Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Herbalife in Wood Green Library
I had a day off on Friday to travel up to the Peak District in the afternoon. In the morning I had a sports massage and then meandered down through Wood Green. Nipped into the library to use the loo and pick up some food waste bags, and I saw a stand there - "1 minute fat test".
I have body analyser scales at home but, unsure of how accurate they are I decided to give it a go. I thought that being in the library it must be some Council-sponsored public health initiative.
I held onto the handles of the fat analyser and it returned a score of 30%. This is at the upper limit of what it healthy. Now, I have a BMI of 20 so a fat score of 30% is pretty high. My body analyser scales return a score of 22% fat, 39% muscle. Before getting the scales I'd occasionally use one of the machines at Boots, for a similar result.
Anyway, it wasn't until the two staff started talking to me about protein and supplements and trying to get my details that I realised they were not from the council. I managed to escape just taking one of their leaflets, which said they were from Herbalife.
Now, is this some kind of fraud? Convincing people they have too much fat in order to sell supplements? And should we have a commercial organisation trying to sign up clients in a public library?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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And a big welcome to our new overlords from the US of A. Goodbye big bad Europe, hello Herbalife!
This is the council making us 'healthier' on the cheap. Bless.
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Along with the current London Plan which allows for huge housing developments to be built around tube stations whilst councils impotently put up advertisements exhorting people to walk just 10 minutes a day, it seems we are also battling sugary, salty junk food.
This reminds me of a Microsoft joke: Many Microsoft employees cycling to work are getting injured because of the poor state of the road outside their offices. To remedy the situation Microsoft builds a hospital on the other side of the road.
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Permalink Reply by maggie on
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"I held onto the handles of the fat analyser and it returned a score of 30%."
This sounds like an instrument for measuring electrical impedance, co-incidentally similar to the e.meter used to "diagnose mental health" by Scientologists,
I wonder how accurate this could be when the Mayo Clinic says that "it's difficult to get an accurate body fat measurement from most commercially available body fat analyzers." (though possibly of limited use to follow longterm trends in an individual.) Results from portable body fat analyzers can vary depending on many factors including the quality of the device, how hydrated you are, when you last ate, when you last excercised etc. etc.
Like you I feel this verges on fraud in order to sell uneeded supplements to anxious people. There have also been health warnings with regard to lead in Herbalife products and continuing reports in medical journals of associated hepatotoxicity (liver disease) which Herbalife dispute. As one report stated "herbal does not mean innocuous".
Herbalife is also accused of exploting its sales staff with accusations of it being a "sophisticated pyrimid scheme."
Allowing Herbalife to peddle their goods in a public library, lending it a legitimacy that it does not deserve, is shoddy.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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Yes, actually with my scales, I have to wet my feet for them to work properly (according to the instructions). Hmm I'll try it with dry feet next time and see if there's a difference!
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This from the lovely people at ftalphaville in 2014! 2013. 2016.
They're essentially a pyramid scheme akin to Amway. Sigh.
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside) on
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I stepped onto the same machine, the screen display read 'only one person at a time please'.
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Permalink Reply by tigha on
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humour asside, this is actually outrageous, and as you say it will conn the anxious ones, the ones who worry and are vulnerable to being exploited when they are the ones who dont have a problem. Anyway there is nothing evidence based to say that herbal life nutrition helps and would def not be recommended. This is nothing better than when scientologists stop you, get you to fill in a questionaire, then tell you that you are depressed but they can save you
I might complain to them if I could be bothered
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http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/15/bill-ackmans-crusade-against-herbali...
Having also read how unethical the company is, this makes it even worse
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I don't think this should be allowed (would be interesting to know how much they were charged for their stall) but the library has long hosted a 'wellbeing' event which promotes commercial products, some of which at least aren't evidence based. That didn't used to happen in public libraries.
Out of interest did you mean to get free food waste bags from the library? I've always bought mine from a stall inside the market and never heard of free ones.
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I live in an estate with communal food waste bins. I have to show proof of address to get the bags!
Free bags doesn't stop people filling the bins with plastic though...
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Update - I discovered a more sophisticated body scanner in my gym yesterday that actually told me how much visceral fat I have, which is almost zero. And it put my body fat at 20% when my home scales say 22% and Herbalife 30%.
This makes me even more convinced the Herbalife machine is a big scam.
I contacted the library about by filling in a contact form a week or so ago, but I haven't heard anything back.
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