HOTB 298: What's in this thing? A closer look at GOLO

Healing Outside The Box

I often get questions from people who have seen advertisements for weight loss supplements and they wonder if they work. One of those supplement companies has a product that they call "GOLO". Their pitch is that it is a combination of supplement pills and a low-calorie diet, but it is primarily pills that contain a few minerals and some crushed herbs. I took a deep dive into the literature on the herbs they have included and I discuss the results in this episode.

Before I got to GOLO, I mentioned a wonderful organization called World Central Kitchen. They recently lost seven of their disaster relief workers in Gaza; tragically they made headlines for the worst possible reason. These people head towards the disaster while the rest of us are fleeing. They need our help more than ever now.

I first read an article in a lay magazine about the basics of the diet advice and herbal remedies they include. The link to the article can be found here.

I read an NIH article about the gardenia extract and I was surprised that there was some promise with this one. Here is the link to the NIH article.

This is an NIH article on the Banaba extract.

Another NIH article shows promising results from the salacious extract for both weight loss and blood sugar control.