For the last five years, the exotic acai berry has been the superstar in the world of diet supplements.  Acai berry weight loss products claim to “boost your metabolism,” thereby making your body burn fat more quickly.

Of course, there’s no proof the acai (pronounced ah-sigh-EE) berry can do anything to help you lose weight, but you’d never know that from the ads.

Using bogus claims, fake testimonials and slick marketing tricks, companies have sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of acai berry supplements. They often use the “free trial offer” to snag customers.

That’s how they got Landria Brattain, who lives near Indianapolis. She saw a pop-up ad for a trial bottle of AcaiPure. All she had to do was pay $4.95 to Central Coast Nutraceuticals (CCN) to cover shipping and handling. The deal was simple: Try it and if you don’t like it, return the bottle and you won’t pay anything. But the package came with a bill for $68 that was already charged to her debit card.

Brattain used the stuff for three days, but it made her very sick with diarrhea, cramps and nausea. She called the company to complain but they would not remove the charge.

“They were very rude and very unfriendly,” she remembers. “They kept saying, ‘It’s your fault because you did not read the fine print.’ ”

Soon there were two more charges of $68 on her account, which caused her to get hit with an overdraft fee.  Afraid the charges would not stop, Brattain closed the account. She complained to the Better Business Bureau and eventually got her money back.

In the last three years, the Better Business Bureau has received nearly 3,000 complaints about Central Coast Nutraceuticals. Most deal with billing and refund issues.

The Feds get the company shut down
Central Coast Nutraceuticals, based in Phoenix, isone of the big players in the acai berry industry. Last month, a federal judge approved the Federal Trade Commission’s request to prohibit deceptive claims, freeze the company’s assets, and turn the firm over to a court-appointed receiver.

The FTC charges CCN with using “deceptive, unfair, and unlawful acts and practices” to sell its acai berry weight loss pills (AcaiPure) and colon cleansing supplement (Colopure) via the Internet.

In its complaint, the FTC says CCN “deceived consumers across the country out of tens of millions of dollars.” Steve Baker, director of the FTC’s Midwest Region, tells me there may be more than a million victims.

I contacted CCN’s lawyer, who tells me neither he nor anyone from the company can comment on the charges because of the pending litigation.

Allegation: Free-trial offer wasn’t free
The FTC makes three major allegations in the case. The first deals with CCN’s “free” or “risk free” trial offer. In order to receive the supposedly free 30-day supply of AcaiPure or Colopure, online shoppers had to pay a small fee (normally $1 to $4.95) to cover the shipping and handling. Unhappy customers say they were shocked to find the full price of the “free sample” charged to their credit or debit card account.

“It was virtually impossible to avoid being charged for at least one bottle of these pills,” says the FTC’s Baker. “That’s because you had to go through an amazing number of hoops to return the product.”

The FTC’s lawsuit says to avoid being charged customers had to return the product within 14 days of the date they placed their order. In many cases, the shipment hadn’t even arrived by then. They also had to get a “return authorization number” from the company – something that was not easy to do – and pay for the return shipping. Plus, there could be a 15 percent restocking fee.

The FTC alleges this information was often hidden in the fine print, or in some cases it wasn’t disclosed before shipment.

And there’s more to what many customers didn’t understand. By ordering the supposedly free sample, they agreed to become a member in the company’s “Lifestyle Program” which would automatically ship them another 30-day supply of the products every month. Those new shipments would be billed at full price to the credit or debit card used to pay for the shipping of the trial sample.

Allegation: False claims
CCN promised AcaiPure would deliver rapid and substantial weight loss – anywhere from 10 to 25 pounds in the first month. The lawsuit cites one of those claims:

“WARNING! AcaiPure Is Fast Weight Loss That Works. It Was Not CreatedFor Those People Who Only Want To Lose A Few Measly Pounds. AcaiPure was created to help you achieve the incredible body you have always wanted … USE WITH CAUTION! Major weight loss in short periods of time may occur.”

CCN’s website said these weight loss claims were backed by “ironclad, double-blind, placebo-controlled weight loss studies from the medical establishment …”

The FTC’s lawsuit says “AcaiPure does not cause rapid and substantial weight loss” and the company does not have any proof it does.

CCN claimed Colopure would prevent cancer because it would “cleanse your entire system” and “detoxify your organs.” The FTC alleges there is no reason to believe Colopure has any role in preventing cancer whatsoever.

In preparing their case, government lawyers had expert scientists examine the ingredients in AcaiPure and Colopure. Those experts said the main ingredients in both products were laxatives.

Allegation: False endorsements
Some CCN products carry endorsements by Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray. How can you go wrong with a product endorsed by these trusted celebrities? Well, it turns out those endorsements were bogus.

Rachael Ray provided the FTC with this sworn statement: “I have never approved or agreed to the use of my name or my image in conjunction with the sale and marketing of AcaiPure, or any acai berry-related product.”

In his sworn statement, Douglas Pattison, the Chief Financial Officer of Harpo, Inc. (Oprah’s production company) said Oprah never endorsed or approved AcaiPure or agreed to have her picture or name used to sell or market the product. “Ms. Oprah Winfrey has never endorsed any acai berry supplement or acai berry related product by name,” Pattison said.

The bottom line
My advice is to avoid any free trial offer that requires you to give out your credit or debit card number. The only exception would be an offer from a trusted company you’ve dealt with before. I’ve simply seen too many people burned by “free trial” scams in the last few years.

Once a company has your account number, the business can use it to bill you for other charges. If you use a credit card, you can probably get the charges reversed. With a debit card, stopping the withdrawals could be a real pain. If the charges don’t stop, you may have to close that account and open a new one.

If you feel you’ve been taken by a bogus health supplement or free trial offer that’s not really free, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): ACAIBERRY-UK

PORTAGE — Imagine it’s 6:15 p.m. on a Thursday and you’re on the way to belly-dancing class.

You enter the Portage Public Schools Administration Building, climb the stairs to the second floor, walk past the classrooms full of night-school students, hang up your coat and head to the dance studio to warm up.

You grab a bottle of water and line up with 15 women ranging in age from 16 to 60. They’re wearing stretch pants, T-shirts and pink, lime, silver and black sequined hip belts that shake like loose change.

The instructor frantically looks through her leopard-print tote bag for the first song. She inserts the CD into the boom box and the drums start, then the lutes, hammered dulcimers and vertical flutes. This is not Western music, you say to yourself. The old wooden floor begins to creak as you start to move to the beat.

“Are we ready to go?” calls out the instructor as she leads a warm-up dance.

It doesn’t matter if you’re overweight or if you have physical disabilities. Joette Sawall helps any willing woman, and the occasional man, shimmy and undulate to a new body image.

“It’s very empowering, and it creates a positive force for women,” says the 36-year-old Sawall, owner and operator of the West Michigan School of Middle Eastern Dance.
Where it started

Belly dancing, or raks sharki, as it’s known in Egypt, conjures up all sorts of images: scantily clad women, sequined midriff-baring costumes, dangling beaded belts and an exotic nightclub setting.

The truth is that the dance form has humble beginnings that date back thousands of years to Egypt and the Turkish countryside.

It became a hit in the United States when a young, fully clothed girl performed belly dance at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Sawall says. Sal Bloom, the exhibit director, coined the name Little Egypt for the girl, who shimmied and undulated her way into the hearts of an uptight Victorian culture.

The 1950s and ’60s ushered in the dance technique as we know it today in the United States. Nightclubs featured the dance in a burlesque style. Dancers wore over-the-top costumes, including bright, coined sequined belts, as they quivered unabashedly and rotated their bellies in a suggestive manner.

Weight loss and aerobics

Health clubs, on the other hand, thrived on the weight-loss aspect of the moves, and some colleges began offering belly dancing as an aerobics credit.

“It works different muscles without the torture of regular aerobics,” says Deb Hansen, 56, of Portage. “It’s great for anyone who has curves.”

Johanna Hamilton, a 16-year-old high school student, agrees. Hamilton has taken dance classes since she was 9 years old. Her mother and sister took a class with Sawall and encouraged her to get involved.

“I like the mix of styles and the light structure,” she says. “Most other dance instructors have rigorous standards, and this is so much more fun.”

Kathryn Walter, 53, of Portage takes the beginning belly-dancing course with Sawall. She was exposed to belly dancing for the first time when a belly dancer paid a visit to the nursing home where he father lives, near Detroit.

“It’s nice for women who are curvier and any size or shape,” she says.

Three instruction levels

Sawall instructs belly dancing at three different levels. The first level is for those who want to learn the basic moves — undulations, shimmies, circles, hip drops — which feel a little awkward at first. After 12 weeks, most students know them well.

Upon the instructor’s approval, students can move up to the next level, which focuses on choreography for performances. This is when the fun shopping begins — the buying of headdresses, extravagant belts, veils and costumes.

The third level brings opportunities to perform at Greek Fest and other festivals or private shows.

“Women tell me they come to find their happy place. I have found mine,” says Sawall, who also teaches gender and media studies at Western Michigan University after obtaining a master’s degree in communication there last year. “I may not be wealthy, but I’m rich in many other ways.”

SOURCE: MLIVE.COM

Cut up your gym membership card, fire your personal trainer and cancel that Jenny Craig food order. If you want to get lean in 2009, perhaps you should start with a video game console.

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, fitness-themed games could get you more excited than Richard Simmons at a short-shorts sale.

OK, this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. We’ve seen dancing diversions such as Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution games for many years now, but the “exer-gaming” trend really took off with Nintendo’s Wii Fit ($89.99) when it debuted last spring, thanks to its collection of aerobic exercises, stretches, yoga lessons and minigames for the Nintendo Wii console. Included with the disc is the Wii Balance Board, which resembles a white bathroom scale that measures your weight and senses your movement when you stand on it.

More than a dozen other fitness games have launched since, all designed to trim a waistline. Even the sexy star of the reality TV show The Biggest Loser hosts her own exercise game. Majesco’s Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 ($39.99) dishes workout regimens, expert advice and stretching cool-downs while you follow along on the Wii Balance Board. While the graphics aren’t anything to write home about, this is a good purchase for weight-conscious players who already own Wii Fit because the Wii Balance Board is required.

While not compatible with the Wii Balance Board, Ubisoft’s My Fitness Coach ($29.99) for the Nintendo Wii is like having a virtual trainer on your TV. Your coach in the game, Maya, motivates you and teaches nearly 500 unique cardio exercises, strength training, yoga and more.

The Nintendo DS version, called My Weight Loss Coach ($39.99), includes a pedometer you can clip on while walking around your home or city or on the treadmill that counts your steps and imports the data into the bottom of the portable player. You can set various goals to reach and are rewarded with amusing stick-figure animation, unlockable games and other goodies.

Video games are also helping players eat better. Atari’s What’s Cooking with Jamie Oliver ($29.99) for the Nintendo DS leverages the famous U.K. chef’s name to serve up a digital cookbook with hundreds of recipes to tackle in your kitchen.

Ubisoft’s Gourmet Chef ($29.99), on the other hand, lets you master the art of French cooking through dozens of missions. You can use the Nintendo DS stylus pen to cut, mix and cook 70 authentic meals as you cater to 20-odd types of customers (including food critics) and work your way up to become top chef at a high-end restaurant.

SOURCE: USA TODAY