Acai Berries Scam

Acai Berries
photo (c) Breno Peck

The Acai-Berry Craze

Visit any website about health today and you will likely see an advertisement about, “Dr. Oz, acai berries, or the Oprah show.” There is a new acai berry craze coming all over the internet.  In fact, this craze is getting so bad that people are actually starting to deprive the native Brazilians of the berries in their rain forests.

What is so special about these berries? The answer is nothing. Research has shown them to be like most fruits. They are antioxidants, but scored lower in antioxidant potency than many common fruits including, strawberry and grapes. The acai powders and acai juices are the same, they are no better than common fruits and vegetables.

If you live in Brazil than it might be good to eat some berries every now and again. But if you don’t, than you are only wasting your money. There are many other great, healthy foods. Go enjoy some fresh strawberries or grapes.

Scam Alert

Most of these ‘miracle berry cure’ websites will offer you a free trial, beware! In the tiny print of the terms and conditions you will see that they are going to begin charging you a monthly subscription.  What is even worse is that some of these websites will only let you cancel your surprise subscription by phone. In rare cases they won’t even answer the phone number printed on their site and people have had to cancel their credit cards.

Here is a report on acai berries by the Better Business Bureau: http://www.bbb.org/us/article/8493

The acai berries picture was taken by Breno Peck, his profile can be found here:
Açaí

The New McDonald’s Diet

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Chris Coleson, from Virginia, lost 80 pounds eating primarily at McDonalds.

It was a funny story. Chris Coleson said on MSNBC news that he was able to lose the weight by eating every light item on the menu. He focused on the fruits, the wraps, and the veggies entries. He kept his calories low with these foods.

This crazy diet proves that the human body can lose weight on almost anything. You don’t have to eat special-diets or fad acai berries. You just have to keep caloric intake below caloric expenditure. Having a structured plan will certainly help with this goal. That is why I suggest life-style changes.

I wouldn’t recommended this diet because it lacks variety and doesn’t have any long-term potential. However, it was fun to hear about the man that lost weight with McDonalds.

You can watch his video here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25281188/

Hydroxycut is recalled by the FDA

Hydroxycut is recalled by the FDA

Hydroxycut is an over the counter weight loss supplement. It’s preported claims are to increase metabolism, inhance energy and increase weight loss.

However, the FDA just recalled this product from the market because it has been shown to cause liver damage. There have been 23 reports of liver problems as a result of this supplement. There has also been the reported death of a 19-year-old boy living in the Southwest.

This is a good example of how ‘quick fix’ weight loss pills and supplements don’t work. It’s important to realize that real weight loss takes some effort and hard work. There is really no way around it.

If you’ve taken Hydroxycut you might check out this website for more information.

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/hydroxycut/