Experts: 'next day delivery culture' behind growth in diet pills online
We're highlighting the dangers of diet pills sold online in our campaign #DyingToDiet
A leading psychologist's told Hallam an increasing desire for quick and easy weight loss is making people turn to slimming pills to shed pounds.
Hallam's investigating the dangers of buying deadly diet pills online this week - in our campaign #DyingToDiet.
We've been looking at why more and more people are wanting to buy slimming pills online.
Glenn Waller's a psychology expert at Sheffield University - he says they sell a 'dream' of quick weight loss - but in reality you never know what you're buying...
"People want to see the immediate reward. No one wants to think 'well if I want to lose weight it's probably going to take me two years.' People want the answer to be by next week because they've got something coming up next week - they've got the date, they've got the wedding they're going to etc.
"So people want something that will be quick, but they also want it to be simple. They want it to be in the form of a pill rather than it being hard work.
"People look at the proposed positive effects and they don't look at the side effects and they don't look at what's actually in the pills. You've got no idea what you're buying when you buy something off the internet. It may be an active ingredient, it may be a dangerous active ingredient, it may be corn flour."
Glenn's told us people are used to getting thing quickly these days and losing weight is no different...
"There's certainly, you might describe it as 'next day delivery' as a culture, we want the stuff and we want the stuff now and we want the stuff to be simple and easy to get to. In the States this stuff is advertised on TV, in the UK you have to type in a few search terms on the internet to get to this material but it's still there and it's pretty unpleasant."
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