Solutions for helping customers manage their healthy weight ranges are plentiful. Here are ideas to get them fit and healthy.
Size and scale may be basic architectural design terms but these concepts are also directly relevant to natural products/healthy lifestyle retailers. Most adults consider their weight and trying to manage it at least once in their lifetimes. They scrutinize their size and sigh when viewing the scale. The decision is then made to transform their personal size and scale numbers by losing weight, trimming the fat and feeling much better—so many will find their ways to you for support.
There are always new ways to lose weight, new gadgets, irrational “diets” and new fitness crazes. As purveyors of products for attaining health goals, being aware of fads helps safely but firmly redirect the sad fad-follower who has regained the weight or feels depleted and imbalanced, even if a few pounds less.
But, there are shifts that are occurring in today’s weight-loss environment, that are both cause and effect of modern lifestyles. Key is the growth of how people eat: meals-to-your-door services and farm-to-table are both growing in numbers, and Americans are flocking in high numbers. There’s also a tremendous rise in food manufacturing wizardry—notably in the plant-based space.
It appears that the one thing that many of these have in common are what they are lacking—additives and preservatives.
Judy Gray, founder and CEO of North American Herb & Spice, Illinois, observed that both plant-based diets and farm to table are fully on trend with dietary supplements for healthy weight control, as is the paleo diet. “That’s because all these dietary trends are based on chemical-free foods devoid of added sugar. Both added chemicals and refined sugar interfere with healthy weight control, as added sugar causes yeast overgrowth, leading to water retention and bloating,” she said.
In agreement is Michael A. Smith, MD, senior health scientist, Life Extension, Florida, who emphasized that plant-based diets and farm-to-table eating remove processed foods that are higher in sugar, salts and preservatives—all of which may increase inflammation and disrupt hormones, leading to increased weight. And these diets, by the way, complement scientifically supported dietary supplements for weight loss.
There are more attractive benefits that millions of American adults find alluring about these new ways of eating, according to Jennifer Weinhardt, BS, MS, research and development specialist, Texas-based Bluebonnet Nutrition, such as easing the burden of having to grocery shop while improving access to many better-for-you options, while also freeing up valuable time for other activities and chores.
“Americans today don’t have time to shop or prepare healthy meals in between the chaos of the day which includes work, soccer practice, you-time and other family events,” she stated. “That is why it’s especially exciting to witness this new day and age where families have easy access to better, healthier options, that also helps them improve their ability to time manage so that the working mom/dad can get to the gym and to the health food retailers too.”
Natalie Lamb, NT, technical advisor, Florida-based Bio-Kult (Protexin), expounded upon why what is contained in conventional foods makes the case for eating cleaner that much more attractive for weight loss and maintenance. Sugar and refined carbohydrates are considered empty calories, stripped of any nutritive value. Sugar-laden foods are sweet and therefore, for many, are addictive as they activate the reward pathway in the brain via dopamine release.
“Food manufacturers spend a lot of time working out the right amount of sugar to add to processed foods to make them more palatable and desirable,” she commented. An average ready meal could contain up to 12 teaspoons of sugar per portion, a can of regular Coke has six teaspoons, and a bowl of dry bran flakes actually has three teaspoons of sugar! ‘Farm-to-table’ is one way to encourage cooking real foods from scratch and to reduce hidden sugars.”
Lamb added that the newer delivery service programs and farm-to-table eateries and foods are in response to trying to reduce sugar consumption, which most if not all your customers know to do. But, she highlighted, gut bacteria have a huge influence on cravings and weight—diet has a strong influence in shaping the gut microbiome.
Still, Some Stats
As retailers who help hundreds if not thousands of people attain good health and well-being, it must be a good feeling to know that there are movements such as farm-to-table, as well as healthy and organic meal delivery for the whole family, so you can provide products to support and enhance their efforts.
But, there’s still a lot of work to do, as there are still millions of overweight adults (and teens and children). According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), more than one-third (about 78.6 million) of American adults are obese, and now, there are no states with a prevalence of obesity less than 20 percent. Five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia) have an obesity prevalence of 35 percent or more. In 2014, obesity in children aged 2 to 5 years was nearly 9 percent; this number rose to 17.5 percent in children aged 6 to 11, and 20.5 percent among adolescents aged 12 to 19. “This growing prevalence of obesity indicates that as children grow into adulthood, they are continuing the cycle of unhealthy habits that were taught to them as children,” said Weinhardt. “Further, these statistics portray a health care system that is continuing to be weighed down with many serious secondary complications associated with obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and more.”
Meanwhile, Gray pointed out, unhealthy diets and obesity contribute to approximately 678,000 deaths annually in the U.S. In the past 30 years, obesity rates have doubled for adults, tripled for children, and quadrupled for adolescents.
It’s Just Not Easy
Even losing a few pounds, especially after a long, cold and carb-laden winter, is not an easy task. So, imagine what adults who have been rather overweight most of their lives—needing to lose up to 40 pounds— face when deciding to finally change their lifestyles—the confusion, the fear, the anxiety, the mourning of the loss of oh-so-delicious junk, sweet and fast foods. When you encounter these new faces imploring you to help them on their healthy weight journey, there are some considerations. Often, overweight people are told, “Well, just don’t eat the bad stuff.” Or, “It’s really simple, calories out need to be higher than calories in.”
There are real issues as to why calorie counting and saying no to junk is not easy for many people. “There are, a number of complex contributing factors to the pathophysiology of obesity, not solely related to over-consumption and lack of exercise,” Lamb asserted. Additional factors she said that the customer should be advised by you to consider include the type and quality of diet, potential hormone imbalances, metabolic rate, leptin resistance, insulin resistance, carbohydrate cravings and intake, storage of environmental toxins and food additives in body fat, inflammation and microbiota balance.
Smith agreed, and explained, “Although a person’s change in weight is a simple mathematical equation (calories in minus calories out), the variables that affect calorie consumption and metabolism are quite complicated.” He offered the example of hypothyroidism, which resists weight-loss efforts like controlling calories. Without adequate thyroid hormone, the metabolic engine slows, reducing the rate of calorie burning. “This can be said for many other variables as well, such as hormonal imbalances, chronic inflammation and chronic stress.”
Recent research is showing that there are physiological differences and individual variations in how people process energy in the form of calories, control their appetites and metabolize fats, underscoring the fact that controlling a healthy weight range involves more than just willpower, according to Weinhardt.
Gray concurred, emphasizing that it is difficult to lose weight just on willpower alone. “There are way too many factors to consider, such as the addictive powers of foods, allergic intolerance, yeast overload and nutritional deficiency, along with an endless array of emotional challenges. Habit plays such an important role.” Because everybody is different, there really is no one-size-fits-all solution to losing weight, Weinhardt added. Undeniably, many of your new customers seeking to lose weight have been snookered into gimmicks, hype and impossible-to-achieve results (those infamous “before-and-after” photos). “All too often, people embark on a particular diet or are drawn by marketing hype to a special diet product that never addresses the specific and highly individualized reasons they gain weight,” she commented.
(Swim)-Suitable Solutions
There are many dietary supplements formulated to support different mechanisms of weight control.
Take satiety and thermogenesis. Bluebonnet Nutrition’s Skinny Garcinia contains Super CitriMax, which is derived from the tropical fruit Garcinia cambogia, a standardized plant extract rich in hydroxycitric acid (HCA). According to Weinhardt, science shows that this ingredient supports healthy levels of serotonin in the brain that helps to not only curb the appetite but also to promote a heightened sense of well-being that is often impacted by daily emotional, physical and environmental stressors. HCA inhibits ATP-citrate lyase, which may decrease fatty acid synthesis from glucose thereby reducing cellular fat production.
The supplement also contains chromium picolinate, an essential nutrient required for normal sugar and fat metabolism. Weinhardt explained that it works primarily by augmenting the action of insulin, promoting healthy glucose uptake by cells. If insulin is ineffective, glucose remains in the bloodstream and is eventually stored in adipose tissue, adding fat to the body. The product also features L-carnitine, an amino acid and B-vitamin derivative, needed to produce energy from fat, a process that requires the fatty acids to be transported from the cytosol of the cell into the mitochondrion (the energy producing “furnace” of each cell that produces adenosine triphosphate) for beta-oxidation, the process of fatty acid breakdown or fat burning. “Although fatty acids need to enter the mitochondria for beta-oxidation, the fatty acids themselves are unable to penetrate the inner mitochondrial membrane,” she said. “L-carnitine is essential in transporting long chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane for subsequent fat breakdown and energy production.”
Bluebonnet’s Skinny Garcinia includes the B vitamin derivatives choline and inositol which extend mitochondria longevity so it will be able to maintain its production of ATP; L-methionine, an amino acid catalyst for these B-complex vitamins; and electrolytes potassium and magnesium to offset electrolyte imbalances that may occur during routine exercise.
Reducing and controlling cravings, said Gray, can often be accomplished or enhanced by healthy detox and managing yeast. “Black seed has great powers in detox support and also for supporting healthy blood sugar, essential in gradual weight control,” she explained. “This is especially true of black seed oil capsules combined with fennel and cumin, as the latter have been demonstrated to assist natural weight loss. It can also be taken as an oil—at least a teaspoon twice daily. Black seed aids in oxygenation on the cellular level, a key to healthy weight loss.”
Fat burning is also increased when activity of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPk) is increased. AMPk regulates metabolism by activating energy-producing metabolic processes, and by regulating metabolic activity, AMPk is said to also influence glucose utilization and appetite. Specifically, described Smith, “AMPk is an enzyme found in every cell in the body. But the natural, age-related decline in AMPk is a major cause of unwanted abdominal fat. And since studies show that increasing AMPk activity can encourage your cells to stop storing fat and start burning it for energy, Life Extension created AMPK Metabolic Activator. It has two powerful ingredients that trigger AMPK, which causes the body to start burning unwanted fat—particularly around the abdomen.”
He added that the product’s blend of ActivAMP (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) and hesperidin has been clinically shown to revitalize youthful AMPK activity levels that can reduce the physical and molecular effects of increased abdominal fat. “It’s a way to take the fight against fat to the cellular level,” he commented.
The gut microbiome also plays a role in weight retention, and rate of weight loss or gain. According to Lamb, an imbalanced and less diverse gut microflora is seen in those who are overweight. Numerous human studies have shown a wide variety different probiotic strains to decrease waist and hip circumferences, BMI (body mass index) and adipocyte size (fat tissue). Bio-Kult Advanced Multi-strain features 14 strains of beneficial bacteria, “which have been shown in studies to significantly improve blood sugar levels, insulin levels and insulin resistance possibly by reducing gut inflammation in individuals with metabolic syndrome, improved BMI, weight loss and fasting blood sugar in people with NASH and improved NAFLD, commonly seen in obesity.”
She added that two strains in the formula, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, have been shown to produce CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) with reported anti-obesity activity. Additionally, probiotics may help improve low mood, known to trigger sweet food cravings and improve stress resilience.
Of course, there are many innovative and powerful products for you to sell, no matter the season; after all, weight loss is a goal for many people throughout the year. VR
For More Information:
Bluebonnet Nutrition, www.bluebonnetnutrition.com
Life Extension, www.lifeextension.com
North American Herb & Spice, www.p-73.com
Protexin, www.protexin.com
