Most Dietary Supplements Are Bad For Health

Biology Blog Post
Kong Eng Hong (14)
3 Service
14th April 2007

In the craze to look for a quick fix to lose weight, many dieters are often vulnerable to the many dietary supplements which often proclaim something along the lines of "100% Natural Herbs melt the pounds away, without any diet or exercise at all!", "Can burn up more 150% more calories than running 5 miles!" or "Eliminates fat content of 5 pizzas!". What most dieters do not realize is that most dietary supplements are hazardous to health, and most do not actually accomplish what they proclaim to do. Most dietary supplements are actually not safe for the body at all!

What are dietary supplements? Dietary supplements are products that include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, or botanicals (plants) - or any concentration, extract, or combination of these - as part of their ingredients. One can purchase dietary supplements in pill, gel capsule, liquid, or powder forms. Dietary supplements meant to aid in weight loss and atheletic performance. However, most dietary supplements defeat this purpose and perform the opposite instead.

Fortunately, most dietary supplements are checked and tested by local health authorities before they are allowed to be shipped and sold to Singapore, thus most dietary supplements sold in Singapore are safe to an extent. However, this does not mean that the dietary supplements available locally are totally safe; they must be taken in accordance to guidelines to be safe and beneficial.

The most common example of dietary supplements are diet pills, also known as slimming pills, used by many individuals to mantain and lose their weight. Most diet pills do not actually work, and even if they do, they work only when accompanied with a balanced diet and exercise. Diet pills are not needed for efficient and adequate weight loss; only exercise and a balanced diet is capable of achieving that. Diet pills can be addictive and can also have harmful side effects even when they are taken according to the doctor's directions. Diet pills also have many harmful health effects which include anxiety or nervousness, irritability, insomnia and a feeling of restlessness or hyperactivity, high blood pressure, tightness in the chest, heart palpitations, a heart attack, stroke or congestive heart failure, digestive tract problems like vomiting, diarrhea, constipation or other stomach pains, fevers, a dry mouth, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, profuse sweating, hair loss, menstrual cycle and sex drive disturbances and urinary tract problems. In the case of overdose, users can experience tremors or convulsions, confusion or hallucinations, breathing problems, renal failure or heart attack.

Therefore, it can be seen that diet pills need to be taken with caution due to all of the physical risks; it may be even better not to use diet pills at all! But there are emotional risks involving the usage of diet pills too. Often those trying to lose weight may start to feel emotionally dependent on the pills. They may attribute their initial success to diet pills only, forgetting any diet modifications, exercise or other lifestyle changes that may have been the true reason for the weight loss. People will often 'pill hop', trying one new pill after the other, looking for the magic cure that will let them continue to eat whatever they want but still lose weight. However, only a balanced, sensible diet combined with exercise has been proven to keep weight off over any amount of time. And no pill will cause the lifestyle and emotional changes needed to stop overeating and start losing weight.

Therefore, it can be concluded that many dietary supplements are harmful for health, causing many side effects, and that for genuine weight loss, it is best that dietary supplements not be used at all; one should only rely on adequate exercise and a balance diet to lose weight.

Information taken from:
http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/dieting/diet_supplements.html
http://www.slimming-diet-pills.info/