Since Jane Fonda’s heyday the focus in weight loss has drastically changed. The ‘no pain, no gain’ aerobics and exercise philosophy was abandoned by some for simpler forms of exercise, such as running, biking, and skiing. For others, aerobics was abandoned for pill popping. While it’s been more than proven that diet pills are bad for us, bad for the heart, etc., a large number of people continue to search for ‘safe’ slimming and diet supplements that do not fall into the category of ‘diet pills’.
Slimming and diet supplements have gotten into the media recently. Remember all the hoodia hype? Some proponents still claim that it’s ‘100% safe’ while many doctors continue to find it ill-advised to use it as a diet supplement. Just because it doesn’t cause cancer in rats doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing to ingest on a regular basis. The biggest problem with slimming and diet supplements is that they are not rigorously tested by the FDA. Some supplements are not tested at all.
Always remember when viewing or hearing advertisements for slimming and diet supplements that the goal of the advertisers is to sell their products and not to help you lose weight. Be careful when using supplements regularly since the effects are not fully known. The best advice is to not use slimming and diet supplements, but to look at the active ingredients in them that are known to be 100% safe, and then use those items. For example, many such supplements have green tea extract in them. While the benefits or drawbacks of the supplements are still in question, the benefits of green tea are widely known, and the drawbacks are nonexistent.
