If you're old enough, you might remember the movie "Valley Girl," which glorified 1980's teen "air-headedness". While I never I saw it myself, I remember a few girls in high school who adopted the vernacular, and it was the first thing I thought of as the web site for Healthé Trim popped up, and "Monique" began her speil...
Like OH MY GOD, wouldn't you just, like, love to get high school skinny again?
Uh... right, Monique.
First of all, I highly doubt you've ever had a weight problem. And secondly, how many years has it been since you've been in high school... like, uh, maybe three? Like whatever, Monique.
Thankfully, I was able to turn Monique "off", and have a closer look at Healthé Trim in peace and quiet. On the face of things, Healthé Trim seems like a winner. Although it makes the usual outlandish claims—that it will help you lose weight fast, curb your appetite, boost your metabolism while providing a long lasting boost of energy—its effectiveness appears to be backed by both a clinical study and a bona fide medical doctor's recommendation.
Let's take a closer look at the study...
To begin with, this study does not appear to be published in any journal that I could find.
So as far as I can tell it is not a peer-reviewed, published study.
What's the significance of this?
Well, when the people who have the most to gain financially from a positive outcome of a study are the same ones who are conducting it, it pays to be skeptical.
It doesn't necessarily negate the results, but until the study's methodology has been critiqued by credible professionals, it has minimal value indeed.
Secondly, what study parameters are revealed indicate this is a very "loose" study indeed. For example, study participants were asked not to change their daily eating regimen. What this essentially does is put every single person into their own unique study group, since each individual is going to be consuming a different number of calories each day.
Some people will eat more (or less) than others. Subconsciously, some may see the fact that they are taking a supplement as a reason to eat less. Others may see the pill as a license to eat more. And thus, it makes it very, very difficult to attribute any real value to the supplement since there are too many variables present to make a conclusive statement about its effectiveness.
And what about the "doctor" recommendation also so highly touted?
It appears that Dr. Michael Carroll is an Atlanta-based immunologist who wrote a diet book back in 1996 called "Be Fat Free Forever." According to the Healthé Trim web site, a friend introduced him to the product after losing "25 lbs. in 4 weeks" and now he's an avid fan, prescribing it regularly in his weight loss clinic. I'll let Dr. Carroll take it from there...
"... HealtheTrim is made in a pharmaceutical grade facility to ensure purity and quality control. Each of the ingredients in HealtheTrim had individual research backing up their individual claims concerning their various biological activities. What impressed me the most was the formulators of HealtheTrim not only chose the most appropriate ingredients to get the results they were looking for, but they created an effective blend or mix taking several years of testing before making the product available to the public. This was the confirmation I needed to begin using it with my patients in my weight management clinics."Sorry doctor, but I'd like to take issue with you on a few points...
"Each of the ingredients in HealtheTrim had individual research backing up their individual claims concerning their various biological activities."Really? It seems you and I must be looking at different versions of Healthé Trim then. For instance, where's the peer reviewed, published data that validates hoodia's ability to curb appetite and enhance weight loss? That pyruvate, in the dosage provided in this product, enhances weight loss, decreases appetite and increases energy? Some of the latest data I have seen isn't particularly positive. And that's at a 2,000 mg dosage! And what about chromium? It's hardly a weight loss miracle.
Next, this statement just doesn't pass the smell test...
"...the formulators of HealtheTrim not only chose the most appropriate ingredients to get the results they were looking for, but they created an effective blend or mix taking several years of testing before making the product available to the public."
You're telling me that instead of getting this product to the market immediately and starting to make money, the makers of Healthé Trim spent a couple of years piddling around testing the product—when they are not obligated by law to prove their product works as claimed? Even in-house studies are prohibitively expensive, and no one—short of the big drug companies—could afford to spend years running tests, reformulating, and testing again. And if they were really serious about demonstrating their product worked, they wouldn't have used such loose study parameters in the one so prominently presented on the sales page (as discussed above).
Sorry, but I don't buy it.
Before I even begin dissecting the ingredients, let's address another major problem. There are 16 ingredients in this formula. This might sound impressive, but here's the issue; just like pharmaceutical drugs, the "natural herbal" ingredients in weight loss products must be present in an appropriate dosage to have any effect. The makers of Healthé Trim are not revealing either the amount of total ingredients in the formula, or the amount of each individual ingredient (or even to what extent each ingredient is standardized, if it is at all).
Thus, it's impossible to effectively assess the impact of each ingredient on the formula. However, some basics logistics can tell us a lot. For example, the largest capsule size generally used by retailers and well-tolerated by consumers is "00".
The exact amount of ingredient such a capsule can contain depends on the density of the powdered ingredient, but a good general number is 650 mg.
So the greatest amount of active ingredient we can expect from this product is in the 1300 mg range (from a 2-cap dose).
Unfortunately, that means that the majority of the ingredients will only be present as "label dressing" (i.e., they make the label look impressive, but they do nothing for the effectiveness of the formula).
With that out of the way, let's have a look at the formula...
1) Resveratrol: A powerful antioxidant with possible anti-aging effects. From our review...
"While resveratrol shows a great deal of promise, questions remain about its utility in humans, as oral bioavailability is low and human clinical data is still lacking...pilot studies are just beginning."2) Chromium picolinate: A trace mineral that plays an important role in proper insulin function, clincal data shows chromium to have minimal, if any effect on weight loss.
3) Green tea leaf extract: There's no doubt green tea is one of the no-brainer ingredients that shows some real promise for dieters. It is, of course, if it's present in a strong enough dose, and standardized for the appropriate catechins. Is it in this case? Your guess is as good as mine.
4) Hoodia gordonii: Despite all the hoopla about hoodia, the P57 molecule, and its amazing appetite suppressing qualities, no published clinical data validates this ingredients effects. Additionally, there are some real problems with supply and demand that suggest most hoodia products are counterfeit. Add the fact that Unilever curtailed its development of a hoodia product in 2008, and you've got to be skeptical. See the full hoodia review for complete details.
5) Caralluma fimbriata: An Indian cactus, there is a small amount of clinical data showing that 1,000 mg of Caralluma taken once a day for 60 days can suppress appetite and reduce weight circumference. It's a bit hard to believe there's a 1,000 mg of ingredient here, considering a 2 capsule dose is likely to only deliver 1300 mg or so, and there's 15 other ingredients in this formula.
6) Coix seed: Also known as Job's tears and used in traditional Chinese medicine for ages there is some early evidence this annual plant may have cancer fighting characteristics. More importantly for our purposes, a coix seed extract has been shown to have the ability to inhibit fatty acid synthase in rats.
Fatty acid synthase is an enzymatic system that is involved in the process of turning carbohydrates into fat. Early animal studies suggest the inhibition of fatty acid synthase can lead to dramatic weight loss.
7) Poria cocos: A fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine, there is some evidence this ingredient may have anti-cancer benefits and may also act as an anti-inflammatory. Nonetheless, very little western research has been performed on Poria cocus.
8) Cassia seed: Probably referring here to Cassia nomame, since it is often included in weight loss products for its "ability" to inhibit the enzyme lipase which is required for the break down and deposit of fat. However, there's very little clinical evidence to validate these claims. Check out this excerpt from this Pubmed abstract on "Nutraceutical resources for diabetes prevention"...
"There does not appear to be a natural lipase inhibitor functionally equivalent to orlistat, although there are poorly documented claims for Cassia nomame extracts." (Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(1):151-8.)
9) Lotus leaf: Um... when you're eating Dim sum, these are used to roll up your "sticky rice." Can't see any other good reason for this to be included here.
10) Water plantain: Also known as Alisma, this ingredient is likely included here for its diuretic action.
11) Cumquat: Kumquats are small fruit bearing trees. The citrus fruit looks similar to an orange, but is much smaller and more oval in shape. This is a perfect ingredient to further illustrate the labeling issues with this product. For instance, the peel of the fruit is a rich source of essential oil, which contains numerous constituents. What element of kumquat is this formula standardized for? Is it a fruit extract? A peel? An oil? Who knows?
12) Methionine: This ingredient aids in fat metabolism and acts as an antioxidant.
13) Mulberry leaf: There is some evidence mulberry leaf may be helpful in the treatment of diabetes.
14) Gymnema sylvestre: a plant native to India, there is some evidence it can inhibit glucose uptake in the small intestine as well as showing potential anti-diabetic effects—at doses much higher than present in this product, of course.
15) Eleutherococus senticoccus: Also known as Siberian ginseng, this herb is known as an adaptogen (similar to ginseng). However, it is an unrelated species—and not similar to either Asian or American ginseng.
16) Pyruvate: A "gateway" compound in a process called the "Krebs" cycle (the "Krebs" cycle is the intercellular process in which glucose (sugar derived from carbohydrates), is converted into energy). There is some evidence it helps with weight loss, but only at an extremely high dose (the aforementioned study used 22-44 grams of pyruvate).
In addition, Healthé Trim contains as undisclosed amount of unidentified "trace" minerals.
After reviewing the mass of ingredients in this formula, I hope the main issues previously discussed "pop out" at you...
For many of the ingredients, there's little or no clinical evidence validating the claimed weight loss effects. Some ingredients, although interesting, seem to be added for impact rather than effect. It's not revealed how much of any of the ingredients is included in the formula, nor what they are standardized for, if they are at all. Because of the logistics of serving size, most ingredients are likely to be under-dosed.Despite the clinical study and "doctor's recommendation" the onus is on the makers of Healthé Trim to step up to the plate and provide this information to you, the consumer. They haven't done so, and that, in my opinion, is a red flag worthy of some attention.
That said, this product is backed by a guarantee...
"If you are not fully satisfied with any HealthyLife Sciences product, you may return your bottle within 30 days of delivery for a full refund, less shipping costs. All bottles purchased must be returned. Refunds will not be given on reorders of the same product. If multiple bottles are purchased, only unopened bottles will be refunded. Each customer allowed only one refund."... which on the face of it, eliminates the risk from your purchase. IF they honor their guarantee and don't make you jump through hoops to receive a refund. That said, I'd love to hear from you. Have you used Healthé Trim? Did you request a refund? Were you refunded promptly and cheerfully? Let us know...
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