The FDA warned consumers Friday not to use two illegal Brazilian diet pills because testing has revealed they may contain tranquilizers, antidepressants and stimulants.

The pills are sold over the Web as Emagrece Sim, or the Brazilian Diet Pill, and Herbathin, the Food and Drug Administration said. The pills are billed as all-natural but may contain active ingredients, including controlled substances, normally found only in prescription drugs like Librium and Prozac.

Click for full AP story and FDA press release.

Tranquilzers and stimulants? Yikes! I imagine that would feel like being in a cloud, but all hyped up at the same time. And those anti-depressants are powerful medicene. I can only imagine what they would do to someone like myself who has no need of them.

I don't mean to be condencending, but I can't help but feel sorry for people who are so desperate to lose weight by any means that they'll take illegal diet pills from any country, not having a clue what might be in those pills or what the long term side effects might be. That whole phen-fen (or however it is spelt) business really was an eye opener for me, and that was a drug that was legal in the US and presumably went through some sort of testing procedure before it was made public. And it was killing people!

Eat less, move more. The side effects are that you might feel hungry (I do) and tired sometimes (I do). These side effects aren't fun, but I know they aren't going to kill me.

That info has been around for a while now dude but it's worth the extra head up cause even I only read about brazilian diet pills aorund a month ago. There was even a joke on Joey about it. I beat that they really do take it in brazil for weight loss, OTC. who knows.

The FDA just released its warning on Friday, January 13, 2006 and I posted about it here the next day. Seems pretty timely to me ... not sure what you mean when you say the 'info has been around for a while now dude' ...

There has been warning about the brazilian diet pills for much longer than a year when I went researching it online. At least since oct of 2005. As always the fda is pressured to do the right thing after the fact, or is always late at the scene (like the cops are in almost all the movies we've all seen). From research it seems there is some legit evidence to suggest we should also be worried about taking meridia which can cause heart trouble. As for the brazi. diet pills there were many reports after those women tested positive for ampet. when they were given a drug test for a job. The pills were tested even then and I did notice that the fda has only made a warning at this point. Heck their was even a joke about them in joey I think over a month ago, where the sister said it made gave her energy and so forth, this is the episode where they all went to party in mexico, by the way. Either way as I said it's still good cause some just don't know yet, from the looks of things.

Meg - you are correct about the timing of the FDA warning. I am a Substance Abuse Program Manager for a Fortune 100 company and we terminated someone who tested positive for amphetamines after taking Emagrece Sim. This OTC available in Brazil, but could be purchased online or in some places in Miami, contains ingredients found in Librium and Prozac. Additionally, it contains Fenproporex, which is available by Rx in Brazil, but not in the U.S. Fenproporex converts to amphetamine in the body, thus resulting in a positive drug test.

U know what really freaks me out, is that there are actually some people who are looking for these things and they know what's in them. Some who were taking them are still going to go on doing so. These things have fen, the stuff that was taken off the market after years of our population taking it for so long and it caused problems. Pen has also been on the market for so long but it seems to be better due to how it works inside our bodies. Prozac is another thing in these pills and that stuff can make u nuts and suicidal. Damn. Sorry, but this is nuts.

Actually, from what I've read, they don't containe fenfluramine - the "fen" part of the Phen-Fen cocktail.

They might be related, but from what I've read fenfluramine and Fenproporex are different substances.