HCG Diet Marketed by Convicted Fraud Kevin Trudeau

I am a sucker for new diets. When the Britney Spears Diet was announced last week, I was front and center, ready to take notes. Thus, when the HCG diet info was released today, I once more sharpened my pencil to take notes. This is when I ran across the name of Kevin Trudeau linked intimately with HCG diet info. The connection causes me to wonder: is the HCG diet for real or is it another weight loss cure I don't want to know about?

What is the HCG diet?

In simplest terms, the HCG diet requires the injection of hCG, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a hormone secreted by a pregnant woman's placenta during pregnancy. Couple this with a 500 calorie daily intake and you are supposed to drop unsightly fat instead of lean muscle mass.

As such, this impossible diet will help you shed between ½ and three pounds per day. If you are still coherent after a couple of days, you might actually enjoy your shrinking waistline. The HCG diet info is currently making the rounds on Oprah, Fox News and other venues that would give it some airtime.

Who is Kevin Trudeau and Why Should I Care?

Kevin Trudeau is the subject of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuits, founder of the International Pool Tour (that billiards, not swimming pools), and an alternative health and diet maven of self proclaimed fame.

After the FTC shut him down in 2004 for claiming on infomercials that his coral calcium supplement Coral Calcium Supreme cured cancer, and his Biotape pain reliever would permanently cure pain, his 2007 meet up with the FTC was no less contentious when he was held in civil contempt for the infomercial marketing of his book "The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" talking about, you guessed it, hCG.

Mincing words, the FTC objected to the marketing effort suggestion that the diet was easy and that dieters could eat anything they wanted. Truth be told, the HCG diet was created by one Dr. A. T. W. Simeons in the 1950s, but there is also the Kevin Trudeau weight loss protocol for those observing this radical weight loss option.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah ... But Does the HCG Diet Work?

Sure it will work! There is no doubt that you will lose weight if you ingest only 500 calories per day and do so for a period of time. You can save yourself the expense of the hCG shots, however, since the weight loss is virtually guaranteed. Sure, it is unhealthy and you will not be able to keep it up, but you will lose weight if you starve yourself.

Those who thrive on facts will appreciate the fact that the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has proven as long ago as 1976 hCG to be entirely ineffective in human weight loss.

This simply begs the question: would you buy a car - or in this case a diet - from this man, Kevin Trudeau? Seeing that his cures for cancer, multiple sclerosis, lupus, joint pain and muscular dystrophy have failed, I do not think that I will buy into his weight loss cure either.

Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/975874/britney_spears_new_diet_devoid_of_sugar.html
http://www.hcgdietinfo.com/HCG-Weight-Loss-FAQ.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/09/trudeaucoral.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/11/kt.shtm
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/29/9/940.pdf