This fine morning we return to Examine.com and a summary of a meta-analysis on chromium supplementation in overweight and obese people looking at parameters for weight loss, cardiometabolic risks and blood work results. The results should be common sense, as we know the functions of chromium and also the risks of anything in an inorganic supplemental form. With that said, let’s see what they found out and I’ll add my bits of knowledge along the way.
Quick Summary
This was a meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials in a total of 1,107 participants with overweight/obesity. The researchers looked at the effects of supplementation with chromium on body weight, insulin, fasting blood glucose, lipid profiles, blood pressure, and liver enzymes.
Key study details
“The daily dose of chromium ranged from 50 micrograms to 3,000 micrograms, and it was compared to a placebo in the vast majority of the trials. The intervention duration ranged from 28 to 180 days.”
That is quite the range in dosage protocols. Also, there is no mention of the type of chromium used in these studies, such as chromium chloride, chromium citrate, chromium picolinate, and/or chromium polynicotinate. All of these have various toxic effects depending on the acid used during manufacturing. With that said, according to a summary of available literature, chromium picolinate is the most commonly used form of chromium in human studies — as this form has been shown to improve blood glucose control and improve the effect of insulin in overweight individuals.
The process for manufacturing chromium supplements involves the conversion of chromite ore, which is rich in chromium, into chromium compounds deemed “suitable” for human consumption. This process typically includes roasting the chromite ore with soda ash and/or lime to produce sodium dichromate, which is then further processed into other chromium chemicals. For instance, chromium picolinate is produced by combining chromium with picolinic acid, which helps the chromium to be somewhat more readily absorbed by the body.
Now, the absorption of chromium picolinate from the intestines is very low, as in only a tiny 2%, which means that 98% or more of the chromium consumed has to be neutralized and expelled from the body through the urine and feces. As for bioconversion, the literature does not really provide any specific information on how much of the absorbed chromium picolinate is converted into bioactive chromium in the human body. So, it’s likely that only 1% of what you consume can actually be used by the body, which means that there is a lot of waste management going on.
“Supplementation with chromium decreased insulin (−12.6 pmol/L), HOMA-IR (−0.26), and weight (−0.7 kg, or −1.5 lb), all with moderate certainty, compared to the control. However, it increased ALT (+4.4 U/L; moderate certainty). There were no effects on blood lipids, other biomarkers of glycemic control, blood pressure, or other anthropometric parameters.”
According to the pre-published paper, chromium supplementation significantly reduced fasting blood glucose and A1C, HOMA-IR, and insulin and a slight decrease in lipid profiles and anthropometric measures.
Note: A1C or HbA1c, is a blood test that measures your average blood glucose levels over the past three months. As fasted blood glucose improves, A1C should also improve.
HOMA-IR, or Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance, is a test used to measure (non-existent) “insulin resistance” in the body. It is calculated from fasting glucose and insulin levels and indicates how much insulin your pancreas needs to produce to maintain blood sugar levels. As chromium is needed for cells to utilize insulin, better or restored levels of chromium should improve this marker as well.
As chromium is an essential trace element that plays a role in metabolizing protein, glucose, and fats, providing energy to muscles and the brain, these results are not surprising considering that overweight or obese people often have very severe nutrient deficiencies due to their extremely bad diets high in plant-based and processed foods and usually low in unprocessed animal foods. Adding some chromium to their diet will likely improve one little aspect of their deficiencies and thus improve some of the bodily functions where chromium is a crucial component.
Still, improving the overall diet is always a much better, healthier, and safer approach. Using supplements as a band-aid is extremely stupid, as we will see next. And also since you continue to damage the body with the same idiotic diet.
“But chromium supplementation increased (worsened) liver enzyme (ALT).”
According to the pre-published paper, supplemental chromium increased ALT, HDL, Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP.)
This is not surprising either considering the very low bioavailability of chromium supplements and the increased toxic load from what can not be used by the body and any residues from the bioconversion process. Since ALT increased, it means that the liver had to deal with some of this extra stress. Also, if HDL increased, it means that cholesterol was not as efficiently used for detoxification and tissue repair and thus transported back to the liver for recycling or excretion. That is very worrisome as it means that the toxicity of inorganic chromium from supplements can interfere with tissue repair.
Examine.com’s take
“This meta-analysis suggests that supplemental chromium may modestly improve insulin sensitivity and promote small reductions in weight in people with overweight/obesity. Although the concurrent increase in ALT is small and potentially clinically irrelevant for most people, it may be a concern to individuals with underlying liver conditions.”
An increase in ALT and HDL, as well as blood pressure is not irrelevant. It shows increased toxicity and possible tissue damage within the body. Again, we should never resort to useless and toxic supplements. While whatever can be converted and used by the body might help with one small problem of many, you introduce yet another toxic factor while also keeping all the toxicity of the diet that caused the problems to begin with.
Even if you put people on a typical “weight-loss diet,” these are often plant-centric and thus very toxic and lacking in all essential nutrients, causing extreme damage to the body (and possible even more nutrient deficiencies.) And again, a toxic supplement will only add to that toxic load. Losing some body fat while remaining unhealthy and damaging the body is not the way to go. It’s completely insane. The only way to do it in a healthy way is to adopt our species-appropriate and species-specific natural human diet. That is the only way to get all the nutrients we need while minimizing the toxic load from inappropriate foods.
Humans are obligate hyper carnivores and everything we need is found in animal-based foods as animals store nutrients in the same exact chemical form as we store nutrients ourselves — and in the right ratios (food synergy.) As for chromium, beef, oysters, chicken breast, turkey breast, shrimp, mussels, ham, and haddock are superior sources. However, all you need is fatty beef, perhaps some eggs and the occasional organ meat to thrive.
Again, forget about supplements. Everything we need is found in our species-appropriate and species-specific natural human diet.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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