Ayds Weight-Loss Candy

Status: Real
image On Google video there are a couple of commercials from the early 80s touting a weight-loss product called Ayds. (An Ayds radio commercial can be heard here.) The name of the product is so unfortunate, that it makes the ads sound like Saturday Night Live skits, with lines such as: "Ayds helps you control your appetite so you lose weight... Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds?... Ayds helps you lose weight safely and effectively!"

However, the ads are totally real, as was the product. Many of you might even remember it (though I don't). Ayds was an appetite-suppressant candy that came in chocolate, butterscotch and caramel flavors. During the 70s it was one of the top-selling weight-loss products. But then along came AIDS. In 1983 Time Magazine reported retailers as saying that "the disease is not hurting the product... Ayds sales have never been better." However, by 1988 the Associated Press was reporting that Ayds sales were down 50 percent, because of the similarity between its name and AIDS. This prompted the maker of the candy to change its name to Diet Ayds. The AP reported "Dep chairman Robert Berglass told the AP the company wanted to soften the name without completely changing it and losing identification. Sales were moving back up, he said, but he was reluctant to predict a full recovery." Evidently the candy didn't make a recovery, but I can't find any record of exactly when it ceased being sold.

Food

Posted on Tue Feb 21, 2006



Comments

If Benzocaine really was the active ingredient, I suppose it was meant to work by numbing your taste buds (on your tongue), not your stomach. I guess that would make food less appealing.
Posted by Big Gary, out to lunch  on  Sat Feb 25, 2006  at  10:47 AM
Not only do I remember Ayds, I used them for quite awhile thoughout my teenage years. What you supposed to do is eat one and drink a large glass of water. Along with numbing your tongue, the water made you feel full. Heck, you can just drink water before a meal and lose weight! Anyways, The Carlton company had a massive lawsuit filed against them by the FTC.

By the way, I found a box of 1950s Ayds on Ebay for 14.99. Sheesh!

http://goodee2shoes.blogspot.com/
Posted by Lori Gallego  on  Tue Feb 28, 2006  at  09:05 PM
i remember watching an Ayds commercial on webjunk 20. Its really sad to see this product with a name like this. so sad...
Posted by Eva  on  Sat Mar 18, 2006  at  06:27 PM
Used Ayds in the late 60's. Worked great, wish they were still around.
Posted by Ismael Estrada  on  Sat Mar 25, 2006  at  03:39 AM
Oh, My Gosh , you foolish people, I used Ayds,, has nothing to do with the other aids. It really works great . It was the only time I stayed thin. I wish I could buy it now. I bet many baby boomers do.
Posted by Catharina Meylin  on  Sat Mar 25, 2006  at  03:54 PM
I am with the last person--I wished I could find the diet candy Ayds it was awesome and it DID work!!
Posted by Tanya  on  Sat Jun 03, 2006  at  11:31 AM
Elizabeth in MA said: I remember Ayds; I worked in a drugstore in the early 80s, and we sold them. I also remember a rumor in the 70s that they contained tapeworms, and that was what caused you to lose weight.
Posted by Elizabeth in MA on Wed Feb 22, 2006 at 11:41 AM
=============================================

I remember them as well, and I remember the rumor about their containing tapeworm eggs!

I also grew up in MA, so perhaps it was a Massachusetts urban legend.

I'd forgotten all about "Ayds."

Hmph.
Posted by SoxSweepAgain  on  Mon Jun 26, 2006  at  11:24 AM
I remember Ayds extremely well. I used to take them in the 70's. Boy how great it would be if they were still available. To bad the manufacturer doesn't read all the comments above and maybe they might just start selling them again. I would be the first one to buy as many as I can. They worked then and I am sure they would work now.
Posted by KATHY RIGGIO  on  Wed Jul 26, 2006  at  09:00 AM
I remember the Ayds candy it work for me when I was a teenager in the 60's. I had a problem of always being called fat. So I taken my babysitting money and brought a box of the Ayds candy. This product work wonderfully for me because, I like sweets and my mother would want me to clean my plate for dinner. I would eat the candy and do as she said and still I was losing the weight. I did not know the company was not in business anymore. I really wish they were still there for me and many other that it help. I recent need to lose weight, this medication and nerves, cause me to want to eat more and the problems, stress. I really don't eat right and just need a little help. When taken the Adys candy, I would eat more salads and fruits. Please can someone tell the company or get a labatories to re-name or remake to help people who once had a success with this product. I hope you can help if not I'll do the best I can.
Posted by Janet Brooks  on  Fri Sep 01, 2006  at  08:23 AM
I think Ayds is really helpful in weight loss. If you are looking for some more <weight loss help, you can get from this Brad's famous weight loss site.
Posted by Fast weight loss  on  Tue Sep 26, 2006  at  10:22 PM
My Granmother and Aunts were never without their AYDS. Let me tell you, they may as well have been laced with coke, these ladies were productive! ADYS, coffee and cigarettes the breakfast of champions if you were a woman in the early 70's. My grandmother kept them in her room next to her bed (along with the Benson&Hedges; 100's). I would sneak into the box, there seemed like there were hundreds in that box. Rows and rows of yummy little plastic wrapped candies that looked just like candy caramels. Being only 6 years old I figured it was candy that they were hiding from me so why not sneak a few - afterall that box was virtually bottomless! Then one day I ate a candy in my other aunts room. She was the free thinker, not held down to the pressures of being the perfect woman. She went to Woodstock, she liked rock music! She was pretty and fun! It was wrapped in a plastsic wrapper just like AYDS. It was also sticky and a little chewy Like AYDS. But then it tasted crumbly and not very yummy so I took the other half, patted it back together, wrapped it back up and put it back in her pretty little jewelry box. The last thing I recall was trying to dance with our terrier on the coffee table and my grandmother yelling, "wait til your mother get's home!". Yeah, ok so that was my first hash experience.
Bring back AYDS!
Posted by Kimberlie  on  Wed Jan 03, 2007  at  02:15 PM
The ingredient in Ayds that suppressed your appetite was the same thing that's in nasal spray.

I remember the product Ayds, but it seemed that it was already fading before the AIDS epidemic became widely known. If that percepetion is incorrect, it seems silly that they didn't simply change the name to something completely different.
Posted by Staley  on  Mon Jan 08, 2007  at  07:45 PM
I remember Ayds as well. As a kid I would sneak a few from time to time -- although I believe the active ingredient was phenylproponalamine, not benzocaine as someone else said. And since the stop meth act of 2005, you can't get that any more in a diet pill, so anyone wanting that again (or the original dexatrim or anything like it) -- heh, sorry, you're out of luck!

I'd forgotten about these things -- too funny to bring it up in today's context!!!
Posted by Lou  on  Fri Jan 26, 2007  at  11:38 AM
wow! that's the "best marketing compagin ever"
Posted by peter  on  Wed Mar 14, 2007  at  08:40 AM
I remember in the seventies when it was spelled AIDS. It was the only diet product around. I wanted to lose weight as around 14 and I would always see it in the corner Pharmacy in my Montreal neighbourhood (those little pharmacies do not exist anymore). I saved my money and ran to buy it. I was a bit embarassed in case someone saw me buying it. 😊

I found that they held a secret to losing weight. I don't think I lost any, but still I liked eating them and thinking I would lose weight.
When the aids epidemic came into being in the mid eightees, sadly I did put the two together.

I wonder where they are now? Under some new name selling diet pills instead?
Posted by ZORANA  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  11:10 PM
Ironoic, isn't it...
Posted by will  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  02:55 PM
Worms in Ayds was a popular urban legend. Our nun in 7th grade told the class she had a friend that put an ayd (?) on the window sill and came back and worms were all over it. This same nun constantly sent our inane essays to the National Inquirer. For entertainment value alone, Catholic School was worth it.
Posted by Neil in PA  on  Wed May 09, 2007  at  08:45 PM
i remember Ayds... i've been looking for them for years. :( it's too bad they're no longer made. it's no better than the other fake diet aids out there... but some people need mental psych outs, if it works, it works. and it worked for a lot of people.

like Ima, my grandmother also had those little packages. i guess that's why i attach such good thoughts and nostalgia to them. they remind me of my grandmother.

i miss Ayds. only newbies associate AIDS with Ayds.... but then, there are older timers who remember Burma Shave and Lucky Strikes with the warm glow of nostalgia, too. i'm a newbie, too. so it's all good. it'd be better if someone brought Ayds back, though.
Posted by anouka  on  Sun Jun 03, 2007  at  09:20 PM
I have no idea what those marketing advisers were thinking when they came up with that name. Were they on something? I mean there's a whole bunch of people who can't spell words right, not to mention the fact the the only mentioning of AIDS makes most of people shiver and become reluctant. What they did was pure suicide.
Posted by canadian pharmacy  on  Sun Jun 17, 2007  at  03:16 PM
Um, Ayds came out years before AIDS hit the news. It was an unfortunate coincindence, but nothing more.

Of course you'd have known this if you had bothered reading the article.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Mon Jun 18, 2007  at  10:23 AM
I used to work for Kraft in Kendallville IN during the mid 80's. We used to make AYDs candy on our caramel line. It was pretty interesting stuff and contained an amphetamine if I recall. After watching miles and miles of caramel being churned out, I got pretty sick of eating anything that even remotely reminded me of the stuff.
Posted by Karl  on  Thu Jul 26, 2007  at  04:22 PM
if my memory serves, AYDS contained: Phenalpropanalimine HCI, Diphenhydramine HCI, and Ephedrine Sulfate. But, I could be wrong, cuz I drank a lot of an experimental pre-sweetened drink called Brisk that contained cyclamates, primarily because my Dad worked for Gen. Foods, and brought it home in buckets. Did I mention that he invented the Good Seasons salad cruet and strawberry-banana jello? True
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Jul 26, 2007  at  04:49 PM
My mom used ayds when I was a kid. I dont think they helped her. If they helped anyone lose weight it was probably the placebo effect that did it. (placebo = power of suggestion)
Posted by Topflightgraphics  on  Tue Oct 23, 2007  at  02:11 PM
I occatonally used the Ayds candy in the sixtys and had great results with the product. Please start selling them again. I would be your number 1 customer.
Posted by Estella Menchaca  on  Thu Jan 03, 2008  at  10:57 AM
I remember ayds weight loss candy because my mother use to take them and i do use to sneak in to them and i think they really help me to curb my abitie and i would love to them them come back, they never bother me, and i really like them and the tast,
Posted by Barbara ( TUNKS) stone  on  Wed Jan 09, 2008  at  02:37 PM
Cool stuff, as long as it works lol.
Posted by Nick  on  Sat Mar 08, 2008  at  02:47 PM
About the only thing MORE unfortunate than this, is the fact that there's a town called Nambla in the country of India (Nambla, India). To that person says it's silly to no longer call it Ayds just because of the disease... doesn't mean new companies are willing to create the next anti-whatever (anti-allergy, anti-asthma) and call it Nambla or Boylove. lol

So, I suggest everybody get out there and get Ayds and die(t)! 😉
Posted by NTV/NAT Group, Ltd.  on  Wed May 07, 2008  at  11:31 PM
I don't believe in taking up pills for weight loss. Anyway one day it will end up in some side effects.
Posted by Climent  on  Tue May 13, 2008  at  11:58 PM
I remember a commercial for AYDS candy during the early 80's "Lose Weight With AYDS". (You sure do..no pun Intended) Obviously not a good marketing strategy during a time when the disease AIDS was running rampant.
Posted by Babushka Tushyitchsky  on  Tue May 20, 2008  at  02:07 PM
I don't remember the product. There is so much you can put in candy now.
Posted by Candy Vending Man  on  Sun May 25, 2008  at  09:43 PM
In my late 20s and early 30s I would eat AYDS between meals if I was hungry and they really did work. I loved them. I would give anything if I could find them now. I can't believe they don't make them any more. They curbed my appetite, tasted great, and they tasted like real candy, not diet. Can we get them anywhere?
Posted by CJS in Texas  on  Tue May 27, 2008  at  05:29 PM
I too wish I could still buy Ayds. I lost 3stone 4lbs in 1971 using Ayds and a sensible diet. It was 20 years before the weight starting creeping back on again. Now I need them again - this is the only thing that has ever really worked for me. If they made them again I would be the first customer. Who can we write to to suggest they start manufacturing them, or something similar, again?
Posted by Christine Davies  on  Sun Jun 22, 2008  at  01:44 AM
Well, i believe that it is better to lose weight via the proper way
Posted by jason geek  on  Tue Jul 29, 2008  at  06:19 AM
sorry I don't remember AYDS Candy well
Posted by edo  on  Sat Aug 02, 2008  at  03:12 AM
I"ve used the Ayda Weight Loss Candy years ago and got amazing results.I want to start using it again.How much is Ayds Weight Loss Candy?Where can I buy it?
Posted by Lori Hager  on  Fri Aug 08, 2008  at  06:27 PM
Please bring back Ayds.I had such good luck with it.It really helped me control my appetite and loose weight.
Posted by Lori Hager  on  Wed Aug 20, 2008  at  07:26 AM
I too remember this product and I absolutely loved it as a teen. And it did work in my opinion .. in fact it was the only safe feeling suppressant that i felt good about taking. Now was there anything ever about what it contains being bad for you?
I wish I knew. Im gonna research this and see if any diet supplementary companys have anything like this out. I cant take anything that has caffiene or energy boost as with high blood pressure you cant take certain things.
Dont think id by that box on ebay tho .. may be outdated * wink
Posted by Dee  on  Thu Aug 28, 2008  at  08:01 PM
Nice product. i haven't come across such item. i like to have a try. where can i purchase it?
Posted by Rathna  on  Fri Sep 26, 2008  at  01:39 AM
:-) I just found this site. I am sharing this article with my Better Body Group.
Posted by Sue  on  Sun Sep 28, 2008  at  04:17 PM
I remember AYDS from my early teen years; I remember, more than the radio ads, the magazine ads. They were stories about people who had lost weight using AYDS. The thing I remember was that you were suppose to eat 2 AYDS before a meal, along with a hot beverage such as hot tea or coffee. As an adult, I now know that these were very similar to caramal candies and that sipping the hot beverage made the caramal espand in your stomach, which would make you feel less hungry. I don't know if they really worked; I think my sister and I bought a box once.
Posted by Leslie  on  Sun Oct 05, 2008  at  02:03 AM
I used Ayds years ago, and they really worked. I lost weight and kept it off for a while. There are celeb ads from the 40's-60's and ads with regular people telling tales of great weight loss with the product. These ads ran in countless magazines from the 60s-80s.

I really wish a company would bring them back, all the flavors, with a new name. The TrimSpa chocolate chews taste awful, and although they do help curb my appetite, I haven't been on them long enough to see any significant weight loss (less than 2 weeks.)

Besides that, Trimspa filed bankruptcy so their products are no longer in production, and only existing stock is available, and some people are really ripping consumers off with outrageous prices for those awful tasting "candies." Ayds were 1000 times better.
Posted by Crafty Matthew  on  Tue Jan 20, 2009  at  01:40 AM
I WISH YOU WOULD COME BACK WITH IT,
JUST CHANGE THE NAME YOU ARE GOOD TO GO.
PLEASE WE NEED THE HELP

BEKY
Posted by BECKY VALENTIN  on  Thu Jan 22, 2009  at  12:54 PM
Thanks for clearing this up! And I recognized on the significance present in the site.
Technology amazes me particularly when I imagine of what it will be like they reach the old age! But applying this is much far better
Posted by Tom  on  Mon Feb 02, 2009  at  03:47 AM
I am getting notifications of replies to this discussion that have nOTHING to do with Ayds, and are not even showing up when I click on the link to come to the discussion.
Posted by Crafty Matthew  on  Thu Feb 05, 2009  at  09:32 PM
Matthew, they would be spam messages. Which are usually deleted by moderators.
Posted by Smerk  on  Fri Feb 06, 2009  at  10:34 PM
I recall my Mother and Aunts all using Ayds. Some were not even overweight,it was just trendy and cool to use them.It was "THE THING" if you wanted to maintain or lose weight.A couple of my Aunts lost a good amount of weight using the product. They tasted great,as I sneaked them,like many other kids and bought some when I was a teen.I wasn't overweight at all,but I thought they would prevent me from doing so.They did supress the appetite. If this company were to bring these back,there is no doubt they would make a fortune!
Posted by Mel  on  Wed Mar 18, 2009  at  12:12 PM
Get active. If you have a tread mill try watching tv while speed walking or working up a sweat. Try doing 30 push ups in between commercial breaks, keep your body guessing and keep your body stressing!
Posted by Fast weight lose  on  Fri May 01, 2009  at  11:02 AM
weight loss candy? the answer to my prayers! whatever next? i hope they'll bring out a weight loss icecream too hehe.
Posted by Baby Products  on  Sat Jun 13, 2009  at  01:07 PM
I remember Ayds extremely well. I used to take them in the 70's. Boy how great it would be if they were still available. To bad the manufacturer doesn't read all the comments above and maybe they might just start selling them again. I would be the first one to buy as many as I can. They worked then and I am sure they would work now.
Posted by Karlos San Pedro  on  Sat Jul 04, 2009  at  02:29 AM
yes, benzocaine was the "active ingredient" in AYDS that would cause you to lose weight...
they also cut cocaine with benzocaine. this is why when you snort it, it numbs the back of your throat, nose and tongue. so in essence, if you wanted to lose weight fast...just score an 8-ball. sure, it could also kill you...so can AIDS.
there's also that illegal part as well.
here's a side note...remember, they used to put trace amounts of cocaine in coca-cola (hence the coca...)
Posted by this other guy  on  Tue Jul 07, 2009  at  04:21 PM
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