Reverse Anal Leakage

NINJA'S FAVORITE
Originally uploaded by roboppy

Anal leakage seems to be the popular way to lose weight, doesn't it? Both olestra and alli have that as one of the possible side effects, with the alli instruction manual going as far as to suggest that you wear dark pants and keep an extra pair in your car. I've had some weird stomach troubles when changing my diet dramatically (i.e. lots of junk food to lots of vegetables) but never to the point where I feared I might spring a leak.

Now it seems that the opposite problem may be an excellent way to lose weight as well! Glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber made from the konjac plant, apparently helps in the battle of the bulge. It does this in two ways; the first is by slowing down the absorption of sugar in the intestines and the second is swelling up in the stomach to give you a full feeling. Fiber, better regulated blood sugar and satiety? Sounds perfect, right?

The only problem is that people taking this natural supplement have suffered from intestinal and esophageal obstruction. For that reason, several countries have already banned it. I'm not sure if intestinal obstruction is worse than constipation, but not being able to swallow food or water because your esophagus is blocked can't be good.

Drink Coffee to Lose Weight!

Coffee Break
Originally uploaded by bitzcelt

Despite the fact that they apparently advertised everywhere, I some how missed the amazing Slim Coffee. If I had known that I could lose weight just by drinking coffee infused with hoodia, I would have been all over that. I mean come on people! Who doesn't want to lose weight without changing their eating habits?

Oh wait, that sounds like a scam, doesn't it?

Thankfully, the Federal Trade Commission thought so as well. Under a proposed settlement with Diet Coffee, Inc., the makers of Slim Coffee, the company is forbidden "from claiming that any product enables users to lose substantial weight without reducing caloric intake or increasing physical activity." The settlement also contains nearly a million dollars in monetary damages, but those have been suspended because the defendant is unable to pay.

The company advertised their snake oil on popular television networks, radio stations and in newspapers. That just serves as a reminder that some ad-supported businesses care more about their revenue than the well-being of their customers.

Weight-Loss Drug in the News

Pretty pills.
Originally uploaded by nicasaurusrex

Sadly, it is inevitable. Drug companies will continue to search for the miracle prescription drug that they can peddle to overweight people with the promise of dropping the pounds. The diet industry is a billion dollar a year business and pharmaceutical companies want their piece of the pie. Like all medicine, there are always potential side effects.

One of the new experimental drugs, taranabant, is currently undergoing clinical trials. The results, funded by Merch Research Labratories (who also developed the drug), were published in the January issue of Cell Metabolism. This particular drug works by blocking the same pleasure centers in the brain that cause the munchies in marijuana users. This reduces hunger and supposedly helps people lose weight.

However, the results aren't anything to write home about. The test subjects who took the highest dose of the drug lost an average of 11 pounds in 12 weeks while following a reduced-calorie eating plan. In a seperate study, those who took the large dose reduced their daily calorie intake by 22%. In a diet of 2000 calories, 22% means the person was eating 440 calories less per day, which is a little less than needed to lose one pound per week.

Do we really need medicine to lose weight at one pound per week while eating a low-calorie eating plan? It is also worth noting that the group taking the largest dose of the drug also had the highest frequency of side effects. Over half of them reported gastrointestinal problems while a little less than a quarter reported psychiatric effects.

Dr. Steven R. Smith, a professor and employee at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, commented on this drug and the possibility of the FDA approving it for use.

I think this class of drugs, should it make it to market, is going to need to be reserved for people who have complications related to their obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or severe osteoarthritis.

While that sounds good, we won't know if Merck feels the same way until we see what advertising they do for this new drug.

Salad with your Oil, Sir?

Fresh olive oil on counter
Originally uploaded by madmaxx

One of the things that has saved me so far on the Atkins diet is being able to put some sort of dressing on my salad. Normally, salad dressings are forbidden or limited to the meager two tablespoon serving. I'm one of those people who regularly is asked "Would you like some salad with your dressing?" Thankfully, vegetable oil mixed with vingegar is carb free. A number of oils have health benefits aside from being non-carb calories!

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil Full of antioxidants and helps promote heart health.
• Canola Oil Enriched with omega-3 fatty acid, this type of oil can help raise HDL, the good type of cholesterol.
• Grapeseed Oil A good source of vitamins A & E.
• Walnut Oil While a rich source of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, this oil was apparently a popular snake oil in the past!

Throughout the ages, walnut oil has been thought to be a cure for many ailments, including stomach & skin problems, tuberculosis, hairloss, diabetes and various sexual afflictions.

So enjoy your oil and vinegar dressing! My current favorite recipe is equal parts of red wine vinegar, extra light olive oil and yellow mustard. I prefer the extra light olive oil to the extra virgin variety for purely taste reasons. Despite its health benefits, I can't stomach the extra virgin flavor.

Supressing the Fat Storage Mechanism

Zebrafish
Originally uploaded by odoyle81

I'm a firm believer that science isn't going to come up with a magical pill that will help the obese lose weight -- at least without horrible side affects. Heart valve damage, heart attack and anal leakage are all problems faced by dieters who have used the snake oil pills available over the last decade. However, the diet industry is big business and that means scientist haven't stopped looking for the obesity panacea.

Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University recently identified the genes responsible for packaging fat inside of our cells. In humans, packaging excessive amounts of fat inside of our bodies is what leads to obesity. The scientists then altered the DNA of zebrafish to suppress the packaging of fat. After being fed a high-fat diet and exhibiting normal feeding behavior, it was found that the zebrafish had very little packaged fat. Dr. David Silver, assistant professor of biochemistry at Einstein, believes that powerful drugs can be developed based on this research.

Such drugs could prove extremely valuable, not only for treating the main result of excess lipid droplet accumulation -- obesity -- but for alleviating the serious disorders that arise from obesity including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Negative Calorie Foods

celery
Originally uploaded by Daveybot

The other day I was listening to an episode of a now defunct podcast, and the one host said that she was allowed to eat all of the celery she wanted because it was a negative calorie food. I've heard that Enviga claims to burn more calories than it has in it, but I hadn't heard that some foods were naturally like that.

Well, the truth is, they aren't. According to an article on the Weight Loss International site, there is only one negative calorie food: cardboard. Since our bodies lack the enzymes needed to properly digest cardboard, it would pass through our body without being broken down. This passing process would take a very minimal amount of energy.

The foods on the "negative calorie" list include some really healthy choices though, like celery, broccoli and lettuce. So even if these foods don't help you lose weight by burning extra calories, they will help by being better for you than donuts and cupcakes.

Snake Oil Vending Machine

As if it wasn't bad enough that vending machines nation wide are stuffed to the brim with unhealthy snacks, leaving very little room for healthy choices, now it appears that we're going to be seeing snake oil in them. I saw this video of a weight loss vending machine over on GeekFit and I have to say, it looks like someone spent a lot of money to develop an infomercial on wheels. At least it has one of the classic scam warning signs of; a bogus promise:

Eat all you want and still lose weight.

Read the Fine Print

A few years ago, I noticed an article in a salicious magazine that read more like an advertisement than anything else. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that, in very small print, the article did admit to being an advertisement. I chalked it up to being another seedy ad for a male enhancement product, similar to the glut of junk e-mail I receive daily.

But since then, I've noticed similar borderline deceptive advertisements in more main stream magazines. In my mind, these companies wouldn't be advertising their herbal supplements for erections, weight loss and more in this manner unless they hoped to confuse the reader in to believing it is a real article. Although it has been some time since I read a newspaper, it would appear that they too are plagued by these article-formatted advertisements too.

Two days after the Vytalin ad, there followed a full-page ad for a "joint health miracle" found in a product known as Trigosamine. This particular "breakthrough" was described in what was designed to look like a news story, complete with a writer's byline.

If you see an article in a reputable magazine or newspaper extolling the virtues of a new miracle weightloss pill, make sure you search the entire page for that small "Advertising" label. Better yet, research the claim by turning to the internet, your doctor or your pharmacist.