Kourtney Kardashian‘s new weight loss pills were today slammed by health experts who warned the £70 supplements could do nothing but make users feel sick and suffer digestive problems.
Lemme GLP-1 Daily Capsules claim to act as a natural slimming alternative, containing three ‘key’ plant extracts, but could trigger uncontrollable diarrhoea.
The brand, owned by the Kardashian star, 45, say the ‘clinically studied’ supplement can also thwart cravings and reduce user’s fat levels.
While the reality star doesn’t explicitly compare the product to the blockbuster drug Ozempic, it is named after the hormone activated by the slimming jabs, GLP-1.
But experts today labelled the product’s claims merely ‘clever marketing’ that are based on ‘no science’ and cautioned they ‘should not be sold as a weight loss intervention’.
Taken in excess, they could even trigger unpleasant side effects including nausea and diarrhoea, they warned.
Limited research has also suggested the ingredients have ‘no effect’ on body weight.
Rather than employing synthetic GLP-1s like popular weight loss jabs Wegovy, Ozempic and Saxenda, Lemme’s supplement claims to spur on weight loss by mimicking the actions of GLP-1 — the hormone released in the gut after eating.
As well as telling the pancreas to make more insulin, which helps convert food into energy, the GLP-1 hormone feeds back to the brain and makes users feel full.
As a result, it can stop users from over-eating.
Available to purchase for roughly £70 ($90), Lemme GLP-1 joins a line of gummy vitamins from the brand such as Lemme Chill and Lemme DeBloat, designed to help you relax and ‘support digestion’.
By contrast, Brits can expect to cough up around £160 on average for a month of Ozempic.
The GLP-1 Daily Capsules feature three key ingredients — Eromin Lemon Fruit Extract, Supresa Saffron Extract and Morosil Red Orange Fruit Extract.
Limited research has suggested these may help stabilize blood sugar levels in prediabetic patients and could suppress appetite by targeting genes that control how fat is deposited.
But experts today said they won’t act as a ‘magic bullet’.
Professor Gunter Kuhnle, an expert in nutrition and food science at the University of Reading, told MailOnline: ‘The lemon fruit and orange extracts both appear to be some form of flavonoids, and many different types of flavonoids have been tried as weight loss drugs.’
Research has long suggested that the plant compounds flavonoids might increase energy expenditure and reduce fat absorption.
They are believed to have antioxidative qualities, too. However, Prof Kuhnle said: ‘There are many studies investigating whether other substances with flavonoids, like black or green tea, can improve diabetes or result in weight loss – but no evidence has shown this to be a magic bullet by any stretch.
‘I’m not sure what is in the saffron extract – I assume mainly carotenoids for the colour – but I would also be very sceptical that it has such a huge impact.
‘It’s very clever marketing — the ingredients are probably reasonably cheap – but even if the extracts help slight weight loss, they would not work in the same way as GLP-1 drugs, i.e. reducing hunger signals in the same powerful way.
‘So I doubt there will be much more effect than placebo.’
If taken in excess, flavonoids can also trigger unpleasant symptoms including diarrhoea or in rare cases, even liver damage.
Professor Kuhnle added: ‘Very large amounts can cause liver damage — that is why there are recommendations to not consume more than 800 mg/d (or around 10 cups) of green tea extract, and there are case-reports showing harm of other polyphenols when people consume large amounts.
‘It can also result in an upset stomach as well as nausea and diarrhoea that might leave you running to the bathroom.
‘Supplements are not very well regulated, so you have to rely on what the manufacturer says, and this is not always very reliable.
‘The manufacturer needs to ensure that they contain at least the amount on the label.
‘An easy way to achieve this is to put in a much higher dose – so people might consume much more than they believe they do.’
Meanwhile, Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, told MailOnline: ‘While there may be a slight weight benefit, even so, it is nowhere near the impact of evidence based weight loss therapies.
‘This should not be sold as a weight loss intervention for people who genuinely wish to lose decent amounts of weight. More evidence is needed.’
Research on the ingredients is also limited — and funded by patent holders.
Eriomin, a patented lemon extract made mainly of eriocitrin, which is one of the plant pigments that give lemons their color.
In 2022, the company that owns the patent of Eriomin funded a small trial involving 45 people, concluding that those who took it over a 12-week period had lower blood glucose and higher GLP-1 than those who took a placebo.
Another 2022 study in Brazil, involving 30 patients over 12 weeks, found taking eriomin supplements had ‘no effect on blood pressure, body weight, BMI, lean mass or fat mass’.
Meanwhile, research in 2010 — funded by Supresa patent holder Inoreal Ltd — suggested that participants who were given the saffron supplement daily for eight weeks snacked less and lost slightly more weight than the placebo group.
And 2022 research on blood orangextra Morosil, which contains an extract called Moro, found that participants who took the ingredient daily had lower BMIs after six months than those on a placebo.
But in the study, funded by the patent holder BioNap, volunteers were also asked to exercise three times a week and eat a limited number of calories per day depending on their basal metabolic rate.
Professor Kuhnle told MailOnline: ‘The studies are all very small.
‘There is too much variability between individual participants — there could be a whole manner of things that leads to weight changes in a person.
‘And if people were also asked to improve their lifestyle by exercise, it is difficult to know whether the effects were caused by exercise, or something else.’
Lemme GLP-1 Daily is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which polices the safety of medicines in the US.
Like the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK, supplements do not fall under their remit.
But it is not the first time Kourtney Kardashian has come under fire for selling ‘ineffective’ wellness supplements.
Last year gynecologists slammed her new vaginal wellness gummies, warning there was ‘no merit’ to the claim that the tablets can ‘target’ vaginal wellness.
They also criticised claims that the gummies could help promote improved ‘freshness, odour and taste’.
Semaglutide and liraglutide — the powerful ingredients behind Wegovy, Ozempic and Saxenda — have ushered in a new era of obesity treatement.
Semaglutide has been available on the NHS in the UK since 2019, and in the US since 2017, for type 2 diabetics to manage blood sugar levels.
Latest NHS data shows 26 per cent of adults in England are obese and a further 38 per cent are overweight but not obese.
In the US an estimated 41.9 per cent of adult population are obese.
Despite the jabs being designed to help overweight patients become healthier, there have also been growing concerns about the number of healthy weight patients taking them for cosmetic reasons.
Some have even needed emergency room care after taking jabs in a bid to become ‘beach body ready’.
