A brand new drink is making the rounds on TikTok as a result of claims that it’s an affordable different to fashionable weight reduction and kind 2 diabetes medication like Ozempic and Wegovy.
“Rice-Zempic”—a beverage that mixes rice, water, and lime juice—is being touted as a drink that may assist folks shed pounds, mimicking the results of the prescription medicines.
Presently, the Rice-Zempic hashtag (#ricezempic) has 152 posts on TikTok, full of customers claiming that the drink may help folks lose as much as 14 kilos in every week. TikTok customers additionally declare that the drink could make them really feel much less hungry all through the day, have much less of a candy tooth, and would possibly even assist them use the toilet extra usually.
However may this drink truly assist with weight administration—or is it simply one other unproven TikTok development? Right here’s what consultants needed to say concerning the rice water drink.
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The largest weight-loss profit to Rice-Zempic is that “it’s comparatively low calorie—it’s simply starchy water,” in response to Mir Ali, MD, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Heart at Orange Coast Medical Heart in Fountain Valley, California. “It may be useful for weight reduction if you happen to’re utilizing it to switch a meal.”
The rice water and lime juice concoction may additionally assist folks really feel fuller earlier than a meal and eat lower than they usually would, Ali added.
However previous that, the drink has “zero scientific backing,” Scott Keatley, RD, co-owner of Keatley Medical Vitamin Remedy, informed Well being.
“Whereas rice water might have some dietary advantages, akin to offering a supply of vitality from its starch content material, there isn’t a proof to recommend it has any properties that will considerably influence weight reduction, particularly within the method that anti-diabetic medicines like Ozempic do,” Keatley mentioned.
The drink may additionally make somebody really feel full, in response to Kunal Shah, MD, an assistant professor within the division of endocrinology on the Rutgers Robert Wooden Johnson Medical Heart—however not in the identical manner anti-diabetes and anti-obesity medication do.
“The starch expands in your abdomen and might make you’re feeling full—but it surely’s very short-lived,” Shah mentioned. In contrast to medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy, Rice-Zempic is “not likely metabolically serving to you in any respect,” he added.
Ali confused that simply since you may probably shed pounds on Rice-Zempic, that doesn’t imply it’s wholesome and even near the influence you’ll have on Ozempic.
“It doesn’t in any manner mimic Ozempic,” Ali mentioned. “It has no hormonal results like Ozempic to stimulate receptors.”
Rice-Zempic isn’t harmful, per se, but it surely’s additionally unlikely to do a lot, Shah mentioned. When you have a situation like acid reflux disease, the lime juice may additionally exacerbate it, he added.
Even if you happen to have been to shed pounds by means of ingesting Rice-Zempic, consultants stress that it’s not a sustainable manner to take action.
“This weight reduction might be non permanent since you’re not making everlasting, wholesome, long-term adjustments,” mentioned Ali. “When you cease this sort of factor, the load will come again.”
As an alternative, Ali recommends lowering your carbohydrate consumption and growing how a lot protein and greens you may have in your weight loss program. “That is the idea for many diets,” he mentioned.
Shah agrees. “The perfect recommendation has at all times been to have a low-calorie, high-nutrient weight loss program with excessive protein and low carbs, and to mix that with train,” he mentioned. “That’s going to be the idea of long-lasting weight reduction.”
If you wish to drink Rice-Zempic earlier than a meal, Ali mentioned you’re in all probability effective to do this. “However I don’t need folks to misconstrue this as Ozempic,” he mentioned. “It’s not.”