With such differing answers from these, the professed leading authorities on weight loss, is it any wonder that the average person is completely confused about this issue?   I know well the confusion because rarely does a day pass that someone does not ask me, "Why is America so fat?"   The question is not always this direct, but we have all heard comments like, "Have you been to the mall lately and seen all of the fat people?" or, "Years ago I never remember there being as many people overweight."   These are just a few examples, and I am sure  

  When most people hear about Ephedra, they usually think about weight loss products, since it is in reference to such products that Ephedra has received so much attention in recent days.   The reality is that Ephedra, or more accurately one of its derivatives, is contained in many more products than just those that are designed for weight loss.  A great number of the most commonly used cold, flu, allergy, asthma and nasal decongestant medications contain either Ephedrine or Pseudoephedrine, which are derived from Ephedra. Check for yourself the next time you visit a drugstore  

  You would think that after the FDA presented such a weak case and was censured so thoroughly by the GAO and by members of Congress that opponents would have given up on an Ephedra ban.   Of course, ruthless people with self-serving agendas rarely give up completely.  They usually just go away for awhile and wait for a better opportunity to try again.   That is at least one of the lessons that the world learned from Hitler.
  And so the opponents of Ephedra waited until . . .  

  The big question that this evidence really imposes is why has it never even been considered that a cold medication might have caused Steve Bechler's death?   As we have just seen, there exists at least enough evidence to suspect that such a product could have been responsible for the tragedy.   While we have also seen in this chapter that it is highly unlikely that anything Steve Bechler took caused his death, the fact that only a weight-loss product was blamed shows the hypocrisy of Ephedra opponents.   To label one type of Ephedra product as dangerous and blame a death on its use while  

  Is it possible for the hypocrisy and double standard to be any clearer than in how this Illinois law was written to ban Ephedra? They actually created their own definition of Ephedra so that they could pick exactly which Ephedra products they wanted banned.   They went even further by writing into their law specific protections for Ephedra products "marketed under an over-the-counter monograph issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration," which means whatever Ephedra products the FDA approves are legal to sell in Illinois.   We have already seen exactly which Ephedra products the FDA approves, so the State of Illinois should have just gone ahead and said "All Ephedra products manufactured by pharmaceutical companies are approved for sale in Illinois and are excluded from this ban."  

  What is the greatest outrage of this whole sickening example of greed is that the pharmaceutical industry has been able to get away with perpetrating such a fraud on the American people.  One of the purposes of the federal government is supposed to be to ensure a level playing field for all of the businesses that participate in our economy.  In the case of Ephedra, they not only failed to accomplish this mandate, but through the FDA they actually aided the pharmaceutical industry in removing their competitors' products from the market.   The result is that millions of people's health truly will be jeopardized by not having access to viable products they could have used to lose weight.  

  Unfortunately, the side effect of weight gain is not limited to just antidepressant drugs.  Many of the most commonly prescribed drugs for average everyday problems also cause weight gain, and since it is common for most people to use several medications, the amount of weight gain increases accordingly.   Check and see if you are using or have used any of the following drugs.  

  You want to lose weight, but since you have been unable to achieve any positive results you have given up hope of ever returning to your weight of younger days.  After years of trying every diet that has come along, after spending countless hours in the gym, after seeking out doctors who prescribed you medication that they promised would work, you have resigned yourself to always being overweight.  If this describes where you are, or where you will soon be, then it is most likely that your inability to lose weight has more to do with what has been holding you back than with what you have been  

  When the founding fathers of the United States of America spoke of inalienable rights they specifically included the right to life itself, which presupposes the right to good health.  If you ponder all that the phrase inalienable rights might imply you have to conclude that good health is the most fundamental right of all since your first possession, as well as your last, is your body, without which there is no life.  The freedom to care for your body in the way that best promotes your health so as to ensure the very continuation of your life is therefore protected by the founding laws of this nation, which are still supposed to be upheld today by the government of the United States of America.