Dr.Oz and Oprah have discussed the Acai Berry and from this the Acai Berry trend took off.

However, they have never promoted, sponsored or endorsed a specific product.

Particularly Beware if you shop on the internet.

You may know Oprah and Dr. Oz are suing some 40 internet based companies that
have used their photos and made-up claims about Acai Berry.

This was greedy on the part of these companies.
Many consumers have had their credit cards charged over and over by these companies.

You can protect yourself from these types of companies.
Before you consider making a purchase, look for these clues.

• Do they have their contact information visible?
• Is their street address made known?
• Do they have a telephone number that is actually answered by a human?
• Is the only way to contact them to fill out a contact form on their website?
• Do they advertise their website on TV but when you pull up the site you can’t find contact info?
  Run,,,, don’t walk !!!
• Does their website tell you the content of their acai berry capsules,
  in other words an ingredient list & percentages

There is no reason in the world for a legitimate business to hide their contact information.
Here is another tool to use to find a website owner.

On this note there are also resveratrol products on the net that take your order and your money and do not even deliver product. I personally have had this experience. So Beware and follow the steps above or you may find yourself out of pocket and or possibly with an inneffective product in your hand due to low quality production.

Go to www.alexa.com and plug in their website and you might find more information on them.
The internet is a wonderful tool to do business and to find information but like in all things there are crooks out there ready to do harm.

Comment from Dr. David Katz at Oprahs site when asked about the efficacy of the Acai Berry.

Question: I drink juice that contains the Brazilian açaí berry. The claims are impressive—I’ve heard people say it has helped them lower their blood pressure to the point where they no longer need medication. What do you think?
— Anonymous, Mesa, Arizona

Answer from Dr. Katz: I am often asked about these exotic beverages. There are now so many of them, I find it tough to keep track. I’ve come across a lot of test tube studies on the açaí berry, and it does seem to have an antioxidant effect that, in theory, could lower the risk of heart disease and cancer. But what happens in test tubes doesn’t always hold true in people. I discovered one study on an açaí juice website involving 12 people. The subjects had slightly higher measures of antioxidants in their blood than people getting a placebo. Hard to tell what that means in terms of health. When I’ve looked into similar beverages before, my conclusions have been the same—the marketing hype has been well ahead of the science. That doesn’t necessarily mean the juice is worthless. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that antioxidants are powerful health promoters but, so far, only when they are consumed in whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, green tea, red wine, and dark chocolate. The thing to remember is that juice adds calories and sugar to your diet. Consider that you can probably get the same antioxidant bang from whole fruit that is less exotic and less pricey. And wash it down with a big glass of naturally calorie-free water.

Statement on Oprah and Dr. Oz’s website about these cleanses.

“The Truth About Oprah, Dr. Oz, Acai, Resveratrol, Colon Cleanse and More

On August 19, 2009, Harpo, Inc., producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Dr. Oz Show, along with Dr. Mehmet Oz, filed a trademark infringement complaint against 40 Internet marketers of dietary supplements, including acai berry products among others. Neither Ms. Winfrey nor Dr. Oz has ever sponsored or endorsed any acai berry, resveratrol, colon cleanse or dietary supplement product.

Harpo, Inc. has filed this lawsuit to let consumers know that these internet marketers are willfully using the names of well-known figures to deceive the public. Neither Ms. Winfrey nor Dr. Oz has ever sponsored or endorsed any acai, resveratrol or dietary supplement product and cannot vouch for their safety or effectiveness. It is our intention to put an end to these companies’ false claims and increasingly deceptive practices.

“The companies that are using my name to hawk these products are duping the public. I do not endorse any of these products. By falsely presenting products as ‘scientifically proven’ and endorsed by well-known figures, these companies do a gross disservice to the public health and could even pose a danger to those who believe their false and unproven claims. I am taking this step in the interest of public safety. I feel compelled to stand up against these companies and their deceitful practices.” -Dr. Mehmet Oz

Individuals with celiac disease must eat foods that don’t contain gluten in order to prevent illness.

Gluten is a protein commonly found in rye, wheat, and barley.

Therefore, it is found in most types of cereals and in many types of bread, cookies and baked goods.

However, just because you discover you are not tolerating wheat does not necessarily mean that you have celiac disease.

Celiac is classified as an auto-immune disorder. To simplify, that means the body attacks itself. In this case when a person with celiac or severe gluten intolerance eats a product containing gluten the body attacks the small intestine destroying it and the villi that line the interior of the small intestine. The small intestine is where food is processed and it pulls out all the nutrients we need to build bones, tissue and to function on. So you can see how this could cause a person to become malnutritioned or potentially generate other diseases over a long period of time .

The gluten intolerance causes a great deal of physical pain in the intestinal tract as well as swelling as the body tries to protect the organs and fills the area with water surrounding the cells.

A large percentage of the population have difficlties with gluten, it is very hard to digest. Some are wheat or gluten intolerant and statistics show about 15% are celiac.

This helps to explain why high protein diets appear to work so well for a percentage of the population. With no carbs or wheat being eaten a lot of water weight is lost as the reactivity drops away.

Foods from the grain family that don’t contain gluten include wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, quinoa, teff, oats, soybeans, and sunflower seeds. Care must be taken when eating grains that do not contain gluten, particularly oats and teff, as they are commonly grown near foods with gluten or processed in the same bins.

Locating gluten free foods is quite a task at first. But if you simply approach it as a new adventure you can turn it into a fun exercise. Once established you will be fine.

You will need to source out gluten free breads. Rice bread is very popular. For me this took a bit of doing. Then I discovered a cafe in my neighbourhood entirely devoted to a gluten free population. They serve organic coffees and produce gluten free and dairy free baked goods and breads for the whole neighbourhood. They are sold out daily. This just tells you how many people are having problems with gluten.

Most health food stores have noodles made from rice or other wheat free alternatives. Paul Newman has a line of commercial salad dressings that are organic and gluten free. Gluten free packaged products will state this on the box or bottle.

You can also find gluten free cookbooks and/or buy a bread machine and bake some of your own breads. With the bread machines today all you have to do is throw in your ingredients which takes about 5 minutes and turn it on the machine will do all the stirring, rising and baking. When you get home you will find yummy warm bread.

Try cutting out products with gluten for one week to 10 days and see if your energy goes up, your depression lifts and you swelling starts to subside. If so you may want to visit your doctor and pursue this further.

People who have gluten intolerance(celiac) often become dairy intolerant as well because the villi in the large intestine have been destroyed. So you may want to delete the dairy for awhile and see if that helps things along.

Apparently you can often eat dairy again after a long period of being gluten free and the intestine has re-healed itself. That is the good news.

I am not a medical professional. But I have had to live with and deal with this issue for myself. So I can only tell you what works and to test for yourself.

There are medical tests to determine celiac, one is a blood test and the other extremely invasive where they take a biopsy of the intestine. Try to make do with a blood test.

Also there is an over the counter product available to do your own test which they say is 95% accurate. It is available by mail order in Canada. You would have to check availability in other countries.

I mention this because once you go to the doctor the celiac ( if it is) will be on your record as a pre-existing condition. This would then affect any changes you may want to later make to your health plan depending on what country you live in.

Juice cleansing, another name for juice fast, is a diet that detoxifies your body. It goes to an extreme to detoxify the body, wherein no solid food is allowed during the period of juice fast, only raw vegetable and fruit juice and water is taken. The use of juice is usually advocated because it is a rich source of antioxidants and vitamins. 

Why Does It Work?

Juice fasting works because of two reasons:

1. The toxins that affect the natural healing powers of the body are removed completely
2. The body gets a fresh boost of enriching vitamins and nutrients that increase the regenerative ability of the body. 

Preparations Start Early

A typical juice fast usually lasts from one to three days. If you intend to go on a longer fast, you’d require medical supervision so that your body doesn’t face nutritional deficiencies.

The body faces enormous due to continuous digestion and elimination activities, and during a juice fast the body gets a much needed break from these activities. The juice diet supplies much needed nutrition and liquids during the period of juice fast, which is used by the body in tissue maintenance, flushing toxins and cleansing.

 The fresh juices also control the speed with which the toxins are eliminated from the body, deposited in the liver. Thus juice cleansing becomes safer compared to water fasting, wherein the toxins are suddenly released in the blood.  

The Actual Juice Cleansing

It is suggested that juice fasting should be resorted to only during the warmer months of the year, especially spring is considered to be the best time. The process begins at least seven days before the fast, when you have to start avoiding caffeine, sugar, dairy, alcohol, nicotine, wheat, animal meat, fish, and eggs. Your diet afterwards basically consists of vegetables, beans and other organic food. 

During the fast, you are advised to take between 32 and 64 ounces of juice though citrus fruits need to be avoided. The fruits and vegetables that can generally be taken include cabbage, apple, pineapple, celery, kale, cranberry, spinach, carrot, beet, and greens. 

Juice Cleansing Requirements

Milk thistle, dandelion root and nettles are among excellent herbal aids for juice cleansing. Wheatgrass, beet, cabbage, bell pepper, parsley, seed and bean sprouts, barley grass, celery and apple are considered especially cleansing for the body.

One is Western and the other is Eastern.

Western exercise tends to be running or jogging, tennis, squash all fast moving and designed to work the heart and body building, designed to work the muscles. The idea of all of these is to keep the body slim and trim and the muscles taught. They can also be quite hard on the body as we get older tearing it down to some degree. There is really no attention given to the internal condition of the body.

Eastern exercise is Tai Chi, Yoga, Chi Gung and some other forms of martial arts which are also fast moving and over time can be quite hard on the body.

The slow arts or Yoga and Tai Chi are designed quite differently from western athletics.

The idea of both of these arts is to work the internal organs and strengthen them as well as to build and tone muscle strength. My tai chi teacher taught me that it was far more important for my kidneys to be strong than for my tummy to be tight. However, I believe that there needs to be a happy medium between the inside and the outside.

Some westerners laugh at the idea that a slow moving exercise can build metabolism however, it is entirely possible performing both Tai chi and Yoga to break quite a sweat. As well each movement, twist and turn of both Yoga and Tai Chi are designed to work on your internal organ groups.

So grab a yoga video or if in a big city go to a class and stick with it for a few months. You will start to see results. You can get a free yoga guide right here at  http://www.starlightyoga.com. Please don’t perform yoga without a sticky mat. You could cause yourself substantial damage if your feet were to slide out from under you. You can find some sticky mats right here ( link) sticky mats.

Over time you will see your energy go up and your tummy will start to flatten, you will walk more erect and feel great.

The premise of this diet is that you are not as overweight as you think. Much of your fat is bloating and swelling caused by inflammation as a result of eating foods that generate an allergy like reaction.

The premise is that you can shed 5-10 lbs. immediately, meaning about one week by giving up those foods. It seems we all have common metabolic problems that are related to food reactions and these can be solved within a few days, once we flush these foods from our bodies.

Once the reactive foods are flushed away, the false fat (inflammation) starts to subside, food cravings fade and some metabolic disorders will completely disappear (hormones naturally balance out etc.)

I personally found this book extremely helpful in sorting out a lot of things for myself and energy went right up as a result.

Eating Strategy

The idea here is to determine which foods are creating reaction. Once determined the cleansing out phase takes about one week. Colon cleansing can of course help to speed up the process.

Once eliminated and you have become balanced in your feelings and not having the bloating, swelling, gas and usual pain you may generally experience you then start to add in one food every few days. Then watch and see what you react to. You don’t add them daily or you won’t figure out what is irking you.

It should be mentioned that one of the ways you will know you are reactive to a food is that when you decide to eliminate it you will have withdrawal cravings, headaches and mood swings. All sure signs the diet is working.

Within 7-10 days you will lose bloat and swelling which translates to losing the excess water weight that goes with the bloat. In other words a part of your weight loss problem is water from inflammation.

After going through this phase you go into the Balance Program. A period during which you only eat balanced non-reactive foods. Once the false fat has disappeared you will lose further adipose tissue as your metabolism is no longer struggling.

After several months you may be able to eat some of your reactive foods again without swelling. However, in my personal experience reactive foods are always reactive and will always need to be taken in moderation from hereon in.

This really is not a diet it is a lifestyle. It’s about learning to balance your lifestyle and your diet. During this phase you will sop having migraines, heartburn, insomnia, skin rashes, irritable bowel, nasal congestion, sinusitis and recurring infections.

You don’t have to worry about calories because fresh, unprocessed foods such as vegy’s, fruit, grains, fish, fowl and legumes are naturally low in calories.

Good food is low in calories.

To summarize at this point. Each human being is unique. When you stop eating the foods that make you react, you will become healthy and your weight will normalize.

1/ you will rid your body of false fat.

2/you will experience permanent weight loss of adispose tissue by avoiding reactive foods.

3/ you will feel good

you will become pro-active in your life

5/ you are an individual.

Grab yourself a copy of this book at Amazon to get the full theory behind this. It is great to fully understand it and to read the testimonials as they will inspire you.

There are seven Principal Foods that the majority of people react to in some degree or other. These are as follows:

1/dairy

2/wheat

3/corn

4/sugar

5/soy

6/eggs

7/peanuts

Then there is #8

8/ Any food that you eat every single day.

Over time it is easy to become reactive to foods that we take in daily.

North Americans get 75% of their calories from just 10 foods.

Some of these are:

1/ Wheat: That means bread, pancakes, cookies, cakes etc.

Wheat is added to many commerically made products, such as salad dressing, soy sauce, additives in sausages or other processed meat products, even in MSG which is in many packaged or canned goods. Millions of people in North American are gluten intolerant. Gluten is a substance in wheat, rye and barley. About 15% of the population is gluten intolerant or has celiac ( link here) disease.

Dairy: Butter, milk, cream, cheese, all that yummy yogurt we are told to eat for the probiotics.

3/Sugar: Try to buy any commercially made product that does not have sugar in it. Cutting out or cutting down on sugar is about the hardest thing there is to do in our society.

I could go on but you get the idea now. Food reactions cause us to have incomplete digestion and the immune system causes an inflammatory attack on the digestive tract

When this happens we swell with water which is trying to surround the cells to protect them.

To improve your digestion, reduce bloating and swelling and lose a few pounds, try cutting out a few of the above suggested list for a week or two. Start with wheat and then dairy. See if your energy improves. It takes about one week to clear all the residue of a food group from your system.

Use a good colon cleanser, we have some listed on this site that will help you to reduce the bloating and inflammation in a hurry clearing out your system faster. Give it a few weeks and you will start to look and feel much better, your tummy will reduce and the pounds will drop off.

Food Combining For Weight Loss and Good Digestion

Have you ever noticed how after a large meal your energy plummets and often you will start to yawn and need to nap. That is food is passing from your stomach to your small intestine which is doing the work of breaking it down and extracting the nutrients for your bodies survival. After it has finished then it passes what is left to your large intestine for disposal services.

So when you lump a big pile of grub down there with lots of meat and bread guess what, it is a bit like heavy thick glue. That little intestine is having one heck of a time pushing it all through.

So trying eating lighter, start your day with fruit and add more fruit and vegetables to your diet as the fiber will help things to slide through much easier.

Also certain things don’t go together well. Carbohydrates don’t mix well with protein. So if you can try having your vegetable pasta for lunch with marinara sauce with a salad and your steak for dinner with broccoliand any other non-starchy vegetable you fancy you will find the load in your tummy is much lighter.

So starchy vegetables would include any kind of potato, squashes and beans.

Also only eat fruit on it’s own and wait at least 20 minutes after you have finished the fruit before eating either some carbohydrate or some protein. But try to keep them separate from each other. This is called food combining.

Here are some sample menus

Breakfast:

• On rising have fresh citrus fruit, whatever you like.

• Stay away from bananas as they are a starch.

• Wait 20 minutes after eating.

• Then have either a carbohydrate breakfast or a protein breakfast ,your choice.

• Some people believe a protein breakfast is better for weight loss.

• Two poached eggs on a bed of spinach with a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and put under the broiler for 1-2 minutes only.

• 2 poached eggs with two chicken or turkey sausages.

• Western omelet with side salad or sliced tomatoes.

• Note we are skipping the home fries and skipping the toast.

• Of toast with peanut butter. No protein.

• Granola with soy or rice milk.

Lunch:

• whole grain pasta salad mixed with chopped vegetables and a little mayo. Some good whole grain toast.

• Or pasta marinara with sun dried tomatoes and button mushrooms or other vegetables.

• No pizza with cheese on top. That is protein and carbs mixed together.

Dinner:

• 6 oz steak and a big salad and lots of veg’s – broccoli, green beans, artichokes, whatever you like

• same goes for a piece of fish, chicken, turkey or lamb.

• Stay away from the carbs for the dinner meal.

• That way your food will get a chance to digest well before you hit the hay for the night.

• Fruit goes thru the stomach in 15-20 minutes

• Protein goes thru the stomach in 3-4 hours

• Carbs go thru the stomach in 2-3 hours

Put them all together and you can be in for an 8 hour long adventure of digestion dealing with low energy and exhaustion.

If you have more energy to burn you can be more active and do more in your life.

Water weight loss will be the initial reaction but real Weight loss will follow if you stick with it.

The choice is yours.

People such as Angelina Jolie, Beyonce and Gwyneth Paltrow have used it to slim down for recent hollywood movies.

This cleanse is effective if done for as little as 3 days or up to 2 weeks. It does have powerful dotox properties, and you can lose quite a few pounds if you can stick with it.

The Master Cleanse is quite challenging to stay the course as it is a fast regimen and your nutrition is provided by a combo of lemon, cayenne peeper and B Grade Maple syreup. It is hard work. You can’t have that morning cup of coffee or lunch with a friend. It helps to be off work and almost home alone to master this one. It requires a stealy will but the results are worth it!

How does the Master Cleanse work?

So how do maple syrup, lemon and cayenne pepper support you nutritionally in your cleansing process. There is soundness behind this. Read below and I will fill you in.

Maple Syrup – B Grade only.
The A grade maple syrup is the pretty clear one that you pour on your pancakes. You don’t want that here.
Grade B maple syrup is the one with the residue, in that residue are a variety of minerals and vitamins. These include iron, chlorine, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, phosphorus, sulphur and silicon plus, Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. There is also Pantothenic acid, a type of B-Vitamin that can lower cholesterol.

Adding B Grade maple syrup to your cleanse will provide you with vitamins and minerals that you need during a short-term cleanse. B-Grade Maple syrup is available at your local health food store and will be found in their refrigerator section.

Lemon Juice
Lemon juice produces more bile in the liver. This has the action of trapping fat molecules, which allows them to be easily secreted. It also helps to reduce appetite.

Cayenne Pepper
Cayenne pepper spikes metabolism and promotes digestion. It is also a source of Vitamins A, B, C, Calcium and Potassium.

Purified Water
Speeds your metabolism, The benefits of water need little explanation.
Water cleans your internal organs and moves through debris. Pure alkaline water can even help you live longer!

How to do the Master Cleanse?

This cleanse is also known as the Lemonade Diet or the Maple Syrup Diet.
You can gain benefit just over a long weekend but this will not give you much of the weight loss effect.
To get the weight loss effect you must fast for 10-14 days using a drink made of the three above ingredients.
The daily routine is exactly the same:

Morning
As soon as you get up in the morning you do a salt water flush. This is a simplified colon cleanse and equally effective. You drink lukewarm water with uniodized sea salt. Buy a high quality sea salt at the health food store. Be prepared to stay at home once you have done this as the results usually come quite quickly….. Need I say more.

The salt detoxifies the whole digestive system. It flushes out any impurities and toxins so they won’t be reabsorbed back into the body. It isn’t the most pleasant experience but the results are worth it so be strong!

Recipe – one serving
32 Oz of lukewarm water
2 teaspoons of uniodized sea salt (visit your local health food store for this idiodized salt doesn’t work)

Drink this solution when you get up it must be on an empty. Otherwise salt will compete with undigested food. Within 1 hour later elimations should commence. Don’t go out for 2 hours this will prevent any accidents.

Daytime
Drink the Master Cleanse juice all day long or whenever you are thirsty or hungry. You can drink pure water on it’s own , but no other foods or beverages may pass your lips. It is easiest to get a couple of jugs and just make them up for the day first thing in the morning. This is a great time saver and you can carry them in the car. I always found it was best to have a big full jug along with me to avoid food cravings. However, you can make them anytime as long as you follow the formula below.

Here are the recipes:

Recipe – one serving
2 tablespoons organic Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons organic Grade B Maple Syrup (not commercial grade maple syrup or fake maple syrup you use for pancakes)
2 pinches Cayenne Pepper
10oz Purified Water not tap water

Recipe – whole day
12 tablespoons organic Lemon Juice
12 tablespoons organic Grade B Maple Syrup (not the commercial maple flavored syrup or fake maple syrup you use for pancakes)
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
60oz Purified Water not tap water

If you require more than this for the day feel free to make up another bottle. The Maple syrup does have calories so if you can stick to 60 oz. per day you will have a better weight loss experience.

Evening
Before going to bed each night take a herbal laxative tea. Get One made with Senna from the health food store. There is no fiber in this cleanse. You will need a herb such as Senna to stimulate the muscle contractions of your colon.

Without laxative tea, toxins and waste products forced out by the Master Cleanse will stay stuck in your body. This will cause you to have headaches and to feel very poorly and rather exhausted. Make sure you drink the tea every evening before you go to bed.

The challenge with the Master Cleanse is to stay well flushed and well hydrated. This will keep you in the best mood possible while doing this regime. Feeling good will help you to keep on going and get the great results you can expect with this weight loss detox method.