Product Review: Medi Herb’s Gymnema – How to Defeat a Sweet Tooth

What is Gymnema?

While not usually considered a stimulant, sugar is THE most addicting substance known to man.  Millions of Americans thus can’t keep their hands off of sweets, which is a major player in the obesity endemic this country is experiencing.  For those that have want to kick the habit however, there is hope!  Medi Herb has a product named Gymnema, created from the crushed leaves of the gymnema plant which works against your sense of taste to temporarily make you despise the taste of sugar!

The gymnema plant has been used for a very long time in traditional Ayurvedic medicine from the country of India.  The herb’s name comes from the Hindu word “gumar” which is translated into “sugar destroyer.”  It has been commonly used to help patients with diabetes since they should limit their amount of sugar intake.  I am not sure how it works exactly, but I have been told that it anesthetizes the taste buds in your mouth that are can sense sweetness.

Does it Really Numb Your Taste Buds?

Before taking this supplement, I was very interested to see what would happen if my sweet taste buds went “numb”.  I personally don’t have a sweet tooth problem, but I know many that do (my issue is more salt cravings).  Medi Herb offers two different versions of this product, one in pill form and one in liquid form.  To take the liquid form, all you need to do is swish it around in your mouth to get the desired results.  If taking pill form, sucking on the pill for a minute and maybe chewing it will do the trick.

Experience:  Let me be the first to say that gymnema is a nasty tasting herb!  When it was in my mouth, I had no problem understanding how sugar would taste bad.  In fact, I thought EVERYTHING would taste bad!  It was very difficult to suck on for a minute, but I managed.  Other of my classmates had very similar experiences with their pills.

Results:  I tested my sweet taste buds by eating an Andes chocolate mint.  A little to my surprise, it tasted like chalk; it was as if there was no flavor to what I was eating!  It was hard enough to wash the taste of the gymnema, which might have had an effect.  To test this, I ate arare snacks, a Japanese rice cracker covered in soy sauce (it’s very salty).  While it didn’t taste as good as normal due to the remnants of the gymnema, it still tasted good and salty.  I tried eating the Andes mint again, and it still tasted like chalk.

30 minutes later, I tried to eat another Andes mint to see what would happen (imagine if I lost the sense of sweetness for my entire life!).  Thankfully, I could taste some of the sweetness, but there was still a bad after taste.  Needless to say, I believe that taking gymnema would be a great supplement to take for one who wants to break the sugar habit.  If you are interested in trying your own gymnema for yourself, you can contact your local chiropractor or nutritionist or find your Medi Herb representative.

Book Review: The Nine Inch “Diet” by Alex Bogusky

Alex Bogusky writes what he says is NOT a diet book called “The Nine Inch ‘Diet’: Exposing the Big Conspiracy of America.”  It’s an easy to read, but very hilarious and interesting explanation as to America’s waist problem.  The message is simple: EAT SMALLER PORTIONS (specifically, make sure it fits on a 9 inch plate). 

For almost 40 years, America’s portions have increasingly gotten bigger and bigger (while the rest of the world does not), yet we think this is “normal.”  In the 60′s, the average plate size was 9 inches, yet now it’s 12.  With bigger plates we end up eating more due to our “clean the plate” mantra that our parents passed down to us, meaning we consume a good 33% more calories.  Looking at the data, obese Americans are up about 33% from the 60s.  Coincidence???

>You could easily just stop here and get the whole gist of the book, but Alex’s writing is so compelling it makes you want to learn why we want bigger sizes and why we can’t stop.  But I don’t want to keep rambling and give it all away.  Pick it up and try it, it won’t take too long to read.  Heck, you could top this book off in an hour if you have the time to hang out at Borders.  It won’t be an hour wasted, I guarantee it.

Book Review: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

There are many personal development books out there today, but ultimately they all have been spawned off of this book.  This book lays the foundation for many of the top searched topics even to this day such as “The Law of Attraction”, think tanks, positive thinking, and confidence boosters.  There is even a section on how to get a job and ace an interview.  Needless to say, even if getting near the 100 year mark, this book is highly relevant.

In the early 1900s, Napoleon Hill, the author of this book, was tasked by steel mogul Andrew Carnegie to interview all of the most successful people in the world to see if there was any commonality to their success. Some of these people were none other than Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, JP Morgan, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and of course Andrew Carnegie just to name a few. Over 500 different men and women were interviewed and what came out of those interviews became this book.

I feel that even though every other personal development book has roots in this book somewhere, there was ironically something fresh that I got from it that I didn’t get from the others, even when they might have been saying the same things! One of the most captivating messages is that in the very beginning of the book, Napoleon mentions that the secret to finding riches is in every chapter, but he will not say what it is.  It makes me wonder if this is how the movie “The Secret” came up with its title as I believe those 2 secrets are one and the same.

I HIGHLY recommend this book for everyone.  I loved it so much that upon finishing it, I immediately bought 5 copies to distribute amongst my friends and family (the Deluxe Edition makes it a great gift).  It’s not just about getting rich, but more about how to get the most out of your life, financially, emotionally, and physically.  There were many examples that related back to health and wellness that I found interesting and could definitely relate to.  Try it for yourself, I’m sure that you will definitely pick something out of it not matter how well read, rich, or successful you are.

*Side note: given the popularity (and age) of this book, there are many different versions to the text.  Make sure that you find the original text if at all possible.  After reading reviews of the other versions, publishers try to change the text to keep current with the time, but the message can be lost in the translation.  Read the original first, then if you like, move on to a newer version.  If you would like a recommendation as to what to read after reading the original, click here.

Book Review: Natural Cures “They” don’t want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau

I have heard a lot about this book let alone seen it on the New York Times best sellers rack many a times, so I was excited to finally sit down and listen (via the audio version) to this book.  What I got was not what I expected…the title of this book is “Natural Cures ‘They’ don’t want You to Know About” but instead of finding natural cures, what I got was the ranting and ravings of a frustrated consumer who is trying to “blow the whistle” on our current health system.

Kevin Trudeau writes very passionatly about what I can only call conspiracy theories against the American public with regards to health and wellness.  He argues that many of us are brainwashed to avoid true health as it does not benefit the pocketbooks of many corporations, mainly the pharmaceutical companies.  The “they” that he refers to in his title are directed towards a great variety of entities including the aforementioned phara companies, the government, food manufacturers, and non profit agencies just to name a few.

This book is not all bad though.  Being a student of health via chiropractic and acupuncture, it was refreshing to hear about the Wilk vs the AMA trial, a pivotal case in chiropractic history, as well as the Chinese herb ma huang, also known as ephedra as a natural cure.  These bits of real info seem far and between though as Kevin constantly claims there is a cure for this and then a cure for that, but RARELY ever says what the actual cure is!  I must admit that some of the conspiracy theories are interesting, made sense, and are believable, but after the 3rd example, they all seemed to have the same outcomes with just different players.  After a while, it was hard to tell if Kevin was exaggerating, twisting the truth, or maybe just making some of his data up.

In the end, I couldn’t get myself past the halfway mark.

An interesting thing to note about the audio book is that Kevin Trudeau is the actual narrator of his own book.  This was a negative for me as I couldn’t handle his whinning and complaining past disc 3.  The recording sounded very unprofessional with many speaking hiccups, however Kevin did mention that he was to include additional data that was not written in his book.  As to what data that was, he never said and I did not compare with the actual book to find out.

Book Review: You: on a Diet by Drs Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen

Drs Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen have written several “You” books, all of which are easy reading, hilarious, and widely popular. Expect nothing different from their You: On a Diet book as they go on to explain the physiology of the gut and how it relates to dieting and gaining/losing weight.

If you’re new to the You books, don’t let the physiology scare you. The authors have made everything very understandable and throw in many pop culture references that will have you laughing in your seat. You probably will remember what you read weeks later too, unlike if you sat down to read a college physiology text book.

Topics covered in the book include how to balance out your eating habits to support losing weight (if that’s what you’re trying to do) as well as the dangers of having too much weight or fat in your body. Hormones are explained, certain foods are suggested or warned against, and specific, but easy to implement strategies are supplied that anyone can take advantage of!

Whether you’re looking for a good read, want to learn something, or am looking to drop a few inches, this is definitely a good book to read.

Book Review: The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman

When I picked up this book at my school’s library, I thought I was going to read on how I could give myself an edge in the terms of a sharper memory or quick recall for all of those anatomical terms I had been learning. While I got that, it definitely was not what I was expecting.

The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman is his method of finding health and wellness by capitalizing on the strengths of the dominant features of your brain. I’m sure you recognize that most of your friends and family all different personalities from you and each other. One of the reasons for this is that there is a dominant neurotransmitter in our brains which can be produce common traits in us all. For example:

• Dopamine dominant individuals tend to be Type A personalities, good with numbers, and might not be so good at expressing their emotions
• Acetylcholine dominant individuals tend to be quick thinkers, creative, and impulsive
• GABA dominant individuals tend to be never be stressed, even in times of chaos, sometimes organized
• Serotonin dominant individuals tend to be playful, maybe even party animals, and have trouble with commitment

After an introduction to the neurotransmitters, you take a personality test which takes at least an hour.  After the book explains what your results mean and how you can truly make the most of yourself given how your brain functions.

I found this to be an interesting book and had fun chatting about it with my friends, all of which had different dominant neurotransmitters!  Dr. Braverman actually has a practice that he bases this book off of and mentions that he has had positive results with mental disorders that today’s medicine is having a hard time maintaining, let alone treating, such as Alzheimer’s disease and strokes.  I’m not sure if I believe everything I read, such as people can’t change their neurotransmitter once it’s determined, or it is unlikely to have two dominant ones (my test came out as a tie…).  I think sometimes we do change our personalities such as the Meyer’s Brigg’s test, but hey, I’m not a brain doctor.