Purium Review: Skinny Gene or Skinny On Facts?

This Purium diet review is an opinion piece. Most of the diet reviews on my site are not reviews of how a product worked for me; if I tried every single diet product that I review, I’d be broke and probably dead by now. Instead of subjecting myself to that, I examine the claims that the companies make about their products, and hold them up to current research and physiology to see if they stick. The purpose of these reviews is to teach you how to recognize when companies sell products by using untrue claims and poor (or no) research. 

And so it begins, according to the Purium site:

Transform your metabolism and unlock your “Skinny Gene” with green, raw, organic superfoods. Our 10-Day Transformation and weight loss products are the cleanest, easiest ways to start your weight loss journey. This is a new start and it doesn’t matter how you gained weight or how long you’ve struggled to lose it. These pure and premium products can reset your metabolism, burn fat and break your addictions to processed foods.

Green, raw, organic, PURE foods are going to transform your metabolism and ‘unlock your skinny gene’. Aren’t you lucky!

So many diet programs in the world. So many. I’ve been getting emails asking me to review Purium, so I decided to finally take a look at it.

Like I figured, Purium is about the same as any other program: it has a bit of detox, a ton of testimonials (all positive, naturally), some big promises, a lot of unproven BS, and a pretty, colourful website to make you believe that this stuff is magical. Wow! It must be incredible!

I decided to review Purium’s ’10-Day Transformation’ weight loss program, because who doesn’t want to lose weight quickly and effortlessly by activating their ‘skinny hormone’? Sounds like a dream…let’s do this!

The 10 Day Transformation has 5 products in it, plus the omnipresent shaker cup that companies seem to think is such a great add-on but is so cheap.

The Purium site states:

Expect to lose up to 11 pounds and 8 inches in just 10 days. Activate your “skinny hormone” (adiponectin), reset your metabolism and turn your body into a fat burning machine. Flood your body with nutrient-dense, low calorie superfoods and break addictions to sugar, salt, carbs, and chemicals. This complete, easy-to-follow program has worked for more than 100,000 people. Now it’s your turn!

 Burns fat and builds muscle

Helps the body break addictions to harmful foods

Aids the body in detoxification and cleansing of the digestive tract

Sigh.

Do you see the red flags? I do.

#1: The word ‘transformation’. Can I be honest with you? A weight loss program is not going to transform your life. You’ll still be the same person you were before, even if you end up losing weight. You need to do the work to ‘transform’ your life; a weight loss program isn’t going to do it.

#2: The crazy weight loss promise. 8 inches in just 10 days? Do you know how much that is? A pound a day is a lot. Most people can’t achieve that without severe dehydration and starvation. Insane weight loss promises also make me suspicious of how many calories you’re actually going to eat (aka starve on) for those 10 days.

#3: This program has worked for 100,000 people? Really? I deal in evidence, Purium, so show me the proof. Maybe 100,000 people have purchased this product, but it appears to me as though Purium has not done any research on their actual product..so how would they know if it works? Did they follow up with all 100,000 people who it ‘worked’ for? Doubtful. And even if they did, how well it did work? What were the indicators? How long did they keep the weight off?

All very important questions.

#4: No food ‘burns fat’: neither do diets or supplements. That’s a myth, but diet programs continue to use that terminology, and it continues to piss me off.

#5: Detoxification and cleansing is a complete sham. Your own body does that work. Chemophobia, or the fear of ‘chemicals’, is hard at work here. What chemicals are they referring to? They don’t say…because fear sells product!

Can I also just say that ‘resetting your metabolism’ does NOT happen in 10 days, nor does it happen with supplements or a starvation diet. Your metabolism isn’t like an IPhone, where you can just push a button to reset to factory settings.

Uh uh, sorry.

Already Purium is aggravating me with their red flags and the use of the words ‘pure’ and ‘clean’ in relation to food, but let’s press on.

The 10 Day Transformation consists of a few products that contain nothing special, and a diet plan that is full of pseudoscientific rules and not much else…including food.

The products are:

Power Shake

This is basically is powder consisting of greens, grains, and flavorings. The company claims that drinking the shake is akin to consuming several superfoods at once. Sure, it may have components of whatever those ‘superfoods’ (hate that term) are, but it’s not a replacement for solid food. You still need to eat your vegetables.

Nothing special to see here people, move on.

Apothe Cherry

This cherry juice is a natural source of melatonin, which can help you sleep. It also contains 17g sugar per 2 tablespoon serving, so there’s that. Yes, the sugar is natural, but do you really need it?

Super Amino 23

Essentially, this is a tablet-based vegan source of amino acids. Maybe to make up for the ones you’re starving your body of with the diet program? Useless.

Daily Fiber Blend

This fiber comes with the biggest promise of all: fat burning! It contains rice bran fiber that increases the hormone adiponectin ‘to help your body burn fat’.

Okay, so if Purium is going to make this promise to you, I’m going to go through the research and see if they’re being honest.

Just for you guys, I went through a LOT of research on adiponectin. Much of it was done on rats (proves nothing for humans). Some of it was not.

The research on adiponectin that Purium has posted on its ‘adiponectin’ page proves one thing: correlation is just that: correlation.

All of the research that Purium uses to try and prove its fat-burning theory about adiponectin  – except for one – aren’t directly relevant to what they’re actually is trying to prove: THAT CONSUMING THE 20G OF RICE BRAN A DAY THAT’s IN THE FIBER SUPPLEMENT INCREASES ADIPONECTIN, WHICH IN TURN ‘BURNS FAT’ AND HELPS YOU LOSE WEIGHT.

The one research study that Purium cites that is actually associated with rice bran is a small Chinese study done on diabetics, that doesn’t even measure weight! What?

The study concluded that the rice bran lowered blood lipids and blood sugar in the subjects, which we would expect, since fiber – which is what rice bran is, FYI – is known to have those effects. I’m not sure how Purium thought to extrapolate those effects into their prediction that rice bran will help you lose weight through its interaction with adiponectin, but here we are.

Purium has never done research on their products, as far as I can tell; nor have they concluded to my satisfaction that adiponectin causes weight loss. People who weigh less may have more adiponectin in their bodies, and that doesn’t prove a hell of a lot to someone who wants to use it to lose weight. In fact, in looking at other studies, it appears as though adiponectin may rise as a result of weight loss. What came first, the chicken, or the adiponectin?

Purium surely isn’t holding some secret of adiponectin and weight, hostage. We’ve known about this hormone for years, but it’s not at all used to combat weight. Why do you think that is?

If adiponectin has really been proven to be the key to weight loss and ‘fat burning’, why then isn’t it a mainstream obesity treatment?

BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK!

Remember: Adiponectin is only one of many hormones that affect or are affected by, weight. Weight loss is not nearly as simple as ‘eat some rice bran, it will burn your fat, people’. No one is saying that rice bran, or adiponectin, is bad. All I’m saying is, it probably doesn’t work the way Purium will have you believe. 

Now, we’re left with the diet portion of the 10 Day Transformation.

It’s a predictable mixture of low calories, weird rules, and up-selling of Purium products. Basically, you starve and you spend more money. Hm.

The plan is super low in calories, probably to maximize your weight loss during those 10 days. Too bad it won’t stay off once you begin eating normally again (probably sooner than you think, depending on your tolerance for starvation).

Here are some of the ‘rules’ and tidbits that Purium has laid out in its diet plan:

Bananas…are NOT permitted. You may have 1⁄2 serving of carrots (they are also an ingredient in the Power Shake). So they’re perpetuating the myth that bananas are carrots make you gain weight? Not okay. 

Eating apples first thing in the morning can help wake you up. Where the hell did they get that one from?

Protein options include broccoli. Um, no. Broccoli is a VEGETABLE, not a PROTEIN. It contains nominal amounts of protein, but not nearly enough for a meal – unless you eat about 50 cups of it. *fart*

DO omit dairy, processed foods, and meat from your diet, 2-3 days before starting the program. So what I’m hearing is that for some reason, dairy and meat aren’t healthy, and also: this is the 10 Day Transformation, but now parts of the diet are 13 days? 

DO take CONTROL Pre-Meal Capsules or Control spray if you need more help curbing your appetite. Upsell! The spray contains garcinia cambogia, which has never ever ever been proven to attenuate appetite or cause weight loss. 

DO grab an extra Flex Food instead of cheating or abandoning the program.

Flex foods:

• 1 Avocado

• 1 Apple

• 1 cup Watermelon

• Unlimited Celery

• Unlimited Cucumbers

• 1 cup Broccoli, Caulifower, Kale, or Spinach

• 1 cup Berries

• 1 cup Sauerkraut or Kimchi (no additives)

• 1 cup Summer squash (winter squash not permitted)

• 1/2 cup Carrots

Because when I’m starving, I want all the cucumbers I can eat!!! Absurd.

Hey Purium! The 80s called, they want their diet back! I’m shocked there’s no rice cakes and Tab on this diet.

I’m done. I’m done with Purium.

In Short:

• Don’t follow a diet program that states that broccoli is a protein. If they’re selling a DIET, they should at least get nutrition 101 right.

• Don’t just accept the fact that a product has ‘research’ behind it. I hope the above has given you some insight into how companies actually fudge the facts to ‘prove’ their claims.

• If you starve yourself for 10 days, you might lose weight, but it’s not healthy and the weight loss is not sustainable.

• If you are truly hungry, you need FOOD. You don’t need ‘spray’ that’s completely useless…or another slice of cucumber. Gawd. Intuitive eating, anyone?

• Be very wary of any program in which you need to spend a ton of money on products that MUST be taken in order to get the desired results. Weight loss is big business, and this is a huge red flag.

• Crazy weight loss promises, detoxification, ‘pure’ and ‘clean’ food, and ‘resetting your metabolism’ are figments of your imagination. Move on, please.

• Bananas and carrots are not ‘fattening’. Stop with that nonsense.

The verdict:

Hard pass. 

 

Check out my review of the Isagenix 30 Day Cleanse, here!