Sunday May 5, 2002, 2:03 PM EST

By AMY CARMICHAEL

TORONTO (CP) - The array of options available these days to the desperate modern dieter are dizzying: plenty of protein with no carbs, apple cider vinegar capsules and ephedra extract, or slimming capsules dissolved in a cup of tea.

But to mark a 10-year-old occasion on Monday called International Don't Diet Day, dieticians are reminding Canadians that few weight-loss programs - many of them downright dangerous - can replace healthy eating and regular exercise, especially over the long-term.

"It's a money-making business," said Karin Davis, a program co-ordinator for the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. "The diet industry is smart, they know people are looking for another diet because they don't work."

The number of Canadian-based diet scams is growing, says a private investigator and former Health Canada inspector. Ron Reinhold is investigating some 13 weight-loss promotions, most of which operate out of Montreal and eastern Ontario, that he believes are related.

He said he's frustrated the government isn't cracking down on the scams.

"I've seen people try eight, nine different kinds of lose-weight-quick schemes and then get really down when they don't work," Reinhold said during an interview from his office in Black Diamond, Alta. "These scams really chip away at the dignity of women."

Jean Bosko, 62, has been struggling to shed pounds for years. She got an ad for such a weight-loss scheme in the mail. She participates in one well-known weight-loss program and has tried various herbal slimming pills to curb her appetite. None of it has worked. So when she got an offer in the mail for pills that promised to take off weight without requiring a change in diet, she gave in to the hope that it just might work.

"Both my son and I have a bit of a weight problem. I talked to him and we just decided to try it," Bosko said in a telephone interview from her home in Blind Bay, B.C.

After the tablets arrived, she carefully stirred them into her tea - and did indeed notice a change. "Both my son and I gained weight."

Bosko stopped payment on the cheque, logged on to the Internet to do some research and realized she'd probably been had.

Reinhold said those who sell such bogus products are very covert, using post-office boxes as business addresses and hiring a call centre to work as an answering service and take orders.

He said a direct-mail company is hired to clean out the post office box and do the banking, making it difficult to confront the culprits.

"There is a lack of a real dedicated enforcement group with the investigative skills to properly go after these scams and address health fraud in Canada," said Reinhold, whose countless letters of complaint to Ottawa have so far elicited no reply.

Even some of the most credible diets are just as ineffective, nutritionists say.

Dr. Rhonda Bell, an associate nutritional science professor at the University of Alberta, said the key to healthy weight loss is simple and just plain common sense. Exercise more and follow a nutrition program designed by a doctor, such as the Canada Food Guide, she said.

The Dieticians of Canada organization insists that gradual weight loss - no more than 1 to 2 pounds per week - is best, and more likely to be lasting. A safe exercise plan that can be permanently added to a person's lifestyle is key, they say.

Restricting food intake works against most dieters, said Bell. "When you have a very low intake your body senses a state of starvation. Metabolic rates slow and your body does what it can to preserve your stores. And for a dieter, a slower metabolism is not where you want to go."

She said even one of the most popular fad diets - low carb, high protein - actually makes it harder to lose weight.

"When you limit the amount of carbohydrates you take in, you force the body to try to convert glucose from other sources into amino acids," Bell said. "It's hard for the body to do that and often ends up breaking down lean muscle tissue to meet those needs."

( )

A dieter doesn't want to lose muscle mass, because that's the tissue in the body most able to burn calories, she added.

Many people don't realize or just won't accept that they are largely genetically bound to their shape and size, said Davis, adding that genes are 80 per cent responsible for setting a person's weight. By contrast, genetics are only thought to be 46 per cent responsible for a person developing breast cancer, she noted.

"Initially, it seems like we do have the power to change our shape because you will see initial success with dieting, but inevitably, people binge and end up gaining back more than they lost."

International Don't Diet Day was founded in 1992 by Mary Evens Young of the English anti-diet lobby group DietBreakers. She established the day to express frustration with societal standards of appearance that pressure people to be thin - often with devastating results.

Around the world, health-care workers use the occasion to educate people about eating and dieting disorders.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020505/6/m7w1.html