Before you grab a bottle of diet pills beware that you could be misinformed by the safety and effectiveness of weight loss supplements.
Diet pills with misleading labels are consumed by one in four Americans, according to a new survey of 3,000 people by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
"About a quarter of people in our survey thought that they were safe because they were natural," Consumer Reports health and food deputy editor Trisha Calvo told CBS News.
The survey found that more than a quarter of those who tried the pills did so because they believed they were safe and would help them drop more pounds than other weight loss methods.
Weight loss supplements, unlike prescription drugs, don't have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before hitting the shelves. The supplements are "generally considered safe unless shown not to be," reported Consumer Reports.
"They're allowed to make claims about the way the body functions, but not about disease," Calvo said to CBS News. "So they can say something like, burns fat, but they can't say reduces the risk of obesity because obesity is the disease."
The labels on diet supplements often look just like those on FDA approved prescription drugs, which also appeared to confuse supplement users.
About 20 percent of the survey respondents said they were under the impression that the FDA guarantees the claims made by the pill manufacturers.
"There's no way for consumers to tell the difference. It gives you the sense the products are being scrutinized by the FDA," Pieter Cohen, a physician at Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance who studies supplements, said to Consumer Reports.
The bottom line? There's no magical way to lose 10 pounds without some consistent healthy dieting and exercise.
