Raspberry Ketones as New Weight Loss Miracle

This year, Raspberry Ketone Diet has become a national trend in America as an effective weight loss solution. The Raspberry Ketones is all over Internet and televisions, after a promotion in the Dr. Oz Show as the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn fat. So, it was the green coffee bean extract a while ago, but how  effective are these anti-obese products?

According to the website DoctorOz.com, the product Raspberry Key, or raspberry ketone, is very effective for weight loss when its reception is combined with regular exercises and healthy diet.

The raspberry ketone, also known as rasketone or rheosmin, is a natural phenolic compound which is the primary aroma compound of red raspberries. It is used in perfumery and cosmetics, and is one of the costliest natural flavor components used in food industry ($20,000 per kg.). Its extraction of raspberries is usually only 1-4 mg per kg of raspberries, so natural sources are often grapes, peaches, apples, rhubarb, and the bark of maple and pine trees. The raspberry ketone can be also produced chemically .

By its structure, the raspberry ketone is similar to synephrine and capsaicin. Capsaicin is the active component of chili peppers and is used for myalgia, and synephrine replaces the toxic ephedrine in food supplements for weight loss. However, there are not many scientific researches on the raspberry ketone, so its efficacy is still not fully proven.

One study on mice showed that the raspberry ketone had an anti-obese function. It stimulated the metabolism of white and brown adipose tissues and inhabited small intestinal absorption of dietary fat by suppressing the pancreatic lipase activity. Another earlier study on mice couldn’t find any connection between the diet high in raspberry ketone and actual weight loss in rats which consumed a large dose of the substance.

An in vitro study was conducted to find a connection of the raspberry ketone to weight loss. According to its results, the flavoring agent helps weight loss by increasing the adiponectin production. The adiponectin is a protein that regulates glucose levels and fatty acid breakdown. In another animal and in vitro study, scientists found that raspberry ketone may have antiandrogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antimelanogenic qualities. It can also help against nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which is considered as one of the major causes of cirrhosis of the liver.

Very little is known about the long term safety of raspberry ketone supplements usage, although since 1965 it has been placed on the generally recognized as safe status by the US Food and Drug Administration. The similarity of the flavoring agent with the formulas of the synephrine and capsaicin suggests that patients with high risk of cardiovascular adverse conditions shouldn’t take raspberry ketone. Despite of its great popularity, the raspberry ketone and the Raspberry Key product shouldn’t be prescribed to patients, according to scientists. Instead, healthy diet and regular exercise should be recommended for weight loss.