Viewpoints

Harvard Researchers Aim to Stop Teens Use of Unsafe Weight Loss Supplements

By Radiah Jamil

Fueled by less than half the calories he usually consumed, 17-year-old Stanley Huang ran more than three miles a day in 2018, hoping to lose weight. 

Looking back, Huang, who considered himself chubby at the time, regrets the way that he lost those 30 pounds.

“I was losing a lot of muscle but not necessarily a lot of fat like I intended, which is because of poor dieting, poor sleep, poor everything.” Now he says he would get healthy differently this time, “I would not even focus on losing weight, I would focus on building strength and then slowly go into a caloric deficit, and just enjoy the process.”

Harvard University’s Bryn Austin, a social science and behavioral science professor who leads the Harvard Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders, has been working to reduce eating disorders and weight-loss supplement consumption among youth. Among other measures, that Harvard researcher helped write legislation being considered by lawmakers in California, Massachusetts and New York that would prohibit the sale of over-the-counter diet pills and muscle-building supplements to minors.

“If we had a terrible outbreak of air pollution,” Austin said, “we wouldn’t just have every child wear a gas mask, we would do something to clean up that air pollution.” 

Austin said the Harvard initiative also is tackling the topic of body image, including how to help teens avoid viewing themselves negatively because they do not fit certain glamorized body types.

“They’re [weight loss supplement industry] playing Russian roulette with the lives of young people,” Austin said. “Lawmakers in every state we work in have a responsibility to protect young people from the crass industries trying to make a buck off of young people’s struggles with body image.”

The weight loss supplement industry currently is valued at $2.6 billion dollars, according to Professor Austin. Taking those supplements can cause elevated blood pressure, insomnia, heart attacks and other serious health problems in teens, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to a study published in 2002 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, 46.2% of teens had used dietary supplements in their lifetime. Nearly 20 years later, there is a surge in both the number of adolescents taking those supplements and how frequently they consume them.

In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act defined dietary supplements as a category of food rather than drugs which in turn leads to weaker regulation and testing of dietary supplements. In clinical trials, it is not mandatory for manufacturers to test new supplements or ingredients which would uncover potential risks otherwise. 

New York’s proposed ban against selling over-the-counter pills, touted as enhancements for dieting and muscle-building, hasn’t been voted on yet. Harvard’s special initiative intends to relaunch its efforts to get it passed next year, when the New York Legislature reconvenes next year.