Dieting supplements exist almost everywhere today. Each year millions of people experiment with different supplementations and products, in an attempt to find the “cure” for their weight problem. The problem with this is that although some of these products do cause us to lose weight, are they really all that safe for our bodies.

There are a few problems however; with these kinds of products, and supplementations. Most of the products out there are a combination of herbs, and other ingredients that have been put together and made into a pill. This mixture often curbs appetite, increases metabolism, and fights the absorption of fat. Now this sounds all good but the problem is that minimal studies have been done on these individual ingredients as to the short term and long term effects on the human body.

This presents a problem as millions are losing weight, but at the expense of serious health problems, or even death. An example of this was the ingredient ephedrine (ma huang), for a while this was the “miracle thing” that helped all kinds of people to lose weight, until it was also shown to cause strokes, heart attacks, seizures, insomnia, etc. Unfortunately for some this discovery came too late.

Common herbal laxatives found in some weight loss supplements out there such as, cascara, senna, buckthorn, aloe and rhubarb root. These are meant to cause more frequents bowel movements in order to rid your bowels of waste making your stomach look flatter. These types of herbs however have been linked to causing cramping, diarrhea, and if overused, could cause your bowels to no longer function without a laxative.

Herbal diuretics are also found in weight loss supplementation; these include herbs such as corn silk, buchu, dandelion tops or couch grass, these types of herbs encourage your body to rid itself of its fluids. The problem with this is that it rids your body of important electrolytes that it needs, as well as causing dehydration. Prolonged use of these herbs has been shown to cause kidney damage, and heart failure.

Losing weight is tough, and takes a lot of hard work and good eating habits. There are NO magic herbal supplementations, or weight loss supplementations that are going to just melt your fat away, safely and effectively. The most these supplementations will do for you are to help you lose water weight, and some fat, while not teaching you to change your eating habits and exercise levels. Upon ending supplementation with these products you will gain all the weight back. Above this more and more studies are showing new dangers of these kinds of supplementation.

My final advice, there are some safe and effective supplements that I recommend using on my Recommended Supplementation page but for the most part skip the weight loss pills and the understudied herbal supplements, eat healthier, exercise more and you will not only lose weight and keep it off but you will save your body from harmful products.