Author Archives: Chelsea Patrick

Verdesse Tablets – No Chlorogenic Acid???

monkeyhuhWhen a weight loss supplement starts to get popular, something magical happens. Every company related to the industry seems to suddenly have brand new, or at least, the “best” brand for that new trendy diet ingredient… think raspberry ketones or acai berry. Well, exactly the same thing has happened with green coffee bean extract and the one we’ll review today is Nature’s Best Verdesse Tablets.

Yep, Nature’s Best. I’ve heard of it. You’ve probably heard of it. So since they are selling these Verdesse Tablets, you almost instantly give them and the product the benefit of the doubt, right? I know I did. But this is marketing. Marketing in a billion dollar weight loss industry and you have to do your own research before buying any kind of supplement. Else, you never really know what you’re going to get. So are you ready to dig deeper than the name selling it?

verdesse-dog-trustNo Chlorogenic Acid listed?

One of the very most important things you should consider when thinking about buying any green coffee extract is how much chlorogenic acid it has in it. This is the SECRET to what makes it burn fat and melt away inches. Without enough of it, you aren’t going to get the results you could have otherwise. So how much is enough? We’ll just go with what Dr. Oz says:

“Should have At LEAST 45% chlorogenic acid” ~ Dr. Oz

With Verdesse, we don’t even see any mention of chlorogenic acid. If they had a respectable amount of chlorogenic acid you know they’d obviously publish it. But they don’t. So that probably means that no, it’s not there. But let’s dig a little bit more and see what else we find…

Clearly Not Enough Svetol!

Svetol is the next biggie that I look for. Just as Dr. Oz says, it MUST have Svetol (or GCA, green coffee antioxidant). While Verdesse tablets do clearly say Svetol on the label, it’s simply not enough. That’s another thing that you should always be aware of: the label. Never, ever buy a green coffee extract (or any other kind health supplement) if you can’t read the label.

That means if you’re buying online then they should go through the trouble of making it clearly available to you at a size where it’s easy to read what it says.

But yeah. This extract has a mere 400mg – and that’s using two tablets. So in essence, there’s only 200mg in each, which is extremely poor.

verdesse-show-offOnly ONE Glowing Review?

They seem to be pretty darn proud of being mentioned in what’s considered an online newspaper. But go ahead and visit the link they provide. See for yourself. This nine out of ten rating they pride themselves on is based off a SINGLE review from ONE lady in ONE case. That’s not much of a case if you ask me. What about you?

So when you get right down to it, it turns out that this green coffee extract, one we thought would be great since it’s sold by Nature’s Best, isn’t so great after all. The two very most important things to look for in this kind of supplement is either non-existent or poor. I definitely would not chance spending my money on this one. What about you?

I mean, let’s recap:

  • There’s absolutely no mention of chlorogenic acid
  • You never really know how much Svetol or GCA you’re going to be getting
  • The one thing they hold on to, like an award, is a good testimonial from one individual

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Choosing A Supplier

You should never rush into buying any kind of health supplement. You could simply waste your money or worse, end up endangering your health  Do your homework before buying anything. According to all the research we’ve done, we recommend this Svetol green coffee extract for its high quality and bang for your buck. It’s also available through Amazon here.

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Click for larger size to read label.

Click for larger size to read label.

As recommended by Dr Oz, it:

  • Contains Svetol
  • Completely natural with no filler ingredients
  • Has 50% Chlorogenic Acids
  • Is proven to be effective
  • Has the best money back guarantee we’ve seen

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Posted in Green Coffee Bean Reviews, Reviews. Tagged with , .

Purely Inspired Coffee Extract – full of JUNK

Warning about purely inspired green coffee extractPurely Inspired Green Coffee Bean Extract is the newest green coffee supplement that we’ve been spending some time looking into. If you’ve been following our blog then you know that we’re on a mission to bring you current information about what’s being offered on the market.

Not surprisingly, we’ve found a few glaring doozies on some of the sites that should make any consumer think twice about buying. That’s not to say that the product couldn’t actually be good. It’s just saying that hey, we’ve been around the block. We’ve seen the scams that come with any ‘miracle’ weight loss supplement and it really ticks us off that some of these companies will do anything to trick you.

purely-inspired-talkWhere’s The Green Coffee???

The very first thing we noticed about Purely Inspired the amount of green coffee extract you actually get. And let’s just say it… It isn’t much. If you look closely at the ingredients you’ll see two things: A serving size is two caps and each serving is 400mg.

So what’s that mean? Each capsule is only giving you 200mg! I mean honestly, I don’t think we’ve ever seen that little of amount in a green coffee extract supplement.

Filler Ingredients Galore

But that certainly isn’t all. When you look at the ingredients, you’ll see there’s a whole slew of other ingredients that they add into their product. Just look at this…

OTHER INGREDIENTS: MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE DIHYDRATE, HYDROXYPROPYLCELLULOSE, CROSCARMELLOSE SODIUM,
MAGNESIUM STEARATE, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL, SILICON DIOXIDE, VEGETABLE-BASED COATING (HYPROMELLOSE, GLYCERIN).
CONTAINS SOY INGREDIENTS.

So once you consider all the filler added ingredients and the fact that the green coffee extract is so low, how much are you really getting in the end? Although it’s got a great looking price tag attached to it, are you really getting a good deal?

girl-questions-purely-inspiredReal Studies?

It’s unclear whether they’re saying the studies cited on their page were specifically done with Purely Inspired Green Coffee brand. Maybe so, since they say participants were on a low-calorie diet and using moderate exercise. And under four pounds in 8 weeks?

In the real studies referenced by Dr. Oz and others, participants were NOT on a low calorie diet and still lost more weight than that.

Skimpy Consumer Information

Another thing we don’t particularly like is they simply throw up a sales page with barely any information or proof of anything and call it a day. They don’t offer any other information about their product, or even green coffee extract in general, other than the little bit that’s on the sales page.

We believe that if you’re going to sell something, you should do your best to educate consumers about everything and anything that has to do with it so they can make an informed decision. What about the history of it? The different studies? Possible side effects or situations where it may not be suitable to take?

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Our Recommendation on Who You CAN Trust…

Remember that not all supplements are created equal. Some are high quality, some are not. Before buying anything, please take a little time to research and understand what it is you’re buying. In our opinion, this is the most effective green coffee bean extract available right now. If you buy it on Amazon and order three, one of them is free.

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Click for larger size to read label.

Click for larger size to read label.

Just like Dr. Oz recommends, this extract:

  • Contains Svetol
  • Completely natural with no filler ingredients
  • Has 50% Chlorogenic Acids
  • Is proven to be effective

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Posted in Green Coffee Bean Reviews, Reviews. Tagged with , .

Raspberry Ultra Drops Scam

In our quest to keep our readers up to date on the wide variety of raspberry ketone products on the market today, a certain product has come to our attention that we felt demanded some reviewing. If you have not yet heard of (or ordered from) Raspberry Ultra Drops, consider yourself lucky. It doesn’t take very long to get some pretty serious red flags.

Thousands of Reports of Fraud

There are thousands of people pissed off enough to go thru the trouble to file reports on ScamBook,Complaintsboard, Facecrooks, and other consumer protection websites. This company has been accused of fraud, false advertisement, hacking into personal accounts and flat out just not sending the items ordered. Angry customers report losses of up to $229 and a few claim damages of up to $9,000! On just one of the above site there are 203 very serious complaints against Raspberry Ultra Drops.

theif2Millions of dollars in damage claims against them

The grand total of unresolved reported damages from this company is…are you ready for this?….$2,175,313.50! That is nothing to sneeze at, and we think this company should be avoided at all costs. Evidently, the only thing you’re liable to lose with Raspberry Ultra Drops is your shirt (and everything else you own).

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flyingpig-claimsRidiculous, Unproven claims

Raspberry Ultra Drops users can expect to lose between half a pound to 3 pounds daily with the average being about 1-1.5 pounds daily

There are numerous such silly claims on their website, but we’ll just leave it at this simply ridiculous claim. 3 pounds a day? Right…. The weight loss industry is notorious for misleading consumers. That’s because people searching for these supplements are often desperate and very much wanting to believe there’s a miracle pill they can buy – and many companies take advantage of this. That’s exactly what Raspberry Ultra Drops does and they probably couldn’t care less what results you really get once they have your money.

piggybankRidiculous Price

Are you ready for this? $69 for a single 2 oz bottle that you have NO IDEA what is in it. I really don’t understand how some of these companies can charge so much. It’s pretty clear they’re just in this business for the money – not for helping people. That’s a sad fact when obesity is an epidemic with no end in sight. What even makes it worse is that customers will buy, believing they’re completely covered with a money back guarantee. The fact of the matter with this particular company is that you might not even get what you ordered, let alone a refund.

How much Raspberry Ketone?

Dr. Oz raves about the wonderful benefits of Raspberry Ketone for weight loss. It DOES work. However, we have no idea HOW MUCH Raspberry Ketone is in this product, since they never show the label or any list of ingredients. Scammers don’t show the label because they use VERY LITTLE Raspberry Ketone in their product.

Our Conclusion

This is where we summarize the good and bad points about a product we review. Only, in this case it is not really necessary, since it is pretty obvious this is a big scam. This company makes outrageous claims, engages in all kinds of fraud, and sells a crappy product at a ridiculous price.
Raspberry Ultra Drops is the very last place you should buy from!

 

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Don’t trust emails
You must research ANYTHING you find from an email, especially unsolicited from people or companies you don’t know.

Don’t trust paid ads

The ads to the right in google, and sometimes in a bar at the top are paid ads. Scammers can pay for those listings, rip you off, and you wont be able to find them again.

Those are the “Here today, Gone tomorrow” companies that specialize in ripping people off and disapearing.

Research the company and brand name

Websites like AlivebyNature you find at the top of Google search results (not the paid ads) because we have been doing business online for 7 years and rank at the top for a reason. We do not push scam products then disappear.

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bottlesblueAfter all our research, the Raspberry Ketone Extract we recommend here on Amazon, Manufactured by NewLifeBotanicals in their FDA certified facility, it is the highest quality you can find.

Right now, you can get a discount on it here.

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If you’ve been struggling to lose weight, then we know you’re looking for something that will 1.) Actually work and 2.) Work fast. There’s a never-ending list of weight loss products available today, but it’s best to try to stick to natural supplements that won’t wreak havoc on your body. This is one of the reasons we keep up with Dr. Oz and keep you informed about what he talks about – he’s a big believer in keeping things real and natural.

Raspberry ketones is a completely natural way to lose weight. Raspberry ketones are simply a compound found in raspberries. It’s very aromatic and is often used to add flavor to different foods and fragrance to perfumes. Dr. Oz called it a miracle weight loss pill and explained that they “shrink” your fat cells. What he actually means is that by taking this supplement, it combines with the norepinephrine in your body. That results in more fat leaving your fat cells, so in essence they shrink… and so do you.

We know now from research that raspberry ketones help your body to produce something called adiponectin. When all is good and your body is keeping a balanced level of adiponectin, your appetite doesn’t go haywire and when you do eat, the calories are used correctly. When you don’t have  balanced level of adiponectin though, you’re always hungry and craving foods and when you do eat, a lot of those calories get tucked away and stored as fat.

Just another word of caution here… if you suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or high cholesterol then talk to your doctor before taking raspberry ketones (or any health or weight loss supplement for that matter).

Posted in Reviews.

Ultimate Green Coffee Extract – High price, SCARY product?

This brand is manufactured by phytogenix labs and sold by smaller web sites. This product may have some good quality Green Coffee extract, but they dilute it with all kinds of fillers and other artificial ingredients. To make it worse, it is often sold for $50 or more PER BOTTLE! A very inflated price for even the very best quality Green Coffee Bean extract, and this is certainly not the best quality.

The GOOD News

question-markOn the plus side, it is not used in the “Free Trial” scams, which are ALWAYS the worst quality product and should be avoided at all cost. We recommend people throw any of those products they may have in the trash. This is not one of those.

BUT… Now the BAD NEWS…

Very little actual Green Coffee in the capsule

Wow! From the label you see that 3 capsules has only 200 mg of green coffee extract. Why would you want to take 3 capsules and still only get 1/2 the mg of green coffee extract Dr Oz recommends? And, why would they put so little green coffee in a capsule? Seems like they want to fake you into thinking it is a good value when it is clearly NOT.

ultimate-green-coffe-stomach-painLots of fillers and other junk

Wow again! Look at the ingredients from their label below. That’s the biggest list of “stuff” we’ve seen yet on something that is supposed to be a healthy, natural product – NOT!.


*** IMPORTANT Note:
 We have had a few callers tell us they had purchased this brand and had stomach cramps after taking it. While this is not totally unheard of and could be a coincidence, it is very rare for users to have ANY side effects from taking green coffee bean extract, and have 3 callers report the same thing, possibly from some of the other substances they use to fill the capsule instead of just using pure green coffee extract.

Conclusion

Overall, we would give this brand a 2 thumbs down for being overpriced and of very dubious quality. Look elsewhere, you can easily find better quality and better price.

 

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What We Recommend…

Take your time when buying green coffee extract supplements. Choose a reputable supplier and a quality product and you shouldn’t have any problems or side effects at all. After all our research, the Green Coffee Extract we recommend here is the highest quality you can find. It’s also sold on Amazon with a special: Buy three and you get one free.

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Click for larger size to read label.

Click for larger size to read label.

As recommended by Dr Oz, it:

  • contains Svetol
  • completely natural with no filler ingredients
  • Has 50% Chlorogenic Acids
  • Is proven to be effective

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Posted in diet, Green Coffee, Green Coffee Bean Reviews.

Crazy Fun Exercise Classes

Push-ups and squats in an airless, unforgivingly bright room? Huffing and puffing and sweating next to 25 strangers? The fitness classes of yesterday, maybe. But those are practically archaic by now. Hello, slithering, gravity-defying routines, party music, and flashing lights. Some classes are hybrids of old and new exercises; others are high-intensity variations on the norm. All will boost your fitness. U.S. News highlights some of the most out-of-the-box options:

Aerial dance. Always envied Cirque du Soleil performers? Stop at Heliummm Aerial Dance and Entertainment in New York. You’ll learn the tricks of aerial dance, while giving your arms and abs a workout. The bulk of your time will be spent hanging from and climbing up silky fabric that dangles from the ceiling. “It translates into other areas of your life, too,” says event producer and performer Heather Hammond. “Once you’ve overcome the fear of hanging upside down, you feel like a million bucks. You’ve just done something death-defying. It’s a physical, mental, and emotional challenge.” And there are no age constraints: Heliummm clients range from age 7 to 72.

[See: Arm Exercises for Short-Sleeve Season]

Burlesque dancing. You’ll learn the art of the slow tease by shimmying your shoulders and wiggling your hips. At some schools, you’ll also learn how to walk in heels to optimize your appearance, how to improve your posture, and how to lure others via eye contact. Other moves you’ll master: bumps, grinds, and chair dancing. Classes aren’t for the shy or delicate, though, instructors say: You’ll be working hard and getting on your hands and knees.

Trivia training. Boot camp meets Jeopardy. Be prepared to stretch your mind and your body. This type of class is based on research suggesting that working out increases blood flow to the brain region that controls memory; using your memory while exercising, the thinking goes, could improve brain function. During a typical class, participants are divided into teams, and whichever group answers a question correctly chooses the next exercise. In a lightning round, the instructor reads statements—if they’re true, prepare to run. False, drop to the ground and do push-ups or squats.

Piloxing. It’s a heart-pumping, body-toning, unlikely combination: pilates and boxing. Participants can wear athletic shoes or go barefoot, and some opt for half-pound weighted fingerless gloves to enhance the upper body workout. Expect to punch, jab, and execute quick footwork, while switching it up with balance poses, balletic plie squats, and other graceful dance moves.

AntiGravity yoga. Take your workout to the next level. Participants perform the poses of traditional yoga while hanging in a large silk hammock raised off the ground. The weightless routine helps strengthen the core, while relieving aching joints and stretching tight muscles. These classes are available nationwide; see a listing at antigravityyoga.com.

Party ride. It’s 9 p.m. on a Friday night. Throw on your sneakers and head to the “healthy nightclub,” says Julie Rice, co-founder and co-CEO of SoulCycle, a chain of indoor cycling studios in New York. The 45-minute “party ride” class merges the intensity of a full-body workout with dim lighting, glow sticks, and pulsing pop music—Lady Gaga, for example, or Rihanna. Riders also use hand weights to tone their cores and upper bodies. “It’s a super-invigorating, high-energy cardio party,” Rice says. “We have a disco ball and a bouncer at the front door. It’s awesome.”

Kangoo Jumps. Strap on these low-impact rebound sports shoes—rollerblade-like boots with springs instead of wheels—and head to the gym. During class, you’ll bounce, jump, skip, and run, mimicking a kangaroo while doing leg lifts and dance moves choreographed to energetic tunes. Kangoo Jumps were designed by a Swiss engineer whose aging knees interfered with his ability to run, and they’re claimed to reduce the impact on joints by up to 80 percent. The shoes typically cost between $169 and $279.

Hoop-ercise. Thought hula-hooping was for the kids? Wrong. Participants use weighted, adult-size hula hoops—and say that it’s not just fun, but it works. An hour of intense hooping can burn as many calories as an hour on the treadmill, and classes are typically set to fun tunes. Some hooping moves stimulate the entire core; others target the back and thighs, or tone the biceps and triceps.

Posted in Exercise.

Chocolate Lovers Thinner than Others?

Do you find it hard to resist a chunk of sweet, decadent chocolate? If so, there’s good news. According to a new study, it appears that those who regularly consume chocolate are normally skinnier than those who don’t. Although the weight difference is slight, it gives a shimmer of hope to researchers in finding out just what causes it. The exact cause isn’t yet known. On another note, they say it could just be a statistical flute.

The study that shows chocolate lovers as being thinner those who don’t regularly indulge in chocolate consisted of about 1,000 participants. Each participant, nearly 70 percent of which were men, completed a survey. The survey included details about how regularly they ate chocolate and researchers then went to work trying to see what they could find.

On average, the participants had a BMI (body mass index) of about 28. At 28, they’re classified as overweight, but not necessarily obese. As researchers analyzed the data, they figured out that those who ate chocolate the most often actually had a lower BMI than the others.

This is by far not the first time there have been benefits found that relate to eating chocolate. It’s one food that holds quite a bit of mystery for health experts and researchers to still figure out. We know that it’s full of antioxidants. Eating chocolate has also been shown in a variety of studies to hold other health benefits too, such as lowering cholesterol and blood sugar. By reading these studies, you’d never guess that chocolate was full of fat and carries a whopping number of calories…

They said that on average, how often you eat chocolate could account for around a five pound difference in your weight. Before you run off and start chowing down on chocolate, think twice though. For one, it’s a delicate balance to eat enough but not so much that the calories and fat take a toll. For two, they aren’t positive about what kind of chocolate participants ate.

Also, they stress that chocolate isn’t going to help you lose weight.

 

Posted in featured, Health and Fitness. Tagged with , , .

Powerful, Little Known Secrets of Cumin

Though I’m sure you’ve heard of (and probably use) cumin, I bet you didn’t know that it can help you with losing weight. Did you? Cumin is very common in African, Asian and Latin American dishes and offers a wide variety of health benefits… both for physical and mental health. Let’s take a look at just some of the reasons you should be including cumin in your cooking.

Physical Benefits Cumin Offers

First of all, cumin is an amazing source of iron, which is important for ensuring a healthy digestive system. It helps your body produce energy more effectively, carry a healthy supply of oxygen to the tissues in your body, and improves your immune system. An interesting thing about cumin too is that studies have shown that it is anti-carcinogenic. That means it can help prevent the development of cancer. Specifically, it’s been shown to prevent liver and stomach cancer although it’s only been proven with animals so far. Cumin has also been proven to help those who suffer from arthritis, asthma and kidney disease.

Cumin Helps with Weight Loss?

Because cumin increases your metabolic rate and body temperature, it is also becoming more well-known for helping people lose weight. In Indian cooking it’s commonly combined with a number or other spices, such as ginger, fenugreek, black pepper and turmeric powder. This helps increase the effect that it has on your digestive system and helps your body absorb more nutrients, which in turn helps prevent your body from storing fat.

Abdominal Fat Burning

Not only is cumin great at overall helping your body not to build and store fat, but it’s specifically good at targeting your abdominal fat. It can increase your fat burning by as much as 25 percent! But if you want to get the most out of cumin’s weight loss abilities, it’s best to combine it with other spices like mentioned above. A few more that you can mix it with are mustard, fennel and fresh ginger.

Kickin’ Out the Bad

Cumin helps your body get rid of waste more efficiently and quickly, which means it helps ward off disease and this also helps with weight loss.

Improve Mental Health with Cumin

As mentioned, cumin is also beneficial to mental health. It can help you improve your memory and sharpen your concentration skills. It’s commonly suggested to use cumin in your daily diet if you suffer from any kind of insomnia, too.

Summary

Cumin is an amazing little spice that just about anyone can benefit from. If you haven’t been using it, then start adding it to the dishes that you make. You’ll get an increase in your metabolism, kick your immune system into better gear, naturally detox your body on a regular basis and burn fat away faster. Besides, there aren’t any known dangers or side effects of cumin so there’s really no reason not to start using it today.

Posted in featured, nutrition. Tagged with , , , , .

Acai Makes Natural Weight Loss Easier

Losing weight can be a challenge, so most people who struggle with weight are always looking for easier ways of doing so. Counting calories day-in and day-out gets very tedious and to be honest, it isn’t really all that effective to rely on calorie counting. See this article to understand why calorie counting isn’t your best bet if you’re trying to lose weight.

There are new discoveries being made every day in the world of weight loss. One of the things that many people have had some great success with is adding acai berry to their diet. Because of the natural weight loss properties this little superfood has, it doesn’t require much effort on your part other than remembering to take it each day. That’s much easier than trying to count every calorie, write down every little thing you eat (a food journal) and fitting in numerous workouts into your schedule.

How Hard is it to Stick to the Acai Diet?

To effectively lose weight that you can keep off in the long run normally takes a great deal of willpower and let’s face it… a lot of us simply don’t the kind of dedication and willpower that it takes. This is especially true if you have a family, a job, etc. You already have a ton of things to remember, a million errands to do, meals to cook, clean and work. Creating from-scratch, at-home healthy meals can seem like a mountain of effort. Whipping up some cheeseburgers would be much easier right?

This all leads to one of the main reasons why the acai berry diet became so popular. You don’t have to stick to strict meals, diets and workouts. You don’t have to forego your favorite foods for special meals (that are often expensive to buy the ingredients for).

Originally, it was celebrities who were all gung-ho about acai. But after extensive media coverage, including being featured on Dr. Oz, everyone suddenly wanted to try this new super diet. As more people began using it, even more was learned about it. Not only does it help you lose weight much more easily than before, you also get several other amazing health benefits.

Other Health Benefits of the Acai Berry

One of the biggest things people have reported while taking an acai berry supplement is the increase in energy. Many other diets from the past would leave you feeling drained and wore out. Why? Because you were always limiting yourself to a very scarce number or calories. You need calories for energy! The diet that was supposed to be helping you get healthier and lose weight would leave you with absolutely no energy to get moving.

Acai berry is different and those who have tried it for losing weight have found they actually have more energy. When you have this newfound pool of energy, it’s natural to want to get moving. So many will start a new workout, start taking a new class or just get outside and enjoy the boost of energy. No matter how hectic your lifestyle may be, it’s easy to fit in some exercise when you have an abundance of energy.

Posted in Natural Health Supplements. Tagged with , , , .

Managing Diabetes with Diet and Exercise

As you probably know, there are two types of diabetes: Type I and Type II. Type II can often be managed and treated with the right exercises and diet. Type I is a completely different monster, though. If you or a loved one has Type I diabetes, here are some tips to help you manage it and stay as healthy as possible through diet and exercise choices.

Carbs

Carbohydrates have gotten a pretty bad rep over the years. It’s not that they’re all bad, though. There are both good carbs and bad carbs. This is especially true if you’re trying to manage diabetes. Including carbohydrates in your diet can give you plenty of health benefits, it’s just you have to be smart about which ones you eat. Some of the carbs that you should generally avoid include:

  • White rice
  • White flour
  • White sugar
  • De-germed cornmeal
  • Fruit juices

Instead of eating any of the above, try to replace them with better, ‘nicer’ carbs. Foods that are generally considered to be good carbs are whole grain foods, brown rice, whole natural fruits and whole cornmeal.

Using Protein to Process Carbs

If you choose your proteins and carbs carefully, you can combine them to keep your blood sugar levels in-check and avoid those nasty spikes that lead to bad situations. While you don’t want to overdo it on carbs, you can usually get away with some of them by eating protein with it. Basically, the protein helps your body process the carbs more effectively and consistent to avoid sugar spikes. Some combinations that you might want to try are:

  • Add some unsweetened, natural nut butter to a piece of whole grain bread or crakcers
  • Top some whole grain crackers with your choice of low fat cheese
  • Cook up some brown rice and add some beans into it
  • Create your own “party mix” – combine some pretzels, peanuts and your favorite whole grain cereal in a bowl to snack on
  • Fill a whole grain pita with lean turkey breast

Good and Bad Fats

Just like with carbohydrates, not all fat is bad. Sure, you want avoid eating too much bad fat, but you want to make sure you’re getting enough good fats in your diet. Bad fat is saturated fat. It’s found in things like butter, sugar and shortening that you find on the shelves of the grocery store at room temp.

Try adding some of the following into your diet if you aren’t already doing so…

  • Fish,
  • Almonds
  • Avocados
  • Replace any of your cooking oils with canola oil

Exercising

Exercise is pretty much considered a must if you want to properly manage your diabetes. One of the most important types of exercise in regards to managing diabetes is strength training. There have been cases where strength training benefits even rivaled that of diabetes medicines.

Aerobics or some type of cardio exercise is also important. You burn calories (even more if you’re strength training too, as muscle burns fat) and you get your heart rate going.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to get in about 30 minutes per day five days per week. You’ll feel better and you’ll manage your weight, which is directly connected to managing your diabetes. Getting enough exercise and staying healthy overall also helps prevent your chances of developing diabetes in the first place.

Posted in Exercise, Health and Fitness. Tagged with , , , .

Superfoods You Should be Shopping For

Well-known superfoods are always being replaced by newer ones that are discovered. Some of the superfoods that have received more than their fair share of attention has been acerola, cloves, maqui berry and baobab fruit. If you like to keep up with the latest and greatest in regards to your health then you’ve probably heard about all of these. But what is it that makes them so powerful? Let’s take a look at them a bit more closely and you’ll see why these foods should always be on your shopping list.

Maqui Berries

Maqui berries are similar to blueberries. They’ve hit the headlines and stolen some of the attention from the very popular acai berry. Originally from Patagonia in South America, this berry is an antioxidant powerhouse. They get very high scores on the oxygen radical absorbance capacity test (otherwise referred to as the ORAC test). This test measures how potent foods are in regards to antioxidants. If you think blueberries are good for you, consider this: maqui berries score at least ten times higher on the test than blueberries.

Acerola

You may have seen these red fruits in the store and not even know it. They’re often called Amazon cherries or Barbados cherries. Originally from South America and Central America, they have 40 times more vitamin C than oranges. They’re sometimes hard to find in the United States though, so most of the time people get the health benefits from them in the form of a supplement: capsules, extracts and powders.

Cloves

Cloves have been a staple in many kitchens long before they started being touted as the newest superfood. If you’re the one who cooks holiday meals then you probably use them on your ham or in your pumpkin pies, right? Did you know that Spanish researchers say that cloves have a powerful antioxidant to them may even be able to take the place of synthetic ones we often use for preserving food?

Baobab Fruit

This potent little fruit comes from Africa and has only recently been approved for export. They have a naturally powder-like texture even without any kind of processing. If you aren’t a fan of dairy products are can’t eat them due to health reasons, then this fruit should definitely be in your kitchen. They have a lot of calcium and vitamin C. If you roast the seeds from baobab fruit, you can eat them and get plenty of protein. It’s often used for flavor in yogurt, but hopefully it’ll start showing up in your local grocery stores since its export approval.

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