Truvy is a wellness brand that sells a variety of dietary supplements, and is most popular for their weight loss supplements. The brand describes itself as "Your Whole Health Sidekick."
But do Truvy supplements contain research-backed ingredients for weight loss? Does the brand use any questionable additive ingredients? How do real users rate and describe the effects of Truvy products? And why was the company subject to an FDA recall in 2023?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Truvy Good Kit (one of the brand's most popular weight loss supplements) based on clinical studies to give our take on whether or not it's likely to cause weight loss, and whether or not it's healthy.
We'll explain why the FDA required Truvy to recall some of its supplements from the market in 2023, feature unsponsored customer reviews of the brand, and discuss the potential for side effects.
Key takeaways:
- FDA found unapproved drug ingredients in Truvy
- Supplements contain inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy
- We do not currently recommend Truvy
Unapproved Drugs Found in Truvy
In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a recall of 12 different Truvy supplements due to inclusion of unapproved drug ingredients.
According to the above-linked announcement, certain Truvy supplements contained unapproved ingredients hordenine and/or octodrine/DMHA. These ingredients can cause side effects such as high blood pressure, nausea and vomiting.
Whether or not these ingredients were intentionally added, this is a serious consumer safety issue, and we recommend that consumers avoid this brand entirely.
In 2017, Truvy (which was previously named TruVision Health LLC and appears to have rebranded) received a warning letter from the FDA detailing "serious violations" of Good Manufacturing Practice.
The letter details the following: "the products have been prepared, packed, or held under conditions that do not meet CGMP requirements for dietary supplements."
The agency also found that Truvy was making claims of efficacy on their website that were not approved.
Further, the FDA Warning Letter states that several Truvy supplements were misbranded and that the serving size information was incorrect.
This level of laxity about consumer safety and quality control is entirely unacceptable.
Good Kit Ingredient Analysis
Truvy Good Kit is a combo product containing the supplements Tru and Vy. This combo was previously branded as "Truvy Boost."
The ingredients in Tru are shown above.
The Supplement Facts labels in this section were found on Truvy's website at the time of initially publishing this article, but at the time of updating this article, we can't find Supplement Facts labels for most products on Truvy's website. We consider this to be another consumer safety issue: consumers deserve to know the ingredients in a supplement they're considering to purchase.
The majority of active ingredients in this formulation are minerals, and we can't find clinical evidence that any of them, at their stated doses, cause weight loss.
The remaining active ingredients are included in a proprietary (prop) blend with an average ingredient dose of 165 milligrams (mg).
Green coffee bean extract is clinically shown to cause weight loss, but may be underdosed in Tru.
A medical review published in the Phytomedicine journal reported this ingredient to cause weight loss after analyzing data from 16 clinical trials, however most of the doses used in the trials were over 200 mg.
Raspberry ketone was shown in an animal study to cause weight loss, however we can't find any studies showing the same effect in humans.
Cinnamon bark extract is included, but Truvy fails to document the species of cinnamon used.
We recommend that consumers avoid supplements containing cinnamon where the species is unlisted, because a popular cinnamon species called Cassia cinnamon has high levels of a toxin called coumarin, as documented in medical research.
Alpha lipoic acid is clinically shown to cause weight loss, but may be underdosed in Tru.
A meta-study reported the therapeutic dosing range of alpha lipoic acid for obesity to be 300 mg to 1,800 mg per day, which suggests that the minimum effective dose is 82% higher than the dose in Tru.
This supplement contains three inactive ingredients that we recommend avoiding.
Blue #1 and Red #3 are synthetic dyes that may be harmful to human health.
A medical review on the toxicology of food dyes stated that “Red 3 causes cancer in animals” and Blue 1 causes “hypersensitivity reactions.”
Titanium dioxide is a colorant that's banned for use as a food additive in the EU due to toxicity concerns, as we documented in our Green Tea Fat Burner review article on another weight loss supplement containing this ingredient.
Overall, we consider Tru potentially effective for weight loss because it contains several research-backed active ingredients.
However, we do not currently recommend this supplement because we're unable to identify any active ingredients that we consider to be effectively dosed, and the supplement contains three inactive ingredients we recommend avoiding.
The ingredients in Vy, the second supplement in Truvy Good Kit, are shown below:
Vitamin B6 and iron are the first two active ingredients, and we can't find any evidence that they cause weight loss when supplemented.
The remaining active ingredients are included in a prop blend with an average ingredient dose of 44.25 mg.
This is a relatively low average ingredient dose, and we're unable to identify any studies suggesting that any of these 12 ingredients cause weight loss at such a dose.
We have safety concerns regarding several of the active ingredients in this formulation.
Green tea extract is clinically shown to cause liver damage in rare cases, when taken at high doses.
This is why we consider it particularly risky when the individual ingredient dose of green tea extract isn't provided, like in the Supplement Facts label above.
Rauwolscine is a plant-derived stimulant, and we can't find any safety studies on this compound in humans. Even PubChem only lists animal studies in the Toxicity section of their rauwolscine resource page.
Like Tru, Vy also contains inactive ingredients that we recommend avoiding.
Titanium dioxide, Red and Yellow colorants are all inactive ingredients that we consider to be questionable from a health perspective, for reasons documented in the ingredient analysis section for Tru.
Overall, we consider Vy potentially effective for weight loss because green tea extract is clinically shown to cause weight loss, but it's challenging to assess efficacy without individual ingredient dosages provided.
We do not currently recommend this supplement due to the inclusion of green tea extract at an undefined dose, our concerns over rauwolscine, and three inactive ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.
YouTuber Tries Truvy
A YouTube creator named "Becca Bee" claims to have lost a significant amount of weight using Truvy, and answers popular user questions in this video:
Does Truvy Cause Side Effects?
Truvy doesn't appear to have been studied in any clinical trials, which makes it more challenging to determine if it's likely to cause side effects.
However, we can make an educated guess based on the ingredients in Tru and Vy.
Green tea extract, cinnamon extract and synthetic dyes are all ingredients that are clinically shown to cause side effects in some individuals.
Tru and Vy also contain mild stimulants.
The fact that Truvy supplements were found to contain hidden drug ingredients makes us significantly more concerned about the risk of side effects from this brand than from the average weight loss supplement brand we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health.
Based on the public ingredient disclosures, we do not consider Tru or Vy likely to cause side effects in otherwise healthy individuals, but as documented in our discussion of FDA actions against Truvy, public ingredient disclosures can't necessarily be trusted with this company.
The FAQs page on the brand's website states the following: "Some people do experience and report negative side effects, but it is rare."
Customers Rate Truvy
Amazon is a better resource for unbiased customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.
Tru has been reviewed over 220 times on Amazon, and has an average review rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars at the time of updating this article.
The Amazon listing is published by a third-party seller, so we cannot verify the authenticity of the product being sold.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "Ian Timothy" who gives the product a 5/5 star rating, and claims it had multiple benefits:
"Really, I am overweight for many years now and have tried so many diets but I needed some sort of diet pills to help me along. These pills all together gave me so much energy and helped me not to be hungry."
The top negative review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "E.C." who gives the product a 1/5 star rating, and claims it's ineffective without taking the Vy supplement as well:
"This product doesn’t work for appetite suppressing, because it’s missing the other half. There’s only blue pills in this box, none of the red pills."
Truvy currently has an average review rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Facebook.
Truvy currently has an average review rating of 3.05 out of 5 stars on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website.
Our Clean Weight Loss Picks
Ceylon cinnamon was described as "an effective anti-obesity agent" in a 2022 meta-analysis. The study authors concluded that effects were greater at doses at or over 3 grams daily.
Illuminate Labs Ceylon Cinnamon Extract is our standardized Ceylon cinnamon supplement which is third-party tested to ensure purity and potency.
Dietary fiber was shown in a medical review published in The Journal of Nutrition to cause 16 pounds of weight loss in 6 months when combined with moderate caloric restriction (750 calories per day below baseline).
MBG Organic Fiber Potency+ is our top fiber pick because it's certified organic, provides 7 g of fiber per serving and costs under $1.85 per serving at the time of updating this article.
Both of the products mentioned in this section are entirely free of additive ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Truvy Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Truvy in our opinion:
Pros:
- Tru contains some research-backed ingredients
- Vy contains some research-backed ingredients
Cons:
- Some formulations found to contain hidden drug ingredients
- Company received FDA warning letter
- Some formulations contain synthetic dye
- Some formulations contain titanium dioxide
- We can't find safety data in humans for rauwolscine
- Brand uses undefined cinnamon species
- Company fails to publish ingredient lists on product pages
- Website is difficult to navigate
