Regulating commercial weight-loss programs

The commercial weight-loss industry is big business in North America, and the $50 billion industry should be regulated to safeguard people's health, write Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, Dr. Arya Sharma and the CMAJ editorial team http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg367.pdf. Despite expert agreement that obesity management requires long-term behavioural, medical or surgical interventions, many commercial weight-loss programs create impossible expectations and false beliefs.

"Physicians, governments and public health departments all share medical and moral obligations to protect consumers from shady weight-loss practices," write the authors. "Since weight-loss addresses a medical concern for which treatment guidelines exist, weight-loss products and services must be regulated to protect consumer health."

"Before we can truly address the devastating obesity epidemic, we must first stem the centuries-old flow of snake oil," they state, calling on governments to require accreditation of weight-loss providers and for these providers to supply evidence-based information for their claims.