In 2004, Trudeau self-published his book Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, in which he made a number of unsubstantiated claims—for example, that sunlight does not cause cancer, sunscreen is one of the major causes of skin cancer, and that AIDS was a hoax devised as an excuse to stimulate medication usage. ] Trudeau further suggested—again without documentation—that various "natural cures" for serious illnesses, including cancer, herpes, arthritis, AIDS, acid reflux disease, various phobias, depression, obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, attention deficit disorder, and muscular dystrophy, had been deliberately hidden from the public by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the major food and drug companies.
In one widely quoted example, he asserted that the University of Calgary had developed a "natural" diabetes treatment, then quashed its data, fearing reprisals from the pharmaceutical industry. (A spokesman for the school told ABC News that "there have been no human studies conducted at the University of Calgary in the past 20 years on herbal remedies for diabetes." The university later sent Trudeau a "cease and desist" letter, ordering him to stop using its name )
Rose Shapiro cited Natural Cures as a prime example in her book, Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All.[22]
Natural Cures sold briskly due to an aggressive infomercial promotion. Quackwatch and other internet watchdog sites cautioned that the infomercial itself was "misleading" In a 2005 public warning from the New York State Consumer Protection Board, CPB Chairman Teresa A. Santiago cautioned that Natural Cures contained no actual cures, only "speculation". Cures were promised, but only by subscribing to Trudeau's newsletter or website at $71.40 per year or $499 for a "lifetime membership". The paid sites contained only additional, similarly unsubstantiated speculation, according to the CPB.
The Chicago Tribune also noted that a purported back-cover endorsement by former FDA commissioner Herbert Ley—who died three years before the book was written—was actually an excerpt from a 35-year-old New York Times interview.
Following Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, Trudeau released a second medical guide two years later. His second book, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease, was self-published as well.
The book is a similar publication to his first, where he purports to explain why drug and food companies hide the truth about how their products can cause disease. In More Natural Cures Revealed, Trudeau writes that workers at the FDA and FTC want to censor him and, figuratively, burn his books. Though the book received negative comments from some reviewers, it received average ratings on both Amazon and GoodReads.com.
In April 2007, Trudeau released The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About. The book describes a weight loss plan originally proposed by British endocrinologist ATW Simeons in the 1950s involving injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The diet was criticized in 1962 by the Journal of the American Medical Association as hazardous to human health and a waste of money.
In 1976, the FTC ordered clinics and promoters of the Simeons Diet and hCG to inform prospective patients that there had been no "substantial evidence" to conclude hCG offered any benefit above that achieved on a restricted calorie diet. Clinical research trials published by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have shown that hCG is ineffective as a weight-loss aid, citing "no statistically significant difference in the means of the two groups" and that hCG "does not appear to enhance the effectiveness of a rigidly imposed regimen for weight reduction."
The FTC filed a contempt-of-court action against Trudeau alleging that the alleged misrepresentations in the book violate a 2004 consent order.
Debt Cures was published in 2007 and has been marketed on television. Chuck Jaffee, a columnist at CBS MarketWatch, stated: "Truth be told, most of the information (in the book) is readily available in personal finance columns you can find online or in books that are readily available in your local library." Trudeau says that if readers disagree with items on their credit reports, they can dispute them as identity theft; this was the "magic cure" of the book's title.
Published in 2009, the product says it gives tools on how to use the Law of Attraction to manifest readers' desires. The packaging also says it contains key links to using the Law of Attraction that are missing in other publications. Among the claims made in the related infomercial is Trudeau's assertion to have virtually flunked out of high school. He also says he was "taken in" by a mysterious group called "The Brotherhood" that taught him the secrets that he is now widely announcing in his book. There is also an invitation to join the now-defunct "Global Information Network," an "exclusive group of highly influential, affluent, and freedom-orientated [sic] people" (see below). The network operated out of the Caribbean island Nevis and employed the Law of Attraction as its principal wealth generator, a concept generally regarded by much of the scientific community as placebo or pseudoscience.
Trudeau has been interviewed by CNN's Paula Zahn,[41] Matt Lauer of NBC's Today Show, and Harry Smith of CBS's The Early Show.[42] Trudeau was also the subject of investigative reports done by Inside Edition,[43] ABC's 20/20[44] and Dateline NBC. The 20/20 segment highlighted a Nightline interview with Jake Tapper in which Trudeau misrepresented the money he was forced to pay to the government, the charges filed against him and the reason the government did not follow through with charges, and claiming ignorance when the claims made in his book were called false by Tapper.[
At one time, Trudeau was a prolific producer of infomercials. He consented to an FTC ban applying to everything except publications that the FTC concluded would infringe upon his First Amendment rights. All of his subsequent infomercials advertised his books, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About and The Weight Loss Cure. Notable co-hosts included Leigh Valentine (former wife of televangelist Robert Tilton) and the late Tammy Faye Messner (the former Tammy Faye Bakker).
In 2010, he directed the infomercial/film Investigating Free Money, that featured Misha Dibono and Tyrone Evans Clark, which aired on Fox through the platform U.S. Farm Report.
Trudeau offers a conspiracy theory, saying that the drug industry and the FDA work with each other to effectively deceive the public by banning all-natural cures in order to protect the profits of the drug industry. Trudeau says that FDA commissioners who leave the FDA to work for large drug companies are paid millions of dollars. In any other industry, according to Trudeau, this would be called "bribery," a "conflict of interest" or "payoffs." Trudeau also says in his infomercials that the food industry includes chemicals (such as MSG and aspartame) to get people "addicted to food" and to "make people obese."
One of the major complaints about Trudeau's infomercials is that he makes only vague references to scientific studies, making them impossible to cross-check for accuracy. The same criticism exists for the anecdotal evidence that he presents in the infomercials He does not identify people who he claims have been cured by his methods. For example, he tells a story in an infomercial about "a friend from England" who came to his house and complained of heartburn. He also references a study done on the antidepressant qualities of St. John's Wort compared to two prescription medications. These studies, the infomercials suggest, are identified in the book being advertised for sale, but none of his books provide any such substantiation. In an interview, he explained that he cannot reveal his source material because of "FTC suppression"; but readers can join his web site, where, for $9.99 a month or $499 for a lifetime, they can gain access to the special members-only section from which they can e-mail him for the information.
A pair of 2005 Associated Press articles by Candice Choi on the infomercials elaborated on the success and problems of the programs.
Choi says that by repeatedly mentioning government sanctions against him, Trudeau "anticipated any backlash with his cuckoo conspiracy theory" and can partially deflect any criticism of him or his infomercials. Trudeau's use of the word "cure" is an issue for regulators. Also, bookstores are polled on their decisions to sell or not sell a successful and controversial self-published book