Pair back weight-loss product '100 per cent'

Sylvia and Winston Gallot say their health product works. Picture / Chris Skelton

An Auckland couple who came under scathing attack from a district judge for bogus claims about a weight-loss product, say they stand by it "100 per cent".

Sylvia and Winston Gallot, directors of Zenith Corporation, were found to have breached the Fair Trading Act in advertising for their Body Enhancer supplement .

Yesterday, the Gallots said they were not dishonest and had not misled people or taken advantage of insecurities. They would continue to sell their products.

"We are being used as an example to the health industry at large: 'If you aren't very careful what you say and do, look what can happen'," Mrs Gallot said.

In his decision, Judge Lindsay Moore said benefits attributed to Body Enhancer were bogus and that the Gallots "seized on and exploited an opportunity to make very large profits". The couple dispute that.

"My anger is because I know I have done nothing wrong," said Mr Gallot, a former geologist. "I have been personally vilified in the paper and all we have ever endeavoured to do was provide a product that helped people that were overweight.

"I would not be selling this product if I knew it didn't work."

Mrs Gallot, an ex-associate deputy principal of Kelston Girls High School, said the charges related to an earlier formulation, which had been changed. The firm, which started selling Body Enhancer in 1998, had also changed its marketing.

Mrs Gallot said that in 2002, after charges were laid by the Commerce Commission, the couple paid $200,000 to have the product independently tested on 105 people. The trial was carried out by Maori Health provider Raukura Hauora O Tainui and those who took Body Enhancer and exercised (as Zenith recommended) lost weight.

"The business has been very successful because the product has been very good. You cannot have a dodgy product on the market for 6 1/2 years and have it still selling," Mrs Gallot said.

Derek Fitzgerald, of Medsafe, the Ministry of Health's drug regulation agency, said "more than one or two" warning letters had been sent to the couple in the past five years over claims they made for their products.

Medsafe was not aware of any safety concerns with Body Enhancer and was not suggesting people stop taking it.

"The only way people are being hurt is in their pockets," he said.

Mrs Gallot said Body Enhancer had given her "strength" to fight the court case. Zenith employs 12 other people.

Mrs Gallot would not say how much money the couple made but believed the sentencing would be as hardline as the judgment and probably bankrupt them.

* Body Enhancer is sold two-bottle packs for $157, and lasts up to 6 months.

* Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are known to have used the product.

* It contains 61 ingredients, including herbs, minerals, amino acids and vitamins and is said to help fat burning, muscle growth, liver detoxification and prevention of collagen depletion.

* Body Enhancer also claims to build bones and tendon cells, heal cartilage, strengthen joints and heart muscles, break down fat and control appetite.