Help us highlight the dangers of deadly diet pills

Join us in our campaign #DyingToDiet

Author: Ben BasonPublished 28th Jun 2018
Last updated 2nd Jul 2018

An online steroid dealer who sold toxic slimming pills which killed a 21-year-old student from Shrewsbury was jailed for seven years for manslaughter this week.

She died after taking eight tablets containing the highly toxic Dinitrophenol (DNP).

That's not the only ingredient that can be harmful to you in diet pills though, and that story is just one example of how they can be deadly.

They're easily bought on the internet and experts say more and more people are buying them after a 'quick fix' for losing weight.

But when you buy a pill online, you've got no way of knowing exactly what's in it.

As part of #DyingToDiet we'll be exploring more about the pills and the dangers of buying them online.

Currently on the NHS, there's only one weight loss medicine called Orlistat that can be prescribed if your BMI is at least 30.

But you have to prove you've made changes to your diet and levels of exercise first before you can get that.

We want to hear from you about your experiences with losing weight and diet pills.

If you've got a spare few minutes, take our questionnaire below: