Perhaps because of the big media/advertising push given this supplement when it was "discovered" in the 90's, many people still believe that Chromium Picolinate is an effective weight-loss aid. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be...and in fact some studies have shown taking the supplement can increase your risk of cancer.
Here are some links:
http://www.hcrc.org/faqs/chrom.html &
http://www.hcrc.org/contrib/coleman/chromium.html
The above links are from the HealthCare Reality Check website.
As an aside, I ran into this interesting commentry written by a Harvard graduate student on the Quackwatch.com website
http://www.quackwatch.com/01Quackery...comments.html:
Quote:
"Weight-loss in the U.S. is a multimillion-dollar business pushing products that don't work. Unlike our friends who push dubious herbal products, the industry's immunity lies not in FDA loopholes but in the guilt, shame, and low self-esteem of those it exploits. The big players are Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Diet Workshop. The small players would be the chromium picolinate people and other "fat burner" scammers. Perhaps the most dangerous are the various surgeries, which have horrible side effects -- and all too often are impermanent. There's a lot of money out there, floating out of the pockets of desperate and unhappy people -- and all it really buys is the self-image propping of "Well, at least I'm *doing* something." Study after study shows over 90% of dieters regaining the weight in five years; many gain even more weight than they lost.
Sadly, many physicians push their patients to diet and then scold when failure follows. The single best advice on the topic I've ever heard came from the University of Wisconsin Eating Disorders Clinic: "Live a reasonably healthy lifestyle, and accept the body that results." In other words, focus on fitness, not your weight! Yet millions of people (most of them women, most of them mildly overweight at worst) are locked into spending hundreds of dollars on membership fees, meeting dues, special foods -- and then, when they fail, they berate themselves and do it all over again. Why don't they spend a fraction of the money and join a health club? I've heard no good reasons (some sad ones: muscle makes one gain weight at first). Heaven knows working out is less trouble for *me* than dieting was, and, ironically, this way I've lost some and kept it off.
Anyway, the whole system of preying upon people's insecurities and masking basic scientific information (when calories drop too low, metabolism drops too and weight loss becomes far more difficult) seems to be in the fraud arena.
Take care...and stay informed!
