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Chromium

Diet pills contain all kinds of amazing things. One natural element contained in some diet pills is in a class all its own. It’s not from an Amazonian berry, Japanese seaweed, or Chinese tea. It’s actually a mineral. It’s called chromium. Recently, it has gained popularity as a wonder mineral, due to its claimed impact on weight loss, acne healing, muscle-building, and other benefits.

What is it?

Chromium, as mentioned is a mineral, and small amounts of it actually occur naturally in many foods like chicken, fish, and whole-grain products. Some amount of chromium in the body is necessary, but only in trace amounts. Some chromium deficiency occurs in rare situations, but most of the time, sufficient chromium uptake occurs in a normal diet.

What does it do?

After a brief survey of the marketing, the advertising, the health drinks, the diet pills, and the chromium supplements ad infinitum, one begins to wonder what does chromium not do? Proclaimers of its benefits say that it cures depression, suppresses appetite, burns fat, builds muscle, hardens muscle, heals diabetes, increases metabolism, prevent fat absorption, promotes longevity, and improves circulation. Although that’s quite an impressive list of benefits, few of those grand pronouncements actually have scientifically viable derivations.

How does it work?

Chromium picolinate, the technical name for the mineral plus chemical that is used in diet pills, affects the body’s insulin—a hormone that transports glucose for energy usage. Chromium actually acts upon the insulin to make it more effective. Thus, the body metabolizes calories faster, and prevents the absorption of fat from food. Chromium can also serve to decrease appetite. All of these claims, as of yet, lack conclusive evidence and well-researched findings.

How effective is it?

The unsatisfying answer is, nobody is quite sure. Unfortunately, few studies have been performed on chromium’s effect on weight loss. It has potential and savvy marketing has done a lot to tout its benefits, but these have yet to be backed by solid scientific research.

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