They were miserable by substandard weight-loss drugs
False propaganda, illegal addition of prohibited ingredients, weight-loss food market chaos
● Weight-loss foods containing banned ingredients such as sibutramine are still sold in some channels, and there are also many “three no” products lurking in social platforms under the banner of weight loss.
● Various government departments such as health and market supervision should establish a sound joint law enforcement mechanism, strengthen the supervision and investigation of illegal diet foods, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers
● Consumers should enhance their health knowledge and legal awareness, and do not blindly believe in false propaganda from businesses, and do not blindly pursue the efficacy of weight-loss products. For products that over-promote the efficacy of weight-loss, they must be careful to buy
□ Our newspaper trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
Recently, the Shanghai Railway Transportation Court issued a public sentence on the case of defendant Guo Meimei and others selling poisonous and harmful foods in accordance with the law, and finally sentenced defendant Guo Meimei to two years and 6 months imprisonment for the crime of selling poisonous and harmful foods and a fine of 200,000 yuan. Yuan.
According to the court's judgment, the defendant Guo Meimei and others were still selling sibutramine when they knew that the diet candy sold by others might be illegally added to sibutramine.
As early as 2010, China announced the cessation of domestic production, sales and use of sibutramine preparations and APIs.
However, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that weight-loss foods containing sibutramine and other prohibited ingredients are still sold in some channels, and there are also many “three no” products lurking in social platforms under the banner of weight loss.
Consumers who bought and used these products not only failed to lose weight, but what awaited them was a disaster in their lives.
The interviewed experts believe that the competent government departments should establish a sound joint law enforcement mechanism, strengthen the supervision and investigation of illegal diet foods, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
E-commerce platforms must strengthen the qualification review of settled merchants, increase daily management and inspection, and do not leave any illegal profit space for illegal merchants.
Containing prohibited ingredients in diet foods
Consumers suffer physical and mental health
Sun Yun of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province will never forget a weight loss pill called "Private Customized Plant Peptides", because this weight loss pill almost ruined her.
In 2019, when 23-year-old Sun Yun graduated from university, she had a standard figure with a height of 1.63 meters and a weight of 116 kg, but she was not satisfied.
"At that time, there were various body challenges on the Internet, vest line, mermaid line, and backhand touching the belly button, which made me feel that my body was'slightly fat', so I wanted to lose weight quickly." Sun Yun said.
One day, Sun Yun accidentally saw a promotional picture of a weight-loss drug saying "Eat a piece of bag to lose 3 to 5 kilograms" on a social platform.
This made Sun Yun moved and contacted the e-commerce company.
The other party replied: "Never rebound, do not exercise, do not harm the body, eat whatever you want, and ensure that you will lose weight."
Sun Yun immediately placed an order with a box of 30 pills at a price of 1,280 yuan.
The other party also recommended slimming cream, slimming enzymes, slimming jelly and other ancillary products, which are called "better effect when taken together."
After his recommendation, Sun Yun bought another box of weight loss enzyme for 300 yuan.
After receiving the goods, Sun Yun took a pill in accordance with the instructions of the other party.
Before long, she felt a sharp abdominal pain and headache.
"After a period of time, the mood is high for a while, and the other is very depressed, and somehow want to cry, flustered, short of breath, and trembling all over. The next morning, I will vomit, keep nausea and nausea."
Sun Yun asked an e-commerce company to reflect the above situation.
The other party replied that this is normal. Fat is burning and the body is adapting. It will be fine after two days. If you can't stand it, you can eat half a pill a day or one pill every other day.
Under the suspicion, Sun Yun insisted on taking one pill every other day for a while. Not only did her symptoms not alleviate, but her body got worse and worse.
She couldn't sleep all night, had heart palpitations, and even showed stereotyped behavior.
"For example, I would sit in front of the dressing table and comb my hair over and over again, and I would swipe up and down aimlessly with my phone. These behaviors were not controlled at all, and my parents were shocked when they saw it."
Sun Yun's sister Sun Qing also took the same weight-loss pills.
Sun Qing was 1.70 meters tall and weighed 120 kilograms, but she still wanted to quickly lose weight to less than 100 kilograms with the help of drugs, so she chose the same weight-loss drug as Sun Yun.
Sun Qing withstood all the negative effects of the diet pills on the body, and ate for 10 days, losing 18 pounds.
Sun Yun recalled that although Sun Qing was thin, he was in an abnormally haggard state: "The entire eye circles are sunken, the dark circles are particularly heavy, his complexion is sallow, and there is no blood at all, it looks like he has a serious illness."
The sisters thought they had a mental problem, so they went to see a psychiatrist together.
After a series of psychological tests and consultations, the psychiatrist told them that their symptoms had nothing to do with their mental illness, and it was probably because they had taken diet pills containing prohibited ingredients.
As a result, Sun Yun bought test strips for testing and found that the weight loss drug she was taking contained sibutramine.
The sisters immediately stopped taking the weight loss pills, but two years have passed since the side effects caused by the weight loss pills have not disappeared.
Sun Qing’s weight once increased to 160 kilograms, and she still feels headaches and heart palpitations from time to time; Sun Yun’s weight has rebounded by 15 kilograms, migraines from time to time, irregular menstruation, and a lot of hair loss.
Sun Yun once took out the weight-loss drug packaging box and inspected it carefully, and found that the "production date" on the outer packaging of the product was marked as a "production date".
"This is definitely a'three no products'! I didn't even find out the first time." Sun Yun said.
28-year-old Liu Xiaojie is from Wuhan, Hubei. Before graduating from university in 2015, she hit a wall many times when she found a job. She thought it was related to her weight of 160 kg, so she made up her mind to lose weight quickly.
She started a slimming capsule on the recommendation of her best friend, and took it on and off for about half a year.
"This experience of taking weight-loss food has had a great impact on my body. It hurts my liver and kidneys. I still have kidney deficiency. After taking the medicine, the person has turned yellow and the heels appear dry and cracked. In winter, I even have dry and cracked bleeding. , It hurts so much that I can hardly land. Menstruation is also disordered, and thyroid nodules were found during the physical examination that year. In fact, my physique was very good before, and there were no minor problems. Eating that slimming capsule completely ruined my body. "Liu Xiaojie said.
Zhang Jun, who lives in Dongcheng District, Beijing, is 25 years old this year. She bought a product called Thai diet candy through an e-commerce three years ago.
After taking it, I crazily wanted to drink water and go to the toilet at first, but then I didn't want to eat all day, and I didn't feel hungry, and it was accompanied by symptoms of anemia.
"In the worst case, as long as you lower your head and lift it up, you will feel dizzy."
Later, Zhang Jun searched the Internet for this product and found that the raw material directly stated that it contained sibutramine.
"At that time, I was so young and so stupid that I could be fooled by this diet food with illegally added ingredients."
Prohibited ingredients are still circulating in the dark
Legal ingredients are not guaranteed to be harmless
Sibutramine mentioned by Sun Yun and Zhang Jun is a more common illegal ingredient in weight-loss drugs.
According to Zhu Yi, an associate professor at the School of Food Science and Technology of China Agricultural University, Sibutramine is a drug that acts on the central nervous system to suppress appetite. Although it has a certain weight loss effect, it may have side effects such as high blood pressure and increased heart rate, which can be caused in severe cases. People died. As early as 2010, China announced the cessation of domestic production, sales and use of sibutramine preparations and APIs.
However, there are still some unscrupulous merchants illegally adding sibutramine to diet foods.
The reporter's investigation found that it is not difficult to buy sibutramine raw materials or finished drugs containing sibutramine.
Reporters searched on multiple social platforms with keywords such as "weight loss", "xibu", and "slimming", and all of them could find information claiming that they "have supply of goods" and "imported goods" in the search results.
A social platform called "Slimming Drug Agent" has 16,000 followers and 69,000 posts. Many posts on the homepage claim that they have reliable sources.
Some users’ nicknames are mysterious, or use homophonic or pinyin initials to imply “sibutramine”, such as “xb India imports”, “Western Xiaoxiao B” and so on.
Some sellers directly posted photos or videos of white flour-like items, saying that they are "first-hand sources, and agents are welcome to talk" and "get it."
These sellers are very cautious.
The reporter added an online account of the seller named "AA First-hand Factory Direct Sales (Slimming)" to get in touch with him.
After the seller applied through the reporter's friend, he stated that he had both the finished product and the raw materials, and sent a large number of drug pictures, saying that he wanted to make capsules or love-shaped pills, as well as candy packaging.
After the reporter asked "Whether it is Xibu", the seller immediately became alert and replied by voice: "Don't mention this when typing, do you not understand."
The seller even offered to verify the identity of the reporter as a buyer and check the reporter's cyberspace.
After not finding any clues, the seller suggested: "Seeing that you don’t understand this business, it is not recommended that you buy the raw materials directly. You can use the bulk ones first, contact the customer, and when the customers are more stable, you can ask me to process the raw materials by yourself. ."
The seller said that if you want to bring a box, 25 tablets a box will sell for 98 yuan, and the wholesale price will be discussed separately.
"Don't be too expensive for the initial investment. We usually sell a box of 298 yuan or 368 yuan to our customers."
Except for weight-loss foods with harmful ingredients such as sibutramine added illegally, there are no shortage of weight-loss granules, weight-loss enzymes and other foods that contain legal additives on the weight-loss food market.
However, the legal addition of ingredients does not mean that it is harmless to the human body after consumption.
Zhu Yi told reporters that weight-loss foods such as enzymes are very popular in the market, but if you want to achieve the claimed effect and lose weight immediately, you may add some laxatives, even legally added aloe vera, cassia seed, etc., as well as rhubarb and sesame seeds used in Chinese medicine. Digestive leaves, etc., long-term use may also cause melanosis of the colon.
"This is a non-inflammatory disease. Some people don't feel it. Some people can cause constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, anal swelling and other discomforts. At present, it is believed that the risk of melanizing intestinal mucosa polyps and cancer may increase." Zhu Yi Say.
This also means that regardless of whether it contains illegally added ingredients, relying too much on diet food to lose weight may have a certain impact on human health.
Weight loss food promotion is pervasive
Online sales own language system
Although weight-loss foods have an impact on human health, the promotion of such foods is everywhere, such as pop-up advertisements, social platform promotion, shopping website homepage push...
When the reporter browsed the hot search on some online platforms, it was found that under relevant hot search news, some people quietly turned to claim that they had taken a certain diet food after commenting.
For example, under the hot news about a celebrity being notified by the police, a netizen named "Please call me Yanbaba" left a message saying: "Thank you Chaoyang people, your circle is really messy. At that time, it was also for the fans who participated in him. At the meet-and-greet, I drink slimming drinks every day. I lose a lot of weight and change my pear-shaped body..." Then, the netizen himself replied to the comment: "I used the slimming drink some time ago. I have posted it in cyberspace!"
In the next few days, the reporter found in different hot search news reviews that many accounts such as "Duanshu classmate" and "Da Shunan" used similar expressions to attract people's attention to the "slimming drink" they promoted.
The reporter clicked on these accounts and found that the latest two blog posts on the homepages of all accounts were exactly the same, and they posted 3 identical gym-mirror selfies, with the text saying: "Recently I have lost a lot of weight, and the class reunion has been praised again. , Happy." The online accounts recommended by these accounts are all the same person-an e-commerce company named "Huanhuan Xiaogongju 8".
The cyberspace of "Huahuan Xiaogongju 8" is full of various weight loss texts, along with screenshots of transfers and collections of various retail products.
Her main weight loss products are divided into 598 yuan ordinary package, 1100 yuan special effects package and 1700 yuan enhanced package.
This e-commerce company recommends a product with its own language system.
After the reporter asked her how to purchase the weight loss package, she sent a list of questions, saying that she wanted to "see which product is suitable for the baby according to the specific situation". The questions in the question list include: height, age, weight, and whether the product has been used. , Used several products, etc.
When the reporter added her friends with different accounts and filled in completely different information, all she recommended was the same product.
When the reporter asked "Is there any side effects on the body", he replied: "Our products are national QS certified food grade, 100% without side effects."
Subsequently, the reporter searched the Chinese trademark website with the brand name "Kafuqing" printed on the set of boxes and found that the applicant was Zhejiang Yifanzi Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
However, whether it is "Kafuqing" or "Zhejiang Yifanzi Biological Technology Co., Ltd.", the search results are "none" on the information query platform of food production license certified enterprises of the State Administration for Market Regulation.
The routine of diet food e-commerce is also reflected in the "face change" before and after buying.
When buying a "sister" or "kiss", you will become a stranger immediately after you transfer the money.
Sun Yun has a deep understanding of this. After seeing a psychologist and using test strips to detect illegal ingredients, she contacted the e-commerce company and found that she had been deleted by the other party as a friend.
Sun Yun asked her girlfriend to add the e-commerce company as a friend again, and found that she had switched to selling weight-loss milk tea, but the copywriting and pictures in the cyberspace remained the same.
Establish a sound joint law enforcement mechanism
Strengthen supervision and punishment
Regarding the chaos in the diet food market, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society, said that from consumer complaints, the diet food market mainly has problems such as false propaganda and illegal addition of prohibited ingredients.
In his opinion, in order to seek more economic benefits, some businesses do not hesitate to deceive and mislead consumers by exaggerating the efficacy of weight-loss foods, and infringe consumers’ right to know and choose; some businesses pursue immediate weight-loss results. Even adding prohibited ingredients to weight-loss products seriously endangers the lives and health of consumers.
"If these problems are not effectively resolved, it will not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, but also disrupt the order of the diet food market, affect the business reputation of the industry, and is not conducive to the healthy development of the industry." Chen Yinjiang said.
Why this chaos has not been effectively managed?
Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economics and Law at East China University of Political Science and Law, believes that the root causes are urgent consumer demand, low illegal costs, and high difficulty in safeguarding rights.
“When sellers are discovered, they usually face fines and lighter criminal liabilities. Compared with the huge profits of selling products, the punishment is insufficient. In contrast, for ordinary consumers, proof is a big problem.”
"Relevant businesses require consumers to produce inspection reports to prove that the products contain illegally added ingredients, but this is not easy for ordinary consumers." Ren Chao introduced, and more importantly, there are regulatory blind spots in the online sales of weight-loss food, causing the Internet The food business threshold is low, and relevant information review is not strict.
Ren Chao also mentioned that in order to evade inspections by relevant government departments, merchants illegally add prohibited ingredients in ways that are becoming more and more concealed. Some "enterprises" even have special R&D teams to research additives; some are placed on the counter of pharmacies. Products are usually qualified products, but the ones that are actually sold to consumers are products that contain prohibited ingredients, which makes the supervision more difficult.
Chen Yinjiang also found that the current sales channels for weight-loss foods are becoming more and more concealed.
"Before it was mainly offline sales. Whether it was false propaganda or product quality issues, it was relatively easier to supervise. Now it is mostly online sales, and some are even one-to-one transactions through online platforms, whether it is a platform or a regulatory authority. It is difficult to incorporate it into daily supervision."
Regarding the supervision of weight-loss food, Ren Chao suggested that multiple government departments such as health and market supervision should establish and improve joint law enforcement mechanisms, increase the supervision and investigation of illegal weight-loss foods, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Severe penalties should also be imposed on the exaggeration and falsehood of weight-loss advertisements. The market supervision department can order operators to stop advertising and impose corresponding fines.
Chen Yinjiang said that e-commerce platforms should strengthen qualification review of merchants, increase daily management and inspection, and rely on big data technology to carry out research and judgment analysis. Once false propaganda or consumer complaints are found on the platform, corresponding measures should be taken in a timely manner It also maintains data sharing with market supervision departments, and does not leave any illegal profit space for illegal businesses.
“Consumers should enhance their health knowledge and legal awareness, and don’t blindly believe in the false propaganda of businesses, and do not blindly pursue the efficacy of weight-loss products. Products that over-advertise the efficacy of weight-loss must be carefully purchased. If rights and interests are harmed, they must be collected in time. Relevant evidence, protect your legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law." Chen Yinjiang said.
(At the request of interviewees, Sun Yun, Sun Qing, Liu Xiaojie, and Zhang Jun are pseudonyms in the text)
Manga / Takaoka