Bitter pills to swallow

10th February 2009

The government’s list of dangerous diet pills is fast growing. The FDA issued warnings for some 30 diet pills in December. Now that list has grown to nearly 70, as reported by the New York Times.

The FDA has found dozens of weight-loss supplements, most of them imported from China, to contain hidden and potentially harmful drugs. Here’s the kicker: This list represents only a small fraction of the dangerous, often ineffective diet pills available in what is a $1.7 billion dollar a year market. The Times explains:

As the F.D.A. continues to investigate, many questions remain to be answered — including who put the drugs in the pills and who knew about it. But some doctors and other experts say the F.D.A. inquiry raises a larger issue: Whether the regulations governing dietary supplements leave consumers who take so-called natural weight-loss supplements to unknowingly play Russian roulette with their health.

Enacted in 1994, the main law on dietary supplements gives the F.D.A. jurisdiction only after the products go on the market. Rather than reviewing the supplements and approving them for sale, as the agency does with drugs, the F.D.A. is limited to spot-checking manufacturers and distributors, and testing products already on store shelves. Even the F.D.A. acknowledges there may be hundreds of other drug-contaminated weight-loss supplements for sale that the agency does not have the resources to identify.

But even when the agency identifies contaminated products, it does not have the ability to remove the pills from stores, because it is initially up to companies to issue a recall.

Emphasis mine. For a full list of tainted and dangerous pills (to date), click here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Diets, Drugs & Medications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On February 10th, 2009, shilohmm said:

Man, that’s just plain evil. Shouldn’t be surprising, in view of the lunacy of the whole “obesity epidemic” nonsense, I suppose, yet the stupidity of it all continues to astonish me.

posted on February 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

2 On February 11th, 2009, ani said:

i’m confused about the body thing in general. i see on your blog that you don’t think being fat is a bad thing- but isn’t it bad for your health? i agree with healthy body acceptance, but i don’t understand why Fat should be loved. I understand people have different body types and are healthy at different weights. but having too much fat on the body can’t be healthy.

posted on February 11th, 2009 at 11:00 am

3 On February 11th, 2009, Rachel said:

Hi Ani — To answer your questions… I don’t think there is a weight limit on body acceptance and self-love. In other words, I don’t think body acceptance is only for people who wear a size 12 or below! Weight is a factor in health issues for some people, but not all and many studies now indicate that fatness itself isn’t the health boogeyman that it’s thought to be. And as someone who has lost a considerable amount of weight and sustained most of it for more than 5 years, I don’t think self-loathing is conducive to sustainable, healthy weight loss. It was only after I began to accept myself and value myself as a person that I was finally able to escape the self-destructive behaviors that both contributed to my high weight and to my subsequent eating disorder.

My goal is to help people develop healthy relationships with food and their body so that their body stabilizes at a weight healthy for them — which may or may not be thin.

posted on February 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am

4 On March 23rd, 2009, What’s the craziest diet you’ve ever tried? » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] 1970s diet trend: diet pills The era touted the miracle of diet pills… In essence, they promised you could stuff your face with pizza and bread without consequences. After reports of vomiting and abdominal pain, however, the FDA pulled the pills in 1983 to investigate the long-term side effects. Dexatrim was another pill of the era. The appetite suppressant contained the drug PPA (phenylpropanolamine), and in 2000, it too was pulled from the market. The pill was eventually reincarnated as Dexatrim Natural Ephedrine-Free… [Diet pills are very unhealthy and some are even downright dangerous -- the FDA has listed warnings for diet pills and supplements here.] [...]

posted on March 23rd, 2009 at 12:59 pm

5 On April 7th, 2009, The Truth about the Weight Watcher’s Hunger Monster Commercials » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] from Weight Watchers over one of the dozens of weight-loss supplement companies the FDA has issued serious health warnings for. And while I think the whole concept of denying one’s hunger to be seriously and [...]

posted on April 7th, 2009 at 12:10 am