It’s no secret that anyone who tries to lose weight wishes they could do so by popping a pill. According to Dee Sandquist, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, ‘What I hear most from my clients is that they want something easy, a quick fix. They all want that magic pill—but there isn’t one.’ There are so many “simple solutions” out there, though; that you’d be forgiven for thinking that at least one of them could improve your wellbeing, but it seems as though marketers and manufacturers only have your money in mind.
One common myth surrounds the African herb hoodia, with marketers using anecdotal and animal-based studies to claim the supplement is an effective appetite suppressant. Roberta Anding, RD, a clinical dietician and the director of sports nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, explains, ‘Hoodia is reported to arrest hunger for those making long journeys in the desert,’ adding that injections of its compound, P57, make animals eat less, but this effect is unlikely to be replicated in humans taking hoodia capsules, which has never been studied.
Another lie that many believe is that you don’t need to diet or exercise if you’re taking a weight-loss supplement. However, even the supplement labels themselves tell you that if you want to shed pounds you’ll also need to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Take Alli, for example, a half-strength over-the-counter version of the prescription weight-loss medication that still requires diet changes. Saul Shiffman, PhD, a senior scientific advisor to Pinney Associates in Pittsburgh, says, ‘Alli keeps your gut from absorbing some of the fat you eat. So if people eat too much fat at a meal it’s flushed through, and they can feel bloated and even stain themselves.’
Finally, Anding allows that ‘green-tea extract may promote weight loss,’ but taking supplements of green tea, or even drinking multiple mugs of the drink itself, isn’t likely to produce significant or lasting weight loss. Tod Cooperman, MD, president of the independent testing company ConsumerLab.com, adds, ‘Any effect you see from green tea is probably due to the caffeine. A stimulant will cause you to burn calories if it causes you to move more, and green tea contains a fair amount of caffeine.’ Again, diet pills alone are not enough to sustain weight loss. Unfortunately, it seems as though you can’t escape the need for good old fashioned wellness lifestyle changes.
Comments are closed.