I'm back from my trip to Oregon & I've got a couple of different posts in mind to do, but I'm short on time...
However, I saw this in the news & thought it was worth passing on. The HCG diet is the current fad out there. It's not cheap, and now the FDA says that their claims are illegal and dangerous.
This post from Scott Hensley at NPR lays out the details.Here are the highlights:
HCG is a natural hormone made by the placenta during pregnancy. A
prescription-strength version is given by injection as a part of
fertility treatment.
But companies
that sell the stuff in drops, sprays and pellets without a prescription
claim it can recalibrate the body's metabolism, the FDA says. A dieter
is supposed to take HCG to help curb cravings while adhering to an
extremely low-calorie diet of, say, 500 calories a day. Stick with that
and you're supposed to lose a pound a day.
"These products are marketed with incredible claims and people think
that if they're losing weight, HCG must be working," Elizabeth Miller,
acting director of FDA's Division of Non-Prescription Drugs and Health
Fraud, says in a statement. But there's absolutely no proof of that, the
agency says. "Any loss is from severe calorie restriction. Not from the
HCG."
Aside from the issues with HCG, the FDA says a 500-calorie diet by
itself is pretty risky. You can get gallstones and develop other health
problems from such severe restrictions on what you eat.
MSNBC also had an article on it here...
Bottom line: There's no shortcut to weight loss other than proper diet & exercise. Which really sucks...
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