valshealthblog.com

Hi,

There are 10 zillion acai berry concoctions on the market today.  The question is is the acai berry healthy or not?

The acai berry – by itself – is healthy for you. Just like all berries are. 

However it does not have the highest ORAC score of berries.  The ORAC score is a measurement of the antioxidant force the food source has.

Blueberries and blackberries have scores of 6552 and 5347 respectively.

Acai berries have a score of 3800. 

So yes, acai berries are good for you.

That isn’t the problem however.  I have talked about the acai berry scam from a monetary point of view before so I won’t go into detail about it again.

I will just tell you to beware of the free 30 day supply offers.  They are all a scam and it will end up costing you hundreds of dollars to get out of those programs.

There are other problems.  And that is with the combo drinks that have acai in them.

One of the problems is that while companies that make these drinks are required to list the ingredients, they are not required to tell you how much of an ingredient is in their product.

So there might be more food coloring than actual acai in some of the drinks.  One company purports to have over 18 fruits in them.  It also have tons of added sugar also.

And that brings up the sugar issue.  Berries have a lot of nutrition and low sugar levels. 

These combo drinks all most always have added sugar – some as much as in any soda you buy on the market. 

Here is something else you should check out. 

See if the preservative sodium benzoate is listed as an ingredient.  When sodium benzoate interacts with vitamin C (and all fruits have vitamin C) during pasturization benzene forms.  This could be heat or light pasteurization.

Benzene happens to be a very aggressive carcinogen even in very tiny amounts. 

They are expecially harmful to your cells mitochondria or power houses.  Do you really want this in your “health” drink?

Probably not. 

I am not really picking just on the acai berry.  Every fruit drink has the same marketing, same added sugars, same processing, etc. 

Fruit juices are good for you.  Just make sure they are 100% fruit juices and not 20% fruit juice and 80% junk. 

Never buy fruit drinks.  They have no benefit whatsoever. 

Best of all, just eat fruits or make your own juices in a blender. 

That way you don’t have to worry if your acai berry is healthy or not.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Related Blogs

• Slim Acai – Clinically Proven Natural Weight Loss Review | Find Free Trial
• Verizon FAIL | SRC-/-stark reAlity check
• 6/20 SRC 13 – Fight Order | The Best MMA News Blog
• "Corn Sugar": Because You'll Swallow Anything – The Awl
• Sugar has more devastating effects on health than just extra calories | Science / Technology
• What is The Acai Berry? Research, Scams, And Potential Health Benefits.

Hi,

The junk industry has come up with a two prong attack regarding food labels. 

The first is to make distracting claims on the label so that you don’t read the food label. 

Such statements like reduced fat, zero trans fats, contains real fruit juice are plastered all over the front of the container.

These statements are designed to create the impression that the product is healthy. 

And the statement is usually true.  You can reduce a fat in a product by 1/2% and claim it has reduced fat.  But, is it healthier for you. 

Maybe they also increased the sodium content of the product by 50%, but they sure aren’t going to tell you that. 

You are at the grocery store, picking something up on your way home from work.  You are in a hurry and just want to get in and out of the store.  You see some deli meats and one says reduced fat. 

Hey, reduced fat is good, You are going to get that.  So you throw that in the basket and move on without even bothering to compare that products protein, fat, salt or sugar contents with other products. 

And maybe the reduced fat product still has twice as much fat as another product that didn’t label their product as reduced fat. 

Or let’s use my favorite – contains real fruit juice.  If you read the label you will see that it is almost always less than 20% real fruit juice and I have seen it as low as 2% real fruit juice. 

Of course having real fruit juice sounds good and the costs are usually a little more. 

What these labels do is make the consumer forget about really comparing the value of the product with other hopefully more nutrient products that you could be eating. 

Okay, the second thing the junk food industry does is to go all out to comply with labeling requirements.  In fact they go overboard to satisfy the requirements. 

They do this to keep you confused and bored.  Have you ever tried to really figure out those labels?  If you can get by all the technical and scientific jargon, then you have to have a calculator in your head to figure out what you are really getting.

The real big gotcha is the serving size.  Most people look at a product and if they look at the amount of sugar and see only 17 gms of sugar they think, well that is okay.

However, if they looked at the serving size and saw that there were 2.5 servings per bottle, then they are really getting 42.5 gms of sugar.  That is a big jump. 

But, this info is hard to find and because they try to put so much info on the labels it is hard to read for us that need reading glasses. 

I am one of those people and I never take my reading glasses to buy groceries.  So I am always squinting at the labels or asking someone to read them for me. 

Most people won’t take the time to do that.

Will you?

Thanks,

Mike Val

Related Blogs

• Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Ari’s Brother
• Implantable blood sugar sensor « ScienceRoll
• Karoshi Ethos » Smarty base href Modifier
• Toronto woman launches G20 class-action lawsuit – Need to know – Macleans.ca
• Sharksworld » Blog Archive » Div’s case dismissed!
• My whole life is about the HREF yet I had no idea what it meant
• More sugar is worse for your teeth? Not necessarily – Wellness – TIME.com

You would think that with 300+ million people in the US that there would be enough money made by the food industry in just feeding all of us 3 meals a day.

Turns out that is not correct.   The food industry thinks we need junk food.

There is not enough money to be made in actual fruits and vegetables then there is to be made in fruit and vegetable juices, or fruit and vegetable flavored drinks, or fruit and vegetable chips, or fruit and vegetable syrups or fruit and vegetable candies, fruit and vegetable flavorings or to make a long story short just about any fruit and vegetable snack.

Eat an orange and the food industry can only be paid for the orange.  Squeeze the orange and use all the parts and it can really jack up the profits. 

Now add all those profits up and it barely even covers what these food giants make in government subsidized commodity crops. 

Oh yes, you and I are paying these food giants millions and millions of dollars to grow corn, wheat and soybeans (for just a few examples) with our tax dollars. 

The byproducts are in turn used to make fast foods, snack foods and beverages which are very high profit,very high caloric and very low nutritional value food items.

Isn’t it nice to know our tax dollars are going to work for us to make us fatter and less healthy. 

At least it keeps the medical and pharmaceutical industry hard at work developing medicines and supplements to keep us healthy, trim and fit. 

What a great Catch-22.  Even though it is a negative Catch-22, it works like a charm. 

Don’t you think it is time to get off this bandwagon and take charge of your own health and fitness?

Related Blogs

• jsTree with support for label toggle_node action AND leaf HREF click actions | deanoj
• Yoga Class: Flexibility – Fitness – Relaxation – (Repost)
• Mixed Vegetable Kootu – Vegetable Kootu Recipe – Indian Food Recipes – Andhra Cuisine – Sailu's Kitchen
• a href=”http://www.needinsurancenewyork.com/ “> Buy Cheap Car Insurance Online in NEWYORK | Lost.ws Business Resource
• Electric car industry hitting the tipping point. For investors. – Fortune Tech
• Ambrose Looking To Future « SRC's Sports Page
• Corte (SRC Records") – Be a Star (Monstar Films) | Hector Alvarez

Hi,

You have probably heard of the drink 8 glasses of water a day mantra that many health, fitness and diet gurus spout. 

Is there any truth to this?

I am 6′ tall and weigh around 175-180.  My wife is 5’1″ tall and weighs around 100.  Do we both need 8 glasses of water a day?

The answer is no.  And it seems that this 8 glasses is an urban myth.  A report in the American Journal of Physiology in 2008 could not find any valid evidence of this 8 glasses a day theory.

Now, no one is saying that you don’t need water.  You do need it, but there is a much smarter way for making sure you get enough water everday.

That is to drink some water throughout the day.   This is the important part.  You do need water.

If you don’t get enough water, you will become dehydrated.  That will basically make you feel like crap.

Dehydration has been linked to fatigue, headaches, dizziness, constipation and even – men, pay attention here - impotence and hair loss (Merck Manual of Health). 

So, to keep you energy levels up, drink some water throughout the day.  A good rule is to try and drink – even if it is only a few sips – some every waking hour. 

It doesn’t always have to be water.  Fruit juices, fruit and tea are good substitutes.  Soda, coffee and other sugar beverages are not good substitutes.

If you live in a warm environment or if you are exercising, then plan on drinking more. 

Otherwise, keep it simple.  Drink when you are thirsty.  If you find that you don’t get thirsty every often, then you might have to get in the habit of drinking a little bit throughout the day. 

My wife grew up in the Philippines and she never got into the habit of drinking water.  They only had a community pump for water. 

She still doesn’t drink much, but she is getting better at drinking throughout the day.

Bottom line is, maybe you will drink 8 glasses of water a day.  I know that I do sometimes.  But, for the most part, just drink a little all day long and you that should be enough.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Related Blogs

• (4/10) Putting a Div Wrapper Around Your Main Content – UCLA Extension
• Velda Bodyprint Supreme 24cm Mattress – 180cm width | neuhome
• Pure Fitness Mid Width Bench with Preacher Curl | Better Fitness Plan
• The DIV-Net: Sources of Personal Income | Hacked By Black Sea Crew By-Taka Ft. RevoLLe
• Howell Wechsler, Ed.D., Director, Div of Adolescent & School Health at the CDC
• Blogging Technology > Auto Shrink Posted Images to Maximum Theme Width
• Byte Buffer [ ] = Src.getbytes( ); Can Anyone Explain Me This Java Code? – command – Anyone – Buffer – Byte – Code – Explain – Java – Src.getbytes – This – Windows Pie
• One Page Convert in Div by crea8ivedesign

Hi,

Yesterday’s post was about 5 good foods ruined by man.  After reading this you might never want to drink the water.

Seems the City of San Diego, CA are spending almost $12 million dollars on a study to see whether sewage can be turned into drinking water.  (San Diego Reader 7/1/2010)

Let me save them some money.  The answer is no.  And no one will drink it either. 

It is bad enough that the water that comes from our faucets can make you sick.  But now they want to take sewage, add a bunch of chemicals to clean it up and then ask us to drink it.

That is our government at work.  And please don’t think it is just the city of SD.  The federal government, state governments and local goverments all have stupid proposals regarding our food and water. 

Okay, I go that off my chest.

But, lets continue with what you do drink.  And the answer is sugar.

There is sugar in your juice drinks, energy drinks, teas, vitamin waters, sodas, coffees, alcohol drinks and so on. 

Is it any wonder that there is a diabetes epidemic in the US – and pretty much through all countries today.

Okay, you do need sugars to live.  You just don’t need so much.  And it is best to get natural sugars.

You can get most of your sugars from fruit.  Make your own fruit juices if you want, but leave the processed stuff alone. 

The processed stuff has all the fiber taken out, which allows the sugars to dominate and cause an insulin spike. 

Leave the fiber in, by eating the fruit or leaving the skin on when making your own juices. 

And drink lots of water.  I use bottled water.  Yes, it costs more and you have to make sure it is just water and not water with additives. 

However, it is a lot better for you than most municipal waters.  And if they do start making water from sewage I am sure bottled water will be 1000′s of times better for you.

Want to drink the water?  My take – stick with bottled and buy it in bulk.

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Related Blogs

• WordPress Jobs » Blog Archive » Fluid Width WordPress Design & Install | ZCed.com -:-Ultimate WordPress Theme Download Site
• Sports Leader » Adam Wakefield » Div should be smiling as Tri-Nations approaches
• Asbestos Fiber Removing Was Severe Organization
• Sugar Long-Term Outlook Sweeter | Commodities, Futures, Short-term trading strategies, Let’s Talk Futures
• IE Select Width 0.1.1-beta
• Unionizing Government Employees Should Be a Local Choice | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.
• ForSale SRC Indoor 6 Station | Ask Home Ideas
• poulan pro front tine tiller – 24in. till width, model# hdf800 | Tillers