Destructive Diets

A woman in Iowa made headlines a few years ago, for ordering a tapeworm over the Internet, which she promptly swallowed in a desperate bid to drop some of her excess pounds. (Ref. 1)

She was looking to the past for diet ideas. Sanitized beef tape worms were popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, when ads exclaiming “eat, eat, eat and always remain thin” suggested that the tapeworm was nature’s miracle cure for obesity.

Desperate for a good diet

Fast food and portion sizes coupled with the nutritional wasteland that is processed food, is making people fatter than ever.

According to a 2013 report, F is for Fat – which came out almost the same time the Iowa woman’s tapeworm hit the news - almost 70 percent of Americans now fall into the category of being overweight or obese. (Ref. 2)

Consumers spend $20 billion a year hoping to lose weight, often in the form of diet books, weight loss pills and weight-loss equipment that promises to target the most troublesome of body parts.

Tapeworms revisited

As for those tapeworms, sure, you will lose weight. When ingested, the worm can grow up to 30 feet while living in the intestines, eating all the food you ingest to help it grow.

But you willl also be putting your health at serious risk, because the tapeworm is getting all the nutrients you take in, making the worm diet more detrimental than gastric bypass, which also limits the nutrients you take in unless you eat a perfect diet. Not only that, segments of the tapeworm can end up in unexpected organs, leading to further health issues.

“Ingesting tapeworms is extremely risky and can cause a wide range of undesirable side effects, including rare deaths,” Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the medical director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, who was inspired to respond publicly after the woman’s puzzled doctor contacted her over the tapeworm incident. “Those desiring to lose weight are advised to stick with proven weight loss methods — consuming fewer calories and increasing physical activity.”

Injections, supplements and pills, oh my!

There is also the hCG diet, which involves regular injections of the urine of pregnant women, combined with a diet plan that includes a mere 500 calories per day.

The injections range from $300 to $600 for a six-week program, but given that 500 calories a day goes well below medical recommendations, it stands to reason that clients would lose weight, even without the shots. (Ref. 4)

But most likely, those pounds won’t stay lost for long. Cutting calories to dangerously low levels can help you drop pounds in the short term, but it messes with your metabolism, slowing it down so much that your body tries to protect itself from starvation.  That means that as soon as you eat a normal meal or two, those pounds will pop right back on again, usually with a few extra to ensure there will be fuel on hand for the next time you try something so stupid.

In the 1960s and 70s, doctors prescribed amphetamines to help women lose weight, but addiction soon followed, and housewives were jittery and short-tempered, even if they did lose a few pounds while taking the dangerous round of drugs. (Ref. 5)

And don’t forget a few years back the popularity of the diet pill Alli, which promised to block a percentage of the fat in the foods you ate. Although deemed safe by the FDA, users ran the risk of destroying an entire wardrobe from an intestinal tract gone rogue, which should have been enough to keep the product out of the shopping cart.

Eat real food, still lose weight

 

By now, we all should know that successful weight loss is the result of a healthy eating plan combined with exercise.

But the right kind of supplement can also help to increase metabolism and slow the body’s desire to store fat.

Two of the most popular supplements on the market right now – garcinia cambogia and green coffee bean – are flying off the shelves, but in many cases, consumers have no idea how much of the supplement is effective ingredient and how much is filler.

At the request of customers who were concerned about the quality of these supplements, but still wanted to use them, Xtend-Life has added a Garcinia Cambogia and Green Coffee Bean supplement, which like all our other supplements contains only the very highest quality ingredients.

This supplement contains two key ingredients, including garcinia cambogia, which is rich in hydroxycitric acid, a substance thathelps support the body’s ability to inhibit the enzyme ATP-citrate lyase. This enzyme basically helps turn excess sugars and carbohydrates into stored fat. When ‘switched-off’, the amount of fat converted and stored in the body may be reduced. (Ref. 6)

When used in conjunction with the green coffee bean extract  - packed with chlorogenic acid, which has been shown in studies to slow the absorption of glucose – the two work in synergy to help reduce the amount of glucose that is stored as fat. This is the ideal supplement to help support your weight loss program.

For more information, click here.

References:

1. http://www.today.com/news/iowa-woman-tries-tapeworm-diet-prompts-doctor-warning-6C10935746
2. http://healthyamericans.org/report/108/
3. http://wp.rxisk.org/a-blast-from-the-past-amphetamines-for-weight-loss/
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18084863
5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18035001
6. http://www.xtend-life.com/products/garcinia-cambogia-and-green-coffee-bean