Company touts over-the-counter diet pill

Money and slimy stools down the toilet alert!

Here is a new approach to medications:

"We've done everything to go out of our way to be honest," said Steve Burton, vice president of the weight control division at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "We're taking a very different approach than the fad diets people are constantly exposed to."

...In clinical trials, the FDA says that people using alli lost an additional 2 to 3 pounds for every 5 pounds lost through diet and exercise.

Of course, virtually no one loses weight through diet and exercise, since the diet and exercise recommendations are wrong.

Educational materials even recommend people start the program when they have a few days off work, or to bring an extra pair of pants to the office.

Perhaps GSK, the pill's manufacturer, will offer a "frequent dry-cleaning" discount.

When taken with meals, the drug blocks the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed. That fat — about 150 to 200 calories worth — is passed out of the body, potentially resulting in loose stools...

GlaxoSmithKline is frank about those unpleasant effects, which it says can be controlled if the drug is used properly. The campaign stresses the importance of keeping meals under 15 grams of fat to avoid effects.

More impossible numbers. You must eat fat for alli to work. There are 135 Calories in 15 grams of fat. If you block the absorption of one-quarter of the fat, you block the absorption of less than 34 Calories.

Didn't GSK say something about honesty?

This drug rollout:

...comes a day after the company's shares dropped almost 8 percent when a report this week found the company's widely prescribed diabetes pill raised the risk of heart attacks and possibly death...

Alli only affects the digestive system, Glaxo says, and is the only safe over-the-counter diet drug that's been shown to work.

Do you think they claimed that the diabetes pill was "safe," too?

Just how many people find alli's benefits worth the cost of the drug is the "million dollar question," said Kelly Brownell, a food policy researcher at Yale University.

Diet drugs don't deliver the big results most people expect, and are only effective when used along with diet and exercise, Brownell said.

First, if you need to exercise and diet anyway, why do the pill?

Second, here is Kelly. Would you take any diet, weight loss or exercise advice from this guy?

Third, Yale has problems, too. Like Oprah's darlings David Katz and Jorge Cruise.

Don't fall for this (loose, oily) crap.

Save the money on alli, cleaners and Pampers.

Don't buy this stuff.

Don't believe the "experts."

Diets, done right, MUST work. No drugs needed.