FDA Issues Warnings About Tainted Weight Loss Supplements, Online Diet Aids

The Food and Drug Administration issued new warnings about various nutritional supplements, energy products, sexual enhancement products and weight loss aids. Though these products claim to be "natural" and "herbal," they do, in fact, contain Sibutramine, which raises blood pressure and heart rate. Sibutramine can be deadly for patients taking heart medication or with a family history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arhythmias, or stroke.

The FDA has long waged war against these products. It has been successful in weeding out several brand names and now the FDA has tracked down off brands of these products. Manufacturers are not allowed to make or distribute products with this ingredient. However, many are available online or in product circulars. They are made in from other countries and sold in the U.S. illegally. Consumers order them through the mail. Others are available in some retail locations.

Products banned by the FDA include:

* Fruit Plant Lossing Capsule (a generic for Planta Fructa, which the FDA warned against earlier this year). Consumers are warned to watch for products advertisements like this with misspellings or grammatical errors from wrongly translated words, like "lossing." These are often unreliable products, containing non-FDA approved ingredients.

* P57 Hoodia: (Huikng Pharmaceuticals) Hoodia is touted as a weight loss miracle supplement, but some varieties contain sibutramine.

* Advanced Slim 5

* Magic Slim Tea (similar to Magic Coffee Powder, which also contains Sibutramine).

* Acai Berry Soft Gel ABC

* Botanical Slimming (falsely labeled "100 percent natural")

* Lose Weight Coffee (similar to Magic Coffee Powder)

* Magic Slim Weight Reducing Powder

* Sheng Yuan Fang

* A-Slim 100 percent Slimming Powder

All of these are tainted with dangerous ingredients. A similar ingredient, Sildenafil, used to treat Erectile Dysfunction, also causes similar problems. Sildenafil is found in many supplements, including Duro Extend, Rock Hard Extreme and Man Up Now. The FDA warned against that Sildenafil, too. The FDA warns against purchasing any of these online products from overseas companies, whose claims can't be easily identified.