The Alli diet pill is still here, but is there a better alternative in the near future? First, let’s take a short trip down the memory lane.

Before the Alli diet pill, do you remember olestra and the mainstreaming of that unfortunate term anal leakage? Well, olestra is mostly gone, but unfortunately, the science behind it is still in use. The obesity drug orlistat (brand names Xenical and its over-the-counter equivalent, Alli) prevents the body from absorbing fat, which is then excreted undigested, hence the Alli oops.

But even if you use the Alli diet pill, weight loss tends to be minor, and the side effects – fecal incontinence, oily stool – can be thoroughly unpleasant. So what the solution? More drastic approaches include gastric-bypass surgery, but even that requires a change in lifestyle to have a lasting benefit.

The tomorrow’s Alli diet pill Several drug companies are trying to modify treatments for diabetes and addiction that have incidental weight-loss benefits. Obesity researcher Steve Bloom, a professor at Imperial College London, is heading up research into a hormone called pancreatic peptide, which signals the brain that the body is full.

The goal of this research is to mimic the body’s response to being full, perhaps through an injectable therapy or even an appetite-destroying gum.

The future equivalent of the Alli diet pill Hopefully, they will come up with something way better than the Alli diet pill. For example, scientists recently found a genetic link to obesity and may one day be able to predict future fatness and try to prevent it by altering those very genes.

Short of that, laboratory studies have shown that manipulating a phosphatase enzyme can prevent mice from putting on weight regardless of the fat content of their diet.

The bottom line: The Alli diet pill sucks big time and the future obesity treatments do not seem to be any better. Okay, maybe just a little better, if they can make them work, but I think it is safe to assume that for the foreseeable future, the best weight-loss tool will remain, you guessed it, a balanced diet and moderate exercise. [via]