Slimming aids are no better than dummy pills

The only weight that popular slimming supplements seem to remove is from your wallet. These expensive diet aids don’t work, and they’re no better than sugar pills, say researchers. Researchers from the University of Gottingen Medical School in Germany tested nine slimming aids that they had bought in pharmacies and health shops. The supplements included L-Carnitine, polyglucosamine, cabbage powder, guarana seed powder and other extracts. Lead researcher Thomas Ellrott said there are ‘scores’ of different slimming aids, claiming to be fat magnets, mobilizers and dissolvers, appetite tamers, metabolism boosters and carb blockers. The researchers tested the nine products on a group of 189 obese or overweight volunteers, and the average weight loss was between 1 kg and 2 kg over an eight-week period – the same that was reported by the group that had been given placebos, or dummy pills. (Source: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, July 12, 2010).