‘Natural’ Diet Pills Contain Hidden (and Dangerous) Drugs

Many popular weight-loss products claiming to boost metabolism or burn fat via the awesome power of natural medicine are actually chock-full of banned pharmaceuticals and other harmful substances, the New York Times reported yesterday. Apparently, today’s magic beans fall into two categories: Those that are nothing more than regular beans, and beans that are spiked with things that will kill you.

Sigh. As tempting as it may be to believe papaya supplements or concentrated green tea or some revolutionary new B-vitamin complex can work like an amphetamine, minus all the nasty side-effects, there’s a better chance that ‘all natural’ weight-loss pill really just does contain amphetamines—or diuretics, or steroids, or black market diet drugs that have been banned in the United States by the FDA. NYT writer Natasha Singer and Harvard Medical School professor Pieter Cohen sleuthed through NYC Chinatown shops and found bunches of diet products that have been recalled in the U.S., contain harmful carcinogens, or are simply knock-offs of big pharmaceutical drugs sold under the guise of supplements. It’s not just some Chinatown anomaly, though—tainted diet products are being sold in independent shops and ethnic markets around the U.S., as well as on the Internet, Cohen says. Even GNC, the Vitamin Shoppe, Amazon.com and eBay have all been found selling such products.

Dietary supplements are supposed to be just that—supplementary vitamins, minerals and other natural ingredients that our modern diets might be lacking. They are regulated by the FDA as a category of food, and it’s illegal to ‘adulterate’ supplements with drugs and non-natural ingredients.

But marketing drugs as supplements has become big business here, especially when it comes to substances targeting great American pastimes like weight-loss and erections, according to the NYT piece. Many of these are made in foreign countries, like China and Brazil, and contain ingredients that the FDA considers unsafe or has banned—substances like sibutramine, a weight-loss drug recently taken off the American market because of its tendency to up heart attack and stroke risk.

The bottom line: ‘Natural’ weight-loss supplements are likely to carry just as many risks as their diet drug counterparts. Stay away, and get your fat-fighting-food benefits from fresh food itself.

Photo: Health Plus Rx