Update

November 3, 2002

In this update . . . the new secret to a beautiful body . . . can it really be . . .

Weight Loss Bread???!!!!!

Charlie, a trainer who works with my company, sent me an e-mail yesterday. He forwarded a "pitch" for Hunza Bread. If you know me, you know I often have a good time exposing the nonsensical offerings for everything from weight loss magnets to magical weight loss potions and elixirs. Well this one really cracked me up. It's so over the top, so absurd, so typical of what the product marketers do to sell products on the infomercial, I was laughing out loud. As I explained, however, on my radio show today, after the laugh subsided I grew upset. Upset because this piece wasn't intended to be funny, but rather it was intended to get people to part with $20.

Before I get into the actual copy, I should point out that weight loss bread is not a novel idea. In 1961 The FTC sent a cease and desist order to Bakers Franchise Corporation for claiming that their Life Diet Bread was an aid in controlling weight. That was only the first of several claims to follow. In 1963 Safe Way Stores, Inc. was kicking up sales by claiming their Slender-Way bread consumption will cause a loss in weight. The FTC put a stop to that. They also, that same year, halted National Bakers Services in their tracks. They were selling "Hollywood bread" as a weight loss product. This is typical of new weight loss offerings. They're not new at all. They're just re-inventions of old scams gone by the wayside. 8 years after Hollywood bread bit the dust, the FTC returned its attentions to bread claims. ITT Continental Baking Company was scrutinized and punished for claiming their Profile Bread is of significant value for use in weight control programs.

The Hunza Bread scam is not likely to be stopped by the FTC. Why? Well, the FTC is a United States agency. This offer requires that you send a check to Sweden! Wait a minute . . . I made an error . . . according to the e-mail, you can't send a check. You have to send . . . CASH! Here's the headline:

• NEWSFLASH!!! INCREDIBLE DISCOVERY

• Based on 2000 year old recipe .....

• HOUSEWIFE IN SWEDEN ACCIDENTALLY INVENTS A BREAD THAT MIRACULOUSLY STOPS YOUR APPETITE AND HUNGER.

Yup. She accidentally invented this bread. The e-mail goes into a long long long story prefaced by the line . . .

• IF YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE MIRACLE FOR LOSING WEIGHT WITH NO HUNGER, NO LOSS OF NUTRITION .... then read on...!!

I won't get into the whole thing here. You can read it for yourself at the Hunza Miracle website. You'll notice that while the e-mail insisted on cash, wrapped in foil ($20 plus $5 for shipping . . . not for bread, but for a recipe for bread), the website will take your credit card so the money changes hands immediately!

After you read it, come back here. I want to share something interesting. Including a recipe for Hunza Bread! Here's their site:

http://www.hunzamiracle.net/

Note: as of 2004, this site went bye-bye, but the offers continue and new sites are constantly set up

Hunza refers to a people . . . a civilization. Apparently these people live in the Himalayan mountains, they live to be well over 100 years old and the Hunza men father children even after the age of 100. They are healthy, vibrant, hard working people who have hardly been touched by disease.

The Hunza Bread ads of course claim that the Hunza people are so vibrant because of . . . well . . . the Bread! The 2000 year old secret that a Swedish housewife just stumbled upon.

Interestingly, some travel agencies that focus on that part of the world refer to Hunza as Shangri-La. The hunza people have become in a sense legendary. Where legend ends and reality begins I'm not sure, but using a "little known" secret from a "miraculous" civilization can be pretty powerful in moving products.

There is a company selling "colloidal mineral formulas" that markets their products by featuring . . . yes . . . the Hunza civilization. They of course claim that the extraordinary lives of the Hunza people are the result of regular consumption of colloidal mineral clusters that are in their water.

Another company sells apricot oil. Guess what they claim. Yup, you guessed it! The oil in the kernel of the apricot seed is the primary factor leading to the longevity and vitality of the Hunza people. You see, according to their ad, in Hunza, the apricot trees are specially cultivated for sweet tasting kernels. They highly encourage you to find longevity and vitality in Hunza apricot oil! I didn't see any mention of bread in their ad.

Yet another company, selling the "hottest new antioxidant," Microhydrin, claims that research has shown that a special water from glacial melt is the secret to Hunza longevity . . . but they don't say anything about colloidal mineral clusters. They are quite certain that they have recaptured the active disease fighting element in Hunza glacial water, and in a laboratory they made it many times stronger. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . if you buy Microhydrin from them . . . you'll live to be 250!

Oh, and did I mention that you can buy a water ionizer that can turn tap water into Hunza water?

So what is the secret? Is it the bread, the minerals, the water, the apricot kernel, or microhydrin?

Before you select your answer, maybe I should tell you that in 1998 Dr. Gary Young, creator of the Young Living product line, claims to have visisted the Hunza valley to uncover the secrets. You'd think he'd come home with loaves of bread and jugs of water (hmmm . . . if they have prisons there, those convicts must be pretty darn healthy - bread and water all of the time!). Did he? No. He came home with his discovery that the Hunza diet is based on unprocessed foods and minimal meat. They consume whole foods very high in nutrients. You'd think he'd simply write a book on how to eat like a Hunza. Dr. Young went a step further. He combined the foods common in the Hunza diet with the Chinese Wolfberry from Outer Mongolia and created the all-new, Essential Manna! It's a complete food high in those nutrients needed for many body processes including blood pressure regulation, protein synthesis, and glucose metabolism. So the secret is actually . . . buying a new food called Manna?!?!!?!?!?

Listen. I don't have to be a world travelling research scientist to employ some common sense. These people don't all live to be 100 years old. I've found it reported that 1 in 400 people lives to be 100 vs. 1 in 5,000 in the U.S. That makes sense. If they don't have major highways, if they don't have billowing smokestacks polluting the air, if they don't have McDonald's and Burger King on every corner, if they don't thrive on cigarettes and caffeine, if they eat whole foods grown in natural soil, and if they do a moderate to great amount of physical labor . . . they're exercising and eating right . . . living healthy lives! If you want to live like a Hunzakut (the actual name of Hunza inhabitants), move to the Himalayan mountains! If you don't feel like making the move, and you're not presently in the body you want to live in, then start to eat right and exercise and while I can't promise you'll live to be 100, I can promise life just gets better.

I hope you know better than to buy into the nonsense being promoted as "the newest miracle." I'll keep spreading the word of truth, and I hope and believe that sooner or later, we'll live in a country where people are fit and healthy.

The Hunza Bread recipe

The Hunza bread offering is typical of a diet scam. Even reading through the marketing material, you'll realize, eating bread that prevents you from eating for seven hours can not possibly have a positive effect on your metabolism. The ad creates a mystique, and then asks you to send money to solve the mystery. Save your money. Here are three recipes for Hunza Bread (I'm not suggesting you try the Hunza Bread diet, I'm simply trying to save people from wrapping $20 in foil and sending it off to Sweden believing they'll find a miracle in their mailboxes):

2 cups of stone ground whole wheat flour or a mix of whole grain flours
1/2 teaspoon iodized sea salt
1/4 to 1 cup glacier milk (glacier milk is mineral rich water that flows from glaciers. The calcium carbonate content gives it a milky appearance) or . . . water

Blend flour and salts together.Stir in just enough water (glacier milk) to make a very stiff dough. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Cover with a moist paper towel and set aside for 15-30 minutes. Break dough into one inch balls and roll the balls into very thin flat circles. Bake for 10 minutes on a hot lightly oiled griddle over a low heat. Turn often during cooking.

As you can guess, this recipe comes with marketing material for colloidal minerals to create your own "glacial milk." It was given to me by an independent distributor (an issue I'll address in a future update) for Microhydrin.

Here's another Hunza Bread recipe, no glacial milk required:

1 cup millet flour
1 cup grated carrots
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon iodized salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs

Combine flour, carrots, oil, honey, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly. Stir in 3/4 cup of boiling water. Beat the egg yolks and mix the beaten yolks with 2 tablespoons of cold water. Once the water and egg yolks are well mixed, add to the flour mixture. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and bake at 325 for 35-45 minutes.

And yet another:

4 cups of water
3.5 (three & one half) to 4 pounds of natural buckwheat or millet flour
1.5 (one & one half) cups of canola oil
1.5 (one & one half) cups of natural unrefined sugar
16 ounces of honey
16 ounces of molasses
4 ounces of powdered soya milk (half cup)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder

You may also add apricots, raisins, chopped walnuts, almonds, sliced dates to the above ingredients. Mix ingredients. Grease and lightly flour cooking pan(s). Ideally use baking trays with about 1 inch high sides. Pour batter in pan(s) half an inch thick over the base. Bake at about 300 degrees farenheit (150 C.) for 1 hour. After cooking, dry the bread in the oven for two (2) hours at a very low heat - 90 degrees farenheit (50 C). After it is cooled tip out and cut into approx 2 inch x 2 inch squares. Store it wrapped in cloth in a container. You may need to repeat the baking depending on the size of your baking pan, and oven, until all the mixture has been used.

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