Losing Weight With Goji Berry: Does It Work?
October 30, 2009 by Dorthy Weatherbush
Filed under Lose Weight
The Goji Berry is a natural product that is used in the health food industry. It has also been used for centuries in Chinese traditional medicine.
Both China and the certain regions in the Himalayas are where the goji berry is most commonly found and produced. The berries are very small in size, a vibrant red in their coloration, and are very delicate and sensitive to the touch. For this reason, the berries cannot be plucked or picked from their plant, but rather they must be gently shaken off of the goji plant until they simply fall off. Afterwards, they are placed in the sun and left to dry.
In recent years, the goji berry has been associated positively with weight loss; it is believed that this is related to their low Glycemic index.
The Glycemic index is a very important measurement tool, because it tells us the rate at which the food we eat are processed and turned into blood sugar or glucose. Therefore, when a particular food has a low Glycemic Index (GI) it means that the food converts into blood sugar at a much slower pace. Most people trying to lose weight have a major problem with eating sugary, starchy foods that have an extremely high glycemic index which means that these foods turn quickly into blood sugar. When eating these foods, blood sugar levels spike up.
In order to combat high blood sugar levels, the body generates insulin with the help of the pancreas. The ultimate result is that the blood sugar level goes down very quickly. The bad news of course is that this causes the body to feel hungry again and make you crave more sugary and starchy foods, and the cycle begins again!
The other side effect of this unstable blood sugar level is that you don’t feel energetic and so you will not feel up to performing regular exercise. As a result, you have the perfect storm for staying overweight: a high desire for fatty foods, and a low desire to exercise. This is a recipe for disaster.
Look back now at the goji berry, we can see that it compares favorably to healthy foods in terms of its glycemic index; its index is 29, apples are 38, and oranges, 42. In addition to a low GI, goji berries have other wonderful content that make them extremely healthy including fiber, which helps control blood sugar levels and chromium, which can do the same thing but also helps maintain muscle mass, even while the body is shedding pounds. Because muscles use up more calories than fat, this helps the body’s metabolism.
Goji berries also have a plethora of nutrients that assist in converting food into energy and riding the body of fat including thiamin, calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, and sodium.
When we are young, our bodies are kept slim by naturally created growth hormones. Consequently, as we age, our bodies slow down on the number of growth hormones that are created which causes smaller amounts of muscle tissue to be created and but greater amounts of newly created body fat. Goji berries, however, contain amino acids and potassium which help the body to generate growth hormones.
As wonderful as the goji berry is, it is not by itself the only solution to losing weight and looking great and it doesn’t claim to be. Moreover, it is good to use in combination with other diet and weight loss plans including the Medifast meal replacement program.
The Medifast meal replacement program is a leader in weight loss products and can be used in along with the goji berry. When used together, your body should have increased stimulated weight loss.
Goji berries alone will not cause you to lose a lot of weight. However, when used in their supplemental capacity, the results can be astonishing.
Dorthy Weatherbush is a leading expert in diet and weight loss for both men and women. She has used the Medifast diet plan in conjunction with the goji berry to help her clients achieve optimal results. In addition to Medifast , Dorthy utilizes lots of cardio activity and weight training to get her clients the bodies of their dreams.











