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Written by The Nutrition Twins
As holiday goodies seem to stare us in the face everywhere we go, the thought of being able to indulge without watching our waistlines grow is heavenly. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was something we could take that would burn off a few of those extra calories? We’re with you if you’d love to dive into that extra decadent brownie at the holiday party without having to pay the price later.
If you’re like many of our clients, you may have seen a guest on the Dr. Oz show touting the weight loss benefits of raspberry ketones and you’re probably curious about them.
Here’s the low-down on raspberry ketones…
If you’ve ever been at the market and smelt the sweet smell of a nearby container of raspberries, it’s actually the raspberry ketones that you smell —the main aromatic compounds found in raspberries. Raspberry ketones chemical structure has some similarities with synephrine, which is a stimulant, and compounds that have the ability to “speed you up” are continuously being looked at for weight loss. After all, if something “speeds you up” (makes your body burn more calories while you’re sitting still), who wouldn’t want it?
The good news is that raspberry ketones have been studied. The bad news is that they haven’t been studied very much. In fact, there have only been three very small studies and they weren’t performed on humans. Nor were they published in major respected medical journals. And there’s a good chance they were funded by an organization that had a vested interest in the success of raspberry ketones.
But let’s go back to the point that the three studies done on raspberry ketones were conducted on rodents and not humans because there’s one thing that’s certain; humans certainly aren’t rodents and don’t necessarily respond the way rodents do. Perhaps this explains why some of our new clients have come to us disappointed after having tried raspberry ketones hoping to see some results. They simply didn’t.
In the studies done on the rodents, the rodents did gain less fat and raspberry ketones helped the rats to breakdown fat. This is interesting and we’d love to see some studies performed on humans. After all, how can we know which dosage to give humans if it’s only been tested on rodents? Perhaps this may also be a reason that our clients who have tried raspberry ketones haven’t seen success. And we do have to keep in mind that even if researchers knew how much to give humans, since supplements are not regulated or enforced by a governmental agency like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they may not contain ingredient amounts that the label may claim they do.
As registered dietitians, it would be irresponsible of us as professionals to recommend raspberry ketones to our clients at this time. However, we look forward to seeing more research on the subject. For now, we’ll stick to eating raspberries and other healthy foods and to getting plenty of exercise and we’ll continue to recommend that our clients do the same.
However, if you decide you’d like to try raspberry ketones, we suggest that you read the ingredient label carefully as many other stimulants are often added to help “speed you up” and feelings of shakiness and heart palpitations are possible. Also remember that no reliable clinical research has evaluated this supplement for safety or adverse reactions. And if you’ve tried them please let us know your experience!
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