Dr. Phil goes to the grocery store: the Shape Up! line of diet products endorsed by Phil McGraw has generated controversy and questions: can anybody create diet foods?

He's not a medical doctor, bur he plays well on TV. Now, Phil McGraw. Ph.D., psychologist and syndicated TV "life strategist," is in, or at least very close to, the diet foods business, as he endorses a line of snack bars, shakes and supplements that dovetail with release of his diet book.

By contrast Dr. Henry Atkins, M.D., didn't start selling food and diet products hearing his name until more than two decades after his first diet book was published. But the Shape Up! line of diet shakes, snack bars and supplements Dr. Phil endorses shipped to such stores as Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens at the same time as his book, "The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom."

The Shape Up! line includes chocolate and vanilla "complete nutrition" shakes and snack bars in flavors that include chocolate peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, fudge brownie and chocolate toil fee crunch. The shakes and bars are fortified with 24 vitamins and minerals.

Dr. Phil's products don't fall into the typical low-fat or low-carb categories. They claim to carry special vitamin supplements aimed at helping "apple" and "pear" body types--terms he coined for people who store fat higher in their bodies (apple) or lower (pear).

The shakes tend toward the lower-carb, lower-fat end of the spectrum, with 21 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of fiber and 3 grams of far per serving. But the bars can be fairly high in fat, with the chocolate-peanut butter variety deriving 60 of its 210 calories, or 28.6 percent, from fat. That's also 22 percent of the daily value for saturated fat. They're also fairly high in carbohydrates, with one bar containing 26 grams.

In copy on the shakes, McGraw describes his weight-loss plan as "eat a healthy low calorie diet and exercise more," adding that the products help support the plan. "These products contain scientifically researched levels of ingredients that can help you change your behavior to take control of your weight," according to McGraw's "endorsement."

McGraw has avoided making direct cross-endorsements among his TV show, his book, and the weight-loss products bearing his likeness. But weight control has become a recurrent theme of "The Dr. Phil Show" in the same year the book and diet products launched. The book doesn't mention Shape Up!, and Shape Up! products don't refer to the book. But the products and book bear similar pictures of Dr. Phil and a similar graphic treatment, and they urge buyers to check out the www.drphil.com web site for the TV show.