What’s this all about?” the editor asked, tossing over a full-page magazine ad for Confitrim, a weight-loss product. A headline screamed: “I lost 38 pounds fast! And no dieting!” With it were photos of “Jan H., Dallas, Tex.,” one showmg her rather hefty and holding a baby. Next to it was an “after” pose of Ms. H., much thinner in torn jean cutoffs and a tight-fitting tank top. Two other testimonials adorned the page. Those too used only first names.
Could Confitrim be the solution to obesity? Is it a well-honed scam? Or something in between?
The advertising copy was even less specific than the names. It talked about a “newly released formula” with “two major ingredients that are on the cutting edge of weight loss technology.
“Comprehensive research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shown one ingredient actually stops the body from storing fat,” the ad said. The other has the “amazing ability to decrease existing body fat.” Neither ingredient was named.
This was too good to be true: Off went a check for $23.95 plus $4 for handling for a month’s supply of 90 tabets
The Confitrim ads aren’t much different from dozens of advertisements for diet supplements and vltamm mlxes marketed in magazines and on TV to help you lose weight or build muscle, keep you young or enhance your mental capacity.
The order arrived with a brochure explaining that the main ingredients were chromium picolinate (a synthetic compound promoted by several companies as a “miracle” weight-loss aid) and hydroxycitric acid, derived from the Garcina cambogia plant, also hailed as a diet aid and “fat blocker.”
Three pills (the daily recommended dose) contained 200 micrograms of chromium picolinate, 375 miligrams of HCA, and small amounts of ginseng, bee pollen, ginger, gotu kola, kola nut and kelp.
(Mail-order is not the only source for these sorts of pills. Walgreens recently was selling a 250-count bottle of chromium picolinate pills for $13, and 60 1,000-milligram tablets of Garcina cambogia were $20, under the brand name Citrimax.)
The Confitrim brochure explained that you could lose weight without diet or exercise, but the loss would be accelerated by cutting down on fat in the diet, exercising and keeping calories to 1,200 to 1,500 a day. Since that’s fewer calories than most people need to maintain their present weight, that constitutes a diet, most dietitians say.
So are these compounds effective?
“As far as chromium picolinate is concerned, it doesn’t work. Period,” says Judith S. Stern, professor of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California at Davis and chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Obesity and Weight Control.
Research bears her out.
An early study by Gary Evans, who developed chromium picolinate while he worked as a researcher for the USDA, shows it may affect insulin metabolism and thereby muscle mass. But subsequent and better-run studies have failed to confirm his work. Experts, including one from the same USDA facility in Grand Forks, N.D., where Evans worked, say chromium picolinate not only doesn’t work for weight-loss, but could pose health problems. After he recently conducted a small study at the USDA Human Nutrition Center in Grand Forks, research leader Hank Lukaski concluded: “There may be some value but it’s not yet identified. Whatever it is, it is not a miracle cure for obesity”
A soon-to-be published study of 95 overweight U.S. naval personnel at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego found “chromium picolinate was ineffective in enhancing body fat reduction,” said chief research psychologist Linda K. Trent.
Meanwhile, Gerhard Schrauzer, professor of chemistry and director of the Bio Trace Element Institute at the University of California at San Diego, is concerned about possible neurological effects of long-term chromium consumption.
A small study plus other anecdotal evidence has persuaded him that people who take chromium picolinate supplements in amounts as small as 50 micrograms a day may experience irregular sleep and increased dream activity, some of it described as bizarre, violent and frightening, Schrauzer says.
What about HCA? So far there are no published studies of HCA’s effect on humans; most of the animal experiments have been conducted by the drug company Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. of Nutley, N J.
“Although several studies in obese rats have shown HCA treatment lowers body weight and cholesterol levels, no clinical studies were by Hoffman-LaRoche,” Arthur Campfield says. He is research leader at the firm’s Department of Metabolic Scientists there did conduct clinical studies in humans with a synthetic analog of HCA and found it “did not show sufficient efficacy in producing weight loss,” he says.
Work on the project was stopped however, partly because “animal safety studies uSing high doses of HCA resulted in altered reproductive and pul- monary systems.”
Attempts by the Tribune to find anyone connected with Confitrim to talk about the product have been unsuccessful, either at the mailing address in Shawnee Mission, Kan., or at a company called Nutritional Market in Pompano Beach, Fla., whose number we were referred to.
Our experiences with Confitrim are encountered by many who respond to such ads.
Stern and other experts say losing weight requires hard work and commitment. Medically supervised drug therapy may help, but that also may entail long-term dosage, Stern says.
So-called “miracle pills” do nothing but frustrate and disappoint, obesity experts have concluded.
So far the Food and Drug Administration, which polices dietary supplements and drugs, has been monitoring companies’ claims for chromium picolinate and HCA but hasn’t taken action. The companies are careful to avoid direct health claims that might violate FDA regulations. One TV commercial shows a bottle of chromium picolinate and states “You know what it does. Here’s how to get it.”
Schrauzer says the body needs only 2.5 micrograms of chromium picolinate a day, not 400 micrograms, the dosage usually prescribed by supplement sellers. Though it may be ineffective, it may not be harmless, he concludes. There is no long-term research on what it could do to insulin metabolism or possibly mental function.
With HCA the situation is similar, experts say How eager are you to experiment with a compound that so far has only been tried on rats?
