Weight loss industry always comes up with newer and newer products and the recent one that is circulating among the Indian facebook users is Garcinia Cambogia.
Well, to most of us Indians the name looks so foreign, and anything foreign is quite acceptable right. In fact although enthusiastically admired, dieting seems to be a failure among majority of people who want to lose weight. So anything that promises quick and effortless weight loss is welcomed wholeheartedly. The latest being Garcinia Cambogia. Here is a report that would shock to the core.
What is Garcinia Cambogia?
Garcinia Cambogia is a tropical fruit called as Malabar Tamarind or Kudam Puli. This fruit looks like a small pumpkin and is pale yellow to green in colour.
I don?t know if any of us would even want to pluck the fruit if it were advised by elders, however the story goes like this, Garcinia Cambogia or our very own kudampuli which till it was popularized as a weight loss wonder was used for culinary purposes just as tamarind.
This tropical fruit grows in Karnataka and Kerala (India), Southeast Asia and in Central and West Africa.
Until Dr Oz, A United States Television Personality began promoting this fruit as a weight loss wonder, kudampuli seemed to be limited to the kitchen, and suddenly after 2012 it became a very popular weight loss supplement. It began to be bottled with a mixture of other ingredients and occupied the shelves along with other weight loss supplements.
Does Garcinia Cambogia Really Work?
The principle reason quoted by the people who claim weight loss induced by this fruit is it active ingredient hydroxycitric acid or HCA. It is claimed that
- HCA boosts fat burning
- It curbs appetite
- It helps in blocking citrate lyase, the enzyme that helps in making fat in the body.
- It raises serotonin, the chemical present in the brain which makes you feel less hungry.
However in actual sense there have never been proper clinical trials conducted and the advertiser?s base their result on a review published in Journal of Obesity that reported a loss of 2 pounds in people who took garcinia cambogia more than people who did not take it. However the reviewers were not sure whether the cause of such a weight loss was solely due to the supplement or the low calorie diet they took.
In people who had type 2 diabetes there was a positive reduction of blood sugar levels and increase in HDL (good cholesterol) and reduction of LDL (bad cholesterol). However the side effects seem to be frightening.
Side Effects and Disadvantages
To basically understand the side effects I would ask you this simple question- is it advisable to take tamarind daily as a supplement? Would you consume it even if someone advised you to do so? Of course not, we Indians have always been taught that too much of anything is good for nothing, the same principle should be applied here.
The FDA in 2009 has warned against using supplements with Garcinia Cambogia because of serious liver problems in people consuming it. However there were other ingredients too in the supplements and it is not clear that garcinia cambogia is the main culprit.
Other side effects of Garcinia Cambogia are listed below
- Dizziness
- Dry Mouth
- Headache
- Diarrhea
Garcinia cambogia also has been studied to have bad interactions with
- Medicines taken for asthma and allergies
- Pain medicines
- Iron supplements
- Warfarin
To Buy or Not to Buy
I surely would not buy such a product, and f I particularly wanted to reduce my cholesterol levels I could take the fruit as such instead of paying huge costs for the bottling and preservation chemicals. There is no much result seen in this product in weight loss and you could spend your hard earned money on good and healthy food instead.
Always remember, where there is no pain there is no gain, so get up and get exercising.
