Hello, this is Monica Reinagal, and you're listening to the Nutrition Diva

podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

Leanne recently asked me to weigh in on the latest herbal weight loss

supplement called Meritrim. Now, Leanne, who is a professor of nutrition, is

usually appropriately skeptical about such things things but when she went to look into

this supplement she discovered a handful of published clinical studies that seem to

support their claims so is this new herbal supplement the weight loss miracle

we've all been waiting for? Meritrim is a proprietary blend of two botanical

extracts. The first one is called Sperontas a history of use in Ayurvedic medicine. And I talked about the science of Ayurveda

in a previous podcast.

So there is some preliminary research that was done in mice

suggesting that East Indian Globe Thistle might be useful in controlling blood sugar levels,

but again these were mice.

The other ingredient in Meritrim is an extract from the rind of the mangostein.

And that's one of those tropical super fruits that's purported to have a long list of health benefits,

including anti-obesity and anti-diabetic properties.

So far, however, the research on Mangosteen has mostly been limited to animal and test tube studies.

But what happens when these two promising but largely unproven

compounds are combined? Well the manufacturers of the supplement have

funded some independent research to find out.

Back in 2013, researchers at UC Davis tested this supplement versus a placebo in 100 obese

individuals.

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