Don't Get Duped : A Consumer's Guide to Health and Fitness [Paperback]

Larry M. Forness (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001

The information in this book could save you money, frustration, embarrassment, and disappointment. It could even save your life! People annually spend billions of pounds Chr(45) needlessly - on vitamins, minerals, herbal concoctions, ergogenic aids, fitness equipment and apparel, and alternative health-care treatments. Dr Larry M. Forness provides the critical tools to help you evaluate the many health-care and fitness services and products available today. Using actual ads as examples, Forness presents the best ways to keep from ever being duped again by an industry that is rife with deception and ignorance, and also includes specific tips from industry "insiders". The ultimate goal is to make you self-sufficient in appraising industry hype, and to give you the criteria to test real-world results against marketing claims. By judicious use of VIPs - Very Important Points - and concise checklists throughout the book, readers are given the most important facts in a readily usable form. Topics covered include the real meaning of "scientifically proven"; methods for quantitatively analysing such claims as "more energy" and "improved strength"; fad diets; fitness equipment; ageing remedies; abuse of the labels "certified", "registered", and "licensed"; plus an extremely useful glossary. Before you begin yet another weight-loss or fitness program or buy some new health-care product, you owe it to yourself to read what Dr Forness has to say.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Most of us believe that we are savvy to advertising sleight-of-hand, yet the sales of herbal supplements, magnetized accessories, anti-aging nostrums, and weight-loss systems continue to grow. Forness, founder of the National Center for Sports Medicine, here reveals the smoke and mirrors behind these spurious products and their fantastic claims. He explains why various popular pitches, labeling, and testimonials are not what they appear and reminds us that such phrases as all natural and clinically proven are legally meaningless. The descriptions of the chemical properties of vitamins and minerals is a bit heavy for lay readers, and Forness's sneers at the blatant spelling and grammatical errors in many ads would be more convincing if his own proofreader had caught such boners as "prostrate" cancer. It is also curious that Forness is identified in the promotional material as being the dean of "a major health care university in the southeastern United States" instead of naming said institution. Still, there is little else that warns consumers in this way, and the message is sound: Caveat Emptor! Recommended for consumer collections. Susan B. Hagloch, Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, OH

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...contains a wealth of easy-to-understand information..." -- State Journal-Register

"...will save you money and maybe even your life..." -- Bookviews.com, March 2002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573929220
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929226
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're into fitness, SEE THIS!, February 12, 2002

By 

Ila (UCLA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Get Duped : A Consumer's Guide to Health and Fitness (Paperback)

If you're into fitness, this book is a must. It provides a wonderful assessment of diet supplements, herbal supplements, weight loss systems, exercise machines, and other health and fitness industry boondoggles. Dr. Forness takes on the advertising and other claims including those in fine print of each of these aspects of the health and fitness industry. He has a wonderful sense of humor that he uses to great effect to devastate the claims of all of those newspaper ads, late night infomercials, and other attempts to make you part with your money in the pursuit of the perfect body. If you are thinking about buying any exercise machine or device from ab-crunchers to exercise machines READ THIS BOOK FIRST. This is probably the first book to take on the billion dollar fitness industry that seems to have gotten a free ride from consumers and consumer watch dogs in the past few years. It's not only a helpful book but it's funny and entertaining at the same time.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally the Truth!, February 1, 2002

By 

Melissa (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Get Duped : A Consumer's Guide to Health and Fitness (Paperback)

I am a health and fitness advocate. finally, someone has written an excellent book about all the fraudulent and misleading ads in the health and fitness industry. the book overflows with the tactics and strategies that advertisers use to separate you from your money, and how the sell you something that never gives the promised results. Dr. Forness is clearly an expert in health and
fitness, and he writes with a great sence of humor, which makes the book easy to read. He provides wonderful, concise explanations of how and why we get played for suckers, how to truly prove if any claims is legitimate, and even illustrates his expertise by showing the actual ads, which he then tears apart. He covers everything from vitamins to minerals to herbal concoctions to ergogenic aids to equipment to apparel and much more. There are excellent checklists to itemize how to keep from getting duped by any ad. Before you even think of buying any health/fitness product GET THIS BOOK! The courious reader will become informed. The reader who does what the aughor says will save money--perhaps a lot of money, and will forever be saved from being frustrated and embarrassed by buying products that don't work as advertised (especially all those 'nutritional supplements' and 'abdominal exercisers' and the like).

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is a Life Saver!, May 11, 2009

By 

Michele A. Perez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Get Duped : A Consumer's Guide to Health and Fitness (Paperback)

Don't Get Duped by Doctor Larry Forness is one of the best books I have ever read! This book literally saved my life and it opened my eyes the nasty underbelly of the greed machine that drives the unscrupulous practices of the diet and fitness industry. In addition, Dr. Forness provides information on what your body DOES need. You do not need to scientist to understand the information in this book. Dr. Forness takes information that has the potential to overwhelm the "average Joe" and makes it palatable (and even humorous) without dumbing it down and insulting the intelligence of the reader. This book is brutally honest and well researched. Everyone ought to read this book!