And the 'Worst Product' of the year diet award goes to...Kimkins!

December 31, 1:30 PMLow-Carb Lifestyle ExaminerJimmy Moore

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Heidi Diaz wins award for the “worst” diet product

I’m beginning work on a follow-up book to my 2005 debut book release Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb: My Journey From Flabby Fat To Sensationally Skinny In One Year. While the first book was all about my 180-pound weight loss success and designed to inspire and motivate others who want to shed the pounds, restore their health, and get their life back again like I did, this next book will outline the many lessons I’ve learned over the course of the past five years of low-carb living and blogging. One of the chapters of that book will be on the Kimkins diet scam.

After promoting this diet on my blog for months because it seemed to be helping people find their path to genuine weight loss, I realized thanks to the gentle nudge of some friends who delved deeply into the Kimkins plan that this was nothing more than a “starvation diet” that was encouraging lower and lower calories while cutting out the fat and the carbohydrates and promoting its members take laxatives (what was known as “the plan behind the plan”). EEEEK! This was so shocking to me that I wrote an open apology to my readers for exposing them to this dangerous diet scheme.

The architect of the Kimkins diet is none other than Heidi Kimberly Diaz (aka “Kimmer”) who claimed she lost nearly 200 pounds and maintained that weight loss for several years when I interviewed her in a podcast show I conducted with her in July 2007. However, just a couple of months later, private investigator photos of Ms. Diaz unveiled quite a different fact–she’s STILL a morbidly obese woman struggling to find a way to lose the weight, too.

Then we start hearing from former Kimkins dieters who claim their health has been damaged from being on the diet, including the famous “cover girl” for Kimkins who appeared on the front of Woman’s World magazine touting the diet in June 2007 Christine Sherburne. Soon thereafter, the media starting picking up on this story, including an investigative report named Chip Yost at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, a national segment on FOX-TV’s “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet”, and even on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.” The word started to spread about this scam!

I interviewed several former prominent Kimkins members about their experience being on the diet, including Jeannie Battinger, Amy Bryant, and Christin Sherburne for their message to anyone foolish enough to still be considering going on the Kimkins diet. Even Woman’s World magazine couldn’t remain silent about the scam stating in February 2008 they can no longer stand behind their story about Diaz’ disastrous diet!

Going back through that July 2007 interview, I pulled all the lies she told me and highlighted them in one podcast. She can’t get away with inflicting harm on innocent new victims which is why I submitted an affidavit in the lawsuit against Heidi Diaz certifying the interview was legitimate. She is gonna be so busted since she claims she doesn’t recall doing an interview with me. Riiiiiiiiiiggggghhhht!

But as we begin 2009, Heidi Diaz is unfortunately still alive and doing well in the diet business…but that could be changing very soon for two reasons.

First, the gig is in on the Kimkins diet and the Healthy Weight Network named it the Worst Diet Product of 2008 in their 20th Annual Slim Chance Awards.

Here’s what they wrote about the dubious “winner”:

It must have seemed an easy way to get rich quick. Founder Heidi “Kimmer” Diaz set up a website and charged members a fee to access the Kimkins diet, boasting they could lose up to 5 percent of their body weight in 10 days. “Better than gastric bypass,” there was “no faster diet,” and in fact she herself had lost 198# in 11 months. Stunning “after” photos were displayed. In June 2007 Women’s World ran it as a cover story, and that month alone PayPal records show the Kimkins site took in over $1.2 million. Then users began complaining of chest pains, hair loss, heart palpitations, irritability and menstrual irregularities. This was not surprising since Kimkins is essentially a starvation diet, down to 500 calories per day and deficient in many nutrients (shockingly, laxatives are advised to replace the missing fiber). In a lawsuit, 11 former members are uncovering a vast record of Diez’s alleged fraud. They found that the stunning “after” photos, including one of Kimmer herself, had been lifted from a Russian mail order bride site. According to a deposition reported by Los Angeles TV station KTLA, Diaz admitted using fake pictures, fake stories and fake IDs, and a judge has allowed the litigants to freeze some of her assets.

The other reason Heidi Diaz and her Kimpire is is big trouble is the class action lawsuit waged against her by former Kimkins members who were harmed by the diet is set for a court hearing on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. The plaintiff’s motion for class certification action by Jeanessa Fenderson led by chief counsel John Tiedt is on the court docket in Riverside Superior Court in California. To make matters worse for “The Kimmer,” Diaz’ attorney Bert Kottle was suddenly dropped three days before Christmas leaving her to defend herself against Tiedt and company in two weeks. She may be a lot of things, but legal counsel isn’t one of them for Heidi Diaz!

You can access the progress of the class action lawsuit against Heidi Diaz and Kimkins by clicking here and entering the case number RIC483005. She has even gone so far as to file a cross-complaint lawsuit against the members of the class action suit against her as well as others, including myself, allegedly for inflicting economic damage, slander and libel, invasion of privacy, civil conspiracy, and inflicting intentional emotional distress–all worthy of “damages” totaling in excess of $1 million. Hilarious, isn’t it?

Although this “SLAPP” lawsuit was filed with the court on September 24, 2008, I’ve yet to be served with any papers in this bogus counter lawsuit. I don’t even know why she’s suing me and people like Tom Roddy from Netrition since we are not a part of the class action lawsuit against her. The arrogance of this woman to think she can get away with inflicting harm on others without any consequences is about to come to a humbling end for her in the very near future. Thanks for the memories, Heidi! NOT!

Read more about the ongoing Kimkins saga at Laura Dolson’s About.com Low-Carb Diets site or see Jamie Van Eaton’s fabulous year in review post detailing all that happened in 2008. The end is drawing near and it’s not too late to keep yourself from becoming ensnared by this evildoer who wouldn’t know how to lose weight and get healthy if it hit her upside the head like a ton of bricks! The only place Heidi Diaz deserves to be in behind bars. The sooner, the better.