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Chromium

Claims, Benefits: Builds muscle, prevents and treats diabetes, promotes weight loss.

Chromium is an essential mineral, but deficiency is rare. There's no evidence that chromium supplements promote weight loss, or benefit healthy people. There is some evidence that the picolinate form may harm cells. Diabetics should take only on medical advice.

Chromium is important in processing carbohydrates and fats, and it helps cells respond properly to insulin—the hormone, produced in the pancreas, that makes blood sugar available to the cells as our basic fuel. No one understands the exact role of chromium in all this, or even how much chromium is enough, but it doesn’t take too much to come up with theories that chromium might promote weight loss, treat diabetes, and perhaps even help prevent heart disease or alleviate depression. Thus, chromium, especially in the form of chromium picolinate, has become a popular supplement, and its purveyors make many health claims—while downplaying any safety concerns.
Here’s a summary of the latest research in three categories:

Weight loss. Chromium supplements are often sold for weight loss, particularly for obese people who may be in danger of developing diabetes. Scientists have been studying the sup-plement’s potential role in weight control, but so far the most carefully conducted studies have shown no benefits.

Diabetes. Because chromium helps insulin do its job, it seems reasonable that it might help people with Type 2 diabetes or those at high risk for developing it. Low levels of chromium are characteristic of diabetes, though there’s no evidence that low chromium causes diabetes. Some studies have found that chromium picolinate supplementation in doses of 200 micrograms is beneficial, but others have not. One problem is that it’s difficult to diagnose chromium deficiency. One large clinical trial conducted in China found that chromium was helpful for those with diabetes—but the Chinese, including those with diabetes, are less likely to be obese than Americans, and their chromium levels were not evaluated at the start of the study. Clinical trials in the U.S. involving people with diabetes have so far produced no clear evidence of benefits from chromium supplements.

Heart disease. Studies of chromium supplements and blood cholesterol levels have shown no consistent benefit. If you were chromium-deficient, you might be able to reduce your LDL ("bad") cholesterol and raise your HDL ("good") cholesterol somewhat with chromium supplements. But even that is a big "might." And there are better ways to accomplish this, including diet, exercise, and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Trouble with picolinate

Chromium supplements come in several forms, never as pure chromium. You can buy chromium picolinate, chromium chloride, chromium nicotinate, and high-chromium yeast. Nicotinate and picolinate seem more easily absorbed than the others. There have been safety concerns about chromium picolinate, however, since laboratory studies have found that it could damage genetic material in animal cells, which suggests it might cause cancer. It seems to be the combination of chromium and picolinate that’s the potential problem, not the chromium alone. Of course, what happens in a test tube or in lab animals might not happen in the human body. But the bottom line is that nobody knows whether chromium supplements, particularly in large doses over the long term, are safe or effective.

Where to get your chromium

The best and safest source of chromium is food. Whole grains, ready-to-eat bran cereals, seafood, green beans, broccoli, prunes, nuts, peanut butter, and potatoes are rich in chromium. Sugary foods are low in this mineral and may even promote chromium loss; vitamin C may increase its absorption. Don’t exceed the amount in multivitamin/mineral pills—20 to 120 micrograms—which preferably should not be in the form of chromium picolinate.

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