British comedian Dawn French once noticed her image being used in an advertisement for a fat-burning supplement called raspberry ketone, claiming she lost more than 6% of her weight in 5 months.

She quickly denied this through her Twitter account, describing it as nonsense.

"This is just one example of the many herbal and nutritional supplements touted as effective for weight loss on the Internet, and are supported by false claims," ​​says Gunter Kunll, Professor of Nutrition at the University of Reading.

The unavailability of safe drugs is causing people to make random choices. "People who are overweight may buy anything they come across, out of desperation," says Dr. Abdul-Tahrany, a consultant endocrinologist at Birmingham University Hospitals.

Sibutramine, an appetite suppressant, was withdrawn from the UK in 2010 after it was suspected of causing an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Safe weight loss drugs

According to Professor John Wass, professor of endocrinology at the University of Oxford, there are drugs that may help to lose weight quickly and safely, especially the drug "liraglutide-Rx" - issued by other names, namely: "Victoza". and Saxenda - which reduces body weight by an average of 7.5%, in as little as 9 months, by mimicking a hormone that suppresses appetite.

And research, which included 195 obese people, showed that they lost 16 percent of their weight in one year, after they were given this drug daily, in parallel with regular exercise.

But National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines limit this drug to people who are obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or more.

And those who suffer from prediabetes, and high blood pressure.

With adherence to a healthy diet and exercise, they are essential, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Among the safe weight-loss drugs, Dr. Wass recommends Orlistat, which blocks fat absorption, reduces 3% of weight per year, and has 355,000 prescriptions issued in the UK in 2019.

Losing weight is not easy

It is not easy to lose weight by eating less and exercising more, “about 70% of cases of excess weight are genetic,” so people need drugs, because they are “effective, safe and have few side effects, and can reduce more than 5% of excess weight, Within 3 months," according to Dr.

But Professor Connell warns that "we have to be aware of the ingredients of the drug, especially when buying online."

Dr. Al-Tehrany adds that people are not only attracted to herbs or nutritional supplements, but also buy any medicines online, so he considers that bariatric surgery, gastric bypass or gastric bypass, remains a safe solution for people who suffer from excessive weight, "This type of of surgery can help patients lose up to 60% of their excess weight.”

If a BMI is 40 or more, and obesity is linked to diabetes, it may make it more difficult to obtain it.

Beware of wasting your money

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), worldwide obesity has tripled since 1975. In Britain alone, a third of the population is now 'obese', down from 5% in the 1970s.

This global boom was accompanied by another explosion in the sales of nutritional and herbal supplements that made it exceed $140 billion in 2020, according to the British Dailymail.

A recent review of 121 studies of weight loss supplements found "insufficient evidence that herbal and dietary supplements lead to significant weight loss."

In 2018, a US study identified 776 "fraudulent" supplements sold between 2007 and 2016, 40% of them for weight loss.

A two-part study, published in 2020 and 2021, also looked at trials of 60 different types of these supplements, and none found a significant effect either.

"People are wasting their money on these supplements," said the study's author.

Popular Supplements

The companies that make popular weight loss supplements claim that their products "accelerate the metabolism, or block the absorption of fat or starch", but Professor Connell says they are "making their claims based on lab experiments on animals, not humans".

For example, raspberry ketone supplements are claimed to promote weight loss by speeding up metabolism, but Connell says that "close examination reveals that this is based on studies in mice."

As for green tea extract, a study from Taiwan published in 2016, found that it may cause “an increase in liver enzymes,” so Connell warns, drinking more than 800 milligrams (1.2 liters) of it a day, “so that it does not become toxic to the liver.” ".

Also apple cider vinegar supplements. Although a study published in 2018 showed that people who consumed 30 milliliters of apple cider vinegar daily lost 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) of weight over a 12-week period, Connell questions the "mechanism of this study."

Another commonly used substance is the laxative drug phenolphthalein, a possible carcinogen that may also lead to stomach problems.

According to Connell.

Another supplement called Dinitrophenol-DNP is sold as a "fat burner."

It contains a chemical used to make munitions in World War I and has caused 32 deaths in the UK since 2007.

But Connell is ultimately more convinced of the white kidney bean supplement, "because they block the absorption of starch by inhibiting enzymes, which makes you feel fuller for longer, and reduces your hunger."