Dieters Unable To Weigh Benefits Disclosure Of Costs, Effectiveness Urged
Americans spend $33 billion a year on weight-loss programs, often with no ability to evaluate them or know hether they are dangerous, participants in a government conference were told Thursday.
Too often, said Director Leslie Byrne of the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, “consumers are left to guess about the cost, safety and efficacy” of weight-loss regimes.
Byrne, a former Virginia congresswoman, urged at least “the same level of disclosure for the weight-loss industry that we have for car leasing.”
“Several months ago, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke about the ‘irrational exuberance’ of the stock market,” she said. “I believe nowhere is this phrase more fitting than in the diet industry. How else can one explain a $33 billion industry with what is estimated to be a 95 percent failure rate?”
The Federal Trade Commission and several private and government health organizations sponsored the 1-day conference on problems arising from the increases in obesity and weight-control programs.
Dean Graybill of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection told the audience of government, scientific, industry and consumer representatives that about a quarter of the U.S. population was overweight in the 1960s. Today the level has risen to 33 percent.
“Today, there are over 48 million Americans who are on some sort of diet,” Graybill said. “Obesity is a paramount public policy and health concern.” It’s estimated that 76 million Americans have weight problems.
On the assumption that law enforcement is not enough, Graybill joined Byrne and many others at the conference in urging greater consumer education to reduce the risks of ineffective or fraudulent diet products and programs.
President George Blackburn of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, a conference co-sponsor, called obesity “one of the most tragic, costly and preventable public health problems facing this country today.”
He said the annual cost to the economy runs into the billions of dollars.
“It contributes to over 300,000 excess deaths each year,” Blackburn said. “Next to smoking, obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death in the United States.”
Some participants charged the government response is inadequate.
“What programs there are are pitiful when one compares the scale of this epidemic to the resources committed by the federal government,” contended Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association.
Downey said the government exacerbates the problem by letting dietary supplements be sold without sufficient testing. He gave no examples.
Other sponsors were the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The conference resulted partly from a petition by the Center for Science in the Public Interest calling for more consumer information.