If you’re on a first-name basis with Dr. Phil, you might want to rethink that relationship.

It looks like the megastar shrink used his self-help credentials to help himself to some ill-gotten gains with a line of worthless diet supplements, according to a lawsuit filed last year. Now the New York Daily News has gotten hold of a series of e-mails that make it clear he had doubts about the products he was pitching, which were pulled from the market last year when faced with a Federal Trade Commission probe.

Dr. Phil McGraw’s a psychologist, not a nutrition expert. When he lent his name and considerable star power to Shape Up!, a line of nutrition supplements, shakes, and energy bars from a company called CSA Nutraceuticals, he endorsed products which, in the words of the class action lawsuit filed by three disgruntled dieters, were promoted to consumers by “utilizing false and misleading advertising, deceptive practices, and false and fraudulent claims.”

Why would Dr. Phil want to make a quick buck at the expense of his trusting fans and his own credibility? Is he trying to fill some kind of spiritual void with his apparently insatiable hunger for fame and fortune? Well, I guess that’s a question only a licensed professional could answer. Maybe we should ask Dr. Marion Nestle. After all, she’s a nutrition expert.