You've probably heard of chitosan. It has been heavily promoted in
television infomercials, magazine and newspaper ads, and even on dozens of
websites. Numerous claims have suggest that chitin and chitosan promote
effortless weight-loss -- the chance to shed pounds without sacrificing
your favorite foods or engaging in exercise and other activities that
might cause you to break a sweat.
Although highly touted as a fat
buster, fat absorber, fat trapper and fat magnet, no studies or evidence
exists to support such claims. Those consuming large quantities of
chitosan in order to lose weight have been doing so without scientific
evidence to support that the product really works. In fact, a lawsuit was
filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against a company named
SlimAmerica for advertising and violating federal consumer protection laws
with the company’s chitosan claims. The FTC won $8.3 million for that
judgment. Several other lawsuits were filed as well, all against the
misleading advertisements of chitosan.
The basis of such judgments
against the manufacturers of chitosan is the fact that no scientific
evidence backs up their claims. Although it has been reported that there
are no known dangers of chitosan, critics still warn of the potential
dangers of chitosan and chitin.
The most common warning about the
possible dangers of chitosan is that the composition of the chitin can
vary depending on the seawater, the time of year, and the animal it is
extracted from. Shrimp from different regions can absorb, through the
natural chelation process, different impurities from the surrounding
water. Chelation is the same process in which chitin captures fat in the
intestine and sweeps it through the body before it is metabolized.
Experts
further stress that although many brands advertise that they have pure
chitin or chitosan, there is really no pure form. Chitosan-based products
are always combined with lots and lots of other things, and those other
things are very hard to remove.
Chitosan may also be a threat to
those who have seafood allergies. It's no wonder that many critics (and
even the makers of chitosan-based products themselves) warn that consumers
with seafood allergies should avoid chitosan, as it is derived from
crustacean shells.
The proliferation of chitosan further worries
many the diet experts who believe that the promotional claims of the
chitosan-based products offer false hope to very desperate, overweight
people.
And, as was said earlier, scientific evidence just doesn’t
support their use. In fact, it was found that some of the studies
conducted on chitosan were uncontrolled and involved only anecdotal
evidence. There were no high-quality randomized double-blind
placebo-controlled trials to support the efficacy of the product. Much
worse is that those chitosan studies failed to comply with the minimum
accepted scientific standards.
Were the various chitosan
weight-loss products as good as fat binder as their claims assert, they
would also likely cause massive diarrhea, constipation, and strip the body
of essential fat soluble. No matter how you look at it, chitosan is simply
not a good choice when it comes to picking a weapon against being
overweight.
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