Leptoprin lies

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Sept, 2004

"When is a diet pill worth $153 a bottle?" asks one of the most popular TV infomercials of the past year.

Certainly not when it's Leptoprin.

The name may sound like leptin, a protein the body makes to control fat stores. But Leptoprin (it's also called Anorex) is actually an exorbitantly priced mishmash of ingredients like calcium, aspirin, the amino acid L-tyrosine, and a few herbs and roots. (That's the "SF," or "Stimulant-Free" formulation. The company no longer sells the version with caffeine and the banned stimulant ephedrine.)

"Clinical studies don't lie," says the Web site of Leptoprin's manufacturer, A.G. Waterhouse, one of several related Utah companies that hawk dubious supplements on TV and online.

"In a recent clinical trial, subjects who were given the active Leptoprin-SF compound (in conjunction with modest caloric restriction and exercise) experienced eleven times (1100%) more weight loss and 63 percent more fat loss than those on diet and exercise alone."

In fact, the six overweight subjects lost no more weight or body fat after six weeks on Leptoprin's active ingredients than 14 others who were given either a placebo or nothing at all.

Clinical studies may not lie, but ads do.