FDA: Beware of Fraudulent Weight-Loss Products

Sources: US FDA

Health fraud scams refer to products that claim to prevent, treat, or cure diseases or other health conditions, but are not proven safe and effective for those uses. Health fraud scams waste money and can lead to delays in getting proper diagnosis and treatment. They can also cause serious or even fatal injuries. 

Magic diet pill! 
Melt your fat away! 
Diet and exercise not required! 
Messages like these on weight-loss products taunt consumers looking for a quick and easy way to shed pounds. FDA has found weight-loss products tainted with the prescription drug ingredient sibutramine in 2010.

Don't Fall for Fraud Look for potential warning signs of tainted products, such as 
• promises of quick action, such as “lose 10 pounds in one week”
• use of the words “guaranteed” or “scientific breakthrough”
• labeled or marketed in a foreign language
• marketed through mass e-mails
• marketed as an herbal alternative to an FDA-approved drug or as having effects similar to prescription drugs

Dietary supplements, in general, are not FDA-approved. Under the law (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), dietary supplement firms do not need FDA approval prior to marketing their products. It is the company’s responsibility to make sure its products are safe and that any claims are true.

Just because you see a supplement product on a store shelf does NOT mean it is safe or effective. When safety issues are suspected, FDA must investigate and, when warranted, take steps to have the product removed from the market. However, it is much easier for a firm to get a product on the market than it is for FDA to take a product off the market. FDA cannot test all products on the market to identify those that contain potentially harmful hidden ingredients. FDA has created an RSS feed to alert consumers more rapidly when FDA finds a tainted product.