Why Pharmacies Sell Fad Weight Loss Supplements
When you look at the Weight Loss Supplements such as Xenadrine, Trimspa, Ripped Fuel etc, it may surprise you that these are not medications. They are only considered as “dietary supplements” and are regulated by the FDA as food products, not drugs. They do not have to go through regulations regarding their quality, safety or effectiveness like regular medications do. If they claim of cure or treat any disease they would then be classified as a drug and have to prove effectiveness, safety and go through stringent quality controls.
When one looks for the scientific studies and evidence of effectiveness for these products it is very slim indeed. Some may show some temporary short-term weight loss, but none are proven for any significant or long terms weight loss. Many of their ingredients are proven harmful and stressful to your body. For example, Zantrex 3 has the equivalent amount of caffeine of 30.6 cans of cola in its daily dose. It is common knowledge that caffeine can cause severe headaches and a poor night’s sleep.
You will be very hard pressed to find a competent Pharmacist who would recommend any of these products, so why do the Pharmacies sell them?
Profit - simple as that. The corporations that run the large chain pharmacies will all claim that it is a question about choice and they are in the business of promoting health.
That argument falls flat on its face for all of the Pharmacies that sell cigarettes. Have you ever gone to your Pharmacist and asked which cigarette is the healthiest for you and will promote your active and healthy lifestyle? Of course you haven’t because it is clearly obvious that they are not healthy. For that matter, you could ask the same question about the candy and junk food that they sell…
Products like cigarettes are commonly known to be bad for you, but when Pharmacies sell questionable weight loss supplements so near to “real” medicines, it adds a legitimacy to them, and I think that is morally wrong. People should have an expectation that “medicine-like” or “medicine-looking” products that they purchase at a Pharmacy are backed by scientific evidence, are quality controlled, and proven effective.
The weight loss supplements that look like medications should stay in the health food and supplement stores, because they are “food supplements” and not quality controlled medicines.
For more information, we discuss this in detail in Fat 2 Fit Radio Show #18.
Fat 2 Fit Show #18 - Weight Loss Pills and Supplements
Do all of these weight loss pills and potions actually work? There are so many choices out there and they all have a huge list of ingredients. Should you try out a couple of them to see how they work for you, or should you just save your money?
There are two sides to this issue. We discover that Pharmacists have a very different perspective than the commission-based salesman at the local health food store. We discuss the difference between drugs and dietary supplements, the safety of weight loss supplements,where you can find them, where you should get advice about them, which are the most popular ones, what are the most popular active ingredients in them, and which ones are recommended by pharmacists.
In our email and comment section we had a lot of feedback that simply offered a lot of great advice for our listeners. Miranda left a comment on the blog about food addiction, we read a portion of a post made by Curt in the Fat2Fit Support group, and an email by JC from Dublin, Ireland who discussed the benefits of riding a bike to work.
In our News/Education section Jeff and Russ discussed an article that listed over 50 diet tips. Russ also found a great link on Mahalo that was a perfect summary about all of the basics of weight loss.
Links mentioned on the show:
56 Weight Loss Tips
Mahalo’s Summary of Everything about Weight Loss
What you get when you search for “diet drugs” in Google
What are Dietary Supplements
Guide to Herbal Remedies
Information on Hoodia
Information on Ephedra
Recipe of the Week:
Mexican Fajitas
Listen here, or subscribe to automatically receive future shows.
Supplements - The Diet Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
Like any industry out there, the goal of the Diet Industry is to make money. It is the perfect business to be in because of all the repeat business. Almost all diets fail because 95% of the successful dieters, put the weight back on within a few years. The only way to be truly successful with a diet is to NOT go on a diet, but go on a “lifestyle” change. Simply put, if you want to look like a slender person, eat and exercise like a slender person - you will eventually get there.
Over the last few years, the diet industry realized that they can make more money after selling a diet program, than they made from selling the diet program in the first place. They started making and selling their own diet supplements - everything from meal replacements, vitamins, nutrition bars, fiber supplements etc.
Take a look at the Atkins Diet. You can buy Atkins Vitamins and Atkins meal replacement bars. The same is even true for diets such as the Zone and South Beach diets. Even the regular “Diet Centres” such as Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig sell their own supplements and vitamins.
This is such a lucrative business that companies are now creating supplements and meal replacements and then creating the diet program in order to sell them.
The most well known diet that did this was “Body For Life” by Bill Phillips. Bill Phillips is the owner of the giant supplement company EAS which makes the meal replacement called Myoplex. It is no surprise that the suggested menus in this program all list 2 meals per day of Myoplex.
In almost every instance, it is better to eat “real food” instead of a meal replacement shake or bar. To digest real food, your body burns calories in the digestion process, so your net calories are lower than the actual calories that you just ate. This is great if you are concerned with losing weight, not to mention that real food isn’t as painful on your pocketbook!
Many of these diet programs that are based on a supplement product are not necessarily bad though. If the program suggests a balanced diet, there is nothing wrong with an occasional supplement product once and while. There is also nothing wrong with eating a sensible balanced meal instead of a suggested supplement and still have success on any program.
Unless you are planning to continue to take all of these extra supplements and meal replacement products for the rest of your life after you reach your goal, it would be wise not to become used-to or dependent on them for long term weight loss.
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