Why spend thousands of dollars per month on prescription weight loss when store bought supplements claim to have the same effect?
Trendy GLP-1 supplements are being touted as “nature’s Ozempic,” promising to deliver a similar result to the wildly popular injection—all for a fraction of the price.
Ozempic and its sister drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro are semaglutides that mimic the hormone GLP-1 to slow digestion, help the pancreas produce insulin, and regulate sugar production in the liver.
However, store-bought supplements are a little different.
The pills contain ingredients that are supposed to increase your body’s GLP-1 production naturally, without nasty artificial additives.
Kourtney Kardashian’s supplement brand Lemme launched a daily GLP-1 pill this month, billed as “a breakthrough innovation in metabolic health, formulated to naturally increase your body’s production of GLP-1, reduce appetite and to promote healthy weight loss.”
The $90 supplement — just a fraction of Ozempic’s eye-watering cost, which comes to about $1,200 a month — claims that the ingredients, Eriomin lemon fruit extract, Supresa saffron extract and Morosil red orange fruit extract, curb hunger, support metabolism and reduce body fat.
Doctors, however, are not so sure about such supplements.
Dr. Roshini Raj, a New York-based gastroenterologist, told Today that, despite the labels on the bottles, “they do not contain GLP-1” nor “an agonist or hormone mimic.”
“They contain extracts, perhaps from fruits or vegetables, that are intended to increase your body’s natural GLP-1. But for me, that’s a big difference,” said Raj, warning of unfamiliar ingredients in store-bought alternatives and calling it “a bit of a Wild West.”
“I’m not saying these are actually bad supplements—we just don’t know. We don’t know what they actually do.”
Registered dietitian Lauren Harris-Pincus told PageSix that no supplement can compare to a true GLP-1 agonist medication.
“It’s like the difference between an eye dropper and a garden hose,” she said, adding that it’s “unlikely” that any of the natural Ozempic alternatives on the market “will result in any real, sustainable weight loss.”
New Jersey bariatric surgeon Dr. Hans Schmidt raised concerns over the efficacy of the supplements as a whole, echoing that they are “nowhere near the strength of the injector”.
“If you can go buy a supplement and lose 20 or 30, 40 pounds, you can’t hear the end of it,” Schmidt told TODAY. “It would be anywhere. But they are not
#Natures #Ozempic #Work #Trendy #GLP1 #supplements #designed #enhance #weight #loss #fraction #price
Image Source : nypost.com