Dietitian Describes Likely Menu For Trudeau Customers
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Bran flakes, toast, a banana, milk, coffee.
That's the normal breakfast registered dietitian Melissa Dobbins described Thursday for the average person, testifying at the federal trial of TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau in downtown Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
But Trudeau's book, "The Weight-Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About," includes a slightly more punishing 500-calorie-per-day diet. And for that, Dobbins suggested a much leaner meal to start the day.
Coffee or tea -- all you can drink.
For lunch and dinner, she said, Trudeau's devotees may have a "handful" of vegetables and organic grass-fed meat weighing 100 grams raw -- roughly the size of a deck of cards she placed beside the items in a photograph.
Federal prosecutors have alleged Trudeau's TV ads broke the law when he used them to falsely claim his book was a "simple cure" for obesity that required no exercise or eating restrictions and "causes no hunger."
Dobbins offered no opinion about the effectiveness or safety of Trudeau's weight-loss plan.
Trudeau, 50, of Oak Brook, insists that each of the claims he made in a set of 2006 and 2007 infomercials is repeated in his book, and that he therefore didn't violate a 2004 court order that banned him from misrepresenting the book on television.
His attorneys spent much of the day pointing out to witnesses, and to the jury, the various caveats and exceptions in Trudeau's book, including phrases like "strongly suggested" and "do the best you can" for more difficult sections.
Other passages strayed far from the 500-calorie-per-day advice, simply pointing dieters toward healthier food.
"The simplest rule to follow is to eat anything you want as much as you want as often as you want," it said. "The only caveat is only eat 100 percent organic food."
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
