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Twenty brands of dietary supplements touted as so-called natural weight loss aids have been found to contain a prescription drug pulled from the market for safety concerns, the Food and Drug Administration warned today.

Products marketed under names like “A-Slim 100% Natural Slimming Capsules,” “P57 Hoodia,” “PhentaBurn Slimming Capsules,” and “Dream Body Slimming Capsules,” were found to contain sibutramine. That's actually the medication more commonly known under the brand name Meridia -- a prescription weight-loss drug that was removed from the U.S. market last October because it was linked to heart attacks and stroke.

“Unfortunately this is not the first time that pharmaceuticals have been found in so-called dietary supplements,” Hurley said. “These kinds of announcements come from the FDA on a semi-regular basis.”

Marketers know that Americans are partial to products that sound like they’re all natural, Hurley said. “They claim that you can lose weight naturally just by taking a pill – a natural supplement that has no harmful effects,” he added. “There exists no such thing.”

Full article here: http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...scription-drug