Only eight months ago I had never heard of Omnitrition. The good old days. Enter one overzeaolous distributor targeting her Facebook pals and I ended up falling for a dangerous diet. I've touched on many of these points but time to put them in one blog. I am receiving more and more messages from people who have either been hurt by these products or they are uneasy about a family or church member caught up in them or they are being targeted as a potential customer and feeling the pressure! Here are the problems that many have seen with Omnitrition and I really do believe that this diet is a scam.
- The company is very secretive about their products. You just can't go into their site to read about what they are selling. You need a 'dealer' (AKA a distributor). Also, you can't go ask questions their 'official' forum because it is a Facebook page and, again, you have to be invited by your 'dealer'. How many companies do you know that are secretive about their products? Red flag alert!
- First Reason (I believe) for the Secrecy: They are selling an illegal product. The FDA went after numerous companies for selling illegal hCG drops in 2011, Omnitrition then slipped in to fill the void. Omnitrition seems to have been an unheard of little company by many before they started pushing these bogus drops (there is no hCG in them). I'd never heard of them and neither had people I've spoken with. Illegal product? Another red flag!
- Second Reason (I believe) for the Secrecy: Your 'dealer' is likely to be your Aunt Bertha or somebody from your church. When you have a bad experience with the products, you are not going to report them. You may not be happy that they scammed you but you'd rather fade into the background and move on with life. You don't want to make waves in the family or at church. If Average Joe just browsing the internet stumbles on their site, buys their product and ends up with a heart arrythmia, he'll have no problem reporting Omnitrition to the FDA. I'm pretty sure Omnitrition knows that too.
- Although this isn't true in all cases, it does seem to be true in most, Omnitrition 'dealers' seem to target people in their churches. clubs or other organizations where people might be more trusting. Seems as if many of them are not ones to take no for an answer. Don't worry about saying no. They have no qualms selling an illegal product. <link>www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm281333.htm</link> Does seem as if their dealers have no qualms hiding the fact that they really do know that the side effects can be very serious as evidenced by the many posts I saw deleted on their forum.
- It really does not seem there anything new in these products. I've read that the founders of this company came from Herbalife and when their products were deemed to be unsafe, it seems they started Omnitrition. I've also seen a study that when tested, Omnitrition has come in last for quality and safety. Everything Omnitrition offers can be bought in other products for much, much, MUCH cheaper at your local health food store. Their new raspberry ketones (I suspect they've been rolled out because Omnitrition knows its hCG selling days are numbered), old news. Been debunked. They offer low quality and potentially unsafe products at exorbitant prices. Those bogus hCG drops? Been done by others.
- One thing I've noticed and keep hearing from others, 'dealers' stop seeing their family as family and their friends as friends. They buy into the religion of Omnitrition. They start seeing people as buyers and future 'dealers' themselves who will earn them even more money (insert evil laugh here). Know a pushy 'dealer'? I can almost guarantee they have people in their lives who have been hurt or have been pushed away from the dealer because they recognized the scam. I believe this more and more as I get messages from people either upset or hurt by people they know selling this diet.
- People with serious health issues are targeted. We're the most vulnerable. Nobody wants to live that way. These dealers come in and promise you miracle cures. Take a look at one dealer's ad:
<img src="http://photos-ak.sparkpeople.com/nw/6/1/l616758983.jpg">
I was told this was perfectly safe for somebody with anemia and that was 'verified' time and again on their Facebook page. Found out the hard way it was not. I had just had my ferritin levels checked when I began the diet. They were great. Within one month of that diet, they had dropped to dangerous levels and I was getting iron infusions in the cancer center. I recently spoke with one woman with some very serious health concerns and her 'dealer' who also attends her same church was pushing her hard to take all these Omnitrition products. She didn't want them and didn't trust them (smart gal!) but the pressure was pretty intense. I know many people would buckle under that pressure and your 'dealer' knows that too. These tactics are unethical and dangerous!
- When you gain your weight back from the Omnitrition products (and so many will) or have serious side effects (and you might), seems many dealers will cut ties with you. I was shunned by a dealer very quickly when my side effects turned bad. Yes, shunning is alive and well in the cult of Omnitrition.
- I really do think Christians are heavily targeted by 'dealers'. Christians tend to be a little too trusting of others in their churches. Dealers know this. Churches are the perfect scamming grounds for any MultiLevel Marketing (MLM) scheme. You can search online for MLM and the church. You'll see it's common and it never ends well. If it gets rooted enough, it can tear apart a church. You can find so many articles online to warn pastors of this deception.
- The positive reviews online and the seemingly endless pages of pro-Omnitrition pages online? You can pretty much count on the fact that each and every one is done by a distributor or, in a few cases, somebody in first week or two of the diet. A search of Omnitrition turns up many 'different' pages but when you check the website owner, you'll see they often belong to the same person or company. With this one, you either become a distributor because you are pressured heavily and your eyes have glazed over at the thought of untold riches (as evidenced by the numbers of dealers posting their paychecks...how many jobs do that!) or you fall away from the diet.
- As part of a military family, I find this especially worrisome; There are reports that people cannot get an answer from this compansy as to whether they could turn up positive for amphetamines while taking these products. I have had a couple different people tell me now that they asked multiple times if they could turn up positive on their drug tests at work and still no reply. Could there be hidden ingredients in these products that might not only cost you your health but your job as well?
I've had people email me who have said family members are really pushing them to take the products, just go to your doctor and talk to them about this diet. They'll tell you to avoid it and then you have a great excuse. Your doctor said no. They'll tell you why you shouldn't trust your doctor but, doesn't matter, you still have your excuse now. Your doctor will likely never heard of Omnitrition because, until they started pushing the hCG drops, so many people had not even heard of them. I know I never had. Take a bit of what you've learned with them. When you show them that their Omni IV was the worst rated vitamin out of more than 500 and shown to be unsafe along with the potentially unsafe levels of niacin in their Nite Lite and the reports of hidden ingredients, any doctor worth his or her salt will more than likely tell you to avoid this!
I hope this helps.
just a small note: The title of this post is deliberate. Somebody pointed out some time ago that a Google search of 'Omnitrition' and 'scam' turned up pro-Omnitrition articles clearly done by their own staff and dealers. It just seemed very dishonest. There are many people who believe this company is scamming the public and clearly I believe the same now after everything I've been through. So, take what you read here and read their point of view and draw your own conclusions.
For more of my personal story: <link>www.squidoo.com/unsafe_hcg_diet</link>
edited to add, the hCG forum to which I belonged on Facebook did not allow any negativity about its diet or products. It was very one-sided. I write this blog providing another viewpoint. For that reason, if you are experiencing difficulty with these products or people dealing them, I welcome any and all comments. If you want to share your pro-hCG views, you already have a forum for doing so. Thank you for understanding.
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