Healthy Living

Even if you've never been on the market for a weight loss product, there's a pretty enormous chance you've noticed the copious amounts of ads that exist just about everywhere for them. From shakes to pills to shapewear, it feels like every day, there's a new gimmick hitting shelves that promises to pare pounds. The latest: Prends-moi, the "world's first slimming fragrance." No, I don't kid. 

The $50 perfume, currently available on the British market, claims to be brimming with a "Slimming Complex" of ingredients -- like caffeine, carnitine, and spirulina extract -- that activates two key enzymes directly involved in fat degradation. The scent is also said to help release endorphins that trigger a "pleasure message" within the brain. Really! And actual women report results!

Well, sort of. Apparently, in a small study of women 18-70 years old, who were not on a diet, 75 percent felt the perfume limited the need to snack and 73 felt a feeling of pleasure. (Ha, did they make sure these ladies weren't also reading Fifty Shades of Grey?)

As wacky as this sounds and as skeptical as we are all apt to be about something like this, I guess there could be some merit to this product. After all, aromatherapy has been used successfully in the past to support weight loss efforts. Note that key word: Support. I highly doubt one could rely on a "weight loss fragrance" alone to slim down.

I'll also venture to guess that if snacking on junk when you're stressed/tired/anxious/sad as opposed to legit hungry is making you less fit than you'd like, this proooooobably isn't going work. And let's face it: If you're not addressing the pesky issue of being an emotional eater in the first place, it's not going to work in the long-haul either.

Darnit. Guess that's another weight loss "magic bullet" foiled. Looks like we'll just have to stick to eating right and getting in that physical activity. D'oh.

Would you buy something like this?