These dietary supplements can have many side effects for little benefit.
The best remedy for being overweight is still a balanced diet accompanied by physical activity, but some suppliers offer more comfortable alternatives to lose weight or burn fat.
In this article we will talk about some fat burning products that you can find in Mercadona supermarkets, under the Deliplus brand. If you want to find out which products can help you lose weight or their possible side effects, read on.
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weight loss supplements
Fat burning pills and other weight loss supplements have been on the market for a long time. They often take advantage of weak science and small effects to confuse the consumer, but some of them have effects on our health, both positive and negative.
The effects of these weight loss pills are usually short-lived or minor, especially if their intake is not accompanied by proper nutrition and a certain amount of physical activity. Someone with a sedentary life with poor eating habits can hardly reduce their weight only through the intake of dietary supplements.
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What do the Mercadona fat burning pills do?
Below we list some of the products sold by Mercadona supermarkets under the Deliplus brand, which has a wide range of cosmetic and parapharmacy products.
We will comment on its composition and effects, to tell you if they are effective for losing weight or not.
1. Horsetail Capsules
This Deliplus brand product is sold in packs of 60 pills, of which you must consume 6 daily to notice its effects on body weight. Its price is €3.50. This plant – Equisetum arvense – has long been considered a medicinal plant.
Some of the effects of horsetail are on anxiety, but it also has certain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, especially relevant for those with certain cardiovascular problems. It also has marked diuretic effects, which are what cause weight loss.
Weight control with diuretics is useful for those, especially women, who suffer from fluid retention, but this weight is gained and lost rapidly without having an effect on body fat. In addition, there are several groups that should not consume horsetail continuously, such as pregnant women, infants, or people who suffer from alcoholism or diabetes.
This is partly due to the action of horsetail on the levels of vitamin B1 (thiamin). Horsetail contains an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1, which can cause various health problems , especially in people who have deficiencies of this vitamin, for example due to the effects of alcohol.
That is, they are not the best idea to lose weight . In addition, this format of consumption of horsetail ends up being more expensive than consuming it in the form of infusions.
2. Artichoke capsules
Deliplus artichoke food supplements are also marketed in packs of 60 capsules, of which 6 must be consumed daily . Its benefits are based on a phenolic compound in the artichoke, cynarin, which supposedly has effects on body fat.
In fact, despite the fact that cynarin has beneficial effects on cardiovascular health, thanks to the inhibition of the production of nitric oxide by the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels and the interior of the heart, the effects on fat and weight body are not verified.
Of course, exposure to the artichoke can change the sense of taste, increasing the perception of sweet taste. This could have some effect on intake, but these have not been studied. In addition, the benefits of the artichoke can also be obtained through its direct intake through the diet.
3. Fat Burning Pills
Under this name, “Fat Burners”, Deliplus offers us a set of 40 capsules containing red tea, guarana, cinnamon and vitamin B6. Take 4 capsules a day , 2 before breakfast and 2 before lunch. Its price is €3.5.
The fat-burning effects of these pills lie mainly in the caffeine. Caffeine speeds up metabolism but its continued consumption in high amounts can be harmful. The increased production of adrenaline will help us lose weight, but the side effects of too much caffeine are many.
An excess of caffeine can cause anxiety , insomnia, heartburn, and increases our heart rate and pressure. In addition, it is addictive. Of course, like horsetail, its diuretic effects can make us notice a rapid weight loss, but it will be mainly due to fluid loss.
The vitamin B6 and cinnamon contained in these capsules can be beneficial for our body, since it is a vitamin related to good mental health, as well as the prevention of anemia and heart and inflammatory diseases.
Even so, taking it in excess can also cause us problems . Cinnamon increases the absorption of vitamin B6, which, together with its dose in these supplements, can bring us closer to the recommended upper limit of 100 mg per day for this vitamin.
4. T-Satiate pills
Mercadona’s T-Sacia pills, of the Deliplus brand, are sold in a container with 40 capsules, of which 2 should be consumed daily, before each meal. They cost 4 euros, and their operation is based on their content of glucomannan and carob fiber.
Glucomannan is used for cases of overweight, it gains a lot of volume when mixed with water and slows down stomach emptying, maintaining satiety. It is a fibrous substance obtained from the konjac plant – Amorphophallus konjac -.
It is also possible to consume it in the format of noodles, pasta or rice, since it has a much lower caloric value -approximately 90% less than traditional pasta-. This is because glucomannan has a very low nutritional value.
That is to say, yes, with these pills our satiety will increase and we will probably lose weight, as long as we follow the recommended dose, we accompany them with water (it increases the volume of glucomannan, increasing our satiety even more), and we are following a hypocaloric diet.
But in addition to this weight loss, glucomannan has side effects such as abdominal discomfort and intestinal transit disorders, both diarrhea and constipation. Consuming glucomannan should be avoided especially before sleeping, with even greater care in diabetics. More than 4 grams of glucomannan per day are harmful to health and in no case should it replace food.
5. Calorie and Carbohydrate Control Tablets
Calorie and carbohydrate control pills, also from the Deliplus brand, mainly contain chitosan, white beans, zinc and chromium. They come in a 40-capsule format, which is taken in 2-capsule doses every lunch and dinner . It costs about €5.
Chitosan is a product obtained from the chitin found in the shells of crustaceans -such as shrimp-. It has applications at the agricultural level as a fertilizer and biopesticide, in addition to certain applications as a sustainable construction material, but its usefulness as a fat burner is highly overrated.
Science shows that chitosan is capable of sequestering a certain amount of lipids during digestion , which slightly lowers our cholesterol levels, but in amounts less than clinical significance. That is, we absorb less fat, but the effect is too small to matter.
In fact, several studies have shown that chitosan does not have the ability to reduce weight , which led the FDA (the American food and drug safety association) to alert consumers about the deception that these products posed, in the year 2015.
The rest of the products in these capsules increase satiety due to their fiber content and provide us with zinc, which is necessary for the proper function of the thyroid gland, which is related to metabolic speed.
Bibliographic references
- Shahidi, Fereidoon; Synowiecki, Jozef (1991). “Isolation and characterization of nutrients and value-added products from snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) and shrimp (Pandalus borealis) processing discards”. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 39 (8): 1527–32. doi:10.1021/jf00008a032.
- Jull, A., Ni Mhurchu, C., Bennett, D., Dunshea-Mooij, C., & Rodgers, A. (2008). Chitosan for overweight or obesity. Cochrane Database Of Systematic Reviews. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd003892.pub3.
- Tang, X., Wei, R., Deng, A., & Lei, T. (2017). Protective Effects of Ethanolic Extracts from Artichoke, an Edible Herbal Medicine, against Acute Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury in Mice. Nutrients, 9(9), 1000. doi:10.3390/nu9091000.
- Pallag, A., Filip, G. A., Olteanu, D., Clichici, S., Baldea, I., Jurca, T., … Mureşan, M. (2018). Equisetum arvense L. Extract Induces Antibacterial Activity and Modulates Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Apoptosis in Endothelial Vascular Cells Exposed to Hyperosmotic Stress. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity, 2018, 3060525. doi:10.1155/2018/3060525.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.