Nikki Haskell

Nikki Haskell is an author, a stockbroker, the founder of Balanced Health Products and the creator of the StarCaps diet system. She was born in Chicago and raised in Beverly Hills; she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.
Haskell was one of the first female stockbrokers on Wall Street working for Drexel Burnham Lambert and was named "Stockbroker of the Year". Haskell then moved on to the entertainment industry creating The Nikki Haskell Show, which she also produced and hosted. The show initially was to be co-hosted with Egon von Furstenberg. The Nikki Haskell Show ran for 300 episodes on early cable television and is considered a forerunner to shows like Entertainment Tonight and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous .
Haskell is the author of Nikki Haskell's Star Diet. Haskell won the 2001 Sunset Strip Star Billboard Award.
StarCaps controversy
The StarCaps was recently voluntarily recalled due to concerns it contained ingredients that were not listed, including bumetanide.
In 2008 three players from the NFL's New Orleans Saints tested positive for bumetanide, a diuretic used occasionally for masking steroid use, after using StarCaps. Balanced Health Products also produces the StarCruncher, a resistance exercise item. Balanced Health Products also sells candies StarSuckers, and the NikkiBar. Haskell has several celebrity friends and endorsements for her products. However, she was featured in Spy magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s which ridiculed her pills alleged "diuretic" effects.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that that StarCaps, promoted as natural dietary supplements using papaya, could be hazardous to your health. In violation of the law, the agency has found, the capsules also contained a potent pharmaceutical drug called bumetanide which can have serious side effects.
After reports surfaced late last fall that StarCaps contained bumetanide (a potent diuretic not included on its ingredients list), the Vitamin Shoppe and GNC pulled StarCaps from their shelves. Grady Jackson, a defensive tackle with the Atlanta Falcons, said he used the weight-loss capsules. Mr. Jackson and several other National Football League players who said they had taken StarCaps failed a drug test when they tested positive for bumetanide. The drug, which can mask steroid use, is on the list of substances banned by the league.
Published books
* Nikki Haskell's Star Diet (1998, Kensington) ISBN 1575662833

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