| Well Nance, you already know MY story! =(
For those of you wondering, Nancy and I both work together here at CXO.
We tried chitin from different sources a few months ago... like she
said in the basenote, it's a derivative of shellfish which (as the ad
says on the radio): "when taken with meals, absorbs up to 12 times its
weight in dietary fat, making it virtually indigestible and flushing it
right out of the body naturally... you have no choice but to lose
weight on this product when taken according to directions, 2 capsules
30 minutes before meals..." and etc. Well, it didn't work for Nancy
and it didn't work for me either. We both followed the directions on
the product and neither of us lost an ounce.
Unfortunately for me, I waited more than 90 days to try the money-back
guarantee they offered. I'm out $150 for a 6-month supply! Arrrrgh!!
Guess I figured I'd give it more time but either way, it was a rip. =(
I don't recommend this product either.
Anyone else have any experience? - L
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| Chitosan does work, but within reason. The fiber called chitin is very
similar to Chitosan in that it also comes from the shells of sea creatures.
There are various purities of Chitosan ( one grade was used in the waste
treatment industry). The dietary supplements now available have been refined
with a process called "Deacetylation". The product that we have been using is
called Chitosorb and is a 95% Deacetylated Chitosan, with a basic absorption
of 12 times its weight in lipids. An interesting piece of information that
was passed along at a seminar on this product that we took in about a year or
so back is that the addition of about 2 grams of Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
seems to almost double the absorption of the chitosan. This was a finding in
a research paper in Biosci. Biotech. Biochem..58(9),'94.
But consider for a moment what the performance specs are saying. The Chitosorb
for instance, comes in a bottle of 120 caplets each 1gram. But the caplets are
not 100% Chitosan! The ingredients are:
95% Deacetylated Chitosan, Galactomanian Fiber Extracts of Ceratonin
Siliqua, and Ascorbic Acid.
So even with the additional 2 grams of vitamin C, each caplet should only bind
a max of 20 grams of fat to be on the generous side. In a booklet by W.J.Hennen
called Chitosan, he lists a Wendys Hamburger Deluxe at 21 grams of fat, and a
Whopper at 36 grams. This means that to take care of one burger you would need
1 to 2 caplets of chitosan and 2 to 4 tablets of vitamin C.
Lets look at the cost involved. A bottle of Chitosorb (120 caplets)costs $28 Us
wholesale/ $39.95 US retail (no one pays retail because the company that sells
this stuff encourages everyone to register as wholesale buyers) plus the S&H
about $6 to $10. If you only bought 1 bottle that would be $38 us for 120
caplets or about 32 cents each plus the cost of Vitamin c, say another 16 cents
for a total added cost of 48 to 80 cents, plus the 1/2 hour advanced period
before buying a burger of $1 to $2 dollars depending on the costs in the local
area.
As for other foods, a good rule of thumb is that if the food is tasty, it
probably contains about 30% fat content. An Oh Henry chocolate bar at 69 grams
contains 17 grams of fat for a ratio of 25%. They sell for about $1 in the
vending machines plus the 48 cents ...... Is there something wrong with the
economy of this picture?
The question is how many caplets would you need to bind one pound of fat. If
you take the figure of 12 times their weight as specified on the bottle, and
consider that 1 pound is about 454 grams, it comes out to about 38 caplets at
32 cents each, for a cost of $12.16 US per pound. My guess is that if my
arithmetic is correct, that the folks that sold this product may have
forgotten to tell their customers about the cost per pound of using this
product.
Since the average home scale probably is not accurate to closer than 1/2 a
pound, and since most folks probably don't pop chitosan like peanuts, it is
understandable that the results with this product may be a little disappointing
especially if the customers level of expectation was different from which the
product was intended to perform at.
One interesting benefit though, that some of our friends have reported, is that
the Chitosan did make a truly wonderful laxative, so if you are stuck with
extra bottles of the Chitin, it may have a spin-off benefit.
Hope this has helped a bit
Cheers......Walt
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