Do you take natural diet pills? If so, do you know if they are really what you think they are?

There has been quite a bit of press in the last week or so, about some brands of weight-loss pills. Some of the diet pills had other ingredients that were not listed, and some were found to contain just filler inactive ingredients.

The ones that there have been the most fuss about are called StarCaps. The advertising for these “natural” diet pills said that they contain papaya, papain (which is found in papaya, anyway), garlic, valerian and corn spices (?). Papaya, garlic and valerian have never been shown to be effective for weight loss, though they have been suggested to have other health benefits. The cost of taking the pills was about $40 per week. They were available at major retailers including the Vitamin Shoppe and GNC.

StarCaps were found to contain bumetanide, a diuretic. This ingredient was not listed on the label, and is only available by prescription. The major use of diuretics is for treatment of blood pressure. Bumetanide is a loop diuretic. Generally, loop diuretics are often not the first choice for a prescription diuretic since they can cause dehydration without consumption of plenty of fluids.

No wonder the pills appeared to work, you would lose water not fat. The weight loss would be rapid as you peed lots of water away.

The reason StarCaps have made the news is due to several football players were found to be positive for bumetanide, after drug testing. They were taking StarCaps. Apparently, bumetanide is a drug that is used to mask steroid use. So the football players, who were taking StarCaps, failed their drug tests.

One of the football players, Grady Jackson, a defensive tackle for the Atlanta Falcons, has filed a class action against the owner of the company that makes StarCaps, and the retail stores where he purchased the pills.

This further reinforces that labeling a product as natural, does not guarantee that it is natural. Before you buy any products that you are going to swallow make sure that you know it is as represented. The fact that major retailers including the Vitamin Shoppe and GNC sold StarCaps shows that it is just not stuff from some strange website that should be suspect.

For more information the FDA recall info about StarCaps and a list of products with the illegal additives that they contain.

photo credit: Brooks Elliott

[tags]diet pills, weight-loss pills, StarCaps, bumetanide, diuretic[/tags]