As if it weren't already hard enough to get Americans to eat less and exercise more, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration last week gave the green light to yet another weight-loss shortcut, recommending approval of a new drug, called orlistat, that prevents the body from absorbing as much as 30% of the fat it takes in.
The new diet-in-a-pill, to be marketed as Xenical, works by disabling pancreatic enzymes that help the intestines absorb the fat in foods. The drug produces "a kind of intestinal aversion" to fat, explains Dr. Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University, an FDA...
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