Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Just published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, is a study that analyzed over 402 dietary supplements that claimed to aid in weight loss, fat loss or increase metabolism. Their findings are published here:

• Entrez PubMed – Availability of weight-loss supplements: results of an audit of retail outlets in a southeastern city.

They found that most products had the same ingredients: green tea, chromium picolinate, ma huang (ephedra), ginger root, guarana, hydroxycitric acid white willow, Siberian ginseng, cayenne, and bitter orange/zhi shi. When the researchers looked for studies regarding the effectiveness of these ingredients, this is what they found:

• Modest evidence of effectiveness exists for green tea, chromium picolinate, and ma huang (ephedra).

• For the remaining seven (ginger root, guarana, hydroxycitric acid white willow, Siberian ginseng, cayenne, and bitter orange/zhi shi), inadequate or negative evidence exists.

• Although precautions and contraindications were found for all 10 ingredients, the strongest concerns in the literature appear for ma huang, bitter orange, and guarana.

In the end, the study concluded with this quote:

“The general lack of research evidence for the safety or effectiveness of the many ingredients . . . even the most frequently included ingredients, is cause for concern.”

Don’t spend your hard earned money on products that haven’t proved that they actually do what they say they do. Weight loss supplements aren’t worth it.

Via: Consumer Health Digest, December 19, 2006