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In the West, many people can’t handle much spice in their food. But that doesn’t stop people from trying, especially because spicy food is reputed to be good for you. So is it true? And what’s the best way to get the benefits?

The truth is that spicy food has numerous health benefits. The active compound in most peppers is capsaicin, the same ingredient that gives you that “burning” sensation on the tongue. The pepper that has been researched the most under laboratory conditions is cayenne, which is available in any supermarket. Cayenne is not the world’s spiciest pepper, but between its capsaicin content and other natural compounds, it boasts numerous health benefits. Here are a few:

• Weight loss: We’ve written before about how capsaicin can help you lose weight. Capsaicin seems to accelerate the metabolism, and in tests that meant that subjects who consumed capsaicin along with glucose (sugar) had a higher metabolic rate and lower blood sugar level than those who had just the glucose. Higher metabolism translates to serious weight loss.
• Happiness: People who get used to spicy food tend to enjoy it – a lot. And even through sweat and tears, spicy food can provoke a pleasant sensation, a mild euphoria. That’s because consuming spice causes your body to release endorphins, the chemicals that make us joyful. In theory, the body does this to help fight the pain and irritation from eating the spicy food in the first place.
• Pain relief: Aside from euphoria, the endorphins have a positive side effect: they can help relieve pain from minor conditions like arthritis.
• Lower blood pressure: High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of heart disease. When you eat spicy food the body responds by increasing blood flow. This is why you get a “flushed” appearance but it also reduces your appearance.
• Prostate cancer: Capsaicin has been shown to inhibit the production of proteins that cause prostate cancer growth. This may be one of its most powerful properties yet known.

Of course, for most people the benefit that holds the most immediate allure is weight loss. Can you really improve your weight loss just by eating chili peppers?

Well, yes and no. The problem is that you need a lot of chili pepper to get the effect you want – more than most people can comfortably eat, even if you like spicy food. Plus, many cayenne “supplements” aren’t formulated in a way that lets your body absorb them, so even taking the full suggested dosage may not give you the effects you want.

Prograde includes easily absorbable capsaicin in our new, clinically proven weight loss supplement Metabo 223 X. If you want all the benefits of spicy food with none of the heartburn, try out Metabo 223 X today.

Antioxidants are all the rage in the fitness world. Everything from energy drinks to health bars emphasize how many antioxidants they have. But what do antioxidants do for your body that makes them so valuable, and how do you get enough in your diet?

The buzz over antioxidants is actually well-founded. Antioxidants are naturally occurring compounds that can hunt down and stop free radicals in your body. Free radicals are essentially rogue particles that cause serious damage on the cellular level. They’re unstable and need an extra electron to become stable again – which they’re happy to steal from particles in your body’s crucial cellular structures. This can cause damage related to aging, inflammation and neurological health. But antioxidants actively bond with free radicals, rendering them stable and harmless.

How do you get more antioxidants in your diet? Here are four easy ways:

1. White tea: White tea, green tea and black tea are all made from the same plant, but at different stages in its life cycle and under different circumstances. White tea uses tender young tea leaves and buds, and is not as heavily processed as green and white teas. Every cup is rich in antioxidants and has a light, easy flavor. Most grocery stores sell white tea, but green tea is a good runner-up.
2. Berries: Fresh berries of all kinds tend to be packed with antioxidants. In particular, the skins of berries are packed with them. Different types of berries have different natural compounds, but blueberries are particularly good antioxidant sources.
3. Red wine: In moderation, red wine is a heart-healthy beverage that contains the antioxidant resveratrol (which we’ve talked about before) found in grape skins. Too much alcohol is bad for you, however, so doctors urge limiting yourself to an average of one glass per day (women) or two per day (men). Remember, if you pour an extra-large helping it counts as more than one glass.
4. Pomegranate: One of the most popular antioxidant sources out there is pomegranate, an extremely tasty red fruit from the Mediterranean which has been a crowd favorite since ancient times. Fresh pomegranate can be hard to find, but pomegranate juice is deliciously refreshing and can make a good alternative to red wine for non-drinkers.

While all of these antioxidant sources are easy to find, they can also be expensive. Many people don’t have room in their budget for daily fresh berries and pomegranate juice. For an easy, cost-effective source of numerous antioxidants, check out our newest offering, Prograde Genesis.

You probably know that certain foods are good for you; what is it that makes them good choices? What exactly do certain foods do for you, that other foods don’t?

One veggie that’s been getting a lot of attention by nutritionists and fitness pros lately is kale. Kale seems to be showing up more and more in meal plans, health restaurants and green drinks. We’ve called out kale before as a superfood, but what does it do?

As a member of the cabbage family, kale starts off with a lot of health benefits right out of the gate. Leafy greens are pretty much always good for you. They’re jammed full of water and healthy vitamins, they’re low in calories and they’re arguably one of the best sources on earth for dietary fiber, which slows your digestion, reduces the bad cholesterol in your body, and reduces the urge to overeat.

And kale doesn’t disappoint in the realm of vitamins and minerals. The vegetable is a very rich source for vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, beta carotene, and lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids that may act as strong antioxidants in the human body.

Anti-Cancer

But that’s just the beginning. What really makes kale remarkable is not just its high vitamin content, but the fact that it contains two separate compounds with potentially life-changing effects on human health.

The first of these is sulforaphane. Exactly how sulforaphane works is not fully understood, but researchers believe it actively fights cancer cells. Sulforaphane has showed promising results in laboratory conditions and is currently involved in clinical trials to fight prostate cancer.

A second compound in kale also has potentially remarkable properties. Indole-3-carbinol is believed to aid your body in DNA repair and, like sulforaphane, may help prevent or fight cancer. Further research is being carried out to understand the role indole-3-carbinol plays in protecting and repairing your body’s cells, but what’s clear is that it has a positive effect and kale is one of the best places to get it.

Kale also brings a unique flavor and texture to a meal. For the best results, it’s recommended not to stew or boil kale, as this reduces the amount of sulforaphane your body can absorb from it. Other methods of preparation however, including stir frying, steaming, and mincing will still deliver the great health benefits of fresh kale, so there are many ways to fit it into your recipe book.

Of course, not everyone has time to prepare lots of fresh greens. If you want to get the benefits of a diet rich in greens without ponying up for piles of salad, consider Prograde Genesis.

Salmon might be the most well-known source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids, but there are other ways to build these good fats into healthy diets.

One option is to try a different fish.  You could experiment with herring, Alaskan black cod, arctic char, or rainbow trout in your healthy meals.

Another option is to provide your body with good nutrition everyday by taking an Omega 3 supplement.  Prograde’s EFA Icon is a quality Omega 3 supplement that can give you the heart, fat loss, and antioxidant benefits without eating fish.

Whether you like seafood or not, healthy diets should always include Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

Vitamin D is becoming a very hot topic amongst the health community and scientists.  The reason for this is because the research is starting to show Vitamin D’s power and benefits. 

You always need to build a solid nutritional foundation, but it is hard to eat a wide variety of all the nutrients you need each and every day.  This is why nutritional supplements are of value to most every person.  Nutrition supplements are designed to supplement what you are already consuming through food.  They help complete that foundation. 

One vitamin that tends to be low in too many people is Vitamin D.  Milk is the main source of Vitamin D and if you are not a big milk drinker then you are increasing your chances for Vitamin D deficiency.  The best way to get in enough Vitamin D is to get 15 minutes of full sun exposure each day. 

The sun used to be the easiest solution, but now with the risk of skin cancer and sunblock that we all use, we are blocking the sun’s rays and the Vitamin D it provides. 

When you are deficient in Vitamin D you have a higher risk of heart and stroke related deaths. 

What you should do is schedule a visit with your doctor and ask them to test your 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.  If you are not at least 50ng/ml then it is time to supplement with Vitamin D3.

The principle of what coffee does for a person in the morning is now being used in supplements that work with healthy exercise and diet plans.

A cup or two (or three or four) of coffee gets the mind and body revved up and ready to work efficiently for the day.

Caffeine can do the same thing for your metabolism.  It increases thermogenesis, which is calories being burned during processes occurring in the body.  More efficient thermogenesis leads to more quick weight loss.

Before you fall into fad diets that have you drinking coffee 8 times a day, or, even worse, a daily dose of a sugary mocha topped with whipped cream and fudge, you need to know a few other things.

It’s not the coffee, but the caffeine, that should be added to diet plans for healthy weight loss.

The problem with drinking a caffeinated drink is that it is done working within a few hours.  Also, the amount that is contained in one cup of coffee, for example, doesn’t increase thermogenesis enough to actually make a difference.

The way caffeine can be an effective quick weight loss tool is if it is carefully extracted, measured, and combined with other metabolism-boosting ingredients in a supplement that can be taken once a day.  Prograde Metabolism has done all the research and work.  All you have to do is keep up with your healthy exercise and diet plans and let Prograde Metabolism give you the extra edge.

Green tea in healthy diet plans is popular for one simple reason.  It works!!

EGCG found in green tea ramps up your metabolism to burn more calories regardless of the healthy eating plans you follow.

Did you know it also blocks an enzyme that shuts down fat loss, which means your thermogenic calorie burning fire can stay stoked all day long?

It is great to drink green tea, but to get the full potency with your healthy eating plans you should also consume it in extract form at a therapeutic level for efficacy.

The extract form also makes it easier for your body to absorb the key components it needs.

Recent research is supporting the use of green tea in the treatment of obesity.  A typical cup of brewed green tea usually contains 240-320mg of catechins, which results in about 72-160mg of EGCG, which is the nutrient you want to be consuming for a calorie burning effect.

To get to a therapeutic level of EGCG in your healthy diet plan you would need to consume about 3-4 cups of brewed green tea.  When consuming green tea extract that contained a total of 270mg of EGCG the participants in a study increased their 24-hour calorie burning rate by 63-200 calories.

We know that green tea is healthy for us and that is why it is a part of our healthy eating guidelines.  To have an increase in calories burned you would need to drink 3-4 cups of green tea day in and day out.  This is why consuming green tea in an extract form is more beneficial because consistency is important here.

Check out Prograde Metabolism and take advantage of the green tea that is used as well as other key ingredients that research has shown to increase the rate at which you burn calories.

Take Advantage Of The Science Behind Prograde Metabolism

Krill oil comes from shrimp like crustaceans that live in the cold depths of the ocean and krill make up the largest animal biomass on the planet.  It is also the main food source for whales. 

Krill oil is a complete essential fatty acid consisting of Omega 3 fats as well as EPA and DHA.  These are also found in fish oil and fish oil supplements.

Krill oil is more absorbable than fish oil because is consists of phospholipids which are also in our fat cell walls of our human body.  This makes it easier for our body to absorb the krill oil than fish oil which is generally found in a triglyceride form. 

Omega 3 supplements such as krill oil also contain an excellent anti-oxidant called astanxanthin.  Astanxanthin helps protect against ultraviolet light and increases the ORAC potency of krill oil to 48 times that of fish oil and fish oil supplements. 

This allows krill oil to be more shelf stable.  Fish oil supplements can become rancid rather quickly, but when high potency anti-oxidants are included that rancidity slows dramatically and you end up with a better quality omega 3 supplement like krill oil.

Whether you’re a competitive athlete or committed exerciser, at some point you’ve probably experienced excessive fatigue and muscle soreness following your workout. Sometimes this tiredness can hold you back from working out as hard as you’d like for many days.  In order to reduce this feeling of delayed recovery and allow your body to get back into the game sooner than later, you need to appreciate the importance of proper exercise nutrition.

Research scientists have shown that proper nutrition supplementation is critical for recovery from intense weight-training and endurance exercise. Most recently, the evidence points to a specific combination of carbohydrates and protein as being the most effective for restoring muscle glycogen (the fuel you use while exercising), repairing muscle damage, preventing muscle breakdown, and promoting muscle growth.  All of these factors are important for your timely return to your workout plan.

Read the rest of the article here==>> Post Workout Recovery Research

Remember there are other good proteins such as casein protein and egg proteins.  It just depends on what your goals and needs are. 

If you have any nutritional supplement questions please ask them in the comments section below and we will make sure we answer them right here on this blog.