Northfield's Just Food Co-op Carries Controversial HCG Diet Aid

Editor's note: Jan. 6, 2012—Just Food Co-op has informed Northfield Patch that they no longer carry this product.

Summer is nearly over and you haven't shed those pounds you pledged to lose?

Not to worry, you might think. You'll just take in fewer calories and intensify your activity—isn’t that what melts fat?

Actually, it isn’t quite that simple.

Today’s mass manufactured food supply—highly refined and full of  addictive chemicals, fats and sugars—has trained at least a generation of Americans to Super Size, addicting us to the very foods that make us fat.

Harmful additives like high fructose corn syrup and neurotoxins like MSG and aspartame distort signals from the hypothalamus gland, causing the body to store fat around the hips, waist, and buttocks—where we least want it, and where it’s the last to be burned for fuel. 

Doctors who study obesity have discovered that this retention of problem fat can be reversed with a hormone that resets the hypothalamus gland, enabling a return to healthy eating.

Earlier this year, began carrying that hormone—which used to be available only by injection—in homeopathic sublingual drops.

The decision to carry HCG (human chorionic gonadotropine) was a controversial move, as not all experts agree on its efficacy, and the Internet is fairly littered with ineffectual—even dangerous—copycat versions.

The Co-op’s wellness manager, Meg Jensen Witt, carefully researched the product to be sure the science behind it was sound and the product manufactured safely.           

“The physiology was sound,” said the graduate of biology program. "The HCG, along with a healthy but minimal intake of clean, organic food, helps reprogram the hypothalamus gland to burn fat in the problem areas first, leaving the healthy, structural fat, thus maintaining muscle mass, and preventing hunger.”

Jensen Witt took one more step: She tried it herself—with life-changing results. She lost 15 pounds on the three-week, intensive phase of the diet. 

“OK, that’s great, because I haven’t been able to lose that kind of weight on any other diet," she said. "What’s more important is that I feel different. I feel invigorated. I hold myself differently, I walk differently—and people are noticing."

But Jennifer K. Nelson, R.D., L.D., a Mayo Clinic nutritionist, believes it's the calorie restriction that causes the weight loss, not the hormone, a sentiment echoed by others. But as is the case in many areas of science and weight loss, there are varying opinions.

"Although researchers have studied the HCG diet for years, no high-quality studies have shown that the hormone itself helps weight loss," she wrote on the Mayo Clinic's website. "Following any very low calorie diet is likely to result in weight loss, regardless of taking HCG."

Phasing out

The eating plan in the first phase is simple, but not easy: One is restricted to 500 calories a day, including two servings each of organic fruits and low-starch vegetables, and free-range meats and fish.  Carbohydrates are severely restricted, and no sugar is allowed, nor are chemically contaminated condiments like ketchup; only natural herbs and spices are allowed.

In the second or stabilization phase, dairy and fats are gradually reintroduced as the body readjusts to natural, unprocessed foods. The final phase is a gradual reintroduction of natural sweets and starches.

The change in Jensen Witt’s appearance and outlook were so dramatic that soon fellow Just Food staffers Jeanine Taylor and Wendy Opine decided to give it a try.

“At first I asked Meg, ‘what are we doing, selling a product that costs $79 per ounce? We can’t sell that!’” recalled Opine, a wellness assistant.    

“We chose the brand for the purity of its product,” said Jensen Witt.  “You can get cheaper brands, but some companies are using bovine—not human—hormone. We want our customers to have a safe, effective product.”

But sell it they did, by attraction rather than promotion.

Opine said she’d put on winter weight—and was ready for it to be gone.

“My clothes no longer fit, and the promise of losing a pound per day in the first phase of the diet sounded like a quick, one-two punch," she said.

She went through the challenging first phase: “I had no hunger, no sense of deprivation—and I lost 15 pounds,” she said. “At first I only thought it was satisfying to see that weight disappear, I then realized: this is how we’re supposed to eat.”

Even so, Opine said, she makes no claims to her customers.    

“Weight loss is a deeply personal issue—why people eat as they do is tied to a lot of psychological issues. I let people come to me, if they’re interested. It’s a personal decision.”

Food for thought

Taylor first sought the advice of her mother, a nurse who has researched nutrition and health for 45 years, as homeopathic remedies such as HCG are banned by the Food and Drug Administration from making specific health claims.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                What she learned was that it was possible to restructure both her body and her approach to eating: Taylor also lost 15 pounds—and has kept it off—even after reintegrating fatty foods she used to binge on.  

“I’m a cheese hound,” she admitted, “but now I can be satisfied with less. ... What was important for me is that it’s more of a life change—it forces you to think about how you relate to food itself. You listen to your body, which then regulates itself."

For Jensen Witt, who had realized that using food to cope was sapping her self-esteem, “It was a question of self-worth—just how much do I matter? Do I want to use food as a reward, or as a cover up for  feelings, or do I want to stand up for myself and deal with feelings directly?”

The wellness manager said she has settled more comfortably into her life; taking time to prepare meals with fresh ingredients and spices, learning to eat slowly and mindfully have become meaningful rituals of quality time with her husband. She has become more active, and her skin clearer—moving her to wear less makeup.

“And people don’t believe me when I say, even surrounded by food all day, that the cravings for sugar and fat are gone, but it’s true. Those muffins are still there, but I don’t want them anymore.”