Hollie asks: Do so-called slimming teas really help you lose weight?
Wynnie says: Many people, especially young women, are obsessed with staying slim - not necessarily for health reasons, but because society portrays slimness as the ideal. Enter a wealth of diets and faddy foods such as slimming teas, which pander to the needs of those wishing to shed kilos without breaking a drop of sweat. If that sounds too good to be true, it's because it probably is.
The variety of slimming teas available is mind-boggling. Some claim to suppress your appetite; some act as diuretics or laxatives, purging the body of both water and toxins; while others still dubiously assert to burn fat.
Slimming teas containing laxatives - such as castor and buckthorn oil, aloe, rhubarb root, senna and cascar - encourage frequent bowel movements, 'cleansing' the body and eliminating toxins. Although these are 'natural' ingredients derived from plants, they are potent, acting really fast to cause diarrhoea - and therefore guaranteed weight loss.
But overuse or abuse of diet teas laced with laxatives can have numerous negative health effects. For example, diarrhoea depletes essential nutrients needed by the body, it can damage the gut, and it can also cause severe dehydration, which could be fatal.
In 2009, members of the public were urged by Hong Kong's Department of Health not to buy slimming teas or other products containing sibutramine because of potential dangerous side effects. Classified as a licensed drug only to be used under medical supervision, sibutramine acts as an appetite suppressant. But side effects include increased blood pressure and heart rate, psychosis and convulsion.