Let me understand this. The pharmaceutical companies, which are highly regulated, sometimes do not give us full disclosure on drug side effects (after FDA approval). So of course we are surprised that a company called Metabolife has withheld information on reported bad health outcomes. Criminal investigation sought for diet supplement seller.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, who is pushing the government to ban all ephedra sales, praised the FDA's angry response to Metabolife Thursday.

"The question is, Are they going to follow through and get these dangerous products off the market?" Wolfe said. Metabolife's about-face shows "they are squirming to get out of the dangerous mess they've caused."

Ephedra, a popular herb commonly used for weight loss and body building, has long been controversial. The FDA has reports of 100 deaths among ephedra users, and a report in the New England Journal of Medicine two years ago cited about 1,000 reports of complications linked to the herb since the mid-1990s.

Manufacturers insist that reports of sick patients — instead of a definitive diagnosis from a doctor or a definitive autopsy — don't prove the herb is risky. They contend an industry-commissioned study comparing ephedra to dummy pills shows the herb is safe under the recommended uses with a daily dose of 90 milligrams.

Federal law forbids most regulation of dietary supplements unless the FDA proves danger. Three years ago, the agency attempted to bar certain high doses of the supplement from being sold. Industry protests killed the move, and then a congressional investigative report, while calling ephedra clearly risky to some people, said the statistics FDA used to back its move — partly those voluntary consumer reports — were sloppy.

Folks, this is not rocket science. The weight loss formula is not complicated, the discipline involved is difficult for some. You need to eat less calories than you burn each day. Cardiovascular exercise helps by burning some extra calories. Weight training helps because muscle burns more calories than fat. The equation is simple. There are no magic bullets at the health food store. Do not get your health information from those stores. They are not regulated, the products are not held to any standards.