The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety warns against taking coffee and tea products from the manufacturer StartLife - Yunus Temur. These products contain the active ingredient sibutramine, which is banned in competition and not permitted in Germany. The ingestion of such a food product can lead to an unintended doping result and to serious health problems, such as high blood pressure or cardiac arrhythmia. The National Anti Doping Agency of Germany (NADA Germany) therefore warns athletes of taking these products.
The appetite suppressant sibutramine falls under substance class S6 stimulants of the current World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List. The substance has been used in the past in patients with diet-related obesity. Due to serious side effects, the drug used in Germany was taken off the market in 2010. Since then, no medicines containing sibutramine have been approved in Germany and many other countries. For many years, however, slimming capsules, herbal teas or powders have been sold again and again that are falsified with sibutramine, i.e. sibutramine is contained in these products but not declared.
Further information on the current warning can be found at www.lebensmittelwarnung.de and on sibutramine in food at verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/lebensmittel/nahrungsergaenzungsmittel/lebensbedrohliches-sibutramin.