Undeclared ingredients in weight-loss products that could pose serious health risks prompted the FDA to warn American consumers to avoid more than two dozen weight-loss products currently available in stores and online that don’t require FDA approval. Alarmingly, some of the undeclared ingredients contained an anti-seizure drug and a potential carcinogen. There is a much safer weight loss alternative that also offers numerous health benefits: treadmill tables.
Potentially harmful ingredients in these products marketed as “herbal and/or natural” include phenytoin (an anticonvulsant), sibutramine (a controlled substance), rimonabant (unauthorized in the US), and phenolphthalein (suspected of causing cancer).
America’s quest for effective weight-loss products often results in harmful long-term effects and, to date, little long-term success. “These tainted weight loss products pose a major public health risk because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain prescription drugs in amounts that far exceed their maximum recommended dosage,” explained Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain powerful drugs that can have serious health consequences. Therefore, the FDA is taking this action to protect the health of the American public.”
Americans have heard all of this before, but the diet pill industry in this country is more ubiquitous than ever. There has never been a healthy, long-term weight loss product that even remotely compares to a balanced diet and the exercise benefits of walking. Study after study has shown that the weight problem in our country is correlated with significant levels of inactivity. Our bodies require a much higher level of physical activity than our busy schedules currently allow. Weight gain, illness, depression and loss of productivity are the bottom line, and weight loss pills only delay and exacerbate the problem at best.
Treadmill tables offer a solution to the problem by allowing employees to get their jobs done and walk up to 5-12 miles a day without breaking a sweat.
Thanks to Steve Bordley