Almost everyone I know has hit the dreaded diet plateau, and I'm no exception. When the scale refuses to budge, I sometimes wish I could wash down a magic pill with a Wendy's Frosty and still melt pounds off my midsection. There are mountains of diet pills lining the walls of any GNC, all promising to do just that, and diet pill companies will do just about anything to make you feel at-ease enough to purchase and consume their product. Here's the trick:

The word "natural." These companies hope that by slapping "natural" on the bottle consumers will interpret it to mean safe. You know what else is natural? Bear poop. Also, magma. But you wouldn't catch me consuming either, even if the word natural is on the bottle.

An ongoing investigation by the Food and Drug Administration has led to a growing list of dozens of over-the-counter weight-loss supplements that contain dangerous and illegal pharmaceuticals that have been left off labels, according to a recent article by the New York Times.