In my never-ending search to find strange and wonderful books to further my heath and fitness education and to review for you, I often come across books that immediately jump out at me. They usually get read through almost before I get them home and they are usually reviewed by the following weekend.
I also come across books that get picked up purely because they are cheap or free. Those books get put on a pile to read later if and when I have time. I have to confess that The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy (affiliate links: UK
The Natural Fat-Loss Pharmacy: a surprisingly good read
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So you enjoyed reading it then?
I have to admit that I was very sceptical that I would even be able to finish a tome like this. But the book is actually very well thought-out and well-written. Reading it cover to cover was a bit like trying to memorise a dictionary but I think that having it on the shelf is definitely something to consider if you are interested helping people get leaner (and those people have money to spend on supplements).
And while I am not the world’s biggest supplement fan (I think that they make a very small difference in comparison to more important factors like diet and exercise), I do accept that some things can make a small difference. However, it can be hard to get honest advice about which products work, as most people who are giving the advice tend to be the ones selling the supplements. This book might be a good way to get that impartial advice.
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So do all these supplements work then?
Well, whether you consider the impartial advice to be accurate is another matter. For every supplement you read about in this book, you can probably find an article online somewhere that tells you they either don’t work or worse still that they are bad for you. I’ve tried to flag the more obviously contentious ones as I do the review but, ultimately, I am afraid that it is caveat emptor.
If you want to get into the detail, the authors do describe the studies they feel are conclusive. If you can’t get the studies you need for free on PubMed or another scientific paper provider, then I have found that an obsequious email to one of the scientists doing the study usually gets the required result…
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OK, point taken, but will I find it useful?
Well, this is a pretty big book. Unless you are an absolute contest-preparation guru, I would be amazed if you didn’t find something you hadn’t heard of in here. And while all of the active ingredients can be found in supplement form, many of them can also be found in foodstuffs you can buy in the local supermarket, making their powers accessible to people who don’t like popping pills.
What’s more, each chapter explains how the scientists understand the supplements to work, so you won’t find yourself recommending a supplement only to be stuck for an answer when some smart-alec asks why…
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Go on then, surprise me…
OK, here are the main section headings. There are individual chapters within each heading about each of the supplements in that category. I’ve tried to summarise as closely as possible what you will find in each chapter but please excuse me when I go off on a tangent mid-explanation. I have been reading a lot about nutrition recently and I have all kinds of thoughts bouncing around in my head.
- Fat busters – under this heading come Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is an extract from green tea, Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), Hydroxycitric Acid (HCA) and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT).
- EGCG helps to increase the number of calories that the body burns each day at rest. For those of you interested in getting your EGCG from tea, note that EGCG is found only in green tea and not in black tea. So you need to channel your inner oriental martial artist and not your archetypal Englishman…
- CLA helps to increase lean muscle while decreasing fat reserves. CLA is found in the meat and diary products of ruminants, which include cows, goats sheep and buffalo. However, it is the antipodeans that come out ahead, as apparently, the highest concentrations are found in kangaroo meat…
- HCA slows down the rate at which fat is deposited into the cells.
- MCT, found in coconut oil, also helps to increase the number of calories that the body burns at rest. For more about the role of coconuts in the diet and the importance of MCT, see Mary Enig’s paper Coconut: in support of good health in the 21st century.
- Insulin regulators – the authors are very excited about the use of chromium as an insulin regulator, either in the form of chromium picolinate or chromium nicotinate. The authors quote some doctors who put every one of their clients on chromium supplements. It is particularly relevant for people with metabolic syndrome, apparently. However, Wikipedia notes that there is some controversy about the use of chromium picolinate because of cancer risk. While the authors of the book do not consider this to be a risk, as an alternative, they propose cinnamon, of at least a teaspoon a day. I quite liked this latter option, mainly because I am quite fond of the taste of cinnamon.
- Carbohydrate inhibitors – the authors describe two types of carbohydrate inhibitors, starch inhibitors and sugar inhibitors. Both work by preventing the digestion of carbohydrates. The authors are quite excited about natural carbohydrate inhibitors because they note that the idea of the low-carb diet has become less popular as “people realise that it is more or less impossible to drastically reduce one of the three macronutrients for a lifetime”. Now, being wilfully stupid is one thing but being wilfully stupid while splitting an infinitive is something else entirely. Will someone please introduce these people to an Eskimo? Anyway. Moving on. Starch inhibitors include extracts from white kidney beans, wheat and hibiscus but the only sugar inhibitor discussed in the book is L-arabinose.
- Fat blockers – apparently, chitosan, which is made from the exoskeletons of crustaceans, and other types of soluble fibre, can be used to block the formation of fat. Wikipedia notes that there is again some controversy about the use of this supplement because “the mechanism between chitosan and fat has not yet been properly understood”. That statement really tickled me because the mechanism by which eating saturated fat is supposed to increase blood cholesterol is not properly understood either. In fact, no-one has ever come up with a sensible one. But that doesn’t stop that theory driving health policy for whole countries…
- Appetite suppressors – it has been suggested that 5-HTP, a naturally occurring amino acid, can help to reduce cravings for carbohydrates. Interestingly, more research has been done into its effects as an antidepressant than as an appetite suppressant. I wonder whether the two concepts are in fact linked. I have noted a number of connections recently between obesity and depression and insulin resistance and depression.
- Muscle builders – in the category of muscle builders, the authors recommend beta-Hydroxy beta-Methylbutyric acid (HMB) and branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). You already know about those so I’m not going to bother describing them.
- Thermogenics – the authors do not recommend the use of thermogenics on the basis that they are bad for your health. Obviously, the most easily available thermogenic is caffeine from your espresso.
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Anything else I need to know?
If you do decide to use any of the supplements described in the book, don’t forget to do your homework on them. As I noted above, a basic Wikipedia search showed that there was some disagreement about the usage of chromium picolinate as a supplement because of cancer risk. Similarly, Wikipedia didn’t like the idea of using chitosan because the research wasn’t clear and they didn’t understand the mechanism by which it worked yet.
If you have any experience or knowledge about any of these supplements or the studies behind them, I would be interested to hear from you.
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