Lida Daidaihua Slimming Capsules

Posted By Paul on Sep 9, 2012 | 0 comments

Toward the end of 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a consumer warning about Lida Daidaihua (along with a number of other weight loss products) after it was discovered that they were contaminated with prescription diet drugs.

“An FDA analysis found that the undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients in some of these products include sibutramine (a controlled substance), rimonabant (a drug not approved for marketing in the United States), phenytoin (an anti-seizure medication), phenolphthalein (a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer causing agent) and bumetanide (a diuretic). Some of the amounts of active pharmaceutical ingredients far exceeded the FDA-recommended levels, putting consumers’ health at risk.”

At the time, I wrote:

“Bottom line?

If you’ve been taking either the Lida Daidaihua Slimming Capsules or the “Super Fat Burning” pills you should stop immediately. And if you found them perhaps a little more effective than they maybe should have been… well, now you know!”

Fast forward to 2012… Lida Daidaihua pills are still very much on the market. A simple Google search brings up a number of sales sites. They’re also being sold on eBay. Does this mean that Lida DaiDaihua supps are currently safe to order?

No idea.

Presumably the manufacturers/importers cleaned up their act(s) after the adulteration was discovered, but whether the products have remained untainted by prescription drugs (or other contaminants) remains to be seen.

Personally, however, I would avoid Lida Daidaihua pills, even if they were certified to be 100% drug-free.

Why? There are three reasons:

1. The ingredients.

For starters, they appear to be ordinary and/or not proven to be effective. While a comprehensive list is tough to come by, one site claims…

“The raw materials are extracts of daidaihua, cassia seed, coicis seed and mulberry leaf. The glucomannan in the product can absorbe water.”

“Daidaihua” seems to refer to bitter orange, a source of synephrine. Unfortunately, published evidence shows synephrine to have only the mildest of weight loss effects… and daidaihua does not even appear to be standardized for this compound.

On the other hand, an importer states…

Li Da DaiDaihua Capsule includes:

– Natural appetite-restraining vegetation materials (extracts) such as sweet potato fiber, cyamoposis gum powder, amor phallus konjac (extract from giant arum and Jerusalem artichoke) and alfalfa.

– Vegetation materials (extracts) that can reduce the body fat such as tuckahoe, kola, guttiferae plant, coleus scutellarioides, guarana, marumi kumquat and trigonella foenumm, etc.

“Such as”???

I don’t know about you, but I find “such as” to be a bit alarming… it implies a sort of “grab bag” mentality. All the importer can guarantee is that the product contains some kind of plant fiber + some mixture of “vegetation materials…that can reduce the body fat.”

Lovely.

Really, the only ingredient from either list that looks decent is glucomannan (it’s written as ” amor phallus konjac” in the second list). But glucomannan can also be purchased quite inexpensively from reliable local retailers – no need to import it from China, mixed in with other herbs of unknown quality and effectiveness (or dubious prescription drugs, for that matter).

In addition, this vagueness about ingredients is a red flag. If a retailer is not forthcoming about what’s in a product, this usually means that there’s something to hide. I don’t care if it’s not that expensive – any money spent on a questionable product is money wasted.

2. The aforementioned history of adulteration.

We know Lida Daidaihua products were contaminated with prescription drugs… but we don’t know how they got that way. Was it deliberate? If so, the manufacturers were cheating and lying to their customers. Was it accidental? If so, their quality control was incredibly shabby. Neither prospect inspires any confidence that the manufacturers are committed to producing a quality product.

3. Lida Daidaihua is sold from a variety of obscure web sites.

This raises questions about accountability.

There are plenty of well-known retailers with established records for customer service. If you have a problem, they will make every effort to resolve it to your satisfaction. Ordering from an obscure web site offers no such guarantee. Good luck if there’s a problem with your order.

The bottom line is that I’m suspicious of Lida Daidaihua products. And since there are plenty of alternatives available, I see no reason to spend my hard-earned money on them.