If you are one of the millions suffering from mild to severe hair loss, otherwise known as alopecia, or you simply want longer and healthier hair, you might have been researching the options available to you. Many people are taking biotin supplements, as biotin is often regarded as the “hair growth vitamin.”
A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin shows that high-protein diets can rob your body of calcium, even if you get plenty in your system. In fact, the study further shows that vegetables are a better source of calcium than cow milk because it doesn’t have the same protein that would absorb the calcium that your bones should be getting. Read more
A recent study that monitored 14 trained male cyclists under age 45 has found that bananas are equally beneficial to sports performance as the popular sports drink Gatorade. The study, aptly titled ‘Bananas and Exercise Metabolism’, was performed to research how Gatorade, which is the drink of choice of most athletes, stacks up against more natural fruit alternatives in giving athletes that extra metabolic kick.
The study was broken down into cyclists that consumed Gatorade before, during, and after a 75 kilometer time trial and those eating bananas instead. All of the cyclists had an average diet with a moderate amount of carbohydrates and no supplements. Although the characteristics of bananas and Gatorade are so different, both produced very similar results in athletes’ blood glucose levels, inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic functions.
Researchers particularly focused on athlete liver function and how their bodies utilized the carbohydrates and various acids as fuel. Ultimately, they found that there was no difference between the help Gatorade gives you versus the banana. At the same time, researchers did find that bananas were a better source of antioxidants and dopamine, but neither had any effect on the athletic functions.
While bananas are obviously more cost efficient than Gatorade, one would have to consume bananas at the same rate as they would drink Gatorade. That means eating 6-7 bananas over a two to three hour period. Though this has no adverse effects, six bananas take up a lot more space than Gatorade and can cause bloating. That’s also because of the large amount of fiber that your body receives from the fruit. Researchers expect a big rise in banana-peel based supplements as a great way to help athletes’ endurance and metabolic functions, especially in a high-energy event.
New research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the bearer of good and bad news. The bad news: over 90% of African-Americans have a vitamin D deficiency. The good news is that adding a 4,000 IU daily Vitamin D supplement can eliminate the deficiency in as little as one year.
The study compared vitamin D levels and supplementation with 47 African-American and white males with an average age of 64. At the onset of the study, 90% of the African-American men had a vitamin D deficiency and 66% had “very low” levels. There were also significant disparities between vitamin D levels in the blood between African-American participants and white participants.
There are two reasons for the disparity. First, various studies have shown that darker skin limits a person’s ability to produce vitamin D. Second, most people who live in northern countries are not able to get the necessary sun rays to get vitamin D, particularly in the winter. This means you really find yourself at a vitamin D disadvantage if you have darker skin and live in a northern country like the United States.
Researchers provided all 47 participants with 4,000 IU of vitamin D and found that disparities in the concentration of vitamin D in the blood between white and African-American participants was gone in one year.
Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer, the lead researcher on the study, hopes for a “Vitamin D3-based intervention targeting adult African-Americans.” Certainly with studies claiming that as many as 90% of African-Americans suffer from a vitamin D deficiency, there is a growing need for African-Americans to supplement their diet with vitamin D3 to help reverse the adverse effects of deficiency.
Vitamin D deficiency is closely related to osteoporosis, muscle weakness, bone weakness, common cancers and leaves your body at a larger risk for auto-immune diseases, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and type-1 diabetes.
Green coffee bean extract quickly became the most talked about supplement on the market when Dr. Oz hyped its weight loss potential on his television show. But we believe that Dr. Oz may have caused some unnecessary confusion for buyers of the supplement when he recommended they stick to only brand name green coffee bean extract.
Here is an excerpt from Dr. Oz’s official website where he recommends sticking to GCBE supplements with Svetol® and GCA®. He also shared this advice with television viewers.
Chlorogenic acid is the key active compound in green coffee bean extract. It slows the release of glucose into the bloodstream following a meal, thereby reducing caloric input and inhibiting fat production. It is also believed to speed up the liver’s metabolic processing. It is the principle mechanism in green coffee bean responsible for the supplement’s suggested weight loss benefits.
But Svetol® and GCA® are nothing more than trademarked brand names of chlorogenic acid. Just like Kleenex is a facial tissue brand or Xerox is a brand of copy machines. That said, how many of us still commonly ask for a kleenex rather than a tissue or say we’re xeroxing something instead of photo copying it? This is the marketing strategy behind these trademarks as well. The owners of these trademarks hope people are trained to only accept chlorogenic acid listed as Svetol® or GCA® on Green Coffee Bean supplement labels.
Svetol® is a trademarked chlorogenic acid extract owned by Naturex based in France.
GCA®, short for Green Coffee Antioxidant, is a trademarked chlorogenic acid extract owned by Applied Food Sciences based in Austin, TX.
A brand name doesn’t necessarily mean better quality. At the end of the day, both trademarked chlorogenic acid and non-trademarked chlorogenic acid are just chlorogenic acid.
The chlorogenic acid level is the most important factor when choosing a green coffee bean supplement. To increase the odds of successfully shedding a few pounds with this supplement, you need something with chlorogenic acid levels between 45% and 50%. Anything less and you pretty much have a potent antioxidant and that’s it.
Both brands claim to be 45% chlorgenic acid, which seems to be good-quality pure green coffee bean extract. However, unless manufacturers are testing every single lot, even these brand name extracts recommended by Dr. Oz can still test low for active ingredients.
Consumerlab.com recently found that over half of the green coffee bean extracts tested by two independent laboratories were lower in chlorogenic acid than expected.
We encountered this issue ourselves when a brand name that we tested came back at only 41% chlorogenic acid, causing us to send it back and look for another Green Coffee Bean supplement to endorse. This ultimately led to us recommending GC50™, as every single lot consistently tested well over 50% chlorogenic acid.
Applied Food Sciences, the owner of the GCA® trademark, coincidentally financed the Vinson, Burnham and Nagendran study that Dr. Oz and guests spoke of on his show. The company also supplied researchers with the GCA® used in the study.
While this study involving GCA® is the most heavily publicized green coffee bean/weight loss study, it is not the ONLY study. We have found over 180 studies, most of which involve the use of non-trademarked extracts, demonstrating the potential weight loss and overall health benefits of this compound.
Back in 2007, way before green coffee bean hysteria kicked in, a 12-week comparative, randomized, double-blind study involving 30 overweight people was conducted. Subjects were randomly assigned to drink either coffee enriched with chlorogenic acid or an everyday regular cup of caffeinated “joe.”
Normal coffee drinkers lost 4 lbs. on average. Meanwhile, by comparison, those drinking the chlorogenic acid enriched coffee dropped an average of 12 lbs.
In another 2007 experiment, 12 healthy subjects, all normal weight, were randomly given four types of drinks – regular caffeinated instant coffee, regular decaffeinated instant coffee, coffee enriched with chlorogenic acid, and water. Sugar was used in each drink. Sugar levels were monitored for two hours.
The people consuming the coffee laced with chlorogenic acid were shown to have 7% less glucose absorbed as opposed to when they were drinking caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee and water.
If stored glucose from carbohydrate consumption isn’t used to fuel the body, this excess glucose can end up being stored by the body as fat. Reduced glucose absorption is believed to decrease the body’s ability to pack on more fat, which makes this study relevant to anyone considering green coffee bean extract as a slimming aid.
A previous study in 2003 observed the glycemic effects of chlorogenic acid and caffeine on nine healthy fasted volunteers. This study again concluded that chlorogenic acid delayed glucose absorption.
While human studies observing green coffee extract for weight loss are relatively new, the effects of GCBE on mice and rats have been studied for awhile. A 2006 study showed that mice ingesting green coffee bean extract gained less weight, showed moderately reduced levels of triglycerides in their bloodstream, and reduced the amount of fat between their organs by as much as 50%, compared to mice consuming a regular diet. Researchers concluded green coffee bean extract inhibited fat absorption and activated the liver’s fat metabolism action, making it effective in preventing weight gain and fat accumulation.
Another 2010 study demonstrated that mice given a chlorogenic enriched diet for eight weeks gained 16% less body weight, with 46% less body fat, compared to mice consuming an identical diet without chlorogenic acid.
While aspects of Dr. Oz’s endorsement can be questioned, or perceived as unfounded hype, there is enough science that suggests chlorogenic acid may play an instrumental role in slowing the release of glucose into the bloodstream and altering our body’s metabolism.
What we need at this point are longer duration human clinical trials, with larger polls of people, that ARE NOT paid for and sponsored by owners of chlorogenic acid trademarks.
Because of his influence, Dr. Oz finds himself in an unenviable position of now having to play watchdog as fly-by-night companies try to market supplements he promotes on his show without a care in the world in regard to quality, effectiveness, and consumer safety. These types live to make as much money as possible until one fad runs out and the next comes along. Often times, they use Dr. Oz’s name and imagery in their promotion without permission.
We believe Dr. Oz’s recommendation of only buying green coffee bean extract with Svetol® or GCA® is based primarily on his desire to protect his audience from schemers and scam artists by directing them to supplements with at least 45% chlorogenic acid.
But we also feel that its important to clarify that it isn’t a brand name that makes a Green Coffee Bean supplement effective but the true level of chlorogenic acid it has. And even these known brand names tested low in independent testing conducted by us and Consumerlab.com.
This proves to us that Svetol® and GCA® are more about brand marketing than actual science. This is something to keep in mind as you shop for a green coffee bean extract.
By Tamara Jacobi
Are you committed to weight loss and improved health for 2013? Popular New Year’s resolutions include “I want to lose 10 lbs”. “I want to eat healthier”. Sound familiar? If so, let’s make it happen! BUT, with a catch . . . let’s make it sustainable this time.
One of the newest weight loss supplements on the market is green coffee bean extract and it has so far proved effective in supporting steady weight loss without severe calorie restriction or excessive exercise.
One of the discussed supplements of the past year has been green coffee bean extract and, even though there are still trials and studies being conducted on it, it has so far it has shown impressive results. In a study conducted this year (new evidence on effects of green coffee beans in weight loss), 16 overweight people in the 22-26 year age bracket were given low and high doses of the supplement along with placebos in cycles over the course of 22 weeks. They followed a healthy, but not calorie-restrictive diet and were burning around 400 calories a day through exercise. The group averaged a weight loss of 17lbs and lost around 10 per cent of their body weight. Over the course of the study, the participants lost weight at a slightly faster pace whilst taking the high doses of the supplement, thus showing that it is effective in aiding weight loss.
Like most supplements on the market, the available range of Green bean coffee supplements may look similar and make the same claims, but not all supplements are made equal. Buying the right green coffee bean supplement makes the difference between getting the results that you are after and wasting your hard-earned cash.
By Tamara Jacobi
Why not add a healthy twist to this year’s holidays? Though holiday parties, family time and the endless parade of irresistible goodies are all things that we love, they can often leave us feeling exhausted, bloated, and imbalanced. Instead, wouldn’t it be nice to start 2013 feeling and looking great? Why not think of the holidays as a time of rejuvenation and complete nourishment (beyond food!). Here are some simple tips to keep you healthy and happy over the holidays.
