3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community - Has any one tried VITAL-18??

I can't find an official site for them, and I can't find any sales sites that list the ingredients for it. However, I did notice something that I thought odd, though kind of funny. A lot of sales sites describe the product as "The Vital-18 Originating from a three year, 20 million dollar Government research project, the Vital-18 has been prescribed by doctors for patients to obese for surgery and paid for by insurance companies." I can't find any medical references to it, so that makes me wonder if it really is recommended by physicians or covered by insurance. I think that is a marketing ploy. It also makes you think that this is something our government has approved, right? So it leads us to trust the product and pay the $14 to $20 per bottle that they charge. However, a little further checking, and it's not OUR goverment that they are talking about. The product is "based" on a study done by the country of Qatar, which is a tiny country that borders Saudi Arabia. The government, ours or theirs, is not making or selling this product, and all we know is that someone got a hold of a study and used some bits of information to create this product. What marketing! This is from a sales site at http://www.suzannes.com/vithigenheal.html

Quote:

Vital-18 - Lose Weight and Feel great doing it. Have more energy and umph in your step!!

Vital-18 (so called because it contains 18 of the known 22 amino acids) is a liquid concentrate weightloss program. The major active ingredients are a cultivated hybridized spirulina and Korean Ginseng.

Vital-18 was a spin off from a 20 million dollar government project in Qatar (a small Arab nation bordering Saudi Arabia). Qatar is the richest nation per capita in the world.

Since the introduction of Vital-18 and weightloss program to the American market in 1987, literally millions of bottles have been sold and hundreds of thousands of people have achieved the appearance they desire.

Vital-18:
is one of the healthiest products on the market
is used by athletes for the high energy produced and by body builders in competition
is used as a food supplement by people restricted to a liquid diet
is used as a nutritional supplement to a normal diet
is also given to children for the nutrition it provides
Not only will you achieve your desired weightloss, but you will have more energy and feel better than you have ever felt in your life while doing it.

You will find the Vital-18's proper balance of nutrition and minerals will improve your sense of well-being.

For one thing, there is nothing in the text that indicates what might help you lose weight, if it's mainly sold as a source of nutrition.

Here's something that sends up a red flag.
The major active ingredients are a cultivated hybridized spirulina and Korean Ginseng.
Ok, Spirulina is blue-green algae and is NOT a good thing. According to the University of California, Berkeley Wellness:

Quote:

Bottom Line: This is not a medicine or a good source of nutrients. It is easily contaminated. Children should not take it.
...
Algae alert

Blue-green algae (BGA)—including types known as Aphanizomenon and Spirulina—has become a big and growing business. Marketed as a nutritional supplement with miraculous healing and health-giving powers, Aphanizomenon is chiefly harvested from Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon and then freeze-dried and sold in capsules and other forms. Though many marketers sell BGA, by far the largest manufacturer is Cell Tech, which sells its "Super Blue Green Algae" via some 350,000 distributors in this country. In 1997 we questioned the value of all BGA and pointed out that algae was easily contaminated.

Recently Canadian health authorities alerted parents to the potential dangers of contaminated BGA. Other algae growing in the same water with BGA can manufacture very toxic substances called microcystins, which are similar to the red tides that pollute the ocean occasionally. In large doses microcystins produce acute liver failure, brain damage, and death. Microcystins in drinking water, though not a common pollutant, are a danger to people, fish, and farm animals. It's not known, however, how much microcystin in BGA would be enough to make a person sick.

Little people, big risks

What concerned Health Canada (the equivalent of the U.S. FDA) is that marketers of BGA, including Cell Tech, recommend it for children, both for the alleged nutritional benefits and for treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder. There's no evidence of any benefits for children, and particularly not for Attention Deficit Disorder. According to Dr. Charles Holmes, a biochemist at the University of Alberta whose lab pioneered testing methods for microcystins, some samples of BGA had microcystin levels 50 times higher than the upper limit set by the World Health Organization for safe levels in water. Cell Tech claims that its product is safe, but Holmes calls that a "facile argument," since no one knows what a safe limit is. Because of their lower body weight, and because they are still growing, children are more susceptible to toxins than adults. It takes less of a given toxin to make them sick.

Another problem: Even if BGA has low levels of toxins, people tend to consume it every day, providing constant exposure and a possible buildup in the body.

Dr. Duncan Gilroy, a toxicologist with the Oregon Health Division, is mindful of the economic impact these safety concerns could have on the BGA industry in Oregon—an industry that's almost wholly self-regulated. Testing 36 samples of BGA in 1997, he found microcystins in 35 of them. The FDA has recorded 46 "adverse events" from people taking BGA but does not yet know if the algae really was the cause of the various illnesses reported. The FDA is working with the Oregon Department of Agriculture to develop better tests but has issued no health advisories. Dr. Gilroy thinks children should not take this product.

Words to the wise: What about adults? There's no evidence that BGA has any health benefits. A search of the Internet reveals that even a number of "alternative medicine" advocates, in addition to mainstream scientists, question the value of BGA. Dr. Varro Tyler, probably the most famous and respected herb expert in the U.S., has stated that BGA is unimpressive as a source of nutrients. Eating a carrot would do you more good.

My personal advice is to stick with the low-carb diet or any other diet plan that you find that suits your lifestyle and health concerns, increase your activity level, and avoid anything in a pill bottle. In the end, the only thing that will help you safely and effectively lose excess fat is to eat less and move more.