LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Vitamin Shoppe faces a class action that says its weight loss supplements do nothing.
Plaintiff Joycette Goodwin filed suit June 13 against the company through attorneys at the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron. The supplement at issue is Vitamin Shoppe's Garcinia Cambogia Extract alleged to be effective in "weight management" and "appetite control."
The product's active ingredients are Hydroxycitric Acid and Chromium Nicotinate Glycinate Chelate.
"Defendant's misleading 'appetite control' and 'weight management claims convey that the product is capable of helping consumers lose weight and will actually help consumers lose weight by suppressing appetite," the suit says.
"However, these claims, taken individually and especially in context of the label as a whole, are misleading because the product's only 'active' ingredients are incapable of providing any weight-loss benefits."
The suit says a weight loss study published in 1998 by researchers at Columbia University's Obesity Research Center has "stood the test of time." It was a 12-week study of 135 subjects who were given either placebo or Garcinia extract.
"The study found that a Garcinia extract failed to produce a significant loss of weight and fat mass beyond that observed with the placebo," the suit says. A footnote points out that the placebo group, on average, lost more weight than the Garcinia group.