Despite its unglamorous name, chromium picolinate has become a best selling weight loss supplement over the past few years.

Manufacturers claim that chromium picolinate can help to improve your cardiovascular function, maintain healthy blood sugar and most importantly for many, promote weight loss.

Chromium picolinate is also sold as a nutritional supplement to prevent or treat deficiencies of this mineral - however, while small quantities are needed for glucose utilization by insulin in normal health, these can easily be obtained from a healthy diet, and deficiencies are thus extremely rare.

There are also claims that this product works as an aid to body development for athletes. This is based on a research paper published in 1989, which indicated that football players who ingested 200 micrograms (mcg) per day built more muscle and lost more fat than athletes who didn't take the supplement. The results were startling, with the supplemented athletes reducing body fat by 22 per cent and adding six pounds of lean muscle in just six weeks - astonishing results.

Unfortunately, further research has failed to these findings, and it has thus fallen out of favour with athletes. However, this product does appear to have some effects in appetite suppression, so if this is a weight loss approach that would benefit you, it is worth considering.