Chromium picolinate - diet supplement darling

Chromium picolinate is a product being marketed heavily through health food stores, supplement peddlers and weight loss/fitness centers. Despite its claims for building muscle, reducing body fat, decreasing weight or increasing strength, it does none of those things.

In the case of chromium picolinate, it's a case of taking a little research on metal picolinates and stretching it way beyond its intent and safety. A USDA chemist, Gary Evans, about a decade ago while working in the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D., came up with a way to make a group of metal picolinates. Zinc picolinate, for example, is used as a supplement in diets of infants born with a genetic defect in zinc absorption. USDA obtained a patent for the process that they later leased to Nutrition 21, a California food supplement company.

After Evans left USDA, he started researching and promoting chromium picolinate as a fat-burner and muscle-builder. Evans was hired as a "consultant" with Nutrition 21. Nutrition 21 used Evan's former connection with USDA to help sell the product often in pyramid marketing schemes.

Unfortunately, the research evidence produced by Evans is flawed. The research cited in the company's publicity was either produced by himself, others involved in the marketing or from personal communications. Other studies are said to be "in press..." Hank Lukaski, Research Leader at the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks has been critical of the claims and disavows any connection with the product. Others have also found the claims "preposterous" and have warned users, especially athletes taking large quantities, of possible physiological disorders and lowered iron status.

Some studies have attempted to critically examine the role of chromium picolinate in muscle building because it is being promoted as an anabolic steroid alternative in health food stores and other locations with access to athletes, One such study had 35 healthy young men involved in a vigorous strength training program divided into three groups. During eight weeks of strength training, one group was given chromium picolinate, the second, chromium chloride, and the third, a placebo (a compound without active ingredients). As expected, all three groups increased strength because of the training, but no differences could be found despite careful testing between the three groups in body weight, body composition or strength.

The study looked at the possibility of chromium having some beneficial effect regardless of the person's nutritional status for chromium. None were found in this particular study but this does not rule out the possibility that supplemental chromium for those with long-standing depletion might not be shown to benefit in other ways. Chromium is needed in minute amounts to assist in blood glucose crossing the cell membrane so that glucose can be used for energy. Mature diabetics may have this problem but thus far, giving chromium has not been shown to be beneficial. It certainly is false to claim that chromium picolinate will do any of the following:

• "Melts the fat away."

  "No dieting, no exercise required."

  "Lose the fat, keep the muscle."

  "Metabolic rate is raised to burn off calories."

Another study in Massachusetts found that chromium picolinate supplements were ineffective in changing either body composition or strength in nine weeks of weight-lifting by football players. However the major effect noted was a great increase in urinary chromium loss.

Thus chromium picolinate is not an insulin replacement nor a body-builder. It will not redistribute fat once it settles into its "home" in a fat cell.

Source: Berg, Frances, Chromium picolinate still hot on the market. Healthy Weight Journal. 8 (4): 73-74. Jul-Aug. 1994.

Mary Clarke, Ph.D.
Extension Specialist, Nutrition Education

7/94 File: NUTRITION, NORMAL (GENERAL)/Fads and Fall

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.