The effects of Very Low Calorie Diet using meal replacements that contain Herbal extracts on weight reduction and health promotion

한약추출물을 함유한 식사대용식이가 체중감량과 초저열량식이의 부작용에 미치는 영향

Background: The VLCD that supplies only 400-800kcal meal per day has a lot of problems and can severely harm the health. Certain herbs are known to the side-effects such as weakness, skin dehydration, and dizziness. If VLCD with meal-replacement containing these hearbs can effectively minimize the side-effects, it make weight management easier and reduce any possible danger the health. Objectives: This prospective, double-blinded study is intended to compare the severity of symptoms induced by VLCD and weight loss between the case group supplied with meal-replacement herbal extracts(n=29) and controlled group supplied with meal-replacement not containing herbal extracts(n=29). This was with 52 volunteers for 4 weeks. The measurements of this experiment were as follows: symptoms caused by patients' subjective judgments, the result of blood test illustratingerol level, total protein etc., and changes in overall weight, fat mass and lean body mass. Result: we concluded that there are no significant differences in weight change between case group and controlled group, and that the total protein at the end of trial was significantly higher in case group than in controlled group, and triglyceride level at the end of trial was lower in case group than in controlled group. As expected, the side-effects such as hair loss and dehydration in skin are also lessin case group than in controlled group.