Introduction: What Dieting Means to Modern People…?

*This article is fictional and was created based on Romeo and Juliet (2024).

It is now 202X year, 0 month, 00 day, and Ms. Juliet (28, unemployed) is once again

dumping 3 packages of ramen noodles into a pot as a late-night snack and preparing to eat.

The ramen noodles in the pot slowly unfurl,

Around the time the water is bubbling and boiling with a gurgling sound,

Ms. Juliet is sitting in front of her computer, tapping away at the keyboard.

‘Tap tap... What do I think about Romeo (26, idol)...? Tap tap tap…’

Ms. Juliet, a sasaeng fan who follows the famous idol Romeo,

is known as a member in online communities.

‘Our Romeo... tap tap... we'll date... tap tap... me and him... tap tap tap…’

Once again imagining dating Mr. Romeo, Ms. Juliet

is now writing her fantasies in the internet world,

the only place where she can freely express her thoughts.

After pouring out her fantasies passionately onto the internet, she tried to move her heavy body

to go eat the finished ramen, when a comment was posted on Juliet's post.

‘But... don't you think Tsuni is a bit stupid??

Not trying to insult, but she seems kind of mentally... unwell!‘

After that, replies to the comment began to pile up one after another.

’Would our Romeo ever meet a person like Tsuni??

Not to insult, but I just don't think that would ever happen!‘

’Lolol so true, poor thingã ã ã ã ã ‘

Upon reading these comments, Juliet lost her appetite and could not contain her anger.

She began responding to all the numerous comments directed at her.

After engaging in a heated keyboard battle with anonymous commenters,

she checked the pot to eat the ramen,

but the ramen had already swollen and burst completely.

Had Juliet's heart and face also swollen and burst like this ramen?.

Eating the cold ramen today, the back view of Ms. Juliet was more pitiful than ever.

Thus, after eating the ramen and even scraping up some rice, Juliet,

could fill her stomach to some extent, but could not fill the emptiness in her heart with ramen.

She placed the empty ramen pot on top of the numerous dish corpses she had accumulated,

and threw herself onto the only refuge that could comfort her,

the bed with a steel frame mattress.

As the mattress embraced and cradled Juliet, she

fell into deep contemplation about her fantasies up until now.

‘Of course someone like me could meet someone like Romeo?

They don't know anything about my relationship with Romeo!‘

Thus, she pushed away those who questioned her thoughts

with her own defense mechanisms

and went to get Doritos from among the pile of dishes in the kitchen

Just as she was getting up from bed to walk,

she accidentally caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror

and learned the ugly truth she had desperately wanted to hide.

That's right. Her appearance was far too different from Romeo's.

She collapsed under the harsh reality.

‘Ah... ah... ah…….‘

No sound came out, but her lost eyes and unfocused pupils in the mirror,

and her gaping mouth were enough to explain her condition.

She was a victim of this era of appearance supremacy.

But it is too difficult for one person to change this era.

She must change everything to fit the times

in order to overcome an inescapable fate.

Will she truly be able to sacrifice herself

and realize her impossible love with Romeo?

Will she truly... be able to...…

diet?…!

Hello! I'm Haro from Pharmacy Knowledge.

Most of you probably don't have such extreme cases like the one above,

but many people show great interest in losing weight.

However, losing weight simply through diet and exercise is not that easy.

Most people are busy with school or their main jobs, or often

give up or postpone dieting due to stress from various factors

That's why many people use dietary supplements

to diet more easily.

There are various types of dietary supplements,,

but among these, I will tell you about dietary supplements that use garcinia extract.

IMG_1736 (1)

(Of course, at this level, it would be more effective to get Wegovy prescribed for weight loss?)

What is garcinia extract??

Garcinia extract is Garcinia cambogia a component extracted from the fruit of a tropical plant called,

and is widely used as a dietary supplement for weight management.

This fruit contains hydroxycitric acid(HCA)a component called,

hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and this component is known to inhibit body fat accumulation and

help reduce appetite..

Health functional food products containing garcinia extract underwent a functionality evaluation by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2019, and

the ministry announced that it can help

‘reduce body fat,’so we can say it is effective in reducing body fat,

..

Looking at just this, you might think garcinia extract is

‘something that helps with dieting if you just take it?'

..

However, looking at the wording from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, you can see there are two traps.

“reduce body fat, can help”

Will garcinia extract help with weight loss??

To put it bluntly, no.

The announced effect from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is ‘'body fat reduction.' Not weight loss.

As I will explain in the next column,,

HCA prevents the enzyme that converts carbohydrates into fat through the intermediate substance

acetyl-CoA in the conversion process, so it prevents,

the conversion into fat, thus inhibiting the reduction of body fat content.

However, since HCA does not prevent carbohydrates from being used as an energy source before fat,

it cannot serve as a weight loss agent that makes you lose weight,

just by taking it You should understand that it

does not perform this role ..

So if a product is advertised as

“'you can diet effectively through HCA'”
“or 'this product is useful for calorie cutting,'”

these claims are not factual, so it's good to be suspicious of that product category

.?

Who should take garcinia extract and who should avoid it??

Based on study results alone,,

the consensus is that it does not guarantee the same effects for everyone.

In other words, to use this supplement,

you need to have high BMI or excess belly fat,…

or situations where you have high body fat like this,

and garcinia extract can be effective only when taken in these conditions,

If you are simply obese

and continue taking only this extract without combining exercise and diet,

you may instead experience digestive side effects.

Therefore,, “I would like to recommend garcinia extract to 'dieters'

who want to reduce body fat.

Conversely, there are people who should not take garcinia extract.

First, people with depression or those taking cough medicine must never take garcinia extract.

Among these medications, drugs that help with serotonin activation fall into this category, and,

garcinia extract can increase serotonin levels,so when taken together with the above medications, it can cause serious side effects

..

Also,, those taking dyslipidemia medications,,

patients with liver, kidney, or heart disease, or those with allergies or asthma should

be cautious about taking garcinia extract.

because garcinia extract can cause liver toxicity. For these patients,,

liver toxicity can occur through drug interactions,

which can cause

serious side effects.

For pregnant women, garcinia extract can prevent

proper nutrient intake for the fetus, so it is best not to take it.

Unlike advertisements, garcinia extract is not

an effective health functional food for all dieters.

However, together with Pharmacy Knowledge, if you learn the correct information,

and choose and take good supplements,

it can be a helpful supplement for your successful dieting.

In the next column, we will learn how Garcinia cambogia

can support dieting through its mechanism,,

and explore this supplement in greater depth.

That's all from Pharmacy Knowledge Haro!

3-Line Summary

Garcinia extract contains HCA, which helps reduce body fat.
According to recent research results, it does not provide much help for weight loss.
Since it does not guarantee the same effect for everyone, this supplement may work well for cases where you need fat reduction due to high body fat.

References

Safety and Adverse Events Review of Garcinia cambogia Extract and Green Tea Extract, Park Ji-yeon, Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association, 2020
risks associated with the use of garcinia as a nutritional complement to lose weight, naroa andueza, nutrients, 2021
Pharmacy Information Database Drug Encyclopedia, Garcinia cambogia Extract
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety "Standards and Specifications for Health Functional Foods"“