TUESDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Many computer users lunge for the delete key when they get unsolicited e-mails about weight-loss products. But some respond, and new research suggests that almost one in five young, overweight people have fallen prey to the hard sell that shows up in their spam.
"Believe it or not, a whole bunch of them not only read it, but actually buy these products, which can range from the potentially harmless to the potentially harmful," said study author Joshua Fogel, of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. "I was shocked. I didn't expect so many people to be buying this stuff."
In May 2007, Fogel and a colleague surveyed 200 students from an undergraduate commuter college in New York City. They report their findings in the January issue of the Southern Medical Journal.
Eighty-eight percent of those with weight problems reported receiving spam that pitched weight-loss products or schemes, compared to 73 percent of other students. Fogel said this may be because the overweight students visit Web sites about weight loss and end up on marketing databases.
About 42 percent of overweight students said they'd opened the spam e-mails, and more than 18 percent said they'd bought products advertised in them. (The numbers were 18.5 percent and 5 percent, respectively, for the non-overweight students.)
Stress also seemed to play a role in boosting the risk that an overweight person would buy the products, said Fogel, who is an associate professor of behavioral sciences.
This makes sense to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian and author in New York City. "If a person is struggling with their weight, not feeling good about themselves and feeling overwhelmed, the promise of quick-fix weight loss can be very compelling," she said. "I've had clients buy products they know seem bogus because they think, 'What do I have to lose' or 'Who knows, maybe it'll work.'"
But there's plenty of risk. Weight-loss dietary supplements can be dangerous, Sass said.
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Again I chip in as a "tea person". Sadly, there is a lot of "weight loss spam" originating from tea companies as well. I'm hoping to dispel some of the misinformation on my tea website RateTea.net, although it's a tough project. For example, oolong tea is often marketed as a weight-loss supplement (it is often spelled "wulong" in this context--it's the same kind of tea). Oolong tea is one of the major categories of tea, and can be seen as "intermediate" between green tea and black tea. One of the problems is that companies selling oolong tea as a weight-loss product are often preying on this same fear and stress that spammers are using--and they often sell inferior products at inflated prices, when truly high-quality oolong teas are available from a variety of sources for much more reasonable prices.
There are even some large, mainstream tea companies that are guilty of this offense, although I won't mention names.
There is some evidence that oolong tea (and tea in general) can promote healthy weight loss. This study is about tea in general but supports this conclusion:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112235192/abstract?CRETRY=1&S...
When buying tea, for weight-loss purposes or just for use as a beverage (or when buying anything for that matter), it's important to be price conscious, and to focus on quality rather than marketing. Seek out information that originates from an independent source, not from a company selling the product you're looking to buy. Marketers are an intelligent and resourceful bunch, and the best of them understand psychology--and unfortunately, some of them are unscrupulous and will gladly play off peoples' fears and insecurities in order to induce them to buy low-quality products at high prices. Keep a critical mind, shop around, and compare both prices and quality, whether shopping for tea or anything!
Alex, RateTea.net
This article has been doing the rounds lately, but consider this:
Being overweight is a pandemic in many nations and cultures. If you read why people behave the way they do because of 1) peer pressure, and 2) powerful advertising techniques, you would still be at the tip of the iceberg. Why? For one thing, dietary education is still relatively new in many school systems while advertising in it’s cuurently evolved state has been around for many decades. Then there are the psychological reasons. If eating is about the only mechanism available to someone who has emotional issues, they will almost certainly take this path. Then, there others who simply don’t or won’t think about what they are putting in their mouth. It can be exceedingly complex, or frighteningly simple, depending on the individuals mindset.