According to the World Health Organization, obesity rates have nearly doubled since 1980, with globally 1.8 billion people overweight, and 500 million people obese. In fact, 65 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight, according to Lynda Doyle, vice president, global marketing for New Jersey-based OmniActive Health Technologies. Nearly 75 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity and overweight play a large role in a variety of diseases. Excess body weight can cause high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, joint problems, sleep apnea and even cancer. “At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese,” said Doyle. “In addition, 44 percent of the diabetes burden, 23 percent of the ischemic heart disease burden and between 7 percent and 41 percent of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity.”
As a result, the weight-loss supplement market will continue to grow, Doyle added. In 2012, 55 percent of Americans were trying to lose weight2, Additionally, 46 percent of shoppers said they are concerned about obesity and weight management. “The total U.S. weight-loss and sports nutrition category was nearly $29 billion in 2012. And in 2013, sports/energy/ weight management condition-specific supplements grew 12.2 percent to approximately $10 billion,” she said.
But why are we having such a problem with weight? The major issue is the standard American diet of processed and fatty foods, as well as an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, but we can also attribute a portion of the obesity epidemic to decreasing resting energy expenditure (REE) as we age. “REE is the amount of calories that your body normally burns just to maintain homeostasis. REE accounts for up to 60 percent of calories burned in the body each day and increases with an increase in metabolic rate; this is why after exercising you continue to burn calories at a high rate. The problem is that our REE slowly decreases as we age,” said Jeremy Bartos, PhD, senior innovation scientist at California-based Glanbia Nutritionals North America, a division of Glanbia PLC, and a leading provider of customized premixes and nutritional ingredients for food, beverage and supplement industries.
An 18-year-old male may have an average REE of 1,600 that decreases to 1,250 by age 70. For women, it may be worse, Bartos explained. Women’s REE is about 1,250 calories at age 18, and decreases to about 1,000 calories by age 70. “These leftover calories can contribute to weight gain,” Bartos said. “A 50 kcal/day decrease in REE is common in the 50s versus the 40s; therefore, if a person eats and exercises exactly the same as they did ten years ago, they will still gain weight.”
Another cause of weight gain may be due to insulin resistance, a long-term effect of the Western high-glycemic diet, which can negatively affect proper glucose metabolism. “The cells do not recognize insulin, or choose to ignore it, leaving the glucose to be stored as fat instead,” Bartos explained. “Up to 40 percent of glucose taken in goes to powering the brain. When the brain needs more energy it signals the body that it is hungry and needs to eat. We eat and the amount of glucose in the blood spikes as a result.”
According to Bartos, this spike causes the pancreas to secrete insulin to help transport the glucose to where it is needed throughout the body, but due to insulin resistance the glucose transporters in the brain do not open to allow glucose in. As a result, the brain does not get its energy, so it signals the body that it is hungry. “In the end, one ends up feeling tired and hungry and the process is repeated, leading to weight gain among other things,” he said.
There are several natural ingredients, some popular and some lesser known, that may help address expanding waistlines by increasing satiety, stimulating thermogenesis, addressing REE and keeping insulin in check.
Thermogenesis
Capsaicinoids are the bioactive and pungent principles in red hot pepper, which are believed to work through several mechanisms of action, and have been researched in more than 90 human clinical studies. Capsaicinoids stimulate thermogenesis, the process of generating heat energy by hydrolysis of ATP via SERCA (sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca+ATP-ase), according to OmniActive’s Doyle. Capsaicinoids also stimulate lipolysis, the mobilization of fatty acids into circulation, by releasing hormones to act upon lipase. “Capsinoids also activate brown adipose tissure (BAT), which burns fat to produce heat when the body is cold and plays a role in energy metabolism,” Doyle said. “This suggests capsaicinoids increase energy expenditure and decrease body fat.”
To get the benefits of red hot pepper, one would have to ingest 10 g daily. OmniActive Health Technologies offers Capsimax Capsicum Extract 2% Capsaicinoids. Capsimax helps promote lipolysis and supports the mobilization of fats for energy production.4 And, just 2 mg capsaicinoids from 100 mg of Capsimax delivers health benefits.
Capsimax has been studied in several human clinical trials, its safety has been established and it appears to be well tolerated, Doyle said. One trial assessed the impact of a supplement containing Capsimax, raspberry ketones, caffeine, garlic, ginger and citrus aurantium on anthropometric variables. The Capsimax supplement significantly decreased circumference and body fat percentage compared to placebo.5 In addition, study participants perceived an increase in energy with this Capsimax supplement.
“What makes Capsimax Capsicum Extract stand out from others on the market is our patented OmniBead Beadlet Technology, which encapsulates the beneficial heat of concentrated highly-active, natural capsicum in a controlled-release coating, delivering effective levels of capsaicinoids without the oral and gastric burning sensation of unprotected red hot peppers,” Doyle said.
Addressing REE
Glanbia Nutritionals North America also offers ingredients to address weight management. The company partners with innovative science-backed companies to sell their proprietary ingredients individually or as part of a premix, such as Ajinomoto with Capsiatra Dihydrocapsiate and Lonza with Carnipure L-Carnitine. The company has three main weight-loss ingredients in its portfolio: Capsiatra Dihydrocapsiate, Chromax Chromium Picolinate, and Canipure L-Carnitine.
The company offers something similar to the red hot pepper compound capsaicin, but found naturally in non-pungent sweet peppers, with its Capsiatra Dihydrocapsiate, which has a letter of no objection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their self-affirmed GRAS (generally recognized as safe) and NDI (new dietary ingredient) notification.
Capsinoids, such as dihydrocapsiate, have similar weight-management benefits as capsaicin, but without the burning side effects associated with the ingredient if it weren’t capsuled properly. “Both dihydrocapsiate and capsaicin activate the TRPV1 receptor in the stomach, which affects several different mechanisms in the body, including resting energy expenditure (REE),” Bartos said.
There are more than 10 published human clinical studies on dihydrocapsiate and other capsinoids detailing their effect at reducing abdominal fat and REE. “Similar to capsaicin, dihydrocapsiate helps to increase metabolism, which in turn leads to increases in fat burning to help compensate,” he added.
Looking at Insulin
Also available via Glanbia is Chromax Chromium Picolinate. Chromium, an essential trace mineral found in brewer’s yeast, organ meats, whole grains, cheese and nuts, is a cofactor for the hormone insulin, which regulates the metabolism of protein, fat and carbohydrates.
“Increasing insulin sensitivity has been shown to help attenuate weight gain, particularly weight in the form of fat, and chromium has been shown to help alleviate insulin resistance,” Bartos said. In one human clinical study, subjects taking chromium picolinate showed significant improvement in adipose tissue reduction, particularly in subcutaneous fat, according to Bartos. And another human clinical trial of subjects taking chromium picolinate showed significant improvement in their percent body fat, fat weight and body composition. “It seems that this is at least partially due to the brain finally getting its fair share of the glucose coming in,” he added.
Shuttling Fatty Acids
Glanbia also offers Carnipure L-Carnitine L-Tartrate. Carnitine is a conditionally essential nutrient that occurs naturally in the human body and in food. “It is synthesized in the liver and kidneys from methionine and protein-bound lysine,” Bartos explained. “It has many different functions in the body that all center around its role as a shuttle compound.”
L-carnitine shuttles long-chain fatty acids inside the mitochondria for beta-oxidation and energy generation and removes short-chain organic acids from inside the mitochondria and contributes to its excretion, Bartos added.
A human clinical trial determined that daily carnitine supplementation increases the rate of fatty acid oxidation. The subjects in the study received C-labeled fatty acids with a meal. One of the byproducts of fatty acid oxidation is CO2, so the breakdown of these fats can be tracked by measuring the radiolabel in the exhaled air, Bartos said. In the groups that received Carnipure, a significant increase in exhalation of labeled CO2 was observed, indicating a significant increase in fatty acid oxidation. “The take-home message is that supplementation with L-carnitine can act to optimize fatty acid oxidation and therefore stimulate the return to normal weight,” Bartos concluded.
Increasing Satiety
Satiety describes the ability to maintain a feeling of fullness longer, and can be a safe way to address weight issues. Matt Philips, chief commercial officer of California-based Nutegrity, said other supplements, such as substances that decrease absorption in order to induce weight loss, can create unwanted side effects such as diarrhea and gas, and may also harm the body by affecting fluid balances.
In order to offer a safer way to address weight issues, Nutegrity recently launched SOLATHIN, a potent mixture of natural potato proteins that contain the powerful satiety agent known as protease inhibitor II or PI-2.
“Numerous scientific studies over the last 10 years have shown that proteins are potent appetite suppressing agents,” Philips said. “Recently, a ground-breaking paper published in the prestigious journal Cell reported appetite suppression occurs when proteins bind to select receptors in the GI (gastrointestinal) tract, which in turn relay information back to the brain to communicate satiety.”
SOLATHIN works by a different but equally powerful mechanism. Its PI-2 properties prevent the breakdown of a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK), which acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain to suppress appetite. “When food levels are low, CCK is degraded rapidly by trypsin and protease enzymes, resulting in lower amounts of CCK in your system,” Philips said. “Hence CCK is no longer binding to your brain, signaling it’s full.”
The effects of PI-2 have been demonstrated in numerous studies over the years in both animal and human studies. “Overall, the studies have revealed that consuming PI-2, naturally derived from potato proteins, leads to increased circulating levels of CCK and also slower reductions in CCK following meals,” Philips explained. It also results in slowed gastric emptying, thereby further suppressing appetite in addition to lower glucose peak levels and lower insulin responses—two powerful mechanisms leading to overall better glucose health.
Human studies have shown that PI-2 ingestion does lead to weight loss in double-blind, controlled studies, Philips added. “We really believe that the future of supplementation in weight management will be toward satiety inducing products that work, are backed by science, and don’t have unwanted side effects. All three are true about SOLATHIN and that is why we believe SOLATHIN can revolutionize the satiety and weight-management supplementation industries.”
Popular Ingredients
While ingredients for weight loss, such as chromium, may be lesser known, ingredients like raspberry ketone and green coffee bean extract have been in the forefront of the weight-loss industry due to promotion on shows such as “The Dr. Oz Show.” For example, the target market for raspberry ketone is and has been the flavor industry, according to Jim Schultz, CEO and founder of California-based Green Wave Ingredients (GWI). However, after Dr. Oz introduced it to the public as a weight-loss ingredient, its sales have been growing dramatically and the ingredient experienced a boom in the nutrition and supplement industry.
“Unfortunately, the problem for supplement manufacturers is that there are many sources of lesser-grade ingredient extracts that have penetrated the expanding marketplace, according to tests conducted by ConsumerLabs.com,” said Schultz. “Due to rampant availability of inferior product, the GWI quality control team has taken the necessary steps of ensuring product efficacy and purity.”
GWI offers several popular ingredients, such as green coffee bean, caffeine and raspberry ketone, as well as lesser-known weight-loss ingredients like theobromine and spirulina. GWI has its products tested by independent third-party labs and audits all of its manufacturers. The company’s Green Coffee Bean P.E. is 50 percent tested out of 53 percent by HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) via a third-party lab. “The results show that GWI’s product contains over 53 percent total chlorogenic acid, which verifies the high efficacy and superior quality for this green coffee bean extract compared to the common 50 percent content,” Schultz said.
“We’ve made it a priority to source and import only the genuine article,” he added. “With a significant increase of imports to the U.S. in the past year, we’re capitalizing on our long-standing supply chain relationships in order to meet rising demand here in the states.”
InterHealth Nutraceuticals, a California-based company specializing in branded ingredients, also offers well-known weight management ingredients.
The company’s Super CitriMax, a garcinia cambogia extract, stands out in this popular weight-loss ingredient category as the only garcinia cambogia extract studied by Dr. Harry Preuss at Georgetown University Medical Center and by researchers at Maastricht University, according to Paul Dijkstra, CEO of InterHealth. “Five published peer-reviewed Super CitriMax research studies show that it is three times more effective than diet and exercise alone, increases serotonin levels by 44 percent, reduces calorie intake by 25 percent and maintains healthy cholesterol levels,” he said. “Additionally, research demonstrates that when InterHealth’s ChromeMate is added to Super CitriMax, there is a greater weight loss than with Super CitriMax by itself.”
The most recent research centers around InterHealth’s Meratrim ingredient. According to Dijkstra, recent findings in Obesity and the Journal of Medicinal Food have shown that Meratrim supplementation for eight weeks resulted in a statistically significant increase in adiponectin levels compared to placebo. “It has been shown that the circulating levels of this hormone are inversely proportional to the amount of body visceral fat,” he explained. “These results suggest that Meratrim may influence lipid metabolism, which is consistent with the reduction in waist circumference also seen with Meratrim.”
Delivery Methods
Convenience is key for weight loss supplements, according to Dijkstra. “Meal replacement shakes seem to be on the rise in popularity,” he said. “Both Super CitriMax and ChromeMate would work in meal replacement drinks as well as in stick packs, sachets, shots or gels. Both sachets and shots have shown to be very popular with consumers because of their convenience.”
Nutegrity also offers convenient delivery methods for SOLATHIN, with chews, 2-oz. shots and oatmeal delivery options.
References:
2 IFIC 2013
3 HealthFocus 2011
4 Bloomer et al. Lipids Hith Dis, 2010
5 Lopez et al., 2013
