Bad news, pill poppers: Hydroxycut is killing people.
The FDA has published a list of dangerous side effects and why you should avoid taking them — not little-time bad like “oooh, upset tummy!” but big-time bad as in “kidney transplant”. Or, oh crap, I have jaundice. A lot of these diet pills such as hydroxycut also have major warnings posted on their labels, like tremors and heart problems. But of course, we all know that’s unlikely to deter people desperate to get thin.
So here’s my honest take on diet pills and supplements as a whole: I think it’s a real shame that this industry is unregulated – The supplement makers won the right to sell any old crap and call it whatever they wanted with almost no oversight. In fact, if you buy the same supplement from two different companies, you could be getting two very different things. And if you buy two bottles of the same supplement from one company, um, you could also be getting two very different things.
This is all really unfortunate because some of the ingredients in these herbs and pills are the real deal. They actually work well for certain things. And there are reputable companies and herbalists out there who are forced to compete with random-powder peddlers. And on the flip side, some of these herbs do real things to your body–real BAD things.
This may come as a surprise to my audience, and while I can’t tout diet and exercise enough, I can understand why overweight people would take diet pills. While I often spend time mocking the claims of diet supplements, I am guilty of popping a few Hydroxycut myself. And when I say a few, I mean two. Which brings me to: personal responsibility and common sense. Is taking six to eight pills a day a really a sensible thing to do because it said so on some bottle recommended by a company unregulated by the FDA? I mean, even if my doctor told me to take six advil a day for pain, I would question the quantity.
If you plan on taking diet pills, please look at the list and decide if the benefits of your weight loss, special detoxifying-memory-enhancing-chi-rebalancing-remedy are worth the “hazardous” risk.
By the way, if you take supplements, please check them out on the Wellness Letter Guide to Dietary Supplements. It’s written by good, objective people who actually read the research and who just want to keep the public safe and healthy. Really.