FDA: CALORIES don`t Count author ARRESTED, charged with Fraud and Found Guilty

[The True Adonis]

Things don`t change.....

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827420,00.html

Friday, Jul. 13, 1962

      Calories Don't Count, promised the book's catchy title, and overweight Americans looking for a painless way to reduce took the promise literally. They ran the book's sales to more than a million copies in less than a year. Last week, in commenting on a default decree, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration blasted the volume as full of false ideas, charged that it had been written and promoted to boost the sales of worthless capsules of safflower oil.


     Nominal author of the book is Dr. Herman Taller, 50, a Rumanian-born physician who practiced obstetrics in Brooklyn and recently moved to Manhattan on the strength of his expanding royalties. But, said the FDA, publishers Simon & Schuster sent Taller's manuscript to a freelance sports writer, Roger Kahn, to be revised "in more of a mail-order inspirational technique." The book absolved fat ties of their guilt by crediting them with a metabolic abnormality. It exhorted them to eat as much as they wanted of most fat foods, especially those containing unsaturated fats (see following story). And it prescribed six capsules a day of safflower oil.


    What got Taller into trouble with the law was that first printings of the book included an endorsement of a specific manufacturer of safflower oil (CDC capsules), and copies of the book were used to pro mote the capsules. (They are now off the market, following FDA action.) In court proceedings. Dr. Taller refused to answer more than 50 questions about his financial relationship with the corporation that manufactured the capsules.



    Said FDA Commissioner George P. Larrick: "This bestselling book was deliberately created and used to promote these worthless safflower oil capsules for the treatment of obesity, cardiovascular diseases and other serious conditions. One of its main purposes was to promote the sale of a commercial product in which Dr. Taller had a financial interest." To this, Simon & Schuster retorted: "There is nothing in the record which could possibly support these vicious and irresponsible innuendoes."



   But Commissioner Larrick had more to say: "The book is full of false ideas, as many competent medical and nutritional writers have pointed out. Contrary to the book's basic premise, weight reduction requires the reduction of caloric intake. There is no easy, simple substitute. Unfortunately, calories do count."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827420,00.html#ixzz0mHGuwNfz

[Smanjh]

HA. I wonder where the FDA is with regards to the good doctor. I mean, if you eat the right things and manipulate small hormonal changes, you too can eat 6000 calories a day

[The True Adonis]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840914,00.html

Trials: Twelve-Calorie Count
Friday, May. 19, 1967


 

Calories Don't Count was the come-on title of a book by Dr. Herman Taller that has sold almost 2,000,000 copies to would-be weight losers since 1961. The book particularly recommended use of safflower-oil capsules made by Cove Vitamins and Pharmaceuticals, and then was used in Cove promotion. Trouble was, the capsules were virtually useless in the prescribed doses. At least that was the contention of the Food and Drug Administration, and last week a federal jury in Brooklyn finally found Taller guilty on eight counts of mail fraud, three of violating FDA regulations and one of conspiracy. He faces a maximum sentence of 50 years.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840914,00.html#ixzz0mHILTOLq

[The True Adonis]

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/books/behind-the-best-sellers-judy-mazel.html?sec=health&&n=Top/News/Health/Diseases,%20Conditions,%20and%20Health%20Topics/Dieting


In 1961, Dr. Herman Taller, an obstetrician, published ''Calories Don't Count,'' which preached that one could banish fat while eating three full meals a day - provided that one ingested three ounces of polyunsaturated vegetable oil daily, along with a high-protein and low-carbohydrate diet. The Government denounced that diet as a ''worthless scheme foisted on a gullible public,'' and Dr. Taller was eventually convicted of fraud and conspiracy for using the book to peddle a particular brand of safflower capsules. Meanwhile, the book sold 2 million copies.

[io856]

TA wins this argument without a doubt...

[The True Adonis]

http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-and-benefit-of-diets-calories-dont-count.htm

A BANQUET OF FAMOUS DIETS

Calories Don't Count

The Head Man: The low-calorie diet is a humbug, Dr. Herman Taller declared in his best-selling book, Calories Don't Count (1961). A native of Romania, he studied medicine in Italy and became a Brooklyn obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in natural childbirth. He was also a chronically hungry dieter whose weight ballooned up to 265 lb. on a 5-ft. 10-in. frame. In 1955 a cholesterol researcher suggested a mysterious oily substance to help bring down his high cholesterol level. Taller also found that he was losing weight--65 lb. in 8 months--even while consuming 5,000 calories a day. Researching the process of "lipoequilibrium," or the "balance between fat formation and fat disposal," he decided that the villain was pyruvic acid, a product of metabolized carbohydrates, an excess of which prevents the body from burning stored fat. The "mystery substance," on the other hand, a polyunsaturated fat, stimulates the body to burn fat. Taller therefore recommended a high-fat diet supplemented by polyunsaturated safflower oil, capsules of which were marketed in conjunction with his book under the brand name CDC, for "calories don't count."


                                                                      
Overview: There is no need to count calories, Taller claimed, as long as you avoid carbohydrates, which produce pyruvic acid, and concentrate on foods that are high in fat and protein. He prohibited all sugar and starches, including high-carbohydrate fruits, vegetables, and juices, and of course cakes, cookies, and bread (except gluten bread). Alcohol is also discouraged. Fish, which is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, should be eaten daily, as well as foods fried in unsaturated oils. Also desirable are meats, cheese, eggs, shell nuts, and low-carbohydrate fruits and vegetables. As for beverages, diet soda, tea, and coffee are permitted, plus one cup of milk daily and plenty of water.

Taller specified three full meals a day, with as much meat, fish, and fats as desired. Overall, the diet should include 2 oz. of corn oil margarine and 3 oz. of highly unsaturated vegetable oil daily. The easiest way to insure that you are getting enough of the vital oils is to take two CDC safflower oil capsules before each meal. This should afford a permanent lifelong solution for 95% of obese people, Taller claimed.

Pro: The attractions of this diet are obvious: lots of fat, countless calories, and a magic mystery capsule that promises to make weight come off quickly. "You have nothing to lose but your girth," Taller joked.

Con: Soon after the publication of Calories Don't Count, the Food and Drug Administration filed charges against Taller and the CDC Corporation. Taller's business associates admitted their inability to substantiate the book's claims and pleaded guilty to drug violations, postal fraud, and conspiracy. Taller maintained his innocence, but a jury found him guilty of the same charges in 1967. He was fined and put on probation, his reputation gone along with his girth.

[gcb]

That was a long time ago when your country had principles - that shit wouldn't fly today - just look at the 1001 ab-blasters in the market.

[The True Adonis]

 

[ManBearPig...]

if calories didn't count, then the concept of a calorie would be useless (yes, i know it's a thermal unit, but i'm saying in general).

some people.

[Howard]

There you go again TA trying to use those facts and devil based science to make your points.
The most reliable proof is always:
1. What Joe Fartblower says in the local gym. he worked out, got a pump, so it is proven.
2. If the diet requires one to buy lots of trivial, obscure nutriients or substances at inflated prices 

[Emmortal]

Yes, because we all know that that FDA is the final word in what's right for our diets.

 

Laughable at best to use anything the FDA says as some sort of proof for an argument.

[Howard]

Yes, because we all know that that FDA is the final word in what's right for our diets.

 

Laughable at best to use anything the FDA says as some sort of proof for an argument.

I know what you mean about the FDA. But if I have to choose between some douchebag trying to sell some snakeoil vs an FDA report  , I am going with the nerds in the lab coats