There are few people who would not dream of staying young, healthy and active for as long as possible. Perhaps this is one of the basic human needs, after food, clothing and housing. Skillfully manipulating other people's weaknesses, drug dealers from year to year empty the wallets of gullible citizens, inventing more and more miraculous pills. Bio-supplements containing trivalent chromium alone sold more than $ 80 million in Europe and America. And this is as of 2002 ...
Of course, the newfangled hobby has overgrown with many rumors, speculation and pseudoscientific research. Let's try to figure out what is chromium picolinate, does it harm or benefit the body?
Trivalent chromium is a trace element widely distributed in nature. However, no serious scientific research on the need for the human body to this day has been conducted. Whether the lack of chromium or its excess can really affect our well-being is not yet known for certain. Although additives, which include one of the easily assimilable compounds of trivalent chromium, are now very popular.
Manufacturers of dietary supplements assure that chromium picolinate is necessary to maintain proper blood sugar and proper carbohydrate metabolism. Moreover, chromium supplements are now touted as the most effective and safe weight loss products. This is partly true. Since chromium picolinate tends to maintain a stable glucose level, appetite with it can be kept in check. Unfortunately, manufacturers do not provide data after discontinuation of the drug. And they are not so comforting. Craving for sweet, fatty, floury and high-calorie foods will increase at times and it will take iron willpower to resist it.
In addition, sweet, although it is harmful to the figure, but is useful for mood and positive attitude. Therefore, it is most reasonable to simply observe a sense of proportion.
Another reason advertising cites drugs with chromium picolinate. It supposedly increases muscle mass, thereby accelerating the processes of metabolism. This statement does not look logical, since we all understand that muscles do not grow from dietary supplements alone. Chromium picolinate in this process is just a link, and not the most important one. Believe me, with intensive strength training, the muscles will be in good shape and without artificial doping.
By the way, chromium picolinate as a sports supplement has already been investigated and no difference was found between the two test groups.
Of course, there are still athletes - bodybuilders who study the effects of chromium picolinate on their own body. But their experience is not worth taking for an ordinary person. Believe me, in the pursuit of relief and volume, these comrades absorb such a number of various additives that it is difficult to state with certainty which ones are more effective.
So what is chromium picolinate - another advertising myth, a dangerous element or a real helper in the struggle for health and beauty?
Today it is not so rare to hear that chromium is a carcinogen. However, we immediately note that in this case we are talking about hexavalent chromium, which in its properties differs significantly from trivalent.
There is also a hypothesis that chromium picolinate causes gene mutations. Note that the results of scientific studies confirming or refuting this theory have not yet been presented. In addition, similar experiments have been conducted for more than a decade, so there was not enough time to obtain accurate data. We also note that the doses of the active substance for the test animals, as a rule, exceed all norms by several thousand times. It is unlikely that a person, in their right mind, will eat so many additives
As you can see, evidence of the fact that chromium picolinate is capable of causing irreparable harm to the body does not yet exist. However, the beneficial mechanisms of this element are also not reliably known.
Chrome, like zinc, is considered one of the trace elements that contribute to a long and active life. This, again, is just a theory, but experiments on rodents have already yielded good results. It turned out that trivalent chromium, which is part of picolinate, slows down the synthesis of glycated proteins that cause aging. However, I would like to remind once again that chrome can also be obtained from food. It is not necessary to take pills in handfuls if your goal is health and beauty. Moreover, without changing the lifestyle in general, no miraculous pills will help.