It’s a diet pill that turns into jelly in your belly to make you feel full. Seriously.

When you feel hungry, you swallow the pill with 2 glasses of water. It turns into a clear gel that swells to the size of a tennis ball.

In gel form, this diet pill can absorb almost 1 liter of liquid. It makes you feel full so you should eat less.

The pill is made of hydrogel, an absorbent, spongelike material. It’s supposed to mimic gastric banding, but without the surgery.

When finished with the gel, your body just flushes it out.

Where And When You Can Get It

Clinical trials are now underway at Policlinico Gemelli Hospital in Rome. If the trials are successful, this unnamed diet pill should be available to Europeans and Americans in a year or so.

It seems to me that you could get the fullness effect just by drinking the 2 glasses of water. But the effect of this gel pill would probably last longer.

The What Ifs

So far, there’s no mention of side effects. But I’ve never heard of a diet pill that didn’t have them.

Here are some of my concerns about this diet pill:

What if it accidentally swells up as you swallow? Could you choke on your trendy, new diet pill?

What if it expands in your intestine and causes a rupture?

What if you take too much or take it too often? Could you overdose? What would be the consequences?

What if you don’t drink 2 full glasses of water? Does the gel absorb liquid from your body? Do you become dehydrated or develop an electrolyte imbalance?

What if you take the pill as directed, feel full, and overeat anyway?

A lot of obese people eat for reasons other than hunger. They don’t necessarily stop eating when they feel full.

So if your eating behaviors aren’t addressed or you become addicted to taking these pills as a quick fix, what will happen to you physically?

Can you get the human equivalent of a clog in your plumbing? For obvious reasons, I don’t want to go any further with that analogy.

The Quick Fix Delusion

I really dislike this never-ending search for a quick fix to obesity. You didn’t gain the weight overnight; realistically, you can’t expect to lose it overnight.

The real “cure” for obesity is to change your eating behavior and reduce your caloric intake. There are many ways to get there. But no quick fix.

All these new diet pills may sound clever. But in my opinion, they just feed a dangerous delusion. They don’t fix the problem.