For years, experts believed that eating a lower in fat diet would help us win the battle of the bulge. Sadly, that hasn't panned out. Although our dietary fat intake is down, our weight continues to go up.

Diet purveyors--especially the current popular ones that discourage carbohydrate intake--speak passionately about the failure of low fat diets to decrease our weight. They neglect to mention that physical activity for most Americans has decreased at the same time our calorie intake has shot up more than 200 calories a day.

In addition to my effort to use biochemistry to teach folks that lowering dietary does not cause stored fat to be more readily used I have been spending too much time responding to purveyors of pills that promise to take off weight.

You cannot lose weight by taking a pill. EVERY reputably published double blinded study (double blinded study = neither the person dispensing or the person taking the pill knows which is "real" and which is "placebo") that shows a "pill" contributed to weight loss INCLUDED exercise as part of the "program." I've said it before and I'll say it again, "If you could package exercise in a pill it would be the most prescribed drug in the world."

When someone attempts to sell you a pill that will give you energy or reverse aging or cause weight loss by:
-- telling you about "studies" (especially "from Europe") or
-- giving you compelling marketing materials (or sending you to impressive internet sites) or
-- sharing inspiring stories
BUYER BEWARE.

Packaging and marketing materials can say anything they like. The actual foil wrap or container the pill/herb/botanical/natural product the pill is packaged in won't reiterate the claims. It's not because there's no room for the information. It's because the actual package can contain ONLY the truth.

With few exceptions people lose weight because they eat less calories than they need, not because they take a pill. Believe me, there is no conspiracy to keep us fat. I have the privilege of knowing some of the top weight management experts in the country. Like you, they would love to find a safe pill that could allow us to eat all our favorite foods every day and still be thin---without exercising. When it's discovered I'll be one of the first to know and I promise to share the miracle with you. Until then--let's go hiking!