Capsules

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

Beware the diet pills

The United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is warning anyone looking to lose weight in the New Year to be aware of the dangers of buying diet pills online. During 2015, MHRA enforcement officers seized more than 240,000 doses of pills claiming to be for weight loss/slimming. A number of products seized were marketed as ‘all herbal’ or natural when, in fact, they were found to contain the synthetic medicine sibutramine. Sibutramine was withdrawn across Europe and the US in 2010 due to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes associated with its use. Since 2005, MHRA officials have found medicines claiming to contain herbal ingredients but after analysis were found to be adulterated with pharmaceutical ingredients. When considering whether to buy a product that describes itself as herbal or natural, consumers are advised to look for products that display the Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) logo and a THR/PL number, it cautioned.

DIABETES ALERT

Low on sugar

A new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal suggests that reducing sugar content in sugar sweetened drinks (including fruit juices) in the UK by 40 per cent over five years, without replacing them with any artificial sweeteners, could prevent 500,000 cases of overweight and 1 million cases of obesity, in turn preventing around 300,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes, over two decades. The study is by Prof Graham MacGregor and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Based on the UK’s salt reduction experience, which has seen salt content in many food products successfully reduced by 40 per cent over five years, the authors decided to do a study on the effects of a similar reduction in added sugars.