SlimFast is an American company headquartered in
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida that markets an eponymous brand of shakes, bars, snacks, packaged meals, and other
dietary supplement
A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in orde ...
foods sold in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latin America, and the U.K. SlimFast promotes
diets 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 con ...
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
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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.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 ...
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 or Weight Watchers Weight Watchers or WW may refer to:
* Weight Watchers (diet), a comprehensive weight loss program and diet
* WW International
WW International, Inc., formerly Weight Watchers International, Inc., is a global company headquartered in the U.S. tha ...
, 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 replacements.
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