Searching for a 'magic pill': A look at Korea's multimillion dollar diet and supplements industry

Life & Style

Published: 23 Jul. 2024, 07:28

Searching for a 'magic pill': A look at Korea's multimillion dollar diet and supplements industry

Weight loss supplements for sale at a drugstore in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on Monday [LEE JIAN]

The old-fashioned "eat less, move more" course of losing weight was not enough for 26-year-old Jang Ha-neal who battled with body weight issues for years.

She considered weight loss drugs, which require a doctor’s prescription, but weary of their side effects, she settled for supplements.

“I think I’ve tried four to five different products over three years,” she said.

Jang and thousands of others who’ve successfully or unsuccessfully tried their hand at dieting will be able to testify: It's hard. And it doesn't take very long to realize — you need help.

The Ozempic boom in the West has encouraged the enticing notion that we may finally be able to renounce traditional weight loss methods. Ozempic is a weight loss drug prescribed to Type 2 diabetes patients that is also popular with the non-diabetic public as famous figures, like Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, allegedly saw dramatic weight loss through the medication.

The new drug is also shifting the rhetoric around weight loss in the West, with many seemingly starting to embrace receiving extreme medical help to achieve society’s idea of a standard weight. Oprah Winfrey in December proclaimed that she was “done with shaming” and announced she was on weight loss drugs. She had continuously denied using them in the past.

Clubwear brand Namilia featured a graphic top that reads″ I (heart) Ozempic″ during its fashion show in Berlin on July 6. [GETTY IMAGES]

This discourse on weight loss is something that Korea has long upheld. It might not take on such an empowering tone, but the country has been notoriously known to jump into whatever medical procedure or pills promise upgrades in physical looks and shape, shame-free.

The sensational weight loss drug has yet to land in Korea. Instead, the hype this summer season remains on supplements, which have existed for some time now — but local products have figured out new ways to stay relevant.

Korea’s market for over-the-counter weight loss supplements saw over 63 percent growth from 149.7 billion won ($108.86 million) in 2019 to 236.1 billion won last year, according to the Korea Health Functional Food Association. The global market was valued at $28.65 billion in 2023, according to Spherical Insights and Consulting's June report.

These aids have also become a strong export item for the country. Shopee Korea, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, said Korean diet supplements and other food items for weight loss assistance were among the top three best-selling products.

“As interest in health and well-being increases around the world, there is a high preference for weight loss products made in Korea, as they are cost-friendly and perceived as reliable and safe by consumers,” said Shopee Korea’s Area Director Kwon Yoon-ah through a Korea International Trade Association press release earlier this year.

The appeal of these supplements among Korean consumers is similar and these qualities have given rise to their widespread use among individuals looking to lose weight despite continuous allegations that supplements have minimal impact on weight loss. Many simply cross their fingers and hope it does something — and if not, what's the harm in trying, right?

Do weight loss supplements work?

[JOONGANG ILBO]

“Their effects aren’t palpable, in my experience,” said Jang. “Maybe I felt fuller for a little while longer, but the weight I did shed was from exercise and a limited diet.”

No weight loss aid on the market will be a panacea for obesity, though a handful falsely claim to be. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety caught 312 false or exaggerated advertisements on weight loss supplements last year, according to a report in June.

Local supplements contain around one to two weight-loss-inducing ingredients recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which currently lists 30 “raw materials for body fat reduction,” like Garcinia cambogia, a tropical fruit extract said to have a correlation to fat and appetite reduction, and corosolic acid, an active ingredient in banaba leaves said to help control blood sugar levels.

But none of them are sufficiently backed by science, according to Professor Lim Myung-ho from Dankook University’s Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy.

“There is just no conclusive scientific proof that supplements significantly affect one’s weight.”

Still, the general consensus among the public is that they can’t hurt. “They are mentally reassuring,” said Jang.

A woman eats grilled vegetables. [JOONGANG ILBO]

“I feel better about eating when I am on supplements,” said Lee Yeon-jee, 28, who isn’t out to lose a significant amount of weight but uses the products because she feels anxious about gaining additional weight.

“I’m sure I’m not alone,” she said. “Women worldwide continue to obsess over what we eat and how many calories we’ve had every day. I know supplements don’t do much physically, but for me, it does let out some of that pressure, which is hard to let go of at times.”

Korea's changing diet trends

Weight loss supplements have been around in Korea since the 1990s, but they are recently seeing a new high as more locals like Lee are steering away from crash diet trends — and there have been many.

The lemon detox diet in the 2010s claimed that one could cleanse the body of toxins and lose weight by drinking lemon water for up to 10 days while avoiding solid foods. After that, there was the “one food diet,” which was about eating just one type of food for an extended period. The Danish diet, which had its short moment in 2018, claimed that people could lose weight by only eating beef and pork.

Through it all, many have gone through hair loss, disrupted their menstrual cycles or received other, even worse side effects, with their body weight yo-yoing up and down in the process.

Trending keywords in the Korean dieting world now are "low sugar" and "delayed aging," both of which actually encourage eating a relatively normal amount of food in its variety. The low blood sugar diet even argues that you can have that bite of dessert just as long as it is eaten last, after plenty of fiber and protein.

Local supplements have quickly aligned themselves with this wave of dieting, many of them also advocating the idea of “healthy weight loss.”

Their advertisements carry anti-fasting slogans like “no more starving” and target people who are looking for a way out of the stress of dieting. The supplements are also pumped with vitamins and minerals to keep people “energized” while shedding those extra pounds.

A list of vitamins and minerals that a Korean weight loss supplement says it includes [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Can supplements remedy our food-related stress?

The fact that they ultimately don’t deliver the desired effect can just put people right back into a negative cycle of weight loss, said Lim.

“Many supplements base their effects on diuretic action,” which is the removal of extra fluids in the body “instead of inducing an actual, balanced type of weight loss,” Lim said.

“So, supplements often trap consumers in a vicious cycle of seemingly succeeding in weight reduction and then failing, and a continuous experience of that can lead to lack of confidence, lethargy and even depression.”

Lim anecdotally added that these aids can always be a gateway to more extreme methods of dieting and even eating disorders. “There is a tendency in our society to believe that there is an easy way to lose a considerable amount of weight, and once you buy into that idea, people are often put on this wild goose chase for something that will have better, stronger effects.”

Weight loss supplements can also be addictive and physically harmful. Jang said that she had thrown up before and after taking pills on an empty stomach.

But the most common side effects of diet pills are psychological. “Many people overly rely on them and feel anxious when they don't take supplements after a meal — even if they know they won’t do much,” said Lim.

Effect on minors

Manufacturers don’t outright say that they are targeting teens, outlining they don’t recommend the product for young babies and children. But many also say there is no age limit, and their marketing tactics have increasingly shifted to target teens, whether intentionally or not.

Supplements that started as plain brown bottles and packaging have become more youthful, colorful and shapely. Their main distribution channels have gone from department stores and television home shopping to social media and beauty shops.

Weight loss supplements that are sold at CJ Olive Young's online store [SCREEN CAPTURE]

CJ Olive Young, Korea’s market-leading beauty and health retailer whose consumers are largely in their 20s and teenage years, features 155 weight loss supplements under 34 brands in its online shop. Open Survey’s comprehensive 2024 Beauty Report interviewed 1,000 women of various ages, finding that 71.2 percent of its underaged participants purchased beauty-related products through Olive Young last year.

Weight loss supplements are also often advertised on Instagram, on which 72 percent of Korea’s underaged population are registered users. As of late July, there were 454,000 hashtags under the Korean word for weight loss aids.

Famous figures selected to advertise the products, like K-pop star Twice’s Jihyo and beauty YouTubers Ssin and AliceFunk, appeal to adolescents and teenagers as well.

Minors are often the most vulnerable in society, and this is also true when it comes to the influence of diet trends. In 2022, police in South Gyeongsang booked 46 underaged individuals for the distribution and use of phentermine, also called dietamin or the “Butterfly Pill” in Korea. It is a weight loss prescription medicine proven to decrease appetite.

They reportedly confessed to the police that they illegally obtained the drug through social media. Many thought they were “fat” despite medical professionals saying that their “obesity levels weren’t serious.”

Phentermine, also called dietamin or the “butterfly pill” in Korea, is a potent weight loss drug that reduces appetite. [JOONGANG ILBO]

For the past five years, female teenagers were the largest group to be treated for anorexia (excluding seniors in their 70s and above), according to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. In 2021, 25 percent, or 418, of 2,201 anorexia patients were female adolescents.

“Especially since the rise of social media and the Covid-19 pandemic, the physical image has come to represent not only one’s outer beauty in this society but also one’s diligence, intelligence, wealth and even values," said Lim.

“This is an age where pictures can relay things about a person that, back in the day, one had to have an actual relationship to know. In that sense, the significance of one’s image has expanded, hence the evermore heightened obsession with our looks.”

The mental satisfaction of meeting social standards cannot be completely warded off and the feeling of being empowered by successfully slimming down is valid. But consistent questioning and research remain imperative to genuinely improving the quality of individual lives, mentally and physically, even for something so simple as picking a pack of pomegranate-flavored weight loss supplements off the drugstore shelf.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]