June 29, 2005

• Perhaps this isn't the time for me to promote my astounding new Beer Diet.
• Yeah, the least likely diet in the world to help you shed weight is a dairy-produce diet, it's the most loaded with fat food source I can think of, save pure whale blubber. That's why I'm on the Vodka diet.
• Ha! Psych.
• Anyone who thinks that following any diet would have her "seeing the fat melting off like all those skinny little girls in the ads" is a moron.
• The false advertising claim I can understand, because they are broadcasting fraudulent bullshit, but personal damages for gaining three pounds? Please go for a jog.
• Diets don't work as a rule. Even if she did lose weight, she had a 90% chance of gaining the weight back. Plus some.
• Razor-sharp flensing knives keep me perpetually at my perfect weight. For everybody else, I recommend Dr. Fitzkee's Lucky Astrology Diet.
• I just live in an apartment that the summer sun is cooking to 34 degrees Celcius. Lose a lot of weight, but it's all water.
• When I was in high school, I had a terrible history teacher (he also happened to be the football coach = typical American stereotype) that drilled the following lesson in our heads each and every day, "If there is anything I can teach you it is this: sue, sue, sue! Sue at any opportunity you have!" He was particulary fond of a lawsuit he made against a local tire shop for improperly balancing the wheels of his vehicle, "I wound up with free tires and an extra $100!" This moronic woman was obviously one of his pupils that believed him. Fuckin asshole...
• My sneaking suspicion (which is not easy to say with a mouthful of cheddar) is that she was put up to this by an adversary of the Dairy Council. The Dairy council should stfu, by the way, since they are a form of corporate welfare that does little to benefit the producer but much for the middlevendors. May the State of Wisconsin live forever--EAT CHEESE OR DIE!
• I just stubbed my toe! I'm going to sue the table-maker.
• The diet skinny girls in the ads follow is called not eating. I bet she was eating dairy with a nice big bowl of carbs too. It's like she hasn't been sentient for the past five years or so.
• J. Doe got it right. That chick's a moron.
• Got Lawsuit?
• I must be inured to this dairy advertising blitz, because I haven't much noticed a push for consumers to increase dairy consumption in order to lose weight. I really can't imagine any sensible person buying this. The cutting calories piece of it is obvious.
• All this anti-lawsuit rhetoric gets my guile up. There, I said it! Our system of checking the powers of others is based on the individual's right to sue. The claim that dairy helps weight loss is at best not provable and is being used to market a product. How else would someone stop them from lying? If someone misbalanced my tires and wouldn't provide a reasonable solution, of course I should sue! Am I entitled to free tires and a hundred bucks? Sure, if that's the equivalent value of my loss and damages. PS. I have no idea what "gets my guile up" means.
• The only advertising I've seen claiming the weight loss benefits of dairy (and it's not much because we have a TiVo) is in yogurt commercials. Which I laughed at because even low fat or non-fat yogurt has TONS of sugar.
• The article said she's being supported by an anti-dairy doctors' group. While I think that gaining three pounds is hardly the end of the world (even though we're trained to believe it is), the ads were making false claims, which is illegal. Sadly, one of the few ways to check corporations' penchant for bending the truth (read: lying through their teeth) is to hit them where it hurts.
• I agree, if the claims are false, the dairy industry should be restrained from making them. I'm not so sure about money damages over three pounds.
• According to the news article: "The dairy industry strongly defended the advertising campaign and reiterated its contention that consuming dairy products helps with weight loss when coupled with calorie restriction." But even then it's bullshit, as kimdog and J. Doe clarified. But no, Kimberly, carb-cutting doesn't work either, and adds cholesterol and flatulence to the mix. And yes, while meredithea is right about the evilness of making false claims, if they ever quit that'd doom capitalism: the essence of capitalism is not production but distribution, which is dependent on advertising. (The essence of politics is also bullshit, as opposed to administration, by the way.) Another by-the-way: PLAIN yogurt has NO sugar. Plus it's cheaper to add your own jam or syrup or honey or whatever, if you insist (as I paunchily confess I do). And Chyren, you probably would lose weight with vodka as your only calorie source, for as long as it was your only calorie source, till your tolerance went way up. And yes to techsmith said. Just don't expect it to have much effect in the long run: large-scale commerce is based on lies.
• Big Davey: if they ever quit that'd doom capitalism: the essence of capitalism is not production but distribution, which is dependent on advertising. I would take that one step further, ala de Certeau and his Practice of Everyday Life to say that capitalism relies on consumption which is manipulated by the elite through advertising. Distribution is the means to get it there, and advertising is essential in controlling the (weaker) desires of the consumers. Making advertisers try to cut down on the BS is a worthy sport.
• How is it a false claim? A healthy, calorie reduced diet can and should include some dairy products. The key is moderation.
• Rocket: It's a misleading claim because the diet is based on the calorie restriction, not on the dairy. Your normative "should" is misplaced here: ask a vegan.
• All diets are based on calorie restriction, but to be healthy, they should contain a variety of food types. And my "should" is not misplaced...that's why I didn't say "must" instead. There's always room for adjustments to a diet to suit personal taste. Almost every diet I've seen includes a recommendation of skim milk and/or yogurt as sources of protein and calcium. This lawsuit is entirely politically motivated by the hard-line vegan group that is behind it.
• Claim: Consuming dairy products helps with weight loss when coupled with calorie restriction. The claim is true if and only if, out of a sample of people who restrict calories equally, the dairy-consuming group looses a significantly greater amount of weight than the group that does not consume dairy.
• (Where the two groups' diets are otherwise equivalent.)
• I think Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slimfast and the rest of their ilk should be sued for false advertising.
• Davey, reducing carbs can and does work for many people. If done properly, it can drastically reduce cholesterol and not cause any undue farting. Perhaps your body doesn't like this kind of diet but dismissing it out of hand isn't realistic. And for clarification the yogurt commercial I was referenced was not for plain yogurt, it was for fruit yogurt which is loaded with sugar.
• the fpp is a bit slanted, imho... the reason they are suing is for false and misleading advertising. the fact that the lady gained three pounds while on the diet is, i believe, intended more as support for their (physicians committee for responsible medicine) claims, rather than the suit's sole raison d'etre. false and misleading advertising is illegal, J. Doe. also, the atkins diet is a total kludge if i ever saw one. just like the carnie wilson(tm) surgery. btw i'm starting a new fad diet called "The Wedge Diet". it consists of: moderation + exercise + enthusiatic motivation + amphetamines. i'm hoping to steal some of goetter's and chyren's marketshare.
• What cl said.
• Here's a write up on the study. There's link there to the ad for those who may not have seen it. And here's the dairy industry's page. All of those stress calorie reduction and suggest low fat or nonfat milk and yogurt. The study was based on only 32 people, but they do say that more studies need to be done. Hard to imagine that cutting calories would lead to weight gain, whichever your fad diet is if you didn't have water retention problems, for example. I'd think it's up to her to prove that she did cut calories and used low fat dairy products. And, on preview, if she did choose flavored yorgurt with lots of sugar, did she check the total calories she was eating. None of us knows. And, rocket88. I have a bumper sticker on my car which says "I eat vegans" (like cows and sheep and whatever) just because I've known so many human vegans who were so annoying when coming to eat at my house, when I had planned dinner to cover all points on the spectrum - I mean, like, someone going through my garbage to make sure that the canned goods I'd used were animal free. I don't know if you're a vegan, but if you are, and you do that, calm down! It's a dietary choice, not a religion.
• I'm with path. I love my "dead" protein sources, and I eat in moderation and consume a healthy bunch of veggies. I also take a fiber supplement to keep the works well flushed out. Too much information, I know, but these sanctimonious types hack me off with their snooty recriminations and their hiding behind the courts to excuse their lack of common sense or self control. Yes, if the merits of gorging on dairy is a lie, treat it as such. But don't try to make me feel like I wade in the river Styx just because I subsist on DEAD THINGS!!!!!
• Styx rules!! Domo arrigato, motherfu-- SHUT YOUR MOUTH! (Sorry. I have Tourette's of the fingers.)