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The Loss of Two Popular Diet Drugs Ignites Search for Alternatives
With GUEST: Michael Fumento
CNN Morning News, Transcript # 97091706V09 The removal of two popular diet drugs from the market means fewer choices for people struggling to lose weight. Michael Fumento, author of The Fat of the Land, discusses why the battle against obesity is so difficult for so many Americans.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The removal of two popular diet drugs from the market means fewer choices for people struggling to lose weight. CNN's Linda Ciampa looks at some of the alternatives available now, and some that are in the works.
CAROLINE FINNEGAN: What they do is make you so you are not hungry. And you don't want the food, therefore you eat less food. CIAMPA: Sounds like what many people said about Fen-phen. But the doctor who wrote the book, Safer than Fen-Phen says this combination of phentermine and Prozac doesn't have dangerous health hazards and is just as effective for weight loss. DR. MICHAEL ANCHORS, AUTHOR, SAFER THAN PHEN-FEN: I've treated 600 patients. Some of them for longer than two years; almost all of them lost weight, many lost a lot of weight. CIAMPA: Dr. Anchors says getting rid of the Fenfluramine in the Fen-phen combination, and pairing phentermine with Prozac instead is the safe way to go. But some doctors question that. DR. DAVID ROBERTSON, EMORY UNIVERSITY: By itself, Prozac can be taken for long periods of time with no risk of the complications we associate with weight loss drugs. By itself, phentermine is generally safe taken for up to four to six weeks in patients who have no medical problems. There is no data on how safe it is to take phentermine long term, even in small doses. CIAMPA: Even so, nutri/system has jumped on the Phen-Pro, prescribing it for the seriously obese. Other fat fighting drugs that obesity experts are talking about, Meridia, which works by manipulating the brain chemical serotonin, could win FDA approval before the end of the year. Further down the pipeline, Xenical, or orlistat, which works by preventing the body from absorbing fat. The company that makes Xenical withdrew its application from the FDA last month because of a possible link between the drug and breast cancer. (on-camera): In light of all the health dangers now associated with Fen-phen and Redux, and more doctors are becoming reluctant to prescribe any drug to lose weight loss. Instead they are reemphasizing the age old mantra of diet and exercise. (voice-over): It worked for Melanie Duncan. Her doctor refused to prescribe medication and told her to start exercising and eating right. MELANIE DUNCAN: I wasn't pleased to begin with because I thought I needed that extra boost, but now looking at all the research and all, I am very pleased. CIAMPA: Duncan lost 30 pounds in nine months. She says it hasn't been easy, but at least she doesn't have to worry about the side effects from drugs. Linda Ciampa, CNN, Atlanta. DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Why is the battle against obesity so difficult for so many Americans. Michael Fumento is the author of The Fat of the Land and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, and he joins us in Atlanta this morning. Good morning, Michael, thanks for coming in. MICHAEL FUMENTO, AUTHOR, THE FAT OF THE LAND: Good morning. KELLEY: Let's talk quickly, first, about one half of Fen-phen being taken off the market along with Redux. You were on those drugs for a while. How did they work? And how did they affect you? FUMENTO: I took them for about five or six weeks just to see if they worked. They do kill your appetite, at least for the five or six weeks I was on, probably much, much longer. I got off it for a couple of reasons. One, I didn't want to be on this drug combination in my thirties for the rest of my life. And you do have to stay on them for the rest of your life, otherwise the weight comes roaring back. When I got off these things it was just amazing, it was like black magic how fast the fat came back. The other thing was I was starting to write my book, The Fat of the Land at the time, and I decided I should make myself a human guinea pig for the things that I was discovering in my writing that had nothing to do with drugs. KELLEY: So they have seen heart lesions and heart valve problems and the weight can come back. But some people don't care. And for those who are terribly obese, they still say that they want that. One of the reasons that you say that people are getting so overweight is portions, and you brought along some things to show us. FUMENTO: Right, portion sizes in the United States are far bigger than portion sizes in Europe and they are far bigger than they used to be in the United States. This is clearly part of the reason why we are getting so darn fat in this country. For example, here is my favorite European candy bar. It is called the Balisto. It is the only size that these candy bars even come in. This isn't the small, this is the size of Balisto that you can buy in Europe. One of my favorite American candy bars is the Butterfinger. This is the small size Butterfinger, literally three times the size of the Balisto. But this wasn't big enough for Americans so they had to come up with the king size, 50 percent bigger than the standard Butterfinger. But this wasn't big enough for Americans. So then they had to come up with the very aptly named Butterfinger Beast, 50 percent larger yet. If I hit you with this you would probably die, which is why I won't. KELLEY: So portion size has gotten bigger and bigger, and so we are taking in many more calories than we used to. FUMENTO: We don't even realize it because everybody else now is eating these things as well. We don't realize that this is a candy bar, not a toy. KELLEY: Those look a little little next to that. And then drinks too, you brought drinks to show. FUMENTO: Drink sizes. The original Coca-Cola in a bottle was six and a half ounces, this is eight ounces. They don't make six and a half anymore. This is still the standard size you would get out of a machine in Europe, about 8 ounces, they are on the metric system. In the United States, the size for machines has gone from 12 to 16 to 20 ounces, just in the last few years. But if 20 ounces isn't enough for you, as an American, you can go to a lot of places, 7-eleven, many other places, and get one of these 64 ounces, which is literally 10 times the size of the original six and a half ounces. Again, Americans don't realize that these giant sizes, these are only in America and it helps explain why Americans are so much fatter than we used to be or than Americans are still are. KELLEY: We have about 30 seconds left. Also, fat free, if we are eating so much then we might as well make it fat free and we'll be OK. FUMENTO: That is what we are told. Everybody out there, including the government, all of these diet books are saying, if you just eat low fat or fat free, you can eat as much as you want. But that is not true. Here is the original Oreo by Nabisco, full fat. Here is the half fat made by the same company, but it's the Snackwells brand. Half fat, so its got fewer calories, right? Wrong. Per gram, per ounce same amount of calories. The big difference, what I dislike, is the fact that people think that they can eat all of these that they want, where they will have only one or two of these, and they are eating all of these that they want, and clearly this is making us much fatter than we used to be. KELLEY: OK, so watch your portions, exercise more and eat less. Michael Fumento, author of The Fat of the Land, thanks very much. Read Michael Fumento's work on obesity. Michael Fumento is the author of numerous books, including The Fat of the Land: Our Health Crisis and How Overweight Americans Can Help Themselves.
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