The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

Kevin Trudeau, Part 2

The controversy surrounding Kevin Trudeau continues. In the past week, my first Kevin Trudeau article has received eight more comments, even though I wrote the article back in February.

The situation on Amazon.com hasn't seemed to change at all. Here are some excerpts from recent reviews.

May 14, 2005:

• "It is not what I expected after watching the TV infomercial."
• "What a horrible experience. It is the biggest scam ever!"

May 13, 2005

• "Zero stars if I could. This doesn't even qualify as a book in my opinion."
• "I watched the show, which tells you nothing. I paid $30 for the book, which also tells you nothing."

May 12, 2005

• "What a lousy book. I'm so sorry I didn't look this book up before purchasing. He never does get to the 'cures.'"
• "This book is awful! Don't waste your time or money on him."

May 10, 2005

• "Kevin Trudeau is a quack."

The people who've given Natural Cures good reviews (and those are few), seem to acknowledge that the book gives little specific information, but then go on to praise Trudeau as a "hero" because of his fight against the FTC.

I went to NaturalCures.com and read the sales copy. I believe Kevin Trudeau continues to make sales because he's positioned himself as a champion of truth and a martyr.

Many times he notes that he accepts "absolutely no advertisers" on his web site, and that he doesn't promote any supplements. This is his evidence that his opinions aren't tainted and that he only tells the truth.

He then talks about his ongoing battle with regulatory agencies and says, "Please note that the FTC and FDA are actively and aggressively trying to shut down and prevent this web site from even existing."

This statement alone would cause me to pause before purchasing. You mean I could pay for a subscription and the web site could just disappear? No, thanks.

But then Trudeau really starts to hint at the incompleteness of his web site when he says: "NaturalCures.com is in its infancy"... "This is the beginning of the beginning"... "My goal is"... "My mission is"... "We have a long way to go before this web site will be fully active"... "When this web site is fully active, it may include"....

Notice how much of the language is future tense? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kevin Trudeau is coming right out and saying, "This web site is under construction!"

I wouldn't buy a subscription to NaturalCures.com based on the promise of the site's future content. I'm surprised that so many other people have.

If this article hasn't convinced you one way or another about Kevin Trudeau's book and web site, I highly suggest you do your due diligence before opening your wallet.

Dairy Milk Arguments

Today's news says, "Regularaly consuming low-fat dairy products slightly decreases a man's risk of developing type II diabetes."

OK. Maybe the study does prove that. But I wonder if you might be able to lower your risk of type II diabetes even more by eliminating milk and sticking to a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables.

Furthermore, it seems there's a lot of evidence against drinking milk. And, for me, the greatest evidence of all is how I feel after drinking a cup of dairy milk... not very good.

Milk makes me congested, causes phlegm to build up in my throat, and just gives me an overall "blah" feeling. Oh, yeah... milk gives me gas, too.

As you might have guessed, I gave up drinking milk a long time ago. I still eat some cheese and use some Half & Half from time to time. But I eat far less dairy than I did in high school.

When I eat cereal, I use unsweetened soy milk. Since I've been using it for about four years, I actually prefer it to dairy milk now.

Anyway, if you haven't researched the negative health effects of dairy milk, you might want to do some reading. Here are some of the sites I found:

• MilkSucks.com
• NoMilk.com
• NotMilk.com

Exercise for Colds

I got a small cold on Friday. My daughter caught it first, then passed it to me, my wife, and my son. Fortunately, it was short lived. We were all feeling back up to speed by Sunday.

Whenever I have a cold or stuffy nose, I like to go to the gym and exercise. I know it sounds weird, but I've noticed that a good cardio workout really clears up congestion and (it seems) speeds my recovery.

Exercising when you've got a cold is contrary to other recommendations that say you will recover more quickly if you take to bed as soon as possible. And among the many cold cures I've searched for, I can't find anyone telling people with colds to exercise.

In fact, one source recommends not exercising. He says:

"Many of my patients ask me if they can exercise with a cold. My recommendation is to stop exercising for the first day or two when the symptoms are worst. Don't push yourself; this will only weaken your immune system and prolong the cold. Wait until the third or fourth day when you are feeling yourself to resume exercise."

I prefer to exercise when I feel the cold coming on or even during the cold. Although I won't push myself if I'm really feeling bad.

What are your thoughts? Do you use exercise to help get over a cold? Or do you avoid exercise altogether?

It's My Birthday

It's my birthday today. It's also one of the rare times it falls on Mother's Day. So Stephanie and I celebrated my birthday last night.

The restaurant we had planned to go to was "Closed for Renovations," even though it didn't look like they were renovating anything. And so we went down the street to a similar restaurant.

We enjoyed our time. My parents were watching my daughter, so we only had to take care of Owen, my seven-week-old son. Ahhh.... It's always nice to have a break from keeping up with a toddler.

Toward the end of the meal, Stephanie asked our waiter if they did anything special for birthdays. He said, "Yes," and disappeared. A few minutes later he arrived at our table with this huge brownie sundae. No candles, no singing.

I was suspicious because restaurants don't normally give away such a large dessert. And sure enough, there on the receipt was a line item for the brownie sundae: $4.75.

And then, all of a sudden, I remembered how the same thing happened to us on my last birthday at a different restaurant. I'd forgotten about it, but that restaurant had simply brought out a dessert and charged us for it, too. No candles, no singing.

Three observations:

1. The waiter (restaurant?) should have been up front with us. "No, we don't do anything special for birthdays, but you can buy a dessert to celebrate."

2. If Stephanie and I had known they didn't offer a free dessert for birthdays, we probably wouldn't have ordered any dessert. We certainly wouldn't have ordered one as large as the brownie sundae!

3. If the waiter had told us the truth, and if we had wanted to buy a dessert, then we would have at least gotten to choose which dessert we wanted. In this case, the decision was made for us, which I didn't particularly appreciate.

I didn't let the dessert thing affect our evening. My wife and I still enjoyed just being together and having some time to ourselves.

I relate the experience here so you're forewarned of this new "guerrilla tactic" to sell more desserts. Just make sure you know the policy before you ask the question, "Do you do anything special for birthdays here?"

Le Peep Nutrition Facts

I went to Le Peep for breakfast yesterday morning and finally asked the question that had been bugging me for months... Do Le Peep's Peasant Potatoes have MSG in them or not?

Much to my relief, the answer came back "no." But, the waitress said, they do have sugar added to them.

I also asked if Le Peep published nutrition facts about their entrees. After a few minutes, the waitress brought back this ugly, beat-up three-ring binder that had sticky gunk on it, probably from some heavily sugared coffee that had spilled and then dried.

I thumbed through the binder, and while it did have the nutrition facts, it didn't show any ingredients. Nevertheless, I learned some interesting things.

For instance, most of their dishes are either 1) high in sodium or 2) high in cholesterol.

The Hen Pen and (surprisingly) Them Blueberries (pancakes) were both loaded with cholesterol. In fact, order The Hen Pen and you'll get 142% of your daily cholesterol allowance in a single sitting.

Many (most?) of the entrees registered 40% or more of your recommended daily sodium allowance. The highest sodium dish that was listed in the binder was the White Lightening, a "lite" menu item that packs over 80% of your daily sodium allowance.

I was disappointed with how outdated the nutrition facts binder was. Many of Le Peep's entrees were conspicuously absent, like the Down Home Sausage Pie. Although it's a dish I enjoy from time to time, I'd like to know what kind of dietary wallop it packs.

In case you were wondering, no nutrition facts are posted on Le Peep's web site... just their menu. Diet Facts didn't have any information either.