From Deseret News archives:
Hunters can snare diet tips at show
About Utah
"Shed Fat! Lose Weight! Hunter's Health Crisis!"
How's that for taking the fun out of the dutch oven cooking finals going on at the other end of the South Towne Expo Center?
Jeff and Susan Clements, a husband-and-wife team from Wasilla, Alaska, a hunting village about an hour north of Anchorage, are hawking the products of a multilevel marketing company called Isagenix, featuring a lineup of superfood shakes and bars and other replacement foods that they claim will not only help you bag that bear, ox, elk, deer, moose, caribou or bighorn, but you'll look real good in the celebration photo afterward.
And as an added bonus, it won't be you that gets killed in the process.
"Obesity contributes to over 30,000 hunter deaths annually!" proclaims a statistic on a sign that also points out that 81 percent of hunters are overweight, 110,000 hunters die annually from heart disease and 70,000 have strokes — although certainly not all while they're stalking their prey.
These stark figures sit next to a giant poster showing before-and-after figures of Jeff and Susan.
According to the photos and their own testimony, Susan has lost 50 pounds ("a 14 to a 4!") and Jeff has lost 27 pounds since they started on the Isagenix system last summer. Between them, they have misplaced a small person. By this time next year we may not be able to see them.
"We still drink coffee," says Susan, hoisting a cup from Starbucks, "and you can have one good meal a day."
Whether it's the Isagenix or just good old-fashioned discipline and fewer calories, the Clements do cut something of a sharp contrast to the average person walking the aisles and manning the booths at the annual International Sportsmen's Exposition, which concludes its four-day run today in Sandy.
For every mean, lean wrangler who weighs about as much as his/her belt buckle, there are plenty more with belt buckles that aren't visible.
And why not? The expo show displays all sorts of reasons why people don't have to work all that hard at their hunting and fishing. The convention center grounds are crammed with displays for four-runners, ATVs, four-wheel-drive trucks, boats that will get you anywhere and everywhere, guide services, time share condos, motor homes and trailers to haul all your gear (one sign says "Save your breath for braggin"').
And the food! At the Dutch Oven Cookoff, just the smell of the barbecue pork, spare ribs, braided sausage and "Oh My Apple Pie" could put on five pounds.
