Much-Touted ‘Ozempic Natural’ May Contain Deadly Ingredient, FDA Warns

Health

By Brooke Kato

Natural doesn’t always mean safer.

The Food and Drug Administration warns those hoping to lose weight against consuming two types of popular plant-based alternatives to Ozempic, citing potentially deadly consequences.

Candle nuts, sold online on sites like Amazon under the names Cashew Nut, Cashew Nuts, and Cashew Nuts, have been widely advertised as “Ozempic Naturals,” but in reality the products may be wrong. labeled and contain potentially poisonous yellow oleander.

The FDA issued a safety alert for two specific brands, Nut Diet Max and Todorganic, that contained yellow oleander when packaged products were compared to real nuts.

As a result, both products have been removed from the market, but are still available through some online outlets.

“Ingestion of yellow oleander may cause adverse neurological, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular health effects that may be serious or even fatal,” the agency warned, noting that vomiting, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and irregular heartbeats are some of the the symptoms.

The ad, which urges consumers to use caution when purchasing other “botanical weight loss products,” follows the recent hospitalization of a patient in Maryland who had consumed a product labeled as Cashew Nut.

Dr. Joshua King, medical director of the Maryland Poison Center, told NBC News he was “surprised that this mix-up could have occurred.”

“I have no reason to think that [the substitution] “It was malicious, it was intended to kill, but it’s very possible that they were more available than nuts because they look alike,” he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 1-year-old boy in New Jersey was also treated for yellow oleander poisoning after mistakenly consuming Eva Nutrition’s Mexican tejocote root, a weight loss supplement purchased by his mother.

The young patient presented with nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure and a slow heart rate, according to the CDC case study.

Alarmed by the potentially mislabeled product, the New Jersey Poison Control Center purchased 10 tejocote root products to determine their ingredients; nine of them contained yellow oleander without traces of tejocote root.

As the weight-loss drug craze takes over Hollywood, social media users are struggling with their own diets and turning to Ozempic or Wegovy alternatives in the hope that their supposed dupes will have the same effect.

However, the FDA has already warned against ingesting unbranded medications that claim to contain semaglutide, the active ingredient in prescription drugs.

Plant-based alternatives to popular weight-loss medications have also emerged on social media, despite experts’ skepticism about their effectiveness.

Berberine, touted as “Nature’s Ozempic” on TikTok, promises health benefits like blood sugar regulation and better digestion as users boast of its supposed weight-loss properties, but experts have denounced it as “ “diet culture.”

“It’s an herb; herbs can counteract it with other medications, supplements, and cause harm in quite a few populations,” registered dietitian Jenna Werner previously told The Post.

The FDA does not test supplements for safety, effectiveness, or label accuracy before products hit shelves, putting the onus on the manufacturer.

One study, published in April, tested more than two dozen sleep gummies for melatonin levels and found that the brands contained up to 300% more than the dose promised on the label.

“When it comes to products like melatonin sold in the U.S. as dietary supplements, current law leaves consumers at the mercy of the market: whatever the manufacturer puts in the product is what you get,” he said. previously the author of the study, Dr. Pieter Cohen, to The Courier.