Metabolife, ephedra, California, scandal?

[Guest guest]

If you click on this link, you'll get an interesting article from the San

Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/08/17/MN2109.DTL

The LA Times ran a similar story on Saturday, but you need to register to see

the content of the LA Times (www.latimes.com)

Anyway, it summarizes the controversy surrounding Metabolife and other

supplements containing ephedra. It also notes that the Governor of

California received campaign contributions from Metabolife and that this, of

course, had nothing to do with his decision not to regulate ephedra.

Hhhhmmm.

In my opinion, ephedra is very dangerous. It's been linked to strokes in

young, healthy, slightly overweight people. I also believe Metabolife is a

bad company that exploits desperate people trying to lose weight. I bring

this up for several reasons, not the least of which is that people selling

Metabolife bombard me with junk e-mail all the time. I avoid all over the

counter diet products. There are some ingredients that are similar to

ephedra, and I think they should not be taken.

By the way, I think it's worth it to register to look at the LA Times. While

it's a respected paper, it's a little more open to nutritional supplements

and alternative medicine than some publications, like the New York Times.

For example, it ran an article about Creatine the other day.

in St. Louis