Safe Weight-Loss Supplements

Recently there have been news items that the FDA is investigating dozens of weight loss supplements, most of them imported from China, that contain hidden and potentially harmful drugs like bumetanide.

The best known brand was a pill called StarCaps, a papaya-infused weight loss capsule. It had some celebrity endorsements and magazine ads.

A full list of the tainted pills of which there are 69, is available on the F.D.A.’s Web site, www.fda.gov. An agency spokeswoman said people who want to report problems with the pills could call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Steven M. Mister, the president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group whose members include ingredient suppliers and makers of dietary supplements, said that the majority of weight-loss supplements were safe. The F.D.A., he said, is mainly citing obscure imported brands.

Last year, the F.D.A. adopted new “good manufacturing practices” rules that require makers of dietary supplements to test the purity of each ingredient and the final product. Another new statute, which went into effect in December 2007, requires manufacturers to notify the F.D.A. of any reports of serious health problems caused by the pills.

“The law adequately protects consumer health because it does have the monitoring system in place,” said Mr. Mister, of the industry trade group.

After seeing these reports late last fall I searched a number of popular online sites like supplementstogo and worldclassnutrition, and found that they DID NOT contain any of the tainted weight loss supplements.

It restored my confidence that there are ethical merchants online that indeed check to ensure the safety of supplements before listing them on their sites.

So my advice for today is to choose a reliable merchant who conforms to the good manufacturing practices if you are in the market for weight loss or supplements in general.

It is tough to know everything about the thousands of products available these days, but quality conscious retailers are monitoring their sites to ensure the safety of the ingredients in the products they buy and sell also.