Herbs for Health: Natural Weight Control

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“Herbs for Health” is offered bimonthly by the American Botanical Council and the Herb Research Foundation as a supplement to ­The Herb Companion.

“Herbs for Health” is intended as an educational service, not a source of medical advice or a guide for self-medication. Please consult a qualified health-care professional for treatment of any serious health problems. For further information on any of the topics in “Herbs for Health”, write the American Botanical Council or the Herb Research Foundation.

American Botanical Council
PO Box 201660 Austin, TX 78720
Herb Research Foundation
1007 Pearl St., Ste. 200 Boulder, CO 80302

If I could find an herbal magic bullet that would allow me to eat whatever I wanted, skip exercising, and still lose weight, I’d be forty pounds lighter. Unfortunately, no such magic bullet exists. Common sense, a low-fat, high-fiber diet, and regular exercise are the most valuable tools for taking off weight and keeping it off. That said, there are several herbal approaches that may help.

Obesity means being so fat that your health is impaired: weighing 30 percent more than normal for women or 25 percent for men. Obese people are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory distress, and joint stress, among other health problems. Losing weight reduces the risk.

As a rule, if you eat 3,500 calories more than you burn by exercise or other activity, you’ll gain a pound; burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, and you’ll likely lose a pound. However, other factors such as metabolic rate, enzyme production and utilization, heredity, and chemical appetite-triggers also affect the way your body deals with food. Many obese people have difficulty controlling their appetites, particularly when ­carbohydrates and fats are ­within reach.

There are many approaches to weight loss. These include dietary changes, exercise regimes, behavior modification, drugs, and—in severe cases—surgery to reduce the size of the stomach. Most weight-loss programs include a combination of approaches. If you’re overweight, discuss your ­options with a health-care professional.

Cooling Cravings

It would be a lot easier to stay on a diet if you weren’t hungry all the time. Most conventional diet drugs contain ingredients intended to suppress the urge to eat. Two Old World tropical herbs have been recently promoted as appetite suppressants. The acidic fruits of Garcinia gummi-guttata and G. indica have long been used as a food in India, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Burma. Muslims in India use the dried rind to flavor curries as a substitute for limes or tamarind, and they take an ­extract of the dried fruits after eating fatty lamb dishes to aid ­digestion.

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