Be Careful of Herbal Diet Pills

These days herbal diet pills are extremely popular as a substitute to more customary methods of weight loss like diet and exercise. In general, herbal treatments are extremely fashionable today, which is a little worrisome for several reasons.

To begin with, a herbal diet pill can contain almost anything. 'Herbs' are a type of loophole in the FDA system, as they are not classified as drugs and therefore do not have the rigorous standards for testing and safety that drugs normally get. Make no mistake about it though, herbs can be every bit as strong and harmful as drugs. The distinction between medicinal herbs and drugs is really quite vague anyway, as the majority of drugs themselves come from a type of plant or herb.

Most of the time the 'herbal' classification doesn't last very long; the FDA eventually calls it a drug and brings in the scientists.  When that happens herbal diet pills often either become available only by prescription or are banned completely.  

If you take a look at the various sites selling herbal diet pills, it is clear that the makers of these things are all too familiar with the FDA.  Many sites even use it to their advantage saying things to the effect of 'buy it now before the FDA bans it!'  You have to ask yourself, if the FDA is likely going to ban an herbal diet pill you're interested in, should you be taking it at all?  

I took a few herbal diet pills in college once on a whim, and I didn't eat anything for nearly two days afterwards.  I also didn't really get much sleep.  Anything that makes you wired like that and kills your appetite so completely just isn't good for you.  While they were 'ephedra free' and were supposedly totally natural and safe, I don't think I'd ever felt so polluted and ill in my life.  A year later I discovered that the FDA had banned the same herbal diet pills I had taken, and I have to wonder what it was I had put in my body.

Make an effort to not to be fooled by the word 'herbal' in an herbal diet pill. It's much more prudent to trust a regular diet pill that is FDA approved a lot over a number of herbal diet pill concoctions with questionable ingredients. Be aware that the words herbal, natural, and herbal diet pill are marketing ploys and should be treated as such.

Whenever you see the words "herbal diet pill" on a bottle, go the one extra step and actually read the ingredient list.