Thread: Fraud???? Please read and let me know..

While I am going to be starting this diet here soon, I am still looking up information on the diet itself.

I keep finding articles where they state the HCG is a scam and doesn't work and are very unhealthy. I honestly don't believe it cause the way the diet is described, makes perfect sense to me. This is the recent one I found::

Retail versions of a popular weight-loss aid that contain trace amounts of a pregnancy hormone are a fraud and are being sold illegally, a top Food and Drug Administration official said.

The FDA's stance comes after months of hype about the HCG diet and could affect its availability for purchase online and from other retailers.

Consumers in recent months have flocked to the diet, which supporters describe as a weight-loss miracle when combined with a 500-calorie-a-day regimen. Hundreds of people who have shed weight on the controversial diet offer testimonials on websites and social media.

HCG comes in two forms, direct to consumer in a diluted form, and as a prescribed injection from medical professionals.

The product is sold directly to consumers over the Internet or at retail stores, with HCG coming in the form of oral drops, sprays and pellets. Some doctors, weight-loss clinics and medical spas also write prescriptions for human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, a natural hormone that is produced in the placenta during pregnancy.

The FDA, the agency that oversees the nation's food and drug products, says the direct-to-consumer HCG products that claim the homeopathic label are a fraud and are being sold illegally.

Homeopathy describes an alternative-medicine practice that includes use of small amounts of medicine to treat an illness. The FDA allows the sale of drugs made from homeopathic ingredients that are listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, but HCG is not among the approved ingredients or drugs, said Elizabeth Miller, who oversees the FDA's Internet health-fraud team.
'Unapproved drug'

"Anything on the market that claims to be an HCG homeopathic product, it is not," Miller said. "Instead, it is an unapproved drug."

Miller said the federal agency has fielded complaints of "economic fraud" from consumers who said that homeopathic HCG products don't work.

Phoenix-area doctors who are skeptical of the HCG diet say they agree with the FDA's assessment of the popular diet.

"It's a placebo at best," said Craig Primack, a Scottsdale doctor who specializes in weight loss. "There are no studies on oral HCG that anyone can provide. It doesn't seem to do anything."

Primack added that decades-old medical studies show the prescription HCG is not an effective weight-loss method, either.

The federal agency prioritizes its enforcement to emphasize products that cause direct or indirect health risks and is not taking forcible action at this time. If the HCG products contain minute amounts of the hormone, as their labels suggest, they likely won't cause much harm because the protein would be easily broken down by stomach acids, Miller said.

"Because they are unapproved new drugs and they are illegal, they are subject to us taking a compliance action at any time," Miller said.

Retail stores and wholesalers that sell homeopathic HCG products already are changing their product mix.
Discontinued sales

Hi-Health discontinued selling homeopathic HCG within the past two months. The retailer sells another weight-loss aid for the HCG diet that does not include any trace amounts of the hormone, just herbs and amino acids, said Jay Chopra, the chain's vice president of merchandising.

Chopra said the retail chain's supplier discontinued the homeopathic HCG products.

HCG Platinum, an Internet and wholesale distributor of HCG products, recently halted sales of homeopathic HCG at the request of one of its customers, President Kevin Wright said. HCG Platinum sells its weight-loss products to Rite Aid and health-food chain GNC.

Proponents of the HCG diet say the hormone, when combined with a strict diet, effectively redistributes body fat and stabilizes a person's metabolism. The dieter eventually can expand their low-calorie diet to a more moderate diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories per day, depending on the individual's metabolism.

When asked how his company's new fat-busting products are effective without HCG, Wright said, "That's a good question. . . . It does work. I have tens of thousands of people who swear our product is amazing."
Prescription HCG

The HCG diet has gained popularity among some naturopathic doctors, clinics and medical spas that tout its benefits.

The FDA long has held that injectable forms of HCG offered by licensed medical professionals are an unproven weight-loss remedy and can cause health risks such as infection and soreness.

The federal agency has approved synthetic versions of the hormone for uses such as fertility in women.

Doctors have the discretion to prescribe drugs as they see fit, and many have found a lucrative niche in prescribing the hormone for weight loss.

Although the FDA doesn't regulate how doctors prescribe drugs for uses other than what they are approved for, Miller said it is alarming that some build their medical practice with the offer of the HCG diet.

"When people are making their business model prescribing things off-label, to me that is very suspect," Miller said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...#ixzz1DTrYFl00
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So what do you think??? Is it just a brand of the product or what? I have talked to numerous of people who have done this diet and successfully lost weight and I bought the stuff, so I am going to try it but would love to hear what people have to say.