The short answer: absolutely none!
The long answer
requires a bit of a background. In October 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health
and Education Act was signed into law by President Clinton. After this law was
in place, manufacturers of dietary supplements did not need approval from the
FDA to begin marketing and selling their supplement products.
This is in
direct contrast to pharmaceutical drugs which need to prove that they are both
safe and effective before they can be brought to market.
Following are
some of the problems that this law created:
1) Nobody is
checking up on the ingredients in these supplements. Often they don’t contain
what they say they do, or contain little to none of the advertised active
ingredients.
2) For the same
reason, sometimes they contain harmful ingredients like pharmaceutical drugs or
even banned substances. There is really
no regulation until there is a report of illness or injury, then the FDA will look
into it. It is up to the FDA to prove
that these substances are not safe and they don’t have the resources to test
all of the tens of thousands of products on the market.
3) They never stand
up to scientific scrutiny. I read the nutrition literature every month, and
whenever an independent university or research institution tests these weight
loss supplements, they don’t increase weight loss when compared to a placebo in
well-designed randomized controlled trials.
Stay away from
weight loss supplements. At best they
are ineffective, at worst they can make you sick. If weight loss is your goal, there is no
substitute for a good diet, the right cardiovascular exercise program and a
well-designed strength training routine.
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