The pitchmen claim you can eat all your favorite foods and still lose weight, by sprinkling the product onto your meals and snacks. You can "safely and effectively lose weight without feeling deprived," the product's Web site claims.
What is the principle behind Sensa? According to the Web site, a so-called Sensa "Tastant" helps trigger your "I feel full" signal, so you eat less and feel more satisfied. The company reasons that because Sensa works with your body's natural impulses, rather than against them, there are no feelings of hunger or intense cravings.
From what the people who have contacted ConsumerAffairs.com have told us, it's hard to know how well -- or if -- Sensa really works.
R. of Mountain View, CA, writes, "ordered their trial offer for Sensa in Oct. 2009 and never received it. Also they have never responded to my inquiries as to why? I lost a little bit of money; I don't think companies should be allowed to slide by on this type of scam behavior. This was my first on-line purchase. Unfortunate."
"I ordered a trial sample of this product for $4.99," Phillip of Hagerstown, MD, tells ConsumerAffairs.com, "but was unaware I would be charged an exorbitant price later for the initial portion of the product. Once I had received the first batch, I was informed -- at the bottom of an e-mail -- that I would have to send it all back within 30 days, or I would be charged an additional $89. There was no money back guarantee, so by the time I was able to try the product properly, it was too late to get a refund. There was no mention of the $89.99 charge when I ordered the trial package."
Asking the experts
Writing on the MayoClinic.com Web site, dietitian Katherine Zeratsky says "the jury is still out" on the question of whether scent-based weight-loss products such as Sensa can lead to significant, sustainable weight loss.
She notes that the developer of Sensa, Alan Hirsch, M.D., says proof of its effectiveness comes from a six-month study he conducted in which participants lost an average of 15 percent of their body weight. However, the study did not look at whether participants were able to maintain the weight loss.
"It makes more sense," Zeratsky concludes, "to skip the scents and focus on what's proven to work: reducing the calories you consume and increasing the calories you burn through exercise."
The ABC-TV news program 20/20 quotes Dr. Pamela Peeke, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and the host of "Fit for Life," as saying, "there is no scientific proof that Sensa works."
"There's no magic bullet and there's no magic sprinkle," she told 20/20 . "This isn't a diet. This is just another pet rock."
Andrea Giancoli, the school nutrition policy coordinator for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, says Sensa "could be promising and very interesting," but adds "there's been no clear answer at the moment."
Giancoli tells ConsumerAffairs.com that because of this nation's obsession with weight loss, a product doesn't really have to be proven effective. "People are so eager for any kind of weight loss technique that might work, that they're willing to buy it whether there's any research or not about it."
What it comes down to she says, is that the maker of a weight loss product doesn't have to show that it works over the long term "because people are going to buy it anyway."
