Lose weight – harm your health?
If you want to lose weight, ask how much it costs
Igor Chubakha, RosbaltThe problem of weight control is relevant for many.
According to the Nielsen research company, 50% of respondents in the world and 48% in Russia continue to try to fight for a beautiful figure even in severe times of crisis. According to Olga Belova, director of Consumer research at Nielsen Russia, the 2% gap is partly due to the fact that there are "fewer victims of propaganda of model appearance in Russia than in countries with a developed fashion industry and show business."
At the same time, 81% of Russians trying to lose weight rely on changing their diet, 65% – on physical exercises. However, as Nielsen clarified, the majority of Russians perform them "with coolness": 30% of "losing weight" do sports no more than once or twice a week, and 26% - even less often. "Walking/hiking is the number one choice for most consumers around the world, including in Russia. The gym is in second place in popularity," the sociologists said.
In "dietary" views, Russians who want to lose weight do not differ too much from residents of other countries – they try to eat less fatty and sweet, try to eat more natural fresh products. Reducing portions while maintaining the usual diet is less popular in Russia, and special diets for weight loss are used by 20% of the study participants. 18% of Russians surveyed admitted that they resort to pills and other means for weight loss (in North America – 6%, in Europe – 7%). "In Russia, they strive for quick results and believe in the miraculous power of weight loss products," Belova states.
Billions of weight loss products rotate in the Russian market – alas, they are not particularly subject to accounting, since the legal market, according to various expert estimates, is no more than 20%. Thus, according to the CMI "Pharmexpert", the share of pharmacy sales in the total volume of sales of drugs for weight loss is 25-35%. At the same time, the vast majority of pharmacies have 1-3 drugs available for weight loss (in web pharmacies - more than 6). More than half (54%) of the supplied drugs belong to the "rare" group – they can be found in less than 3% of the places of sale. At the same time, most often we are not talking about medicines, but about so-called bioactive additives (dietary supplements), the market of which in Russia before the crisis grew by 20-30% per year.
However, then the situation changed. "The decline in dietary supplements sales began with the New Year. Basically, weight loss products cost from one and a half thousand rubles, so the crisis affected their sales in the first place," Roman Burmistrov, head of the Healthy Planet pharmacy chain, told Rosbaltu. At the same time, according to his estimates, since May, sales of dietary supplements have started to grow smoothly again.
To clarify, all dietary supplements are divided into two groups. The first is nutraceuticals containing a minimum of medicinal components. These low-calorie, but containing all the vitamins and elements necessary for the body, means replace one or more meals a day. Most often, these drugs include swelling fiber and a suspension of amino acids, proteins and vitamins that mimic normal full-fledged food.
The second group is parapharmaceuticals: regulators of hunger (anorexics), fat burners, cleansing and ballast substances. Anorexics are designed to suppress appetite (only under the supervision of a doctor), but not to get rid of accumulated fat. Fat burners are divided into two subgroups. The first break down fats that enter the body with food, preventing them from being deposited. The latter break down the fat already accumulated in the body. Preparations for external use (from patches to gels) contribute to the breakdown of fats under the condition of active sports. Ballast substances swell in the stomach, cleansers are just diuretics and laxatives.
According to the head of the Healthy Planet network, there is a simplified certification regime for dietary supplements, and the whole process takes 2-3 weeks. "Rostechnadzor has approved a list of permissible substances and strictly defined their maximum dosage," Burmistrov explained. – If the preparation provided for certification contains these substances in permitted quantities and there are no prohibited components, the dietary supplement is promptly certified." That is, when creating a new brand, manufacturers simply take the permitted list, select several components from it and enclose it in a capsule.
"The effectiveness of many of these drugs is highly questionable, because most of them contain ordinary laxatives or diuretics," says Pharmexpert. "These drugs do not undergo any clinical trials," Burmistrov agrees. – Thus, dietary supplements can be implemented without a license, control takes place only on preliminary certification."
"The main thing is that the substance present in the additive corresponds to the declared one (and even then only at the time of certification). For example, a certain bromelain may indeed be present in pineapple, but no one cares if it reduces weight," explained Natalia Tanygina, a medical observer. – When passing certification, it will be injected into a certain number of mice and count how many of them died from this substance. If there is not enough, then the drug is recognized as safe and can be sold in pharmacy chains as a dietary supplement... In the next batch, the manufacturer can already impose anything, because he already has a certificate, and further checks are selective."
At the same time, for example, during the examination of the Scientific Research Center of Independent Consumer Expertise "TEST", it turned out that out of 16 randomly selected weight loss products, 13 pose a high and very high risk to health. "In one capsule we found 20 milligrams of ephedrine and 340 milligrams of caffeine," the report says. – This cocktail has an enhanced effect and leads to heart rhythm disturbances. Data on the caffeine content has never been indicated. If you take 2 capsules a day, as recommended, it will correspond to 10 cups of coffee."
Cosmetic medicine has also been actively involved in the war against overweight. The most popular operation is abdominoplasty, that is, the removal of a certain amount of fatty tissue and deformed skin in the abdominal area. The hospital stay will be 3-7 days, and the full rehabilitation period will be 2-3 months.
Another surgical method is liposuction – "fat suction" in a certain place to correct the figure. In the first place, according to statistics, the appeal regarding the "breeches" zone (the outer surface of the thighs). True, liposuction has rather limited indications. And plastic surgeons themselves claim that this is not a remedy for obesity. With obesity, the entire subcutaneous fat layer thickens, and it is reckless to do liposuction of the "whole body". Obesity is treated by other specialists in a different way. "Start with an endocrinologist. If there are no such problems, then the way to a nutritionist, " is specified on the website of one of the cosmetic clinics.
"I urge all ladies who have decided on plastic surgery to listen to their intuition and common sense. It is necessary to understand that a plastic surgeon is not a magician," says plastic surgeon Eduard Shikhirman. According to him, it is impossible to make a reed out of a fat woman in an hour or two. "The same liposuction, which has been talked about so much lately, is designed to solve the problems of people who are slim, with normal weight, and not ladies in the body," the specialist stressed. If a person has an extra 10-15 kilograms, then liposuction is not his case. After all, without risk to health, you can remove no more than 2 liters of adipose tissue.
On the other hand, being overweight is not only a cosmetic problem. According to statistics, which representatives of US insurance companies like to cite, obese people die from diabetes 4 times more often than those with normal body weight, from coronary heart disease – 2 times more often, from cholelithiasis – 2-2.8 times, and from cirrhosis of the liver – 1.5-2 three times. In general, the life expectancy of overweight people is reduced by 5-10 years. Therefore, it is necessary to fight obesity, but it is important to find really effective ways, and not to work for charlatans. And any public information on this topic should be socially responsible.
According to Nielsen, 63% of Russians believe that they receive reliable information about proper nutrition from doctors, 35% – from books about nutrition / diets, 29% – on food/ beverage packaging, 46% – on the Internet. At the same time, consumer awareness leaves much to be desired.
"The majority of buyers do not even look at the composition, and do not pay attention at all to certain elements contained in the preparations," regrets the head of the pharmacy chain "Green Planet". – But many drugs, called medicines, are actually the same dietary supplements. In particular, the popular drug "Linex". "Buyers believe that they are purchasing a medicinal product, but in fact it is based on the same approved list of herbs and organics and is a dietary supplement in composition," Burmistrov explained.
The conclusion is obvious: read the instructions for use.
P.S. In the Middle Ages, the Inquisition a priori declared a witch a woman who weighed less than forty kilograms – this is exactly the weight an average broom can withstand.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/27.05.2009