: Jeremy Dubois

Jeremy Dubois — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:41:42 +0000

Sadly people are sucked into the idea of the "magic" pill every day. The cold hard reality is, it takes commitment,dedication,a solid plan as well as a complete lifestyle change to lose weight and maintain it. There are no magic pills...as much as wish there were!

By: Harl Delos

Harl Delos — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:28:32 +0000

When sending money to someone you don't know online, it's a good idea to do a "whois" on their website, to see who it is. If you don't have a phone number for the business or a snail-mail address, it can be hard to get satisfaction if they cheat you.

In the case of that site, the domain is registered to "Domain Privacy Group, Inc." to hide the identity of the people operating the site. It's also noteworthy that the domain was first registered May 4, 2007. If someone has been around for five or ten years, it's a little more likely that the outfit is legit.

For instance, starling-fitness.com has been around since December 2004, and is registered to Michael Moncur, who has a real snail mail address and a real phone number.

If you do a google on "hoodia site:fda.gov", you will find a bunch of links to letters that the FDA has sent to people, warning them that making claims like "Reduces your calorie intake by suppressing your appetite!", "Eat less and lose weight" and "Stimulant free and completely safe" is patently illegal. That's marketing the product as a drug, and hoodia doesn't meet the standards of the FDA as a safe and effective medication.

You will find a link to "whois" at any domain registry site. You probably will have to do a CAPTCHA to get the answer - that is, you'll probably see a box with distorted letters and/or numbers, that you have to type in. (That's to prevent automated queries by spammers.)

And, as Laura points out, anyone can buy ads from Google, and those ads can show up anywhere. Don't trust them simply because you trust Google, or you trust the site that is running the ad.

Comments on: Life Support Diet?

By: Jeremy Dubois

By: Harl Delos