Do Slenderising Body Wraps Really Work?

Our Intrepid Writer Gets the Skinny.

Dirty Dancing is on and I'm groovin' to "She's like the Wind," wrapped in linen bandages as if I'm planning to play Queen Nefertiti in the big show at the end of the film. I'm testing Grail Springs' Inches Off Mineral Detox Wrap, which on the Canadian spa's website promises to take off at least 15 inches in 45 minutes. I'm doubtful. If it were this easy, we'd all look like Halle Berry.

The Suddenly Slender wrap used at Grail Springs was developed by Victoria Morton in 1969, borrowing an idea from nomads who bathe in mineral springs for health and rejuvenation. With no background in chemistry, she hit the books to develop the formula and her wraps are now offered at more than 200 body-wrap centres and spas worldwide. Most recently, some princesses from Jordan and Saudi Arabia purchased franchise rights for the wraps in those countries. It's also popular with Hollywood: "Kelly Preston gets wraps, so does Amy Irving. Our shops are jammed before the Oscars," Morton says.

Although Morton claims that wraps cured her arthritis and proudly tells me about the all-time record - a size 26 American woman who lost more than 100 inches - marketing director Mac Dougherty is far more cautious, reading me a list of things that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not let Suddenly Slender say: "We cannot say that you'll lose inches or go down dress sizes; we can't talk about toxins, 'interstitial spaces' or that the wrap gets rid of water retention, breaks down fat or flushes out impurities." Health claims like these would relocate the wrap from the realm of beauty to the FDA-regulated world of medical devices. "We have to say that people 'will look thinner' rather than 'will be thinner,'" Dougherty adds, assuring me that while the formula is proprietary, the ingredients are inorganic minerals that occur naturally in the body.