[Dietary supplements and functional food for weight reduction -- expectations and reality]

Author: Hahn A, Strohle A, Wolters M

Author affiliation: Zentrum angewandte Chemie, Institut fur Lebensmittelwissenschaft, Universitat Hannover. andreas.hahn@lw.uni-hannover.de

Publication date & source: 2003.10.16, MMW Fortschr Med., 145(42):40-5.

Publication type: English Abstract

Looked at with scientific dispassion, much of the frequently aggressive advertising for slimming products must be considered to be dishonest and misleading. This applies, for example, to the "fat burner" carnitine or for chromium-containing preparations such as chromium picolinate, which in large doses have been shown to have detrimental effects on health. Products for which there actually is a scientific rationale all have minor weight-reducing effects, so that they must be considered to have at most an adjuvant role within the framework of evidence-based concepts for losing weight. Examples of alleged slimming substances that in reality can do no more than support weight reduction are the so-called medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) or caffeine, with the latter showing an effect vis-a-vis placebo only in combination studies with ephedrine.