This morning I am featuring another article by Julie Upton, MS, RD, CSSD of Appetite for Health. Now let me warn you, nothing fires up us dietitians more than false health information. This article gets to the bottom of the raspberry ketone fad and gives you the facts.
You will also get an idea of how we, as nutrition experts, weed through the latest diet and supplement fads. The five points listed below are the steps we use to determine if something is evidence-based or not.
I hope you enjoy reading a little nutrition smack this morning. Keep fighting the good fight of health and have a great day!
Dr. Oz says that raspberry ketone supplements are ..."fat burners in a bottle..." but there's much more to the story. Here, we look at what Dr. Oz didn't tell you about his latest favorite "miracle" supplement.
“Boost energy and burn fat with the Pure Raspberry Ketone!”
“Number One Miracle in a Bottle!”
“Raspberry Ketone: Fat Burner in a Bottle”
If you watch The Dr. Oz Show, you’ve probably heard about the latest must-have weight loss solution that the show claims is a “Fat Burner in a Bottle.” In fact, since Dr. Oz recently aired his segment promoting it’s fat-flushing benefits, sales of the supplements are soaring. Now, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian and other celebs are reportedly pimping raspberry ketones too. But before you jump onto Dr. Oz’s latest overly hyped and highly sensationalized “miracle,” there are five things you probably don’t know about raspberry ketones and their purported ability to help you lose weight.
1. No human studies show that raspberry ketones aid in weight loss or fat burning
Raspberry ketones are natural phenolic compounds in red raspberries that create the aroma of the berries. The only published scientific health research (there have been three studies to date) on raspberry ketones are considered preliminary because they are either animal model or laboratory studies. No studies have have been conduced with humans. Not one. All three studies were conducted in Asia and published in small experimental publications rather than major medical journals. There was no disclosure by the researchers whether or not the supplement industry funded their studies, but one would expect that they were probably funded by the industry. One study reported that feeding raspberry ketones to rodents resulted in increased secretion of adiponectin, a hormone secreted by fat cells that helps the body break down fat and plays a role in obesity and insulin resistance. In the other study, mice were fed a high-fat diet with varying amounts of raspberry ketones. The results showed that those with higher amounts of raspberry ketones were protected against fat gains and increased fat oxidation (burning). The third study exposed fat cells to raspberry ketones and found that the ketones were able to stimulate lipid metabolism by stimulating lipolysis, and the secretion of adiponectin in specific types of fat cells. There’s a big difference between mice and humans and while the preliminary research is of interest, many more studies (including human studies) are necessary to make any type of claim that the products will help a human lose weight or increase fat burning. [sws_divider_line]2. Dr. Oz’s raspberry ketone expert, Lisa Lynn, is Not a weight loss expert
The other suspect part of the Dr. Oz segment about raspberry ketones is the so-called “expert,” who promoted the supplements. The segment features Lisa Lynn, who Dr. Oz referred to as a weight loss expert. However, Lisa Lynn has is not a dietitian, has no nutrition degree, is not a nurse or medical doctor. She does have certificates for exercise training from the International Sports Sciences Association and she sells raspberry ketone supplements on her website in the LynFit Accelorator product, which you can buy for $33.00 on her website. That doesn't make her a "weight loss expert," and certainly doesn't qualify her to speak about the nutritional biochemistry of ketones and fat metabolism. After hearing what she said on-air about the supplement, I knew immediately that she has no biochemistry or nutrition background:Lisa Lynn: Research, research, and research.
Lisa, where is the research. There are two published mice studies in the worldwide medical literature database. Where are you getting your “research?”
Lisa Lynn: They[raspberry ketones] help your body burn fat. They slice it [fat] up in the cells so it burns fat easier….”
From nutritional biochemistry, there is absolutely nothing that "chops up," or "flushes" fat from the body. It's just simplistic ludicrous statements mean to get people to buy into the promises of the product.



















Thanks for the advice, i've posted your Raspberry Ketone ideas on our suggestion box.
Posted by: raspberidiet@gmail.com | 01/25/2013 at 04:53 AM
If you pile foods on top of each other in the steaming insert, you will likely find that the cooking process takes longer and that some foods don't cook properly. Thanks.
Posted by: CreativeBioscience.com | 01/24/2013 at 03:44 AM
Thanks for the feedback, i've posted your Raspberry Ketone Supplement and ideas on our suggestion box.
Posted by: Raspberry Diet | 12/31/2012 at 03:12 AM
Thanks for the feedback, i've posted your Raspberry Ketone Supplement and ideas on our suggestion box.
Posted by: Raspberry Diet | 12/31/2012 at 03:04 AM