Hydroxycut Recall – Pills Are Not The Answer
05-03-09
Like many others my weight loss efforts have been going in the wrong direction of late. Of late? Who am I kidding – for the last year really. I haven’t been able to put together any coherent thoughts as to why and what I am going to do about it but what I know I won’t be doing is any fad diets or pills. Maybe I haven’t learned much over the last couple of years but I have learned one thing – losing weight is all about motivation, diligence, will-power and hard work. There are no shortcuts.
The commercials on TV and other media outlets would have you believe otherwise. Hydroxycut is one product I’ve recently seen advertised but I doubt I’ll be seeing it anymore as the FDA has warned the public to stop using the product and the makers of Hydroxycut have voluntarily recalled it from stores.
Over 9 million packages of the product were sold last year and there have been 23 reported cases of liver problems associated with it including one death. While that might not seem like a lot you have to remember that most people wouldn’t actually report problems. Either they wouldn’t put two and two together (who knows what else they are taking?) or they simply don’t want to believe their miracle product would do that to them.
This quote from the article is partiuclary instructive:
“You really have to be careful about dietary supplements, especially weight-loss pills,” said Lobb. “People believe that the FDA has verified that these products are at least safe and effective, and that’s really not the case. When you see fantastic claims — that’s generally what they are.”
There are a couple of key points here – first, that the FDA does not verify these products. It’s rather appalling that a company can sell so much of a product without it being verified but that’s how it goes – people need to be educated on that. The second salient point is that there are no miracle solutions – if you see a claim that isn’t related to eating less and exercising more than you probably have something that isn’t rooted in reality.
Pills are not the answer people. I wish they were because that sure would make this easier, but they are not. Eat less and exercise more. Simple as that.
Tags: diet pills, hydroxycut, pills, recall, weight loss
Your absolutely right, there are no shortcuts! It’s about, like you say, hard work, diligence, motivation and will-power. It is a life long process as well. So many including myself have many times reached goals and then stopped for some reason and then throw away all the hard work. It is so disappointing! I have yet to figure out what it takes to make a life style change but this time around I am really working on it.
I’ve tried several of the fads and they really are just a big waste of money and luckily I did not run into a harmful one. Your absolutely right about the FDA not approving supplements. I found a site http://www.usp.org that does verify the validity of the labels for supplements and many other things as well. It is the best, most reliable information I have found on the web so far about supplements. I will from now on use it exclusively before I purchase anymore supplements.
Hopefully this will be the eye opener that pills aren’t the answer. The fact that hydroxycut is so well known should encourage people to look for alternative methods (ie. exercise and diet) for weight loss, or at the very least educate themselves before using a product.
I must confess, I took Hydroxycut for a short time when it was first gaining in popularity. I remember it having an effect… or maybe it was the diet and exercise. (lol)