Urgent danger of unregulated diet pills
Recently Lisanne wrote about "Why slimming pills are a big no no" expressing that they are never the answer to lose weight. Not only do slimming pills support an unhealthy relationship with food that could prevent you from living a a maintainable healthy lifestyle, there are urgent dangers of diet pills.
Unregulated diet pills have fatal consequences
INTERPOL released a global alert about potentially lethal chemical, 2, 4 – Dinitrophenol (DNP) found in diet pills to aid weight loss. The global police agency issued a notice warning of the dangers of DNP, a chemical compound which is used as a pesticide and present in explosives, referencing cases from France and the UK, one of which was the death of 21 year old British woman earlier this month.
The Orange Notice, which warns of the potentially fatal consequences, was published at the request of the French government to 190 countries' legal authorities, declaring the 'imminent threat' of the consumption of the chemical. The announcement was made public in order to raise awareness of the illicit substance and highlights the dangers of drugs manufactured without specialist knowledge and regulations.
Dangerous pig in a poke
“Substances from unregistered websites could put your health at risk as they could be extremely harmful, out-of-date or fake.” Sold online in powder or capsule from and sometimes labelled as the spice, Tumeric as it appears similar in colour and texture, it is known to be in circulation in some body building communities as it increases the metabolism resulting in quick weight loss. Unsanitary laboratories and unclear labelling further add to the risks of the use of the industrial chemical, meaning consumers are at a high risk of overdosing.
Burn up from the inside
People have taken to Twitter to raise awareness of the risks since the recent death of 21 year old Eloise Parry. British police are still investigating her death after taking the pills. She was reported to have over dosed on the pills which she bought online that increased her metabolism to the point of fatality. Once in her system, doctors reported there was no antidote and made her “burn up from the inside”. Eloise's mother explained that her daughter had suffered from bulimia and urged others experiencing body image issues not to take diet pills in order to lose weight.
There is no quick fix
Share this story to keep discouraging people from using diet pills because there are no quick fixes. Living healthy doesn’t have an effect if you only do it when you feel like it. If you start with a healthy lifestyle, you have to keep up, otherwise you’ll have to start all over. We want to motivate our community to integrate healthy food and exercises in their lifestyle, instead of focusing on (crash)diets, detoxing and slimming pills. It might take a while, but it’s a durable solution for – in this case- losing weight. Crashdiets and slimming pills might cause your body to lose weight in a short period of time, but it also causes a lot of health risks. Your body is short on nutrients and this causes you to be underfed. Next to it, your muscles will break down because you don’t get enough nutrients.
Moreover, these kind of fast ways to lose weight do not change your behavior. And that’s what it’s all about; changing and adjusting your habits! Besides that, achieving confidence in yourself and your body is only possible with a healthy relationship with food and exercise. Diet won't ever do that for you!
