Archive for September, 2009

Acai Berry Weight Loss

September 19th, 2009

How can Acai Berry help you lose weight?

Found mainly in the Amazon forests, the acai fruit has been used by locals from time immemorial for its medicinal and healing properties. The world outside Brazil knew the health benefits of the berry only after Dr. Nicolas Perricone appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and reviewed it as the best solution for weight loss.

Since then, acai fruit has been commercialized in several ways and it has been featured on shows such on ABC and CBS. Acai berry is available nowadays in various forms such as purees, juices, dried and frozen supplements and others. It has thereby become the #1 Super-food.

Why has it taken so long to discover it?

There is a problem pertaining to acai’s cultivation; this healthy berry starts losing its potency comprising of high doses of amino acids, antioxidants, fibers, vitamins etc within 24 hours of its harvesting. However through a new method called flash freezing, this nutritionally rich fruit has been made available to the world in recent times.

Benefits of Acai Berry

There has been only minimal research that has been taken up as far this healthy berry is concerned owing to its harvesting complications. Research conducted by Science Daily and University of Florida have revealed positive results. The studies have shown that acai berry can have positive effects on treating conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, weight loss and immunity. It also has several anti aging properties.

Cardiovascular disease

A rich source of antioxidants, acai berry has 10-30 times more anthocyanins and phytonutrients than grapes, which thereby helps in improving our cholesterol and heart levels.

Acai helps in getting rid of free radicals which can damage cells, and the antioxidants present in the fruit can safeguard our body from every day damage, as well as prevent ailments or diseases such as heart disease, cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s etc.

Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids play a vital role in the optimal functioning of our body. Acai has plenty of both omega 3 and omega 6, which makes it a miracle fruit.

Our bad cholesterol levels (LDL) can be lowered and the good cholesterol levels (HDL) can be increased with the help of these 2 essential fatty acids. These acids, while passing through our digestive tract, can also spot any toxins or unwanted foods and eliminate them from our body.

Weight loss

Acai berry in combination with its natural fibers can help our body to process food in a better way. It can also help to maintain our body’s metabolism and burn more fat. We can also limit our meal portions and prevent storage of increased fat, as it has the quality of working as an appetite suppressant. In this way you can see faster results from day one – as far as weight loss is concerned.

Pure Acai Berry is a top quality and unadulterated product in this respect. This product has the highest grading and is one of the best and safest ways to make ensure that you get your 100% pure, unaltered acai intake.

Top quality acai berry products

We must search for a 100% pure acai product processed through the flash freezing method if we wish to have the best results. Only then can we be assured of getting acai berry in its best and most powerful form.

Pure Acai Berry is one product that matches this criterion perfectly. It offers 1500mg per serving and is the most potent acai berry product available in the market. The product also has received certificates of analysis and purity and quality assurance owing to its production in CGMP facilities. It leads to instantaneous weight loss from day one and offers powerful antioxidant support by having the highest ORAC rating.

For more details regarding Pure Acai Berry and the way to leads to weight loss, read this Pure Acai Berry review.

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Tags: acai berry

Power Foods That Boost Your Immune System

September 6th, 2009

Your grandma wasn’t far off when she said, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Certain foods, including apples, harbor potent nutrients, minerals and organic compounds that can supercharge your immune system and help fight off disease. Throw enough of them down your gullet and you might just be able to avoid the doctor’s office this flu season. The following foods can fuel your immune system, make you healthier and help your body fight infections.

Garlic

garlic1 Power Foods That Boost Your Immune System Roman soldiers used to gobble down chunks of garlic before battle. They believed the pungent plant infused them with courage and heroic strength. While chomping on raw garlic cloves won’t give you superhuman powers, it may help your immune system defeat bacterial, viral and even fungal infections.

Garlic contains allicin, ajoene and thiosulfinates — three powerful compounds that help the body prevent and fight infections. The compounds are so strong that consuming raw garlic juice is nearly as effective as Neosporin is for disinfecting minor wounds. When applied to the skin, garlic beats topical creams like Tinactin and other antifungal agents in fighting athlete’s foot. Evidence has been documented suggesting that people who consume large quantities of garlic on the onset of a cold will reduce the amount of time it takes them to heal.

How to eat it: Add some fresh garlic to your pasta sauce or your stir fry. Try to eat a few cloves a week, but keep it to a few — you don’t want to smell like garlic bread. A good thing to remember is that garlic is more potent (and has a stronger flavor) the more you mash it.

Allicin is produced when garlic cells are crushed, so using a garlic presser is the easiest way to squeeze the compound out of the clove. Also, allicin, ajoene and thiosulfinates are very unstable in that they degrade with time, so keep in mind that jarred-up, pre-chopped garlic contains less of the chemicals than freshly-crushed garlic.

Carrots

Power Foods That Boost Your Immune System Bugs Bunny rarely came down with the flu, and for good reason. Carrots, his food of choice, contain loads of beta carotene, which is a powerful phytonutrient that boosts the immune system’s production of infection-fighting natural killer cells and T cells. These cells are healthy and attack and kill off disease-ridden microbes.

Carrots also contain falcarinol, a super compound that has shown great promise as an anti-cancer agent. Scientists at Newcastle University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development recently found that rats that were fed raw carrots had a one-third lower risk of developing colorectal cancer. So the next time you’re in the supermarket, reach for that jumbo bag of baby carrots and you’ll never have to say, “What’s up Doc?” because you won’t be needing any doctors.

How to eat it: To take full advantage of the health effects provided by carrots, eat them fresh and raw. Cooked carrots are still good for you, but heat can destroy some of the beta carotene and falcarinol compounds in them. How many carrots should you eat to reap the benefits? Replace your daily snack of pretzels or chips with baby carrots. Try to munch about a half a cup of carrots a day, maybe a tad more.

Feeling a cold coming on? Consume these foods and feel better in no time…

Yogurt

yogurt1 Power Foods That Boost Your Immune System Ingesting live bacteria might not seem like the best way to stay healthy, but, on the contrary, your body needs certain bacteria to function properly. Lactobacillus acidophilus is an example of good bacteria that your body needs, because it produces lactic acid in your gut, which helps you digest food and break down complex compounds into usable bits.

Without acidophilus and a few other friendly bacteria, we wouldn’t be able to absorb many nutrients at all and our immune systems would shut down. Additionally, acidophilus actively fights disease-causing bacteria like salmonella and shigella-caused dysentery, it helps rid various types of diarrhea and it even helps fight viral infections.

Another strain of friendly bacteria, Bifidobacterium lactis, has been shown to boost immune system response in the elderly. Researchers in New Zealand found that those who ate the bacteria had higher counts of immune T cells, helper cells and killer cells in their bloodstreams, which all help fight off sickly cells in the body.

How to eat it: Yogurt with live bacterial cultures in it is a fantastic source of acidophilus and bifidobacterium lactis. Try to eat some every day, preferably a low-fat variety with little sugar (mixed-fruit and vanilla yogurts are loaded with excess calories). A serving of yogurt is usually about one cup. When buying yogurt, read the container to make sure it contains live cultures, specifically, acidophilus.

Oysters

oysters Power Foods That Boost Your Immune System Oysters aren’t just good for men’s libido. The gelatinous mollusks contain tons of zinc, which is one of the best immune system boosters out there. The element helps white blood cells and other antibodies reproduce more quickly, and it makes them more aggressive so they’re better at fighting off infections. Zinc is vital for general cell function and it stimulates about 100 different enzymes that promote chemical reactions in your body.

If that wasn’t enough to get you sucking back these slimy creatures, zinc also prevents bacterial and viral growth directly, either by poisoning the infectious agents or encouraging immune reaction at the site of infection.

Zinc deficiency, even when moderate, can depress immune system function. Severe deficiency can shut the immune system down completely, so if you’ve never tried oysters, there’s no better time to start than now.

How to eat it: One serving of oysters (about six medium oysters) contains approximately 76 milligrams of zinc. Doctors estimate that the average guy needs between 15 grams and 25 grams a day to stay healthy, but if you’re feeling a cold coming on, the oyster bar might not be such a bad idea. Consuming just a few oysters a week can drastically boost your levels of zinc. But be careful: Consuming too much zinc can be toxic. An excess of the element suppresses copper and iron absorption, which could make you anemic. Consult your doctor before drastically boosting your zinc consumption.

If you can’t stomach oysters, try crab, beef, dark turkey meat or beans. All contain moderate amounts of zinc — between 1.8 and 7 milligrams per serving.

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Tags: Boost Your Immune System

Understanding Food

September 2nd, 2009

We hear the phrase ‘a balanced diet’ all the time. But what does it mean? There are five food groups that make up a healthy balanced diet. Over the course of the day you should aim to include the following:

• 5 portions of fruit and vegetables (one portion is about 80g/3oz)
• Bread, potatoes and cereal foods in each meal (wholegrain is best)
• 2-3 moderate portions of meat, fish and eggs (one portion of meat is about the
same size as a pack of cards)
• 2-3 portions of dairy (one portion is a matchbox of cheese or a glass of milk)
• Fats, oils and sugars kept to a minimum
• Aim to drink at least 2 litres of water everyday

Get the most from what you eat and stop wasting calories on ‘empty food’ that won’t keep you filled up or give your body what it needs. You need to choose food that gives you the MOST amount of benefit for the LEAST number of calories. Start by:

• Checking food labels for serving sizes and ingredients
• Snack on fruit, nuts and vegetables rather than crisps and biscuits
• Remember to count the calories you drink as well as the ones you eat
• When eating meat choose a leaner cut
• Eat oily fish regularly – a valuable source of Omega 3 oils and protein
• Avoid processed foods and foods with lots of saturated fats (if in doubt, check the
nutrition label)

A balanced plate

food1 Understanding Food Eating for success doesn’t have to be complicated. Use the following three golden rules when planning what’s on your plate:

1. Divide your plate in half and fill one side with vegetables or salad
2. Divide the remaining half in two: fill one section with protein rich food (meat, fish etc) and the other with carbohydrate rich food (potatoes, rice etc)
3. If you’re eating a dish that has lots of different things combined, such as spaghetti bolognaise, then fill half your plate with this and the other half with vegetables or salad

The fat files

We all need fat in our diet. However, we need to limit the amount – the adult daily recommended intake of fat for men is 87g and 62g for women – and we need to get our fat from ‘good’ rather than ‘bad’ sources whenever possible.

Bad fats are found in foods such as cream, butter, cheese, whole milk and red meat. Good fats are found in nuts, avocados, oily fish and vegetable and olive oils.

Cutting back on fat

Here are a few simple ways you can cut back on the amount of fat in your food:

• Remove visible fat off meat – choose lean cuts
• Grill, bake or steam rather than fry or roast
• If you have something high in fat then make sure the rest of the meal is low fat
• Always read food labels and compare fat contents with alternatives
• Measure the oil you use for cooking rather than pouring it straight in – oil sprays are
useful

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Tags: healthy foods

How to feel confident on your first date

September 1st, 2009

We all want to make the right first impression on our first dates – after all, aren’t we all aspiring for date number 2 – so feeling confident in your body and your appearance is important.

However for many of you, once you have secured this first date, fear and doubt begins to set in. You begin to question yourself, your appearance and why they like you, and ultimately arrive at your date feeling insecure about the future.

To help you experience the confidence you deserve, below I have listed my top 5 tips to feeling great, so you can approach your date rest assured that you will experience success.

1. Be relaxed

It is only natural to feel nervous on a date. It is your first real chance to get to know one another, and of course you want them to like you.

To help control your nerves just take a few deep breaths, and try to pretend that you are with your friends. By doing so you will begin to feel calm and relaxed, and conversation will come more easily.

If you are often prone to nerves though, try thinking of different topics you can talk about prior to going on your date. By practising your answers before you meet, you can feel confident that you won’t make any mistakes in your answers, and will instantly put your date at ease.

Simply pick subjects which you can both easily talk about and have fun!

2. Be confident

Confidence is simply a state of mind; of believing that everything is going to be okay and putting your thoughts into action.

So take a deep breath and say to yourself ‘this date is going to be a success; this date is going to be a success; this date is going to be a success’. With this mantra always on hand to guide you, all this positive thinking will eventually leak into your actions and leave you feeling confident about your date.

3. Act interested

It is easy to let our nerves get the better of us on a date. But by making sure that you keep the conversation moving; the questions flowing and avoid periods of silence; this banter will eventually begin to feel natural and you will both find yourselves feeling at ease with one another.

Remember, they are probably just as nervous as you, so act interested and the rest will naturally follow.

4. Be who you want to be

We have all felt self-conscious about our bodies at some point on our dates. From feeling overly aware of the excess lbs around our stomachs and thighs, to feeling uncomfortable in the way our clothes fit; our lack of confidence can often translate into the way we present ourselves on our dates.

To help you slip into your favourite sexy dress with ease and feel great about your body, try taking a natural appetite suppressant such as Proactol™ .

Clinically proven to:

• suppress your appetite
• decrease your food cravings
• reduce your dietary fat intake by 28%

With Proactol™’s support you can lose a steady 1-2lbs a week and go on your date feeling rest assured that you look and feel fantastic.

For more information about Proactol™, and how it can help you to become the person you have always wanted to be, visit Proactol website.

5. Be Yourself

Last of all, just be yourself. There is no point trying to be someone you’re not. This will only go on to work against you later, and will cause you to make mistakes.

Simply be yourself and remember that your date said yes to the idea of dating the real you, not a fictional character.

So give these tips a try and begin feeling the difference of a happier, more confident you.