Fat Loss Lie #3

You can believe everything you read in the magazines.

Most magazine publishers own supplement companies and use their magazines as the primary means for promoting their products. Certain well-known magazines have been doing this for decades. One day, it dawned on the rest of them that more money could be made selling supplements than selling advertising or subscriptions. Before long, every publisher jumped on the bandwagon and started supplement companies.

You see, magazines have mega-credibility. After all, they can’t print a lie right there on paper, can they? If it’s in print, it must be true, right? They’d get in some kind of trouble with an “alphabet agency” otherwise, wouldn’t they? Maybe. Maybe not.

Editorials are more believable than advertising (that’s why they try to make ads look so much like articles these days). Most people will believe almost anything if it’s printed in a "reputable" medium such as a nationally circulated magazine. That's why magazines are the perfect vehicles for promoting supplements.

Did you ever notice how many magazine articles are about the latest, greatest "breakthroughs" in supplements? These "articles" aren't really articles at all; they’re nothing more than advertisements in disguise! (With an 800 number for easy ordering at the end… how convenient!)

Even if a magazine doesn't have a vested interest in a supplement line, you still can't count on them to reveal the whole truth to you because they don't want to offend the deep-pocketed companies that are spending big money to advertise.

A full-page ad in a high circulation national magazine can cost tens of thousands of dollars. With this kind of money at stake, do you think any magazine will print an article saying “supplements don't work” and on the next page, run an ad for the same supplements they are criticizing? Not likely is it?

It’s in the magazine’s best interest to promote supplements like crazy, regardless of whether they work or not, because the more supplements that are sold, the more the supplement companies will advertise. The more they advertise, the more supplements they sell, and on and on the cycle goes.

This is the same reason you often get better investing advice from the smaller, lesser-known financial newsletters than you do from the major financial magazines and newspapers; because the major publishers don't want to write editorials that will upset the advertisers.

Don't believe everything you read. Question everything. Use your head. Use common sense and your own good judgment. Beware of hidden motives. Just because it's right there in black and white doesn't mean it's the truth. If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is.