A few years ago, “The Hunger Hormone” on CBS Sixty Minutes II (August 13, 2003) was a story about ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach that tells the brain when it’s time to eat. The story focused on the race among pharmaceutical companies to develop a drug to counteract this hormone. I was particularly disturbed by a comment by British obesity researcher Stephen Bloom who says the common advice to eat less and exercise more is generally ignored, “so the answer is, as we have with blood pressure, take a tablet. As we have with cholesterol, take a tablet. So, I fear, with overweight, we have to damp down appetite. We can’t actually control ourselves. We have to accept that as a fact.”

The message is that we are not capable of managing our appetites so we obviously need another expensive drug. What nonsense. It strikes me as completely hypocritical that physicians will tell their patients that they should not use dietary supplements to maintain their health, but rather rely on their diet and lifestyle changes.

Yet if there is a drug available to treat a health problem, they can’t write a prescription fast enough. This, in spite of the fact that prescription drugs are man-made chemicals with dubious safety records, whereas most supplements are very safe, naturally occurring nutrients missing in the typical Western diet.

With few exceptions, prescription drugs do not cure disease; they treat the symptoms. Our web site and the Best Choices Diet are intended to address the underlying causes of poor health and obesity, offering the prospect of a long healthy life free from the physical and financial slavery of life-long prescription drugs. To review my recommendations, read the Best Choices Diet.