SlimFast is an American company headquartered in

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida, 77 miles north of downtown Miami. , the population was 59,182. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6 ...

that markets an eponymous brand of shakes, bars, snacks, packaged meals, and other dietary supplement foods sold in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latin America, and the U.K. SlimFast promotes

diets The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Both Belgium and the Netherlands derived their ...

and

weight loss Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat ( adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other co ...

plans featuring its food products. There is mixed evidence on the effectiveness of the diet, although it appears to function no better than behavioral counseling.
Review in: Ann Intern Med. 2015 Aug 18;163(4):JC8
/ref>

History

SlimFast was started in 1977 as a product line of the Thompson Medical Company, founded in the 1940s by S. Daniel Abraham. Thompson Medical also sold the controversial weight loss dietary supplement

Dexatrim Dexatrim is an over-the-counter (OTC) dietary supplement meant to assist with weight loss. Dexatrim claims it "gives you the power to lose weight, curb binges, and keep you in control of your diet."Dexatrim Dietary Supplement. (2010). Retrieved fro ...

. In 1987, Abraham took the brand private, and it was acquired by

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

in 2000. In 2014, Unilever sold SlimFast to Kainos Capital. After the sale, KSF Acquisition invested with Kainos Capital in order to take responsibility for the SlimFast brand in the UK, Ireland and Germany. In 2018, Glanbia Plc. acquired SlimFast from Kainos Capital. On December 3, 2009, SlimFast recalled all of its canned products due to possible bacterial

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

. The company stated that it had halted production until the cause was discovered. No further problems or issues have been noted. In 2011, SlimFast stopped producing cans and has since used plastic bottles.

Products

Original (1987–2004)

SlimFast was originally just a diet shake product line. It consisted of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla shakes meant to replace breakfast and lunch. The company suggested customers eat a low-calorie dinner. Usually, dieters would pick a low-calorie frozen dinner brand such as

Lean Cuisine Lean Cuisine is a brand of frozen entrées and dinners sold in the United States and Canada by Nestlé, and in Australia by Vesco (under a licensing agreement with Nestlé). The brand began as low-fat, low-calorie versions of Stouffer's product ...

or Weight Watchers, as the SlimFast diet was a convenience product line that offered none of its own dinner products. Later, in the mid-1990s, SlimFast began offering meal bars that could be used as

meal replacement A meal replacement is a drink, bar, soup, etc. intended as a substitute for a solid food, usually with controlled quantities of calories and nutrients. Some drinks come in powdered form or pre-mixed health shakes that can be cheaper than solid fo ...

Effectiveness

In a 2009 study involving 300 overweight and obese males and females aged 21–60 years published by Cambridge University Press, the SlimFast programme achieved weight losses of between 5 kg (11 lbs) and 9 kg (19 lbs) after six months compared to a control diet. The results were comparable to that of both the Weight Watchers 'Pure Points' programme and Rosemary Conley's 'Eat yourself Slim' Diet and Fitness Plan.Morgan, L. et al. (2009) ‘Comparison of the effects of four commercially available weight-loss programmes on lipid-based cardiovascular risk factors’, ''Public health nutrition'', 12(6), pp. 799–807. doi:10.1017/S1368980008003236.

References

External links

Official website
{{Diets, state=collapsed Brand name diet products Former Unilever brands Products introduced in 1977 Dietary supplements Low-carbohydrate diets 2000 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2018 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies