Acai Berry Diet

Acai has been up played in the media as a super food with many health benefits. There are many products in the market advertising it's weight loss capabiliities. Some products include Monavie, Acai Berry Blast, and Acai Pure...there are MANY!!! The acai diet industry claims that acai supplements will increase energy, weight loss, metabolism, and fat oxidation. Some claim that acai supplementation will promote more weight loss than dieting and exercise combined. Weight loss claims vary from product to product.

Studies show that acai has huge amounts of antioxidants. Two most talked about compounds in acai and other berries are anthocyanins and flavonoids. Acai shows to have more antioxidants than all other berries. There are tremendous health benefits to consuming acai however, none different from other similar fruits. Follow the following links to learn more about studies on acai berries.

Link 1
Link 2

I felt that almost every cite that had information on acai berries and their health benefits promoted some type of acai supplement. It was difficult to determine which supplements were most reliable due to the each cite promoting top products. Top products being promoted varied from cite to cite.

Weight Watcher

Weight Watchers is a program that promotes eating the right foods along with regular exercise. They promote a lifestyle change instead of restricting foods and "dieting." They promote their products and recipes.

For the most part, Weight Watchers had positive reviews. Follow the following links to learn more about Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers Webcite

Reviews

More Reviews

Increasing Weight in the US

I found it interesting that in today's time we have more and more people dieting in the history of time however, the rates of obesity and being overweight are now the leading causes of health problems (such as diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and stroke)... so I wonder what's going on here?

In 1996 11% of individuals ages 13-18 were obese, 5 years later that number doubled to 22%.

Some more recent statistics of:

Individuals who are either overweight or obese

• Ages 20 or over, 67%

Individuals who are obese

• Ages 20 or over, 34%

Individuals who are over weight

• Ages 20 or over, 18%
• Ages 6-11, 15%
• Ages 2-5, 11%

Statistics from the CDC

Does it even make sense that we now have more and more people dieting and making an effort to get in shape, however that's clearly not that case? It doesn't to me. Why is that? I don't have the answer to that. However, there is a clear relationship between the public's source of motivation to diet and get into shape and the advertisements that the diet industry so heavily promotes. One possibility to look into is the the decreasing quality of our food supply and increase in processed foods. However, that's an area that I won't get into.

www.dartmouth.edu
www.nlm.nih.gov