Sunday, August 13, 2006

Acai

Everyone’s got a miracle cure.  A few years ago the world was touting the miracle of soy, and I have to admit that eating a lot of soy made me feel pretty good for a while.  My cholesterol level was fabulous, and I actually liked the soy foods, like Luna Bars—they became my main breakfast food, and I probably ate one daily for at least two years.  I also love soy milk, which Flippy hates, and happily drank all my Starbucks beverages made with soy.  I truly did feel that soy helped my overall health levels, but I started to wonder if it was damaging my thyroid.  Fear of exacerbating my Hashimoto’s disease, combined with increasing lethargy, made me decide it was time to stop the daily soy.  I was sad, because I missed a lot of the foods I enjoyed, and I admit that I still have an occasional soy milk mocha at Starbucks as a treat.  I don’t eat soy on a regular basis anymore, though.

The next health miracle I was told to try was mangosteen juice, which was popularly marketed as Xango.  I found it rather intriguing that this miracle cure for so many ailments was only available to purchase via MLM schemes and/or at great expense.  Until I read more conclusive, mainstream evidence that mangosteen was effective, I wasn’t going to shell out $25 per bottle for Xango.  I eventually bought one bottle of cheap mangosteen juice, and it didn’t seem like much more than just juice.  I didn’t notice that it did anything special, but I liked the flavour so much that I’m now willing to make the sacrifice of ordering Mangosteen Madness smoothies at Smoothie King.

The latest and greatest natural miracle is supposed to be acai, a berry from Brazil with “powerful antioxident properties” and “anthocyanins”.  I first saw acai mentioned on a fibromyalgia support message board, but unfortunately the message was a spammy one, written by someone trying to sell stuff, and the same message was repeated word for word on other boards.  There was just no credibility.  I’ve seen websites which claim that acai will “give relief from the symptoms of fibromyalgia”, but that’s a pretty massive claim.  It’s hard to seriously consider adding daily doses of acai to my diet, given that all the people promoting just seem to be in it for the money.  The one acai product I will vouch for is Sambazon juice, just because I like the taste of it!  I’ve only had the “Protein Warrior Chocolate Smoothie”, but I think it’s delicious.  It’s very thick, sort of fruity and dark chocolatey, and a little odd but tasty.  Flippy despises it entirely and thinks it tastes like cardboard, so proceed at your own risk.

I wish there really was a miracle food out there.  It would be so nice to feel better from eating something which tastes good, rather than just popping pills all the time.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/13 at 08:13 PM
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