Jan wants to purchase arginine as a weight-control product at the local health food store. Would you encourage her to do this? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Jan should be advised not to purchase arginine.

Arginine is an amino acid that has been promoted as "causing weight loss overnight" by stimulating secretion of a substance called human growth hormone, which in turn supposedly promotes weight loss. Although it's true that arginine can prompt the release of the hormone, it does so only when people take whopping doses that are unlikely to be found in supplements. Furthermore, even if a person were to take enough arginine to prompt a surge of the hormone in the body, he or she wouldn't automatically shed pounds. Human growth hormone has not been found to cause weight loss. Thus, claims that arginine "burns fat" are spurious at best. An FDA advisory panel on over-the-counter weight loss products investigated arginine along with 11 other amino acids touted as diet aids—cystine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, L-lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and valine—and found no basis for the claims about the effectiveness of any of these products in controlling weight.