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

I have no idea what was in it, but when I was a kid I remember my mom taking itt.
Posted by Wesley  on  Thu Oct 01, 2009  at  09:55 AM
wow, haven't heard of this..
Posted by Alwyn Cosgrove  on  Fri Nov 06, 2009  at  01:58 AM
It must had been painful for for those who were selling those pills, when AIDS started...and took all the fame from them...

V.Niani
Posted by Phen375  on  Mon Feb 01, 2010  at  06:05 AM
AYDS kept me slim and trim. I loved it and i wish it would come back. I sure need it now. Baby come back. It does not contain tape worms, i never got sick, i lost the weight and kept it off.
Posted by Letty Garcia  on  Sun Apr 18, 2010  at  07:30 PM
I have heard a lot about Ayds but what really is it. can any one explain in details?
Posted by Weight Loss Clinic  on  Fri Apr 23, 2010  at  07:27 AM
Used ayds back years ago cant remember when but i remember the results 26 lbs in 45 days. first ten days nothing happened then bam it started coming off. Sure wish we had AYDS back. the Choc was the best for me.
Posted by william Beach  on  Tue Apr 27, 2010  at  07:36 PM
This is hilarious. I guess all weight loss products don't have the greatest names, but almost all of them are not this bad
Posted by Lose Waist Fat  on  Fri May 07, 2010  at  11:56 PM
I am looking for diet aydes candy
Posted by Kathy Dudley  on  Mon May 10, 2010  at  06:41 PM
I am a boomer and I can surely say that the concept and product really worked. I lost weight. I would also do Ayds to jumpstart any other weighloss program. I would eat two with something hot. I went from a full plate of food to being fully satisfied with a saucer. I did not change what I ate, I just ate less of it. Since it was vitamin fortified, I felt great after ingesting them. It was also the safest diet supplement I ever used. I wish I could get a few boxes now!
Posted by Peggy Long  on  Wed May 19, 2010  at  08:42 PM
Ayds candy is good for weight lose... it helps me to lose 20 pounds and no side effects i have seen .....
Posted by Cho Yung Tea  on  Thu May 20, 2010  at  11:27 PM
I don't this so that is helpful for weight loss.
Posted by Urgent health care in Florida  on  Mon May 24, 2010  at  04:51 AM
i would like to find it to buy this kind of ayds i love it when i was younger i ateit work for me so i want to buy it where can i order it huh let me know please
Posted by Patricia Carey  on  Sat May 29, 2010  at  02:28 AM
I used to sneak Ayds from my grandma and eat the chocolate mint ones as candy. They were so yummy!
Posted by maria  on  Sat May 29, 2010  at  06:37 AM
Ayds was around before many harmful food additives were invented, such as HFCS. These additives have the "unfortunate" side effect of keeping you hungry. The shift of the food corporations is to make us buy more food, not less. You will never see a product such as this in the US again, unless it has the 'new' additives included, that help keep you fat and hungry. So the effectiveness of the appetite suppressive qualities would be limited, at best.
Posted by john  on  Sun May 30, 2010  at  09:21 AM
I never believe that weight loss ads, they always boast effect
Posted by weight loss  on  Fri Jun 04, 2010  at  07:35 PM
:-) :roll:wish we had the AYDS back, don't know where the inventor went but he should've given the ingredients to someone who would continue to make the stuff. Ayds did not have side effects, did not cause diabetes, nada, all it did was cause u to lose the weight. awesome! it was a sweet way of losing the weight!
Posted by Letty Garcia  on  Fri Aug 20, 2010  at  09:46 AM
My Mom and myself took the Ayds candies for diet use years ago and we both had very good results. I really wish they would come back out with it and change the name if they need to. I have tried so many other diet pills and drinks and nothing works.
Posted by Linda Martinez  on  Thu Aug 26, 2010  at  09:49 PM
I liked the chocolate Ayds. My mother constantly pressured to lose weight when I was a kid. She asked the pediatrician whether or not Ayds were safe to take--he said they were made out of cotton which would swell up in your stomach when drinking something hot making you feel full. I do remember that later on they added a line of the product that contained a stimulant of some kind. I actually thought the former was more effective.
Posted by Elaine Tocco  on  Mon Aug 30, 2010  at  03:33 PM
Very interesting, you should try other ways for diet! 😜
Posted by zorro  on  Sat Sep 18, 2010  at  01:48 PM
yah Ayds is really helpful in losing weight, my friend used that and got 10 pound loss in 1 month.
Posted by johndp  on  Wed Oct 06, 2010  at  02:21 PM
I loved this product. I wish someone would make it again and just change the name. I used it and lost 10 lbs, each time. Everytime I bought the candy I would think, "Oh, dear I'll be pouring through this so fast, but, after about half way through the box I lost my cravings and didn't need the candy anymore. No side affects it was great!
Posted by Becky S  on  Wed Feb 23, 2011  at  02:40 PM
I remember seeing the commercials for these when I was a kid, and then right around the same time, my brother got the Eddie Murphy album where he talks about aids. I asked my brother, "what is he talking about, anyway?" And my brother said, "well, I think most people who take diet pills are gay." Hah. That was our locker room understanding of sexuality at the time.
Posted by Jeremy  on  Sat Jul 02, 2011  at  10:19 AM
I remember the commercial well. At one point, a customer would turn to the camera and say "Ayds helped me lose weight! Wow, and changing the name to "Diet Ayds", what a stroke of genius. I cannot believe that didn't save the company!
Posted by Marc  on  Mon Jul 16, 2012  at  02:32 PM
I also used the AYDS diet candy back in the late 70s and lost weight
This was the only diet product that worked for me
Believe me I tried several diet products with no results.
Someone please bring the AYDS diet candy back
There would be no over weight people and obesity will be controlled
There would be no need for all the surgery that people
Are having to lose weight. They are dying from this. So
Please bring it back


Waiting a reply
Posted by Mary  on  Wed Jan 30, 2013  at  07:09 AM
There is actually a diet candy almost identical to the original Ayds Diet Candy Supplement (alas, I was a young lad when I got into my grandmother's top dresser drawer and found both her box of Ayds candies AND her box of mint-flavored Ex-Lax tabs at the same time - what followed a few hours later STILL leads to howls of laughter, at the expense of a young boy now almost 60-years old).

Anyhow, look at the 'SENSA' diet products, specifically the candy similarity can be found in the 'SENSA Chews', a 'somewhat chocolatey candy that helps reduce appetite' as part of a weight loss program. My wife had a co-worker tell her about the program, which includes 'salt-shaker-type-shakers' of diet suppressant you put on your food to help you reduce hunger and portion size. She said it works well for her, and is losing weight. A part of the plan is the chews. She complained 'they are chocolate in name only', so I asked if I could taste one, and the moment I did, the flavor from all those years ago haunted me. They do work, the chews are almost PURE FIBER (be ready when it hits, if you aren't constipated to start).

At least now at my decrepit old age, I know better than to chase them with half-a-box of ExLax chocolate chew tabs, too. Wow, what a miserable afternoon that was!
Posted by Lance Cole  on  Sun Feb 10, 2013  at  06:20 PM
OMG....i was highly upset when they discontinued the product, i used it back in the 70's, you had to drink a cup of hot tea plain, no cream or sugar...i would suck on the candy while i drank my tea...it worked hand in hand, i loved it!!!! and i lost weight!!! i even went as far as to write Oprah and ask her to bring it back just change the name, needless to say, i never got a response from her or her people, i just want it back....pleaseeeee somebody, anybody...pretty please
Posted by Lisa Harmon  on  Wed Apr 24, 2013  at  01:02 PM
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