How does the Acai Berry facilitate weight loss?

There have been many methods people have over the years to try to lose weight. While some of these methods are rather short-lived fads, others have merit and can provide people with a healthy way to lose weight. One of these would be a dietary supplement known as acai berry. Many people have found success in losing weight by ingesting this supplement. Many wonder just how this berry can help them lose weight.

The acai berry is an all natural supplement. Those products made from pure Acai berry extract will produce the best results. Acai berry supplements are not loaded up with additives. These natural supplements can provide excellent results.

Providing an energy boost is another way in which the acai berry helps promote weight loss. Let’s face it; people today are much busier than in the past. They always seem to be on the go. By using an acai berry supplement, one’s energy level is enhanced. This makes a person more active which translates into more calories burned. Many people find themselves crashing in the middle of the day. When taking an acai berry supplement, this does not occur.

Research has long supported the fact that getting an appropriate amount of sleep is essential for weight loss. This is one of the benefits of acai berries. They can help people to get a much sounder sleep at night. This leads to a more effective performance of your body which is important for weight loss.

Acai berries also work to detoxify your body. Harmful toxins are stored within our bodies. These often keep people from feeling their best. Since acai berries are loaded with antioxidants which help clean one’s body, digestion can also be positively enhanced by acai berries. With the ingestion of acai berries, food is broken down much more effectively, which helps prevent fat being stored.

Diet Drinks Can Increase Your Waistline and Put Weight On

During the summer we naturally consume more drinks to help with dehydration, and diet drinks are certainly popular for both refreshment and in the mistaken belief they help you lose weight. I say mistaken advisedly as a new study has shown that diet drinks actually cause weight gain and blood sugar spikes.

These diet drinks are made with artificial sweeteners like aspartame and a landmark new study out of Texas confirms that not only do diet drinks not help with weight loss, but they actually cause both weight gain and health problems.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio gathered ten years worth of data on 474 participants from a larger, ongoing study called the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. Among these participants, those that consumed two or more diet drinks a day experienced waist size increases that were a staggering six times greater than those who did not consume diet drinks.

Helen P. Hazuda, a study researcher and professor at the UTHSC School of Medicine presented the study results at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. She reported that: “Data from this and other prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners as healthy alternatives may be ill-advised. They may be free of calories, but not of consequences.”

The findings debunk the false notion that switching to diet drinks will help you lose weight. What they do show is a 70 percent increase in waist size compared to those who do not drink them, so it is not clear how calling them ‘diet’ is applicable.

I have mentioned the health dangers of aspartame before, and a related study presented at the same time, found that this chemical sweetener commonly found in diet foods and drinks, is actually responsible for raising blood sugar levels.

This was an animal, not human study, but the results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels. This could be a major contributory factor to the risk of diabetes, already a worldwide epidemic and growing.

A previous study had linked saccharin to weight gain and according to Dr. Marie Savard, medical contributor for ABC News, there is something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry.The truth is, we’re putting artificial sweetener in so many different things: in water, in yogurt. We have to rethink what this artificial stuff does to us.”

This links to a previous 2010 study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that found that the body’s reaction to the ingestion of artificial sweeteners appears to be brain confusion over how exactly to process it, which in and of itself is implicated in causing various other negative consequences.

Certainly it is true that US Food and Drug Administration have had adverse event reports going back several decades that indicate that artificial sweeteners like aspartame are also responsible for destroying brain neurons, which in turn leads to a host of chronic illnesses. These include, but are not limited to, chronic headaches, seizures, strokes, vascular disorders, heart disease, premature birth, dementia and other brain disorders, and cancer.

So if you want a fizzy refreshing drink then please steer clear of diet ones, and for a low calorie option try sparkling mineral water with a few drops of vanilla essence in it for sweetness and flavor.

Gut Week Is Upon Us

Not a week goes by these days without it being ‘special’ and this week is no exception. We are now halfway through this year’s National Gut Week which began on Monday. To stay healthy you do have to ‘Love Your Gut’ and take good care of your digestive health.

The gut is not only where we digest our food, it is home to 70% of the body’s immunity and where different types of bacteria interact and essential vitamins and minerals from the diet are absorbed into the bloodstream. If your gut is unhealthy, then a wide range of health problems can result such as regular colds and flu, eczema or acne, and low energy levels.

I have mentioned the importance of probioitics before, and usually in a preventive way to protect you while away from home and subject to the stress of unfamiliar diet and surroundings, but it is certainly something to focus on for all round health throughout the year – not just at holiday time. One key way to look after your gut is to ensure that you have a healthy balance of friendly bacteria (probiotics) over bad bacteria (pathogens) and there are several ways to do that.

Obviously a healthier lifestyle creates favourable conditions for good bacteria to survive in the gut and that is basically trying not to keep stress to a minimum, cut out sugar and foods containing additives and preservatives as they can unbalance your system. Also certain medications, particularly antibiotics, also kill off the body’s probiotics and so disrupt the intestinal bacterial balance. Furthermore, stress will naturally diminish one’s levels of good bacteria, so make sure you put your feet up from time to time!

We unfortunately do not produce our own probiotics in the body, just like vitamin C, and it is almost impossible to avoid some of the factors which can have a negative effect on your natural microflora as previously mentioned. However, what you can do is to top up your body’s levels of good bacteria with a natural probiotic supplement.

So what kind of supplement is best?
You may already be taking a probiotic-containing yoghurt but yoghurts only hold one type of probiotic bacteria and have a short shelf-life. Capsules and sachets can contain multiple varieties of freeze-dried probiotic bacteria but these bacteria take hours to activate under rehydration. Symprove contains four varieties of natural live activated bacteria and, as a water-based drink, it passes quickly through the stomach to the lower intestine without triggering digestion and the good bacteria begin to multiply within 20 minutes. It is lactose-free and does not contain any artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners. It has a pleasant taste of mango and passionfruit and you store it in the fridge where it will keep for up to 5 months. It is used by people with wide-ranging digestive and bowel related problems, and it goes to work within minutes of being swallowed.

If you can’t find Symprove in your local health store then visit the website at www.symprove.com to order, or find a stockiest near you.

It May Look Like Pond Life – But You Really, Really Need It!

What if having just a tablespoon or two per day of a simple food could drastically lower your chances of developing cancer, heart disease or stroke, or of contracting a life-threatening virus such as HIV, would you do it?

Spirulina is a superfood is a unique freshwater plant that is one of the most nutrient-packed foods around and is receving a lot of press in the USA at the moment for its protection against radiation, but its health benefits are far reaching beyond that.

Along with chlorella it is blue – green algae, but actually is classified as bacteria because their genetic material is not organized in a membrane-bound nucleus and, unlike other bacteria, they have chlorophyll and use the sun as an energy source, in the way plants and algae do. Spirulina has a very rich protein content—60 percent on average, which is even better than red meat which is about 27 percent protein. Also that protein is biologically complete, containing all of the essential amino acids needed for human health and a potent array of other beneficial nutrients. The proteins in spirulina are of a highly digestible type (83 to 90 percent digestible), due to the fact that it does not have cellulose walls, like yeast and chlorella do.

That’s why it is turning up in more and more foods, particularly health foods such as protein bars, and is a vital ingredient in health-giving green smoothies. Oh and if you think this is a New Age food fad then records of the Spanish conquistadors suggest that the Aztecs consumed spirulina as a food source. So what does it give you?

• Vitamins: B (including exceptionally high B-12) and vitamin K along with other vitamins. Contains vitamin E level comparable to wheat germ, and four times as much vitamin B12 as raw liver
• Minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium, manganese, potassium, and zinc Spirulina has about the same mineral content as milk
• Naturally rich in iodine and contains eighteen different amino acids
• One of best known sources of gamma-linolenic acid and other essential fatty acids Phytopigments phycocyanin, chlorophyll, and carotenoids
• Compounds of proteins combined with metals that bind heavy radioactive isotopes
• Low in carbohydrates – 15-20 percent
There are scientific studies supporting spirulina’s potential usefulness in preventing and/or treating the following health conditions: age-related macular degeneration, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, liver health and decreased damage from heavy metal exposure, cerebrovascular disease (including stroke) and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

It has also been linked to protection from both cancer and radiation protection, bone marrow and blood health (especially during use of anticancer drugs), strengthening immune defenses and modulating inflammatory response, reducing arthritis symptoms and pain sensitivity by inhibiting prostaglandins, which contribute to pain and inflammation

Good for you – and your pets:
There is sufficient scientific evidence for spirulina’s health benefits and its remarkable clinical results with a high safety record. It also seems to be good for our pets as spirulina’s ability to promote a strong immune system, a healthy coat, heart and joint health, and even fresher breath is making it popular with pet owners who add a small amount to their food. You can now buy a specific version now just for them, but I have only seen it on US websites not anything in the UK.

I wish I could tell you it tastes wonderful, but it doesn’t – at least not to me – but when mixed in with a fruit or green smoothie it is fine. Just be aware that the vibrant colour of your normal smoothie will look like mud – I persuade myself it is the colour of milk chocolate which helps, and certainly doesn’t detract from the taste!

As seaweed has just been ‘outed’ as the latest way to fight off heart attacks you could try doubling your health benefit with a supplement that combines seaweed in a blend of 12 chlorophyll rich green foods including spirulina, chlorella, kale sprouts, wheat grass juice, nettles and arctic fresh seaweed. It comes from Pukka Herb and is Clean Greens powder which you should be able to find in your health store.

An Important New Role for Vitamin C in the Eye and the Brain and for Glaucoma

We know how important vitamin C is for so many functions in our bodies: supporting the immune system, protection against cardiovascular and heart disease and a protective and preventive role in cancer. However, a surprising new discovery may mean vitamin C is required by the nerve cells in the eye in order to function properly.

The function of vitamin C in the brain is not well understood; in fact, when the human body is deprived of vitamin C, the vitamin stays in the brain longer than anywhere else in the body. This new study by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University in the USA, who recently published their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience, may also throw light on the link between scurvy and depression. Scurvy results from a severe lack of vitamin C and one of the common symptoms is depression, and that may come from the lack of vitamin C in the brain.

As for its effects on eye health, Henrique von Gersdorff, Ph.D., a senior scientist at OHSU’s Vollum Institute (a privately endowed research unit of Oregon Health & Science University) said: “We found that cells in the retina need to be ‘bathed’ in relatively high doses of vitamin C, inside and out, to function properly. Because the retina is part of the central nervous system, this suggests there’s likely an important role for vitamin C throughout our brains, to a degree we had not realized before.”

The brain has special receptors, called GABA-type receptors that help modulate the rapid communication between cells in the brain. These act as an inhibitory “brake” on excitatory neurons in the brain and the OHSU researchers found that these GABA-type receptors in the retinal cells stopped functioning properly when vitamin C was removed. Because retinal cells are a kind of very accessible brain cell, it’s likely that GABA receptors elsewhere in the brain also require vitamin C to function properlyand because vitamin C is a major natural antioxidant, it may be that it essentially ‘preserves’ the receptors and cells from premature breakdown.

The findings could have implications for other diseases, like glaucoma and epilepsy as both conditions are caused by the dysfunction of nerve cells in the retina and brain that become over excited in part because GABA receptors may not be functioning properly. This indicates that a vitamin C-rich diet could be neuroprotective for the retina, particularly for people who are especially prone to glaucoma.

This research is in its early stages and speculative in nature, but it would be a sensible precaution to ensure adequeate vitamin C in your diet. Personally, I take a buffered vitamin C powder daily of at least 1gram and if ill or stressed I increase that to my personal body tolerance which is around 3grams a day. Eating oranges is just not enough to give you the protection you need from this vital nutrient.

More on the Diet Front – herbal and emotional!

August could be the time when you are ready to lose a few pounds as you gaze lovingly at yourself in the mirror – more on that later – but first news of a herbal based diet much loved by models, actors and ballet dancers. Created by Dr. Pamukoff, who has been studying the active ingredients of plants for more than 65 years and one of the founders of the discipline of scientific phytotherap, which is another name for modern herbalism. He has devised SLIMPAM® which is a natural product made with rare grades of roses and herbs including liquorice, peppermint and dandelion.

He ought to know what he is doing as he has won many international awards and treated over half a million patients since first working with herbs in 1942. Consisting of a two part regime of capsules daily and herbal tea it is an effective slimming natural supplement that helps to regulate metabolism, digestion, constipation and the cardio-vascular system with long- lasting results.

This is not a diet plan based around food but on taking a tea and supplement that are based on natural herbal ingredients and award-winning research and most people are able to lose 4 to 7 of fat can be lost in 4 weeks in a natural way by following a healthy eating regime without exhausting diets or exercise.
Sounds like a dream scenario, but it starts in the engine room by cleansing the colon and this has an accumulating effect. One warning if you have never done a colon cleanse then it can have a sudden and dramatic effect on your visits to the loo, but if that occurs you can reduce the daily dose, but never exceed the maximum recommended. Dr Pamukoff says that on this plan you will see changes in your metabolism in week 3 and then significant weight loss in week 4

If you are after a faster weight loss then this is not for you as Dr. Pamukoff is in tune with contemporary thinking as after more than 30 years of research he has found that losing weight faster can be achieved but this is not advisable. Anyone who has been on a crash or very low calorie diet knows that when you lose weight too quickly your skin may not adapt to your new shape and it may end up being loose with wrinkles, so SLIMPAM® contains herbs rich in antioxidants as well as vitamins A, E and C to help maintain skin elasticity.

The ingredients come primarily from Bulgaria: the roses used are the same as used in Chanel No 5 and are apparently excellent for regulating the digestion and the herbs come from the same valley. The dandelions give excellent support for your metabolism and is rich in vitamins A, E, C, B1, B6 and B12. Another interesting ingredient is flax seeds which are one of the richest sources of omega fatty acids.

There are two variants – one for men and one for women – and his herbal combination has been effective and successful for more than 30 years. I tried it and found it had a good detox effect but at first was puzzled as to the instructions as they differ for odd and even days.

Days 1, 3, 5….29 before your evening meal you put 2 to 3 SLIMPAM® herbal sachets in a mug of boiling hot water and allow to steep for 30 minutes for maximum benefits, then squeeze the herbal sachets before drinking. Drink this before your meal together with 1 to 2 of the capsules.

Days 2, 4, 6 (even dates) in the morning on getting up you take 1 SLIMPAM® capsule.

I found 2-3 teabags too strong a taste for me and so only had 1 and I sweetened it with a little honey so I do wonder if the initial pack of 30 herbal teabags and 30 capsules would last as suggestedfor a month, as it must be less if take the maximum dose. As this is a full month programme, and you only see real weight loss in week four then I would have thought a bumper pack might be more sensible. However, it relieves you from any worries about counting calories as you eat normally, but sensibly.

If you would like to know more visit www.dr-pamukoff.com and as for that loving your body I mentioned earlier it seems from new research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity that if you improve your body image then you will enhance the effectiveness of weight loss programs based on diet and exercise.

Researchers enrolled overweight and obese women on a year-long weight loss program and half were put on weekly group sessions where issues such as exercise, emotional eating, improving body image and the recognition of, and how to overcome, personal barriers to weight loss and lapses from the diet were discussed. This group lost more weight than the control group and in particular were able to reduce their ‘comfort’ eating and maintain the weight loss. Researchers also saw a considerably reduced amount of anxiety about other peoples’ opinions, and positive changes in eating behavior in this group.

Retraining Your Hunger Molecules Helps Lose Weight, Look Younger and Stay Healthy

Ori Hofmekler is not a name that trips lightly off the tongue, but he is the author of The Warrior Diet and The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, and an expert on how to improve your health with food. His latest advice focuses on the genes that regulate your biological age because they are highly sensitive to your diet, as they’re triggered or inhibited by what you eat, how much you eat, and how often.

One of the most detrimental causes of aging is excessive calorie intake and scientists speculate that we have an overly strong drive to eat when food is readily available – and that has never been more true than today. So you should restrict your calories? Well, no actually because of your individual makeup: you can be on a low calorie diet and fail to lose weight, and you can be on a high calorie diet and yet manage to slim down.

What you do need to do is control your hunger-satiety system which consists of multiple neuro-peptides that act to initiate or terminate your eating. These are your hunger-satiety hormones and their signals are integrated in your brain to modulate how you consume, spend or store energy. The balance between these signals dictates whether your body is in a fat-burning or a fat-storing mode. In order to maintain a healthy body weight, your hunger and satiety signals must continually adjust your food intake to your energy expenditure and any imbalance between these two will affect your fat stores and physical shape.

Your hunger and satiety hormones are constantly seeking precedence over each other and the consequences of that hormonal clash are manifested in your body. Hunger hormones tend to slow your metabolism and increase your body fat whereas satiety hormones tend to boost your metabolism and decrease your body fat. So what this means is that if your hunger hormones get out of control, you’ll be prone to suffer from a sluggish metabolism and excess body fat but if your satiety hormones take over, they will counteract the effects of your hunger hormones to allow you greater energy and a leaner healthier body.

Your hunger hormones are part of your ancient survival apparatus: they keep you alert and give you the drive to search for food along with the desire to achieve. And they balance the actions of your satiety hormones which tend to calm you down. But if you let your hunger hormones get out of control, you’ll experience chronic hunger, diminished energy, metabolic decline, decreased libido and increased tendency to gain weight.

How to manipulate your hunger hormones
You need to know how to manipulate both types of hormones to work for you, and you certainly need to keep your hunger hormones under control. Your hunger-satiety system can only function well as long as your diet is adequate. If your diet is high glycaemic and your feeding episodes are too frequent, your hunger-satiety system will be utterly disrupted.

Frequent consumption of high glycemic meals impairs your key satiety hormones insulin and leptin, leaving your hunger hormones unopposed and dominant. When insulin is impaired ghrelin levels remain elevated even after you have eaten and leads to chronic hunger (mostly for carbohydrates), excess food intake and undesirable weight gain. You need to know how to boost your satiety hormones and let them take control over your metabolism and it could not be simpler:

1. Eat satiety foods
2. Avoid hunger foods
3. Train your body to endure hunger

1 Eat Satiating Foods
This element is what the success of the Atkins and similar diets has been based on as the food that promotes satiety most is protein and the one with the fastest satiety impact is whey protein. Studies reveal that consumption of whey protein before meals can swiftly boost the satiety peptides CCK and GLP-1, which have been shown to decrease food intake and increase weight loss.

Other satiety-promoting foods are low glycemic plant foods including raw nuts, seeds, legumes, roots, cruciferous vegetables, tomatoes, eggplants, grasses and green leafy vegetables.

2 Avoid Hunger Foods
Stay away from high glycaemic foods including all refined carbohydrates, sugars, fructose products, baked goods, sweets and sugary beverages. Fructose in particular has shown to cause leptin resistance, lipid disorders, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Studies reveal that the liver has a limited capacity to utilize it; so excess fructose is converted into triglycerides and body fat.

The worst combination is that of high sugar and high fat and it has been found that this can cause insulin and leptin resistance even before any change in body composition. You know the usual suspects: biscuits, cakes, ice creams and chocolates need to be removed or seriously restricted.

3 Train Your Body to Endure Hunger
Now this doesn’t sound so good, but hunger should be treated like physical exercise because both are perceived by your body as survival signals to adapt and improve. Allowing yourself to undergo repeated (temporary) hunger, such as in periodic fasting, allows your body to naturally adjust itself by decreasing the number of hunger receptors in your brain and thus making you increasingly resilient to hunger.

Take note that only real hunger can benefit you that way which is what you experience while fasting or undereating, not the kind of craving you can feel even after finishing a meal.
There are different ways to train your body to endure hunger: gradually increase the gap between your meals or alternatively put your body in an undereating state by minimizing your food intake during the day to small, low glycemic, fast assimilating protein meals such as quality whey (every 3-5 hours), which could be served with (or substituted with) small servings of fruits and vegetables and have your main meal at night.

For most of us, undereating is preferable to complete fasting because although it challenges your body in a similar way it allows you to nourish your body with protein and antioxidants, and you won’t feel the desire to eat as intensely as when you completely avoid food. Whichever you choose, it is important not to chronically restrict your calories as your hunger must be acute, not chronic. Treat yourself with sufficient food in your main evening meal to compensate for the energy and nutrients you spend during the day.

Diet Drinks Can Increase Your Waistline and Put Weight On

During the summer we naturally consume more drinks to help with dehydration, and diet drinks are certainly popular for both refreshment and in the mistaken belief they help you lose weight. I say mistaken advisedly as a new study has shown that diet drinks actually cause weight gain and blood sugar spikes.

These diet drinks are made with artificial sweeteners like aspartame and a landmark new study out of Texas confirms that not only do diet drinks not help with weight loss, but they actually cause both weight gain and health problems.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio gathered ten years worth of data on 474 participants from a larger, ongoing study called the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. Among these participants, those that consumed two or more diet drinks a day experienced waist size increases that were a staggering six times greater than those who did not consume diet drinks.

Helen P. Hazuda, a study researcher and professor at the UTHSC School of Medicine presented the study results at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. She reported that: “Data from this and other prospective studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners as healthy alternatives may be ill-advised. They may be free of calories, but not of consequences.”

The findings debunk the false notion that switching to diet drinks will help you lose weight. What they do show is a 70 percent increase in waist size compared to those who do not drink them, so it is not clear how calling them ‘diet’ is applicable.

I have mentioned the health dangers of aspartame before, and a related study presented at the same time, found that this chemical sweetener commonly found in diet foods and drinks, is actually responsible for raising blood sugar levels.

This was an animal, not human study, but the results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels. This could be a major contributory factor to the risk of diabetes, already a worldwide epidemic and growing.

A previous study had linked saccharin to weight gain and according to Dr. Marie Savard, medical contributor for ABC News, there is something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry.The truth is, we’re putting artificial sweetener in so many different things: in water, in yogurt. We have to rethink what this artificial stuff does to us.”

This links to a previous 2010 study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that found that the body’s reaction to the ingestion of artificial sweeteners appears to be brain confusion over how exactly to process it, which in and of itself is implicated in causing various other negative consequences.

Certainly it is true that US Food and Drug Administration have had adverse event reports going back several decades that indicate that artificial sweeteners like aspartame are also responsible for destroying brain neurons, which in turn leads to a host of chronic illnesses. These include, but are not limited to, chronic headaches, seizures, strokes, vascular disorders, heart disease, premature birth, dementia and other brain disorders, and cancer.

So if you want a fizzy refreshing drink then please steer clear of diet ones, and for a low calorie option try sparkling mineral water with a few drops of vanilla essence in it for sweetness and flavor.

The Dietary Way to Avoid, or Reverse, Type 2 Diabetes

It is estimated that by 2050 as much of thirty percent of the American population could suffer with diabetes and usually where they lead we in the UK do tend to follow. As new studies show that diabetics also have nearly double the risk of cancer compared to the rest of the population it seems only sensible to be proactive and diet is the first and simplest step on that road.

All of the following have been shown to help prevent diabetes so stock up your larder and add them to your regular shopping list:

• It may seem odd that a sweet substance is on the list, but maple syrup can protect against both diabetes and cancer and contains a newly identified substance called Quebecol, formed when the sap is boiled, and is full of antioxidants.

• Ayurvedic medicine has long suggested the use of spices that offer some protection against diabetes: turmeric, curcumin and fenugreek. All are found in Indian cooking so makek a weekly date with your favourite restaurant or take away.

• The link between obesity and diabetes has been challenged by a recent study involving the Yup’ik people of Alaska where 70% are classified as obese, but only 3.3% of them have diabetes. The key may be in consuming indicates that consuming the type of fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as mackerel, salmon, lake trout, herring, tuna and salmon.

• A 2006 Italian study found that dark chocolate reduces the risk of insulin resistance, but the best comes from raw, unprocessed cocoa without any refined sugars added so minimal processing and maximum cocoa content is the key here with cocoa powder and baking chocolate containing the highest levels of the protective flavonoids.

• Coffee, in moderation, increases blood levels of testosterone and oestrogen. These hormones have long been thought to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

• Polyphenols, the natural chemicals found in red grape skin and red wine, help the body regulate glucose levels, preventing potentially dangerous plunges and surges in blood sugar levels – same advice as for chocolate – in moderation!

• Phytochemicals – naturally occurring antioxidants – found in blueberries, cranberries and strawberries can also reduce your risk of diabetes, with the added benefit of helping you lose belly fat, according to a 2009 University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center study.

• Cherries are abundant in natural chemicals called anthocyanins, which increased insulin production in animal pancreatic cells by 50% in laboratory trials. Other sources include strawberries, red grapes and blueberries.

• Red and black beans can help regulate blood glucose and insulin levels so can help prevent diabetes, or minimize its effects if you are already diagnosed.

• Coconut oil has smaller, easily absorbed medium chain molecules that supply the cells with essential fatty acids without glucose and without inhibiting insulin production.

• Almonds and walnuts prevent diabetes by regulating blood glucose, particularly if eaten before a meal as that can help regulate blood sugar levels, and regular consumption did improve insulin levels in a 2009 study.

• Buckwheat helps control blood sugar levels and in an animal trial t heir glucose levels went down by twelve to nineteen percent. Easier to find as Japanese soba noodles in the supermarket.

• Cinnamon provides antioxidants and the powdered bark is also effective against diabetes. It improves blood sugar regulation by significantly increasing your glucose metabolism and has insulin-like effects in the body. Proanthocyanidin, a bioflavonoid found in cinnamon, changes the insulin-signalling activity of your fat cells.

• Tea: Green tea lowers blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics and reduces associated complications such as cataracts and cardiovascular disease Black tea contains polysaccharides, a type of carbohydrate that includes starch and cellulose, that may benefit people with diabetes by slowing glucose absorption. A Scottish study found that natural chemicals found in black tea may protect against diabetes by mimicking the effects of insulin in the body.

• Seaweed, in the form wakame, helps promote fat-burning protein and promotes the synthesis in the liver of DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid), a fatty acid also found in fish oil. It is also said to help prevent prostate cancer, support thyroid function, and assist in blocking the growth of breast cancer tumours.

Some of these changes are easy, others may be harder, but if you vary your diet and expand your culinary horizons you will definitely reap the benefit. Eating out from India to Japan and China won’t be too hard will it?

A Tastier Green Tea Option?

You know how fond I am of green tea for all its many health benefits – and if you are trying to lose weight then it is helpful in that area as well as taking care of your heart – but I know many of you don’t find it entirely palatable. Happily, there are ways around it from adding lemon and honey to finding a tea which has a taste you enjoy and I might have just the thing for you that comes from Vietnam.

If you have ever visited that country then you may have been given Vietnamese lotus tea – a type of green tea flavoured with the scent of the Lotus Flower. It is a specialty product of the Vietnamese tea industry and drunk as part of celebratory events or festivals as it seen as something rather special. The unique floral taste adds a whole new dimension to green tea and if you are fond of jasmine tea after a Chinese meal then it could hit just the right spot for you.

The traditional way to produce Lotus Tea involves using only the stamen of the Lotus flower and infusing it with green tea leaves and although there are several modern versions of the tea on the market now they are using flavourings or perfumes. For the authentic taste of Vietnamese lotus tea you need the actual ingredient, not a flavour, and that has become available in the UK for the first time from Natural Boutique.

They have a wide range of health giving teas, including an Artichoke tea which helps digestion and a rare and exotic Green and Java tea for aiding weight loss. If you can’t find Natural Boutique’s Vietnamese Lotus Tea in your local health store then visit the website at www.drinkherbaltea.co.uk.

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