It feels like every day there’s something in the press about why diet pills suck. They are the Donald Trump of medicine. And yet, like POTUS, they have an unreasonable share of support, despite their glaring problems.
In fact, a third of dieters are still secretly buying these snake oil capsules from the comfort of their own wifi connection, despite surely having at least an inkling about the side effects. Of those, almost two in three suffered side effects including diarrhoea, non-stop bleeding, blurred vision and heart problems, according to a new survey of nearly 2,000 dieters.
‘Diet pills can be dangerous, especially if purchased over the internet as you can never be sure what is put inside them,’ says Harley Street Nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert‘Many of the diet pills marketed are just money-makers with studies showing no significant difference. Raspberry ketones are claimed to cause the fat within cells to be broken down more effectively, helping the body burn fat faster. But because there are no human studies, there is no good data on side effects or a science-backed recommended dosage.’
What’s their appeal? As with so many things, it’s the lure of the quick fix. ‘People don’t want to go through the pain of dieting, so they look for a miracle cure,’ says Lynda. ‘They also expect products labelled “safe,” “natural” or “herbal” to be just that, but the people selling them are criminals. They don’t care about your health, they only care about your money.’
Rae Martin, 41, is a former model and used diet pills prolifically to lose weight for her career around 10 years ago.
‘I used to go to a dodgy doctor who had a proper practice, but at night when everyone had gone home he’d turn it into a slimming clinic,’ she says. ‘We were sold what was essentially speed. We used to buy a month’s worth at a time, at around £80-90 of today’s money. I weighed 7st10 and he told me I needed to lose more weight
‘I took laxatives at the same time and if I needed to lose weight quickly for a job I’d take double the diet pills. I was really paranoid all the time and my skin went to pot. I went down around two dress sizes, even though I never needed to lose weight. I did it for about a year, and afterwards it took ages for my appetite to return to normal. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.’
As much as we might like the idea of effortless weight loss, it comes at too heavy a price, both financially and physically. ‘Ultimately diet pills should not be seen as an effective method for losing weight as they don't address the core lifestyle behaviours which promote the weight gain in the first place,’ says Rhiannon.
And we don’t even know yet what the long-term effects of these drugs will be. Ultimately, as Lynda points out: ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ If there was ever a time for the body positive movement to shine, it’s now.
*If you’re worried about ordering medication online, the MRHA has set up a **Fake Meds website *Fake Meds website*where you can check the safety of anything you buy. *
**You might also be interested in: ** Interpol Issues Global Warning Over 'Toxic' Diet Pills Study Claims Weighing Yourself Every Day Can Lead To Depression
Rhiannon’s Book Re-Nourish: A Simple Way To Eat Well is out on December 28
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.