A Japanese 2-Day Diet contains a potentially dangerous -- and hidden -- ingredient, according to the United States Food and Drug Administration. You should generally be wary of any diet pill that includes the words "day" or "hours" in its name or a numeral or the letter X as they make up nearly half of the 69 weight loss products the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid in 2009.
Banned Amphetamine in 2 Day Diet
The Japanese 2-Day Diet pill, also called the 2-Day Lingzhi Diet pill from Japan, contains an unlisted ingredient called sibutramine. Sibutramine was sometimes prescribed by U.S. doctors to their overweight patients, but the practice was discontinued in 2010 after serious side effects, including heart attacks and strokes, were discovered. Sibutramine is considered a controlled substance in the U.S., which may be the reason why the manufacturer does not include the ingredient on the product label.
Mushrooms in 2 Day Diet
The Japanese 2-Day Diet pill also contains two mushrooms: lingzhi and fu-ling. Linzhi is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine -- TCM -- to boost overall potency but does not specifically target weight loss. Fu-ling, also called tuckahoe, is used in TCM to strengthen your spleen. According to TCM, your metabolism works more efficiently when your spleen is healthy. Tuckahoe may also act as a diuretic. To avoid dehydration, you should drink six to eight glasses of water a day, according to MayoClinic.com.
Additional Ingredients
The Japanese 2-Day Diet pill contains five other ingredients: mountain ebony, a folk remedy for diabetes that may lower cholesterol and blood sugar, fox nut, used to increase urination and strengthen your spleen, wheat germ, a good source of fiber that may lower your cholesterol, semen pruni, a laxative and diuretic and discoreae, a steroid found in some oral contraceptives and used in TCM to strengthen the stomach, kidneys, lungs and spleen.
FDA Warning
The "day" and "hour" diet pills the FDA says consumers should avoid include both the Japan 2 Day Diet pill and the Japan Lingzhi 24 Hours Diet as well as these: 3 Day Diet, 7 Day Herbal Slim, 7 Diet Day/Night, 2 Day Diet Slim Advance, 2 Days Diet, 7 Days Diet. According to the FDA, potentially harmful diet pills with a numeral or X in their name include these: 3X Slimming Power, 5X Imelda Perfect Slimming, 8 Factor Diet, 999 Fitness Essence, Perfect Slim 5X, Slim Express 360, Slim 3 in 1, 2x Powerful Slimming, Slim Express 4 in 1, Slim 3 in 1 Slim Formula, Slim 3 in 1 M18, Slim 3 in 1 Extra Slim Waist Formula, Slim 3 in 1 Extra Slim Formula, Extrim Plus 24 Hour Reburn, 21 Double Slim and 7 Diet.
Considerations
The name of a diet pill is just a clue. What's more important is that you read product labels and, because labels do not always fully reveal a pills contents, you should also check with the FDA before making a purchase. In addition to sibutramine, hidden and potentially dangerous ingredients in diet pills include phenytoin, an anti-seizure medication, phenolphthalein, a solution used in chemical experiments that contains a suspected cancer-causing agent, rimonabant, an anti-obesity drug not approved for marketing in the United States and bumetanide, a diuretic.
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