I was intrigued by the advertising for Alli, it appeared to be a natural supplement therefore in my mind a vitamin or mineral or fish oil or some such thing.
So I looked it up online, and this is what you can read:
Alli is only for adults who are deemed to be overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28 and over.
Ingredients:
Active ingredient: Orlistat 60mg
Inactive ingredients: FD&C Blue No 2, edible ink, gelatin, iron oxide, microcrystalline cellulose povidone, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium starch glycoate, talc, titanium dioxide.
I looked up Orlistat and this is what Wikipedia says:
marketed as a prescription under the trade name Xenical by Roche in most countries or over the counter as Alli. It is also known as tetrahydrolipstatin and is a drug to treat obesity.
The effectiveness is modest and is advised to be taken with a revised lifestyle including diet and exercise. When compared to those dieting and exercising and not taking Alli and those who dieted and exercised and did take Alli the weight loss over a full year was only 4 – 6 lbs more in the Alli consumer. The drug in Alli also has gastric side-effects which can be severe diarrhoea and very bad flatulence. Wikipedia: “Orlistat is notorious for its gastrointestinal side effects (sometimes referred to astreatment effects), which can include steatorrhea (oily, loose stools).”
Wikipedia also mentions some useful effects of orlistat but it is difficult to ascertain whether those benefits would be effective anyway through the healthier lifestyle.
But to the reason I write about this. The word steatorrhea.
This was what was written on my medical report after two endoscopy exams advised after over 7 weeks of diarrhoea.
After a year of steatorrhea which isn’t pleasant and makes going out anywhere impossible. I worked hard at giving up various foods to see if I could ascertain the cause.
I was on a very limited diet anyway and did not eat fat except fish oil supplements, olive oil or the fat that naturally came with lean meat. I cut out the fish oil supplements, nuts and seeds and found no difference.
I stopped rice cakes. A staple part of my diet.
And the steatorrhea stopped.
I wrote to The Rice Cake people and the response was that all they could tell me was that the ingredients were rice and water and that there was no difference between the normal rice cakes and the LOW FAT ones but they were not allowed to tell me of any other ingredients. So that told me there were other ingredients but I could be accused of splitting hairs, so maybe there weren’t any other ingredients.
Now then, here’s the thing. A new codex standard that food companies adhere to allows elements in food that do not have to be declared if under a certain percentage.
I have been eating rice cakes for about 20 years and it wasn’t until the last 2 years that I had a problem with them.
As Rice Cakes are part of many people’s low fat diet, one does wonder what other ‘ingredients’ are in them, the ones that can’t be mentioned if indeed there are any.
The foods we mainly eat are causing the obesity problem. Here is a list of them:
Margarines and soft spreads – the process of making margarines can cause hormone imbalances
Cooking oils and the oils used in making frozen chips, crisps and food commercially fried – the process of refining oil may cause hormonal imbalances
Supermarket bought cakes, breads, pies, biscuits, pastries, pastry, sauces, ice-creams – all these contain fats or oils that have been refined. They also contain long names like triglycerides of fatty acids, or emulsifiers and these are fats taken from refined oils and so may cause hormonal problems.
Food Additives – manufacturers have noticed that consumers avoid foods with MSG so they call it yeast flavouring instead and a side effect of this is to cause the body to put on weight.
With these synthetic foods (foods that have been altered and did not start out like that) it is no wonder our bodies respond with disease, and the scientifically advised and government approved method is to make another synthetic substance as the ‘cure’.
To reduce weight eat home-grown foods that are recognised as natural food. Make your own breads, cakes, pastries from an original wheat flour called Spelt, Extra Virgin Olive oil, mineral water, good quality butter. Eat good quality natural vegetables and fruit. E X E R C I S E. And you will lose weight and many other illnesses you didn’t know you had.