Illegally Thin - Why the FDA Was Right

Posted on Jul 31st 2009 3:00PM by Karen Asp

Photo: Willie Lunchmeat, Flickr

If you've been surfing for weight loss solutions lately, you've not doubt run across a book titled "Illegally Thin." And if you've gotten hooked on its promise, I can't blame you. The claims are intoxicating, to say the least.

In the book, author Randall Knight says that 70 years ago, the FDA banned a prescription weight loss drug that was not only safe but also incredibly effective. In fact, Knight claims the drug could "easily rid the world of all problems related to excess body fat," burning as much as a pound of fat a day. He even says this may be the "most important medicine known to man" and details how the drug is being used underground, especially by bodybuilders.

Of course, you have to buy the book to find out the drug, so here's a warning: If you don't want to know the name of the drug, stop reading now.

If you're still with me, it's DNP, or dinitrophenol. Know it? Nor did I, which is why I went to a leading obesity researcher to get her comments, and what she had to say was alarming, if not downright scary.

"DNP is a cellular metabolic poison, which acts like cyanide," says nutritionist Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., adding that the FDA was right to keep this drug far away from people.

Fernstrom explains that DNP, which was used in diet pills as far back as the 1930s, "uncouples oxidative phosphorylation." Simply put, this means that the energy normally produced as calories (to be available to the body for use or storage as fat) can't be used and is released as heat. So the body never gets those calories. In other words, the calories you ingest are only partially digested and used for energy while the rest is released as heat.

Sounds good, right? Only if you're looking to be thin for your funeral. Says Fernstrom, "DNP is a dangerous metabolic poison for your body that can kill you."

Her advice? Forget about looking for weight loss in a pill. Also, "talk to your doctor, not Dr. Google, about healthy ways to lose weight," she says, adding that weight loss at any health cost is foolish.

8 Comment

Tags: dinitrophenol, DNP, Illegally-thin, Illegally-thin-why-the-FDA-was-right, Randall-Knight, weight-loss

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Cartman 7-31-2009 @ 5:13PM

This is a good article, but doesn't follow up on the reasons why DNP is so harmful. The nutritionist's explanation of how it works was interesting, but then she gives a simple warning that it's poison. Can you expound on why it's poison? What does it do to the body that makes it so harmful? Thanks for giving us this info!

STS 7-31-2009 @ 6:58PM

I agree, so I looked it up, Basiclly it heat up the brain and kills you like a high fever could. there are also cancer risks. Here's a link
http://www.steroids.ro/steroid-profiles/dnp-dinitrophenol.html

John Sheppard 9-04-2009 @ 9:06PM

Perhaps one should actually read the stanford university research report before rushing to judgement.

js

Dr. Jonny Bowden 8-02-2009 @ 6:10AM

Great article by Karen Asp! Well done!

In my book, "Living Low Carb" i included a chapter on diet drugs (available by prescription) and it's amazing how many of these were either discovered to be incredibly damaging later on OR are terribly overhyped-- when it comes to what they actually accomplish, the results are pretty underwhelming (i.e. ALLI, Meridia, etc).

Nice job, Karen!

Dr. Jonny

myblogful 8-02-2009 @ 5:56AM

this is a very informative article. hope more people will be able to read this. i'll definitely share this with my family and friends.

http://www.manilastreet.com/

Random Knight 8-05-2009 @ 2:15PM

DNP is perhaps the least harmful drug ever discovered. That is a fact proven at Stanford University Medical clinics in grand scale human testing. The whole point of Illegally Thin is to prove the misrepresentations and misunderstandings about this drug. It achieves this beyond any doubt.
The only danger from DNP is one that every drug shares, overdose. And it is in the same general category of aspirin in that category. It is much easier on the body than aspirin though in normal use. Just to clear up one specific inaccuracy; while DNP does "uncouple oxidative phosphorylation." It does not in any way interfere with digestion. The oxidative uncoupling is strictly at a cellular level and totally harmless. The proof in my book is overwhelming. RK

p atchley 8-06-2009 @ 5:38PM

This article is so flawed and full of mistakes. Did the author even read the book? And the nutritionist that she quotes obviously has an ax to grind when she says DNP is poison, she doesn't even know how it works. She says that calories can't be used and are released as heat, and therefore gets in the way of digestion? DNP only stops the bodies ability to produce ATP(which is the cellular energy that the body uses) and that is what is released as heat, just exactly the same way it is when you exercise. The FDA banned this drug because of pressure from special interests who where financially threatened by its continued use just, like the nutritionist quoted in the above review.

clk 9-22-2009 @ 1:13PM

It's really ignorant of you to believe an obesity researcher just because she's an "expert." Based on your article, it sounds like you just believed what came out of her mouth, because she has "credentials." Did you actually see her case studies? Did she even do any case studies on this drug specifically? For all you know, her "information" is just the word of mouth in her field. Did she show you proof of actual people who took the drug in the recommended amount and died? Words out of an "expert's" mouth do not constitute proof. Period!