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by Len White

If you are overweight, do you find yourself on a perpetual merry-go-round of low-calorie austerity and high-calorie eating binges? Instead of hating yourself for not getting off this merry-go-round, why not try herbal aids? They could make losing excess weight much easier for you.

The use of herbs is primarily a matter of personalized slimming — finding the right formula that works best for you personally. However, on an overall basis all herbal aids which have stood the test of time generally product good results for just about anyone.

Bromelain

Almost everyone, at one time or another in their lives, has battled with excess weight or inches. Our rather sedentary lives, filled with automated teller machines, paperwork and television sets, has made us spoiled at best, downright lazy at worst. The long term effects of excess weight have been known to all of us for a long time. Heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and respiratory problems are all symptoms of an overweight society, with the most severe consequences affecting the obese. The reasons for all these extra pounds are many. Societal, psychological and genetic factors may all play a part, as well as the aforementioned lack of physical activity. And while weight seems to be incredibly easy to put on, it has never been easy to take off. Until now, perhaps.

European nutrition researchers have discovered the amazing slimming properties of bromelain, an enzyme found in pineapples. Enzymes are what your body uses to break down and digest foods. Bromelain seems to have an insatiable appetite in a fatty environment- Researcher Mathieu explains, “Bromelain has an incomparable ability to consume and digest’ up to 900 times its own weight in fat. One gram of bromelain could eat almost two pounds of fat! Taken with meals, it works round the clock to help you lost weight. The results are impressive. You will see the difference in the mirror the First week.”

Bromelain immediately zeroes in on flab, no matter where it is. It doesn’t matter whether the excess weight is only in a few spots or is throughout the body.

Mathieu recommends taking 500mg of bromelain at least twice a day with meals. And not only will bromelain promote weight loss, it does so safely with added bonuses. Studies by a government sponsored nutritional research task force at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu have shown that the miracle enzyme also helps dissolve deadly blood clots that block arteries and cause heart attacks and strokes. It can even prevent them from forming.

Told of Mathieu’s discovery, Tony Worth, technical director of a major U.S. supplier of vitamins and other nutritional sup­plements, including bromelain, says, “Bromelain probably impacts on weight loss because of improved digestion. Your appetite is satiated because you have more nutrients present — but without them, you would not be breaking down foods properly”

Doctors stress the importance of taking bromelain only with meals. To speed the weight loss process, you should limit your intake of high fat and high caloric foods, they say regular exercise, rest and a balanced healthy lifestyle are also essential to attaining and maintaining optimum health. Remember to consult with a health care professional before embarking on any weight loss program.

How Lecithin Attacks Fat

Lecithin, derived mainly from soybeans, should be included in every weight watcher’s program. Lecithin helps control the figure as it pulls the fat deposits from stubborn fat bulges in your body and “burns” them out. These are the fat areas you so often wish would melt away. Lecithin also helps you feel well-fed on less food so you’re not tempted to indulge in overeating or nibbling between meals.

There is evidence that Lecithin also helps prevent many health problems like cholesterol build-up and gall bladder com­plications, and further that it increases energy and brain power.

Addle Davis, author of Let’s Get Well, devotes an entire chapter to the subject of lecithin. She says the primary function of lecithin is to burn off excess fat around the cells and that a deficiency of it causes fat to be so poorly utilized that coronary disease, high blood pressure and overweight often occur in the same individual. Besides helping you to lose excess weight. Lecithin is a tremendous nerve relaxer (our brain is composed of 18-20% lecithin) and it also flushes cholesterol deposits from the body.

Blue-Green Algae

One of the more inspiring reasons we eat is to fill upon the basic elements of life. Fuel for the human body has been, for thousands of years, raw or cooked vegetables, fruits, meats, you know- food. However, due to brilliant marketing, we, the chil­dren of the duped, believe that any and all foods have the life taming forces it takes to live a full life. There is a key element in most so-called foods these days that is missing enzymes, the organic spark of life itself. All living cells have enzymes. The human body is a living examples of properly functioning enzy­matic reactions. Our bodies have 27 trillion cells, each cell hav­ing 5,000 enzyme systems. You do the math.

Another important and popular element is protein. Blue green algae is comprised of 60% protein by weight and has an amino acid profile that exactly matches the needs of the human body. Ounce for ounce, blue green algae is nutritionally in its own class. Miners could sift through 100 pounds of ore to yield 1 ounce of gold. We shouldn’t have to do the same with food.

When the body is hungry, it sends out the standard signals. We usually pay attention and eat. When the body has acquired a sufficient supply of nutrients, it lets us know. Sometimes we don’t listen to those signals or they don’t come at all. The body will, at times, keep eating — searching for the nutrients it needs in whatever is available. Overeating. With the high level of vit­amins, minerals, trace minerals and amino acids found in blue ­green algae, the human body finds what it is looking for and doesn’t have to keep up its desperate search. Blue-green algae is an excellent addition to a weight loss program.

Kelp: Reducing Aid from the Sea

Obesity (overweight) is seldom seen among the Polynesians and other races who use seaweeds as a regular part of their daily diet. One of the most commonly known seaweeds is kelp (Fucus vesiculosis). Ocean kelp is one of the richest sources of natural iodine, necessary for the thyroid gland’s proper performance because it helps the gland to manufacture the vital hormone called thyroxine. A lack of thyroxine will result in goiter — the person may feel sluggish, tired and nervous. Iodine, according to Dr. Jarvis’ Folk Medicine, is one of the best oxidizing agents we have.

Thyroid Functions

It will be of interest to readers to give a list of the important functions performed by this vital endocrine gland. They are as follows:

1. Secrets thyroxin.

2. Controls and regulates metabolism.

3. Vitalizes every cell of the body and enables them to respond to sympathetic stimulation.

4. Assists in the control of tissue differentiation

5. Increases the power and rate of the heart function.

6. Controls coagulation time.

7. Increases urea and fluid secretion.

8. Stimulates and brightens the mind.

9. Controls and regulates body fat.

10. Controls intestinal activity.

11. Aids pancreatic function.

12. Helps to harmonize the activity of the suprarenal glands.

13. Has a regulating influence on the ovaries and testicles.

14. Works in cooperation with the parathyroids, thereby regulating the action of mineral salts in the system, especially of calcium.

15. Acts in conjunction with the pituitary gland thereby exerting a profound influence on metabolism in gener­al. The entire chain of the endocrine glands (spoken of as “the chain of life”) works in vital cooperation, each influencing the others. The glands represent balance in the body. Therefore, if balance is to be maintained on both the mental and physical planes of being, we must keep the glands normal.

Kelp’s Reputation as an Anti-Fat Worker

From Physio-Medical Therapeutics, Materia Medica and Pharmacy, author T.J. Lyle, M.D., writes, “This plant [kelp] has a reputation as an anti-fat, claiming that it diminishes fat with­out in any respect injuring health. It influences the mucous membranes and the lymphatics. It is a gently stimulating and toning alterant. It is one of those slow, persistent agents that requires time to accomplish the desired results.

Fat Metabolism and Obesity

Dr. Eric Powell has this to say about kelp. As previously stated, the value of kelp in obesity is probably mainly due to its action on the thyroid gland. But there are other reasons. We find that this remedy has a normalizing influence on the fat cells. So by using kelp, whatever the causes for obesity may be, the two most important causes are being attended to. Keep in mind the fact that normal circulation of chemically balanced blood will do more than any other physical factor in keeping the entire organism in a healthy condition. Owing to its rich iodine and mineral salt content, kelp does as much as any single rem­edy can to produce and maintain a healthy stream of life.

Thin, undernourished people need have no fear that, as kelp is useful in obesity, it will cause the scraggy person to lose more weight. Much the reverse. Practitioners have observed that while kelp undoubtedly plays a part in fat reduction it also encourages normal nutrition so that the thin tend to put on weight. I have records of successes in both obesity and malnu­trition and kelp has played an important role in producing a normal condition of body in all of them.

Apple Cider Vinegar (Potassium-K”)