Tag: effects

The Side Effects of Diet Pills

If we want to take a pill to enhance weight loss, we’re inundated with choices. Yet the sad thing is, life is never as simple as popping a pill and watching the weight drop off. Unfortunately, putting foreign substances in our body is nearly always going to result in one or more unwanted side effects.

A diet pill that has gained a lot of publicity in recent years is one known by the name of Alli. Alli is available over the counter and is a less potent version of the prescription only drug Orlistat, or Xenical.

The drug operates by inhibiting the body’s ability to absorb fat. While this sounds all well and good in theory, any fat consumed has to come out somewhere; usually in the form of difficult or even impossible to control bowel movements. Pretty grim as side-effects come.

What’s more, we need some fats and unfortunately, Alli and friends are unable to distinguish between those that are bad, and those that are good. Consequently, dieters who continue using the drug for any length of time become undernourished and potentially deficient in a number of vitamins including A, D, E and K.

So what are the benefits?

The manufacturers of these drugs claim that you will lose 50% more weight than you would through dieting alone. A substantial amount (if true) but is that really worth the adverse effects? You’re still going to need to diet and exercise in order to gain any results, so why not just take a little longer and avoid nutrient deficiency and ‘please God let the world swallow me up right now’ levels of embarrassment?

The alternatives

There are a number of diet products that are derived from nature and from what we know, have no side-effects.

The acai berry for instance, is simply a fruit (though many of the supplements available contain extracts from the fruit, not the whole fruit). It has no special qualities except being remarkably high in fibre, vitamins and antioxidants.

It’s thought that the acai berry aids weight loss by making the body feel full more quickly and for longer (due to its fibre content) and by raising the metabolism and boosting energy levels (due to its vitamin content).

As it’s merely a humble fruit, acai berry side effects are non-existent (bar a small risk of vitamin overdose). However, there are many people who state it’s ineffective, and unlike Alli and other ‘chemical’ diet drugs, the acai berry has little scientific backing for its claims.

So what else is there?

You could always try ephedrine, also known as ephedra. These drugs do work well and they do so by reducing the appetite. Yet they also, are not without their side effects; in fact, if you thought the side effects of Alli were bad, think again.

They often increase blood pressure, meaning that those with an underlying heart condition become at great risk of heart failure and stroke.

However, consider the fact that these pills encourage you to eat very little, which in turn encourages your body to seek energy from your stored fat and your muscle (including your heart). The consequence of this is damage to the heart which then puts you in danger of the aforementioned; even if you were perfectly healthy beforehand.

You might also experience headache, back pain, insomnia, anxiety, depression, acne and heart palpitations. Oh, and you’ll most likely get addicted to them. But that’s probably all water under the bridge when you consider you could die.

So what should I do?

Well there’s always good, old-fashioned diet and exercise. But if you’re really determined to take diet pills, be sure to do your research and weigh up the pros, cons and risks before you start popping pills.

You could choose the non-existent acai berry side effects, or you could choose downright embarrassing or just plain dangerous side effects. I’m not here to tell you what to do, but please, don’t take any drug, whether it’s over the counter or especially over the internet, without being fully informed on what it is and what it might do.

This article was written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Which Acai Berry? Amy is interested in health and fitness and related issues.

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Are There Any Stevia Side Effects Whatsoever?

Stevia is a sweetening leaf, belonging to the sunflower family. This plant had been used by the local population of South America, from Brazil to Paraguay, for decades over decades, not only for its sweetening power, but also for treating kidney problems. While Stevia side effects are not apparent in no way, the sugar industry, as well as the artificial sweeteners industry, have spread a false word over it, so that people are not aware of its tremendous advantages, and be affected by their false researches, which are meant to cause confusion in the public, and make Stevia be grasped as a rather unhealthy and toxic plant.

In one of the researches, Stevia was presented as a toxic plant, but what they did not mention, is that they found it to be true only in amounts that would make even water toxic! Their motives are clear as the sky itself, as financial issues seem to be controlling our lives, however we look at it. Anyway, things changed when Coca Cola started using Stevia for one of their diet drinks some years ago, and has contributed a lot of money for academic institutes to find out the truth about Stevia, so that it can become legal again.

They managed to do it seamlessly, as Stevia is now legal all over the world. Its benefits are vast, and nobody in the scientific field doubts it anymore. You are recommended to grow it organically as a part of a full garden, which will even get you the benefits of vitamin B12 foods, as this vitamin is naturally produced by a bacteria in the soil, and any plant, when consumed unwashed, contain it to some extent. The reason I mentioned ‘unwashed’ is because this vitamin is easily washable with water, as it is present on the exterior part of the plant.

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Green Tea Flavanols, Side Effects, and the PAGG Stack Supplement

The PAGG stack supplement, as introduced by Tim Ferriss in his Four Hour Body book in 2010, is now precisely formulated for easy dosing and shipped worldwide by Pareto Nutrition.  So many people are looking for a safe and natural supplement stack, containing a range of natural healthy ingredients which work together synergistically to promote fat loss and body recomposition.

The role of green tea flavanols in the PAGG stack concerns how energy is stored within the body – when you eat excess carbohydrates, providing more energy than the body immediately needs, the tendency is for the unrequired calories to be stored as fat.  This is one reason for the success of the Slow Carb Diet program, which structures meals to ensure the calories are digested slowly and gradually, supplying the body’s energy needs throughout the time between meals.  However the green tea flavanol ECGC (Epigallocatechin gallate) helps to divert those calories to the muscle cells instead, inhibiting their storage as fat – this is really important if you are trying to build a leaner and healthier body.  ECGC also helps to accelerate the aging and destruction of fat cells as well, which is very important in preventing the ‘yo yo dieting effect’ – because so often fat cells are not removed, but merely reduced in size… ready to grow easily back to the former size once previous calorie intake is resumed.

So, why aren’t we all drinking cup after cup of green tea?  The Japanese drink it most days, and their natural longevity and low incidence of certain cancers first brought green tea the attention of Western scientists for this reason – but they tend to only drink a few cups a day, because it has naturally high levels of caffeine.  To get the minimum effective dose recommended by Tim Ferriss for fat loss, you would need to knock back dozens of cups each day, and probably feel terrible and wired!  Hardly the picture of zen health…

Far better to get your ECGC in a controlled and precisely measured supplement made using decaffeinated green tea flavanols, such as that contained in Pareto Nutrition’s PAGG stack.  And to be 100% certain that there is no possibility of the PAGG stack supplement affecting your good night’s rest, they have in their latest formulation removed ECGC completely from the final bedtime capsule, concentrating the full daily dose across the 3 pre-meal capsules to ensure maximum affect on the calories of the food you eat.

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