Look Good or Die Tryin
By: David • Essay • 486 Words • November 27, 2009 • 916 Views
Essay title: Look Good or Die Tryin
In modern American culture looking sexy is not just a battle that takes place in high schools and college campuses, it is a lifelong struggle. People everywhere are looking for ways to speed up the weight loss process; many have found tragically that it is not worth the risk. I’m sure all of us have been tempted at one time or another to supplement our diets with an over the counter herbal weight loss supplement. These supplements can be bought at almost any department store or gas station. The truth is that most of these drugs are either very potent and should not be taken without ongoing medical examinations, or they are not powerful at all and the shopper ends up wasting his or her money and throwing the bottle away. Why don’t these work all the time? That is because herbal medicines are typically taken from a plant or oils of plants. While the plants or herbs that the medicine is extracted from may contain a chemical that could aid in weight loss, they also contain chemical compounds which might cause an undesired effect or none at all. Herbal supplements are a lot like drugs sold on the street because they are not purely one herb or another. This is where traditional medications are different from dietary supplements. Prescribed medications are taken from plants also, but they are harvested and the specific chemical is extracted from the plant. Over the counter supplements are just ground up herbs and plants. When a user buys crack or heroin, they think they are buying pure product, but in actuality, they are purchasing any number of harmful chemicals and ingesting or injecting the chemicals directly into the bloodstream. Similarly, when a user of dietary