Why I Encourage Supplement Industry to Stop Selling Weight Loss Cures
A web search of the term “weight loss supplements” will deliver more
than 57 million results. You get nearly 8 million hits if you
customize your search to “magic weight loss supplements.” There are even weight loss supplements specifically aimed at children!10
Some of the promotions claim their supplements are “magic;” others
have “magic” in their names. Either way, the word “magic” implies that
these supplements work like magic with little or no effort on your part. You can just go on living as you have in the past—even though that’s what contributed to or caused your weight gain in the first place.
Yet other supplements are advertised as “magic” pills that can help you build a healthy body by increasing muscle mass.11, 12
Here, body builders tend to be the main audience. Despite all the
intense work body builders put into building their bodies, many are
still looking for that outside “magic” to give them a leg up on
the competition... In reality, this approach rarely if ever works. The
supplement industry is in the health business—at least theoretically,
they should be.
And as proponents of health, it would behoove them to act in the
best interest of not just their customers, but also of the nutraceutical
industry at large. “Magic” weight loss pills are more or less a nod to
the pharmaceutical band-aid mentality, and actually run counter to the
idea of a healthy lifestyle. This is why I stopped selling weight loss
supplements, and it’s why I encourage others to stop selling them as
well, and to truly embrace proper diet and lifestyle as the answer.
Intermittent fasting,
for example, is an incredibly helpful strategy that will produce far
better results than any diet pill ever will. The idea that you can just
pop a pill and shed excess pounds is Polyanna thinking at its best. In
the long run, you can run into problems, especially if the product
contains potentially hazardous ingredients—again, most of which tend to
be pharmaceuticals.
Most Weight Loss Products Are Stimulants, Like 'Coffee in a Pill'
While surveys13
have determined that use of weight loss supplements is common in the
US, studies repeatedly fail to support their efficacy and safety, both
in children14 and adults. The most commonly used weight loss supplements15
contain caffeine, ephedra, or ephedra-like substances such as bitter
orange to “rev-up” your metabolism. This means you’ll either have
trouble sleeping and/or you’ll experience the inevitable crash after
the rev-up—hardly the effects you’d expect from a healthy lifestyle.
These types of stimulants can be particularly dangerous for people
who have heart disease, high blood pressure, or are taking blood
pressure medication. As just one example, Metabosyn,16
hailed as “the most powerful diet pill reviewed,” according to Diet
Pill Digest, claims to boost metabolism and reduce appetite. However,
it also carries a warning: if you’re sensitive to stimulants, don’t
take it.
It’s important to realize that simply loading up on stimulants like caffeine is NOT going to improve your health,
even if it helps you lose a few pounds. From my perspective, the cost
is just too high—especially in light of the fact that if you eat right
and exercise, you will have all the energy you need, and you’ll lose weight, without any of the adverse side effects you might experience when taking a stimulant.
You’re Paying for the Dream...
Other weight loss supplements are little more than vitamins and
colon cleansers in disguise. Besides the stimulants mentioned, other
common “weight loss” ingredients
17
include chromium, chitosan, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), ginseng,
green tea, hydroxycitric acid, L-carnitine, psyllium (fiber), and St.
John’s wort. Basically, you’re just paying extra for the “magic” label.
Two examples of the latest diet pill fads that are little more than
rip-offs are coconut oil capsules
18 and Apple Cider Vinegar Plus.
19
Why take a pill when you can reap all the benefits by consuming the
actual food?! Ditto for CLA, which you get from grass-fed beef, or
green tea, which you can savor by the cup rather than by the pill.
Besides, eating the food will ensure optimal absorption—a critical
factor that can be iffy depending on the capsule used for the
supplement in question. A 2012 article in
Forbes Magazine20
listed weight loss supplements with top scientific ratings, and the
majority of these contain active ingredients that are ideally obtained
from
whole food. In essence, if you eat right, you don’t need a weight loss supplement
For Weight Loss, Focus on Your Diet First...
As noted earlier, nutritional supplements can be an integral part of
a healthy lifestyle by helping you address specific nutritional
deficiencies for example. My stance is that they should not be used
in lieu of a healthy diet however. As their name implies, they are
supplemental
to an otherwise healthy diet. That said, I no longer recommend weight
loss supplements and “energy boosters,” as I do not believe they “fit”
into a truly healthy lifestyle scheme. Not only are they potentially
hazardous, but I believe they are ultimately unnecessary, provided
you’re eating the right foods and, ideally, intermittently fasting. As described at length in other articles, to lose weight, you need to:
- Avoid sugar, processed fructose, and grains if you are insulin and
leptin resistant. This effectively means you must avoid most processed
foods
- Eat a healthy diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with:
- Large amounts of fresh organic locally grown vegetables
- Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, pastured animals)
- As much high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and
monounsaturated from animal and tropical oil sources). Most people
actually need upwards of 50-85 percent fats in their diet for optimal health—a far cry from the 10 percent currently recommended.
How Do You Determine Whether a Supplement Is of High Quality?
If you want to use a vitamin or herbal supplement, you’d be well
advised to make sure you’re buying a high-quality product—if not for
the reason of safety, then for the reason of maximizing your health
benefits. Here are some general guidelines for selecting a high-quality
dietary supplement:
- It is as close as possible to its natural (whole food) form.
- Independent third-party labs check the raw materials for contaminants and correct dosage.
- Follows industry standards for quality assurance including ISO
9001, ISO 17025, and Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) certifications.
- The utmost care has been taken in all phases of its production,
from growing its ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and
quality control.
- It works! I always try to select from companies that have a long
track record of providing high-quality products that produce good
clinical results.
Remember, if you are interested in optimizing your health and losing
weight in the process, your BEST solution is to choose the highest
quality foods possible, and eat a wide variety of whole organic foods.
You can use my free nutrition plan and work your way up to the advanced stage.
Once you have addressed your diet and are looking for further
improvement, odds are you might benefit from some supplements, such as
animal-based omega-3 supplement and a probiotic for example. There are
many others you could then consider depending on your specific
circumstances, including a high-quality multivitamin, additional
antioxidant support, and others.
Sources and References
