
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990                   TAG: 9003232559
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MIAMI                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUITS SAY DIET PROGRAM CAUSED GALLBLADDER DAMAGE

The popular Nutri-System diet program has come under fire from 19 south Florida women who say in separate lawsuits that they have suffered gallbladder damage from the rapid weight-loss plan.

The company defends its program as safe and suggests the gallbladder problems are coincidental.

All but two of the women, ages 17 to 60, have had gallbladder operations since 1988, according to the suits filed against the Pennsylvania company and several Florida franchises in Dade Circuit Court on Monday.

Those plaintiffs who did not undergo surgery are suffering from gallstones, and may need to be hospitalized, attorney Robert Fiore said Tuesday.

The suits charge negligence, arguing that Nutri-System Inc., based in Willow Grove, Pa., failed to supervise customers.

"The conduct on the part of the defendants is tantamount to the unauthorized practice of medicine without a license," the suits charge.

Nutri-System has weight-loss centers in all 50 states, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. One center is located in the Roanoke area. It costs $530 to sign up, and the system provides some of the food to start the plan at a cost of $46 to $70.

"In particular, rapid weight loss increases the saturation of bile with cholesterol, directly contributing to the formation of symptomatic gallstones and gallbladder disease," the suits said.

Nutri-System spokesman James Millard said the company's attorneys had reviewed one of the suits, and found it without merit.

"The allegations seem to be coincidental to the state of obesity," Millard said. "We feel our program is an excellent program, and we stand by its quality, its safety and its effectiveness."

He described the Nutri-System program as a comprehensive program that includes a nutritionally balanced, calorie-controlled meal plan, behavior education, nutritional instruction, exercise and weight maintenance.

In one of the suits, Rita Kronstat said she lost 25 1/2 of her 193 pounds in several weeks, but then began suffering abdominal pain.

"She was diagnosed as suffering from symptomatic gallstones and advised to have her gallbladder removed," her suit said. The surgery was performed Dec. 7.

by CNB