As a diet aid, it lacks shine
Could you investigate chromium picolinate as an aid for dieting?
Mary Jean
Whittier
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The products: Chromium -- the same metal that makes fenders shine -- plays a crucial role in the body. In the bloodstream, traces of it boost the power of insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and helps break down fat. A shortage of chromium could potentially send blood sugar soaring, and it probably wouldn’t be good for your waistline either.
Chromium is also a fixture on the vitamin aisle, most often in the form of chromium picolinate. The term “picolinate” means that the chromium has been combined with picolinic acid, a natural compound that aids absorption.
You can buy bottles of chromium picolinate for pennies a dose. One hundred tablets -- each containing 200 micrograms of chromium -- can cost less than $4.
Several popular weight-loss supplements -- including Slim Seduction and Trimspa X32 -- list chromium as a key ingredient. Four tablets of Trimspa X32 (the recommended daily dose) contain 300 micrograms of chromium. A bottle of 90 tablets costs about $20.
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The claims: Marketers often promote chromium as a shortcut for weight loss. The Slim Seduction website says that the metal “has been shown to zap excess hunger and cravings to help users shed pounds. Chromium also has been promoted as a body-building supplement. The website bodybuilding.com offers an array of chromium products with promises that the metal “assists the body in losing weight by helping it to build muscle to replace fat.”
Supplement labels and websites often emphasize chromium’s vital role in the body. Sites selling chromium picolinate supplements from Now Foods say “chromium helps insulin to metabolize fat, turn protein into muscle and convert sugar into energy.”
Some marketers add urgency to the selling points by claiming that Americans aren’t getting enough chromium in their diets. According to the Slim Seduction site, “U.S. government studies say nine out of 10 Americans are deficient in this vital mineral.”
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The bottom line: Chromium is an essential nutrient, but supplements won’t help anyone lose weight or build muscle, says Henry Lukaski, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher who specializes in dietary trace metals. “People are using this doggone stuff with high hopes, and it’s not working.”
Lukaski and his colleagues recently put chromium supplements to a rigorous test. They kept 83 women on carefully controlled diets for 12 weeks. About half of the women also received 200 micrograms of chromium each day, while the other women took a placebo. As reported earlier this year in the journal Nutrition, the women taking chromium didn’t lose more weight or gain more muscle than the women taking placebos.
Many other studies have reached the same conclusion: Chromium supplements don’t have any effect on weight loss.
Believers might claim that chromium only works at doses much higher than 200 micrograms. But more isn’t better, says John B. Vincent, a professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama. Rat studies conducted by Vincent and others show that even massive amounts of chromium -- far more than a person taking supplements would ever get -- won’t speed weight loss.
Chromium is generally considered safe in amounts of up to about 1,000 micrograms (or 1 milligram) a day, but doses higher than that could be risky, Vincent says. Chromium is an oxidant -- the opposite of an antioxidant -- and large doses could potentially damage cells and even DNA.
There have been scattered reports of liver and kidney damage in people taking more than 1,200 micrograms of chromium each day for months at a time.
According to Vincent, claims of widespread chromium deficiencies are “absolutely false.” In reality, he says, about 98% of all Americans get at least 30 micrograms of chromium each day, putting them in line with recommendations from the Institute of Medicine. Chromium is found in grains, beans, peas, meats, red wine and many other foods and drinks.
A few studies suggest that chromium supplements can help improve the power of insulin in people who are insulin resistant, but Vincent calls the results “extremely mixed.”
In short, this is one supplement that doesn’t shine.
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