FTC Admonishes Media Not to Run False Diet Ads

By Caroline E. Mayer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 10, 2004; Page A13

"The agency is seeking a halt to the ads and consumer refunds for such products as the "Himalayan Diet Breakthrough" -- a dietary supplement of what the manufacturer called Nepalese Mineral Pitch, a paste-like material that "oozes out of the cliff face cracks in the summer season." The product, which costs $39.95 for a month's supply, promised consumers could lose as much as 37 pounds in eight weeks if taken before lunch, dinner and bedtime."

For details read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37971-2004Nov9.html

The report is about "Silajeet". One report hints at the prsence of steroids, from the saliva of monkeys which like to lick the black mass, leaving their steroids traces in it. This is one property that attribuites to the natural steroid like activity, rest lies in the presence of some micro and macro minerals that aids in key enzymatic activity of the body.

The monkey story is what I read somewhere (not in a Scientific paper as far as I remember, but the story holds water).
In Baitadi and Assam, locals adultrate cow dung, with small amount of silajhit to earn quick bucks, that was told by a local government employee, when I was in Baitaidi some years back.