A recent article by time.com has announced a new weight loss pill.  As if we don’t have enough of those already. The article states that the FDA has recently approved the new weight management pill that is to be used by overweight or obese adults with a BMI of at least 25.

The product “Plentity” that has been developed by Gelesis is said to be available in the later half of 2019 and will be widely available in 2020.

According to the article, the FDA has approved only five prescription weight-loss drugs in the past, along with issuing warnings to the consumers about possible side effects.  

Will this just be another weight loss pill that gives consumers false hope?

Given that this pill helps to fill the stomach instead of tricking your brain into not wanting to eat or making you feel full, it could have the potential for success.  However, it begs the question of how a pill like this on the market could affect the minds of younger consumers that see a pill of this nature as a quick fix to an unhealthy lifestyle.

In a blog post by Gloria Verret from the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, she claims that people, especially women and teenage girls, feel so much pressure to be thin that $40 billion dollars a year are spent on weight loss products that have no proven benefit.  While this may not be a proven statistic, it is not at all surprising.

There is such a strong conflict in our society between the desire to look skinny and be healthy, and the desire to eat fast food every day.  Thanks to the genius marketing strategies on both sides, it feels like you can never win.

It almost seems that weight loss pills were created to play the devil’s advocate for people that want to eat unhealthy, but still look good at the same time.  If we had it our way, I’m sure everyone would choose In-N-Out for dinner over chicken and rice and broccoli.

Keeping up with a healthy lifestyle is hard, but the message that you can fix your body with one pill is a dangerous message to be sending to consumers, let alone the younger population that may not know any better.

Whether the pill works or not, we should be taking steps to help young consumers learn about healthy eating and lifestyle, rather than shoving a one pill fixes all solution in their faces and down their throats.  Just because it is FDA approved does not mean you’ll get the body you want.

In an article from Medical News Today, MaryAnn de Pietro writes that prescription pills may lead to some weight loss, but they all have the potential for different side effects as well.  

It is important that consumers of any age consider this information before they decide to try a weight loss pill, and hopefully, the creators of this new pill will put more effort into accurately advertising this new product.

If you do enough research on weight loss pills it’s easy to see that there are pros and cons to every pill offered.  In most cases, the pros outweigh the cons which is why they are probably better off not on the shelves and instead we spend more time and effort educating children and impressionable consumers about healthy lifestyles so diet pills can be a thing of the past.