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The Acai Berry - new miracle fruit?

The Acai berry is thelatest miracle food to make a surge onto the market boasting weight loss as itsmain incentive. Firstly, what is it? The acai berry is a reddish purple fruitwhich originates from Central and South America- related closely to the blueberryand cranberry. The berry itself contains; minerals, amino acids, vitamins,omega 3, fatty acids and antioxidants. The claim is that this super food raisesmetabolic rate and supresses appetite but it can also enhance energy levels andimprove your skin condition.

Antioxidants help combat free radicals; these are potentially dangerous cellsif left free to roam about the body. Free radicals are odd-number electronswhich attempt to become ‘even’ by binding to other already even-numberedelectrons. By binding to these already-even electrons they cause them to becomeunstable and free- thus free radicals. Acai berry’s supress the activity ofthese free radicals which can potentially become cancerous.

Research is limited, but the most convincing piece comes from the Nationalinstitute of aging which looked at the pulp from the acai berry. The studyfound it did have the ability to reduce the negative effects of a high-fat dietin flies. Firstly, this research was conducted on flies- we cannot generalisethese findings to humans. Secondly, the study looked at an already high-fatdiet not a normal diet; therefore the research cannot be applied to the lattereither.

Acai does contribute to a balanced diet which ultimately is what willlead to weight loss and a healthier lifestyle. To drink copious amounts of acaiberry juice and pop several acai pills daily will not cause sustained weightloss.  

The most standout product currently on the market is called ‘Ketone Ultra’which combines acai berries and raspberry ketones. Raspberry ketones have beenknown to shrink fat cells in the body as well as increasing the production ofadiponectin, a protein which speeds up the metabolism of fat. Ketone Ultra boasts‘30 pounds in 30 days’ tagline and with these two berries packed in, it is easyto see why. However, once again it is important to remember there is noscientific evidence to back up this magic pill’s claim.

The world we live in today is so driven by money that a price tag can actuallybe a more powerful agent than scientific research. Acai berry and raspberryketone tablets sound exotic and often come with a high price tag. Now, there issomething about exotic fruits and weight loss that sounds appealing- perhapsthe unknown aspect leads us to believe it is one of the best kept secrets ofall time. Speaking on behalf of the world here, we like the idea of these newproducts that claim to promote fat metabolism and supplement websites knowthis. As well as this, berry is made up of 90% seed with the remaining fleshypulp and skin where you find all these nutrients. This means only 10% of theberry can actually be used for juices, tablets, powders etc. This would alsoexplain the high price- it’s foreign and is hard to extract any sellableproduct from. Next week we will undoubtedly have yet another exotic fruit putinto tablet form that claims miracle effects.  Is the acai berry a miraclefruit? Highly unlikely although it contains many good things so does a lot of fruit- in short, there is nothing trulyspecial about this fruit unfortunately.

Lance Armstrong – the saviour of world cycling?

 

On first glimpse you areprobably thinking this was written in 2005 and Lance had captured his seventhTour de France victory. But no, the year is 2013 and the statement stands.

In June 2012 the US anti-doping agency(USADA) found him guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs and in August ofthe same year he was given a lifetime ban and stripped of all of his titles wonsince 1998. Armstrong chose not to appeal the ban but never categoricallyconfirmed his drug usage until he subtly disclosed the details of his drugsprogramme to Oprah Windfrey and her three million viewers in January of2013.Now, Lance has heroically put himself forward to assist in the crackdownof the use of drugs in sport, stating, "This is about cyclingand, to be frank, it's about all endurance sports."

The question then remains, ‘are we to trust this man?’

He claims to want to start fresh and ‘become a new man’ but by the looks ofthings he is still up to his old tricks. Cast your mind back to that interviewwith Oprah where he admitted he had taken drugs frequently but not in 2009 and2010. Why not? Because he really is this changed man and is ready to tackle thedrugs problem in cycling- fact! There is absolutely no suggestion it hasanything to do with the fact that under the statue of liberations, he can onlybe charged for fraud for those years and nothing prior to. You can just seeanother court case with more lawyers arguing his innocence all over again.

 

But what still remains is the fact that he was part of “the most sophisticated, professionalized andsuccessful doping program that sport has ever seen” (USADA) -and the man at thecentre of all of this will have contacts. This same man will know exactly whois involved, where they obtain their drugs from and most importantly who is thepioneer of all of this- the athlete? The coach? Or perhaps someone moreexternal but equally as powerful such as a sponsor? These are questions easy toanswer when you have someone who has taken part in an operation as covert asArmstrong’s. It has become very clear that for him to ‘play ball’ he will wantfavours, but who wouldn’t when you’re facing a $12 million payback to SCApromotions.

Armstrong will weasel hisway out of this somehow –he always does- and for that reason we must use hisknowledge to find other drug cheats and other drug networks to preservecycling. LA Confidential was published in 2004 and completely proved Armstrongwas taking performance enhancing drugs, including a number of eye witness’ whosaw Michelle Ferrari injecting Armstrong with EPO (drug used to boost red bloodcell count). Yet, Armstrong was able to preserve his name and continue tocycle, until 2012. In 2005, six of his urine samples contained EPO but afterfurther prompted investigation on Armstrong’s behalf by Dutch lawyer EmileVrijman the samples were disregarded due to improper handling and testing.

If we give him any creditat all it is that he is a very hard worker and cunning. The physiologicaleffects of erythropoietin (EPO) ensure you either employ this hard work ethic,or you die. The science behind it is simple; red blood cells carry oxygen,boost your red blood cell count and you can carry more oxygen. Our body isunable to use one hundred percent of the oxygen we inhale so anything thatboosts this efficiency will help, especially if you are an endurance athlete.Why does this make him a hard worker? Well, we all have EPO in our body, itsperfectly natural but when we inject more EPO the blood becomes more viscous-thicker. If the viscosity of the blood is too high then it will ‘clog’ thecapillaries and will cause a heart attack. To counter this, you need to beexercising; this process lowers the hematocrit and thins the blood. Relativelyspeaking, if Lance Armstrong was not exercising for a large percentage of theday- he would have died. We can therefore assume he would be awake at all hoursof the night cycling as well as throughout the day. EPO requires hard work toreap the benefits and in fairness to Armstrong he would have had to put a lotof work in.

So we know the man is ahard worker, both to preserve his name and to enhance his performance.Therefore, we must conclude he is someone we want onside and in hindsight hepossibly can change the world of cycling. A big thumbs up to Lance working withUSADA and his battle with drug cheats? Absolutely not.

Whichever way you look atit, the man has disgraced the sport. No he is not alone and cheats like himhave damaged cycling to the extent that it seems cheats will forever plague thesport. But lifting his lifetime ban and allowing him immunity from paying backthe money he won unfairly, sends out the wrong message to competitorseverywhere. Every athlete has probably considered drugs but one of the majordeterrents is that if you are caught- you will be banned and you will pay. Ifwe then employ the biggest drugs cheat that has ever graced the sporting world,then the message becomes ‘if you’re caught, you’ll have to work for yournational doping agency’.

The man has had so muchimpact on the sport that we now question- is it possible to win the Tour deFrance without drugs? And we look at people like Bradley Wiggins and think ‘he’sprobably on drugs’ when in reality he is a clean, hard-working icon whodeserves every accolade presented to him. So therefore, what needs to happenhere is Mr Armstrong is placed in front of a jury and will have to either lieunder oath or come clean and pay for what he did. The people at the world antidoping agency (WADA) are catching cheats daily and definitely do not need thehelp from people like Lance Armstrong. The saviour of cycling? No. A catchytitle. The real title is ‘Lance Armstrong how do you plead?’