No surprises here but the Food and Drug Association (FDA) just announced that it’s expanding, for the second time, its nationwide alert to consumers about potentially harmful weight loss products.

In total there were 72 weight loss products recalled. While that’s not a groundbreaking story there is a story behind the story that must be told about what’s going on with the FDA. This is supposed to be the government agency that we trust to protect our health risks from foods, dietary supplements, and prescription drugs. But “trust” and “government” are two words that don’t seem to go together these days and this is just yet another example.

How in the world most of these products even made it on the shelves is beyond me but that’s the reality with today’s FDA. They’ll be praised for this recall in the media but the truth is there’s very little regulation to keep potentionally harmful products from being sold in the first place.

While the FDA’s mission statement is to “protect the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of food and drugs,” what we the American people get with the current policies is potentially dangerous products being sold over the counter at your local CVS.

Whether it’s from a lack of funding, a lack of integrity, greed, or simply corruption, the protective motivation that was once the driving force of the FDA has been lost in today’s bureaucracy.

A more accurate mission statement would read “to push through and approve as many unknown pills and prescription medicines for profit as soon as possible while suppressing anything natural, non-patentable, or profitable to their agency.”

To think that the FDA really has the people’s best interest is very suspect in my opinion. There’s more going on here than the average person walking the street has any clue about.

Here’s a short run down on the real problem with FDA regulatory guidelines.

Regulatory requirements differ within the FDA depending on how a product is “classified.” If a product is classified as a “dietary supplement” it falls under a completely different set of rules compared to conventional foods or drug products.

Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement MANUFACTURER is responsible for ensuring that its products are safe before they are marketed.

That’s right, the dietary supplement “manufacturers” are left to regulate themselves and determine if their products are safe. Anybody but me see a problem with this?

Generally, manufacturers do not need to register their products with the FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements.

So here’s what happens. Weight loss supplement manufacturers will go ahead and crank out a new product and wait to see if the FDA catches up to them. Often times this does happen if the product contains any ingredients that would classify it as a “drug” under FDA guidelines.

That’s exactly what happened with the 72 weight loss supplements that were just recalled. An example would be the ingredient “sibutramine” which is a Schedule IV controlled substance and active pharmaceutical ingredient in Meridia, an FDA approved drug to treat obesity.

Is sibutramine safe? Who knows but some of the recalled weight loss supplements recommended taking more than 3 times the approved daily dosage. Because of this, even consumers without a history of health problems that take these high doses may suffer serious adverse effects such as increased blood pressure, tachycardia, heart palpitations, and seizure. While I am happy that these products were recalled there’s a bigger problem at the forefront of all this.

Weight loss supplement manufacturers aren’t stupid and they’re exploiting the FDA loopholes.

The big boys (pharmaceutical drug manufacturers) spend millions of dollars to get their products approved by the FDA then the weight loss supplement manufacturers will swipe an active ingredient and try to sneak it in as a “dietary supplement.”

The problem is they can recommended any dosage level they want without FDA approval first. Remember “dietary supplement” manufacturers can regulate themselves.

By the time the FDA catches up to them and they’re forced to recall or pull products from the shelves they’ve made a ton of dough and will just shut everything down and go on to the next lucrative product.

Here’s the bottom line. You need to know there’s so little regulation with these products that you really don’t have any idea what you’re sticking in you body if you choose to roll the dice and take them.

There’s no substitute for changing the hormonal balances in your body necessary for real and lasting fat loss other than with physical exercise and supportive nutrition. But as long as people in our society search for the answer in a bottle or some other quick and easy fix we’ll have a demand for this junk.

And as long as there is a demand, then yes we’ll have a supply coming from somewhere. I get that reality but the general public in this country should be able to buy products from the shelves of their local drug store with some degree of confidence in their safety and effectiveness.

The FDA needs to change their regulatory guidelines so that all products are required to be registered BEFORE being released to the public.

The way it stands now you can run the same if not more risk buying weight loss products over the counter than you would buying from something off the black market.

By requiring “dietary supplement” manufacturers to register their products with the FDA first we’d weed out half the scam artists who are willing to run the gauntlet until they get caught.

My position on weight loss supplements has and always will be that they’re a waste of your money and subject your body to unnecessary health risks. Heck, regardless of whether or not they’re safe the vast majority of them have been proven to be ineffective in the first place.

My prescription is as follows; exercise daily, eat plenty of whole-natural foods, take Juice Plus to get in extra antioxidants and phytonutrients (forget daily multi-vitamins), take an Omega 3 supplement like flax oil or fish oil, and get adequate rest. That’s it in a nutshell. The prescription for weight loss and optimal health hasn’t changed since the dawn of time and I don’t predict it to change anytime soon.

Shane Doll is a certified personal trainer, fat loss expert, speaker, author, and founder of Shaping Concepts Fitness Training Studios. Learn more about how you can receive a FREE no obligations trial of his Charleston personal training programs.

Posted: Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

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Category: weight loss.

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