The notorious Woman's World magazine Kimkins cover story

It took them eight months to do it, but Woman's World magazine has FINALLY acknowledged the cover story they did on the now-notorious Kimkins diet contained some "inaccurate information" from and about the founder of the low-fat, low-calorie, starvation scheme--the lying and manipulative Heidi Diaz.

Ever since a private investigator released photos of a morbidly obese Diaz back in September 2007, literally thousands of concerned readers have flooded Woman's World with letters and e-mails begging them to print a retraction of their June 2007 story featuring the Kimkins diet prominently with two real people--Christin Sherburne and Deni Huttula--and a fake photograph and story of Diaz who referred to herself in the magazine as Kim Drake.


Christin Sherburne and Deni Huttula have repudiated Kimkins

Although Heidi Diaz alleged to have lost 200 pounds, it was one big lie and it took a class action lawsuit deposition for her to admit that after many months of speculation following the private investigator's shocking photo discovery. In the meantime, some of the most ardent former supporters of this diet have been speaking out about how the Kimkins diet program has negatively impacted their health and even got a local television station in Los Angeles (KTLA-TV) to pick up the story in October 2007.

Despite this, Woman's World was eerily silent.

But then the Kimkins diet fraud was given a nationally-televised audience for the first time in November 2007 when it was featured on FOX-TV's "The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet" where Christin and Deni shared their concerns about Diaz and the ultra-low-calorie diet plan she was pushing on the members of Kimkins who joined as a result of the Woman's World story. They warned that this diet simply promoted "anorexia" and should be avoided.

Even still, Woman's World did nothing.

The public spokesperson for the Kimkins diet at the time was a woman named Jeannie Battinger who severed ties with the organization in response to her own concerns about the now-exposed Kimkins founder. Even as Battinger was trying to defend the indefensible during her appearance on "The Morning Show," you could tell she knew that something was awry. Her resignation took place about a week after the show aired.

And yet again, Woman's World took no action.

However, the most significant exposure of the Kimkins calamity to date took place last month when ABC News was looking for people harmed by Kimkins and ran this story that was featured on "Good Morning America." The tidal wave of concern about Kimkins apparently grew to the point after that segment aired that Woman's World came to their senses and decided to post a statement.

Here's what the statement reads:

A statement from Woman's World Magazine. Please accept our apology. We at Woman’s World pride ourselves on finding inspiring diet successes to share with our readers every week. That's why we were so distressed to learn that Kim Drake, the founder of Kimkins.com, gave us inaccurate information about herself and her weight loss. Though the article appeared several months ago, in our June 12, 2007 issue, and nutritionists assure us the diet information we provided was accurate, we deeply regret having shared with you a story we can't stand behind. Your trust means everything to us, and we want to bring you the very best magazine we can, each and every week.

All I can say is IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Considering all the preponderance of the evidence that had previously come out in the eight months since the story was published, it should not have taken this long for action to be taken. They are now asking for people to e-mail them at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if they have any concerns or questions about this decision.

According to our friends at Kimkins Scam, the retraction will appear in the March 4th issue and will be on newsstands the week of February 25th. The skepticism of the Kimkins Scam author about this is difficult to argue with or ignore.

"Now, you know this retraction will be buried way back in the back, in itty bitty letters. Just CYA...that's all it is...CYA."

She's right! But at least they took SOME kind of action to right this wrong that set in motion a flood of new Kimkins members to the web site to be sucked in by a professional scam artist who is still bilking members out of $80 even today (it used to be $60 before that $40 before that $15 before that $10...is it gonna cost a hundred bucks next, Heidi?!). If you're even thinking about joining this web site, don't waste your money.

There are plenty of FREE low-carb support groups like my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Discussion" forum, Low-Carb Friends, Active Low-Carber forum, The Low-Carb Cafe forum, Eating Low with Amy, Atkins All The Way, and MANY MANY MORE (my apologies for leaving some out...but there are a BUNCH of 'em)! The point is you don't NEED to pay money to get the support you need in your low-carb lifestyle. You can glean all the helpful support and information you need to get started right livin' la vida low-carb by relying on the collective wisdom of those of us who have been eating this way a while. We're ready to help you on this amazing journey to lose weight and get healthy, so hop on board one or more of these sites today to get started!

I think we should all e-mail Woman's World at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to thank them for stepping up and doing the right thing. Yes, it took them a long time to do it, but at least they did it and printing a retraction takes a lot of guts for a magazine to do. They don't like getting a story wrong, so let's encourage them and share how much we appreciate the courage they have taken in doing this. Perhaps you can send them your story of success by livin' la vida low-carb if they want to talk about REAL success the healthy low-carb way. Ladies only please! :D

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