Healthy Weight Management

More than two thirds of men and women in the UK are overweight. One in 5 adults, or roughly 8 million adults, are obese. Health problems linked to obesity include heart disease, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and a number of cancers.
(NHS Magazine PrimaryCare, 4 September 2002) Our modern lifestyle combining fatty diets and little exercise has resulted in an ever increasing number of people in the UK being overweight (ratio of weight in kilograms to height in metres squared of greater than 25) or obese (ratio greater than 30).

As a result, an increasing number of us are turning towards a variety of means to lose weight, some of which involve fasting and rapid weight loss. Others involve sticking to particular diets. However, in most cases, these are short-term solutions and invariably result in us regaining the weight we have lost when we come off the diet.

Satisfactory weight management involves a combination of healthy eating habits and mental discipline. But how do we achieve a healthy weight in the first place when we are a few pounds overweight?

A common misconception is that being overweight is largely the result of eating too much saturated fat. In fact, it is generally caused by eating too many carbohydrates and in particular sugar and sweetened foods. This upsets your body's insulin balance preventing it from metabolising the fat and storing it instead.

Recent scientific developments may have found an answer to this problem in the form of conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. CLA refers to a group of several variants of linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid found almost exclusively in animal products. The main source of CLA is in the stomachs of ruminant animals that have been grazing on grass. It is a common constituent of red meat, particularly beef, and dairy products such as milk and cheese, providing the animals have been fed on grass.

Modern farming and processing techniques, however, have lead to a substantial reduction in the CLA content of both meat and dairy products. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, animals are frequently fed on grain so that CLA is not produced in significant quantities. Pasteurisation of dairy products also tends to remove the fatty substances so that the CLA content of milk and cheese is very low.

The near absence of CLA in the average diet may be one of the prime reasons for the increase in obesity observed in the UK.

So, what are the perceived benefits of CLA?

• It improves insulin sensitivity and increases metabolic rate, thereby helping to reduce body fat, particularly around the abdomen.
• It enhances muscle growth resulting in an improved muscle to fat ratio.
• It inhibits the growth of certain cancers such as prostate cancer and breast cancer.
• It lowers cholesterol and triglycerides.
• It reduces food-induced allergic reactions.
• It enhances the immune system.

The bottom line is the use of CLA is beneficial to healthy weight management. Now the first time, CLA is available in a single supplement from Neways, ProMass.

The CLA in ProMass is derived from two sources: sunflower seed oil and safflower seed oil. ProMass also contains GLA (Gamma Linolenic Acid) obtained from borage seed oil. GLA is thought to enhance blood flow and, in combination with insulin, regulate blood sugar levels, thereby speeding up the metabolism.