Published on March 10, 2017
Here’s another one from the vault of wacky weight loss gimmicks: The Candy Diet!
OK, folks . . . so here’s a word to the wise (or, I should say, to the not-too-wise): Unless you’re Forrest (“life is like a box of chocolates”) Gump, if diet pills look like a box of chocolates, they’re likely too good to be true — as was the case with, I kid you not (drum roll please) . . . Ayds Reducing Plan Candy.
For those of you who may not be old enough to remember the 1970’s, here’s the original commercial.
Ayds (pronounced “aids”) was popular in the 1970s and early ’80s and came in a variety of decadent flavors. Once the AIDS epidemic entered the public psyche in mid-1981, however, the unfortunately named diet candy experienced a rapid drop in sales (gee, ya think?).
Eventually, Ayds was withdrawn from the market entirely: The active appetite-suppressing ingredient in the product was phenylpropanolamine (PPA), now available only by prescription because of its potential to cause an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain or into tissue surrounding the brain) in women.
Sadly, there’s no doubt in my mind that if this product were still on the market people would use it. Women especially, who have tried one quack diet after another — and multiple times! — would take a chance on a “stroke” of stupidity . . . if they could lose weight.
Slimcerely yours℠,
