I recorded the Sunday, January 20 2008 episode of
Good Morning America, which featured a Consumer Alert segment on the
Kimkins Diet. You can
see the video of it here, but for those of you who can't see the video for whatever reason, I transcribed it. Remember, this is an unofficial transcription, any mistakes are mine. There is one minor addition and some clarifications, I added Delaney Deaver's screen name on
Kimkins (SingingLass) to the transcript, it was
not mentioned in the segment, though it was shown in at least one screen shot. I also clarified which dialog came from
Heidi Kimberly Diaz's deposition video, and noted where
John Tiedt was quoting
Heidi Diaz. And, since
Heidi Kimberly Diaz is so in love with her full name, I used it to refer to her where she is speaking in the
deposition video. The segment just referred to her as "
The Kimmer" and "
Heidi Diaz."
Enjoy!
BEGIN TRANSCRIPTKATE SNOW:
Well, there’s no shortage of diet advertisements on the internet and it may seem like an easy way to take off the pounds but beware, there may be hidden risks in subscribing to a diet online.
Our consumer alert this morning, Andrea Canning is here this morning with more on this particular story, this particular diet.
Good Morning.
ANDREA CANNING: Good morning Kate, yeah, today we’re taking a closer look at a diet called Kimkins. A woman who lost big weight on the Kimkins diet says she now has big concerns about the program, and she’s reaching out to other internet dieters looking for that quick weight loss fix.
CHRISTIN SHERBURNE: I yo-yo dieted my entire life, I’ve been overweight since I was a child.
ANDREA CANNING: At one hundred pounds overweight, Christin Sherburne says she was vulnerable and desperate to get healthy. So when she heard about a popular new internet diet called Kimkins, that promised big results fast, she couldn’t resist.
CHRISTIN SHERBURNE: The theme on the diet site at that point in time was that there was no faster diet, so that was what caught my attention at first.
ANDREA CANNING: The Kimkins recipe for weight loss replaced fiber with laxatives and while the recommended daily number of calories for the average woman is 2000, Kimkins calls for 500.
CHRISTIN SHERBURNE: You can learn different tricks in how to not be hungry which are very similar to the same tricks that anorexics use like drinking chicken broth when you’re trying to stave off hunger pains until lunch or Crystal Light popsicles, all of which have zero to little calories.
ANDREA CANNING: Christin said it seemed to good to be true, and it was. She lost a hundred pounds in five months, and went to work for the company. But along with others, she said she experienced alarming side effects.
CHRISTIN SHERBURNE: I was taken to the emergency room, um, because I was having chest pains and that’s when I started having some of the side effects, some uh, hair loss and that is also when my menstrual cycle stopped.
ANDREA CANNING: She says she was fired after raising concerns about the safety of the diet. Still, Kimkins, that had a one-time feauture in Woman’s World Magazine, generated more than a million dollars in sales at sixty dollars a membership. But do you really know who’s behind these internet diets? For Kimkins, it’s a woman calling herself “The Kimmer” who claims to have lost 198 pounds in just five months. But skeptical members hired a private investigator and found some of the website testimonials were fake. And The Kimmer? She’s actually Heidi Diaz, a woman who clearly doesn’t resemble this photo she used, which was actually taken from a Russian mail-order bride website. There’s now a class-action lawsuit in the works against Diaz by her alleged victims, as seen here in this deposition.
(Deposition video)
JOHN TIEDT: (quoting from Heidi Diaz’s own words) “Can you imagine him telling a judge that he wants to certify class action against a housewife, hee hee hee.” That’s your statement, is that correct?
HEIDI KIMBERLY DIAZ: Yes. Is it too late to take that back?
(End deposition video)
JOHN TIEDT: People want a miracle remedy and uh, unfortunately the internet is an avenue wherein the worst people of our community can take advantage of the most vulnerable.
ANDREA CANNING: But Kimkins employee Delaney Deaver fired back. She admits some of the original testimonials were fake, but still stands by the diet, claiming to have lost a hundred pounds herself.
DELANEY DEAVER (aka SingingLass): We don’t tell people to starve, we encourage them to eat and I think there’s gonna be eating disorders that happen, you know, in any situation when somebody has an issue with food, but we try to prevent that from happening by giving people support.
ANDREA CANNING: And Deaver claims those side effects, like hair loss, are common after rapid weight loss.
DELANEY DEAVER: I needed to lose the weight or else I was gonna have major health problem, my heart was at risk and that losing a little hair was kind of a small price to pay.
DR. DAVID KATZ, GMA MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I have never heard any scientific basis to suggest that healthy, sustainable weight loss and weight balance should be associated with hair loss. What is associated with hair loss commonly in medicine is relatively severe disruptions of the body’s hormonal balance.
ANDREA CANNING: As for Christin, who’s now following a diet designed by her doctor, she hopes this serves as a wake-up call for others willing to lose weight at any cost.
CHRISTIN SHERBURNE: It breaks my heart to see these people hurting and nothing is being done to help them. And that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, is to help those people.
ANDREA CANNING: Lawyers in the class action say they’re going after the company for false advertising and fraud, Diaz has denied some of the charges. And, Kate, if you are going to do internet dieting, there are some things that you can do. First of all, find out who’s behind it, is there a doctor behind it, is there research. Also, cutting out one entire food group is usually a bad idea, like dairy for example. And the best advice is if it seems to god to be true, it probably is.
KATE SNOW: Probably is. Andrea Canning, thank you.
END TRANSCRIPTI just got a little
wuv note from what appears to be a
Kimkins adherent who has yet to see the light! Jamaica24 aka Denise L., put down the sugar-free Kool Aid. The
Kimkins Starvation Diet is well documented, and for all you know I do have a membership and can see everything that's going on there. As it happens, I don't. But someone else does :)
But Jamaica24/Denise L., I care. I really do. Please seek medical help immediately to make sure you have not suffered any health problems from following the
Kimkins Diet.
That said, the spirit of honesty (a spirit apparently wholly unknown to
Heidi Diaz aka The Kimmer) compels me to point out one error in the GMA report. Andrea Canning says that
Kimmer claimed to have lost 198 lbs in five months using the
Kimkins Diet. In reality,
Kimmer claimed to have lost
198 lbs in eleven months, which of course was a
lie.
Elle
