How to Use Acai Berry for Diet

Instructions

Step 1

If you have a health store near you, you can purchase fresh, frozen or dried Acai Berries if you can find them. Or you can purchase them in this form online. Since it is a nutrient-rich food, you can cook with it and add it to your favorite recipes. It works well as a cereal topping, in granola, smoothies, yogurt, on low-fat ice cream and in things like muffins and cookies (as long as they're low fat!).


Step 2

You can also find Acai in the form of a liquid extract. The benefit of taking Acai in this form is that the nutrients will be super concentrated. Also, if you live in a climate where Acai Berries don't grow, this can be a good way to get it as fresh and concentrated as possible.

Step 3

If you want, you can also take Acai in capsule form. Capsules are good if you want to take Acai as easily as possible and still receive the benefits. If you make it a part of your daily vitamin and mineral regimen it will be easier to take it consistently.


Tips & Warnings

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Follow a healthy diet and exercise in order to use Acai for weight loss in the most beneficial way.
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Contact your doctor to make sure it's OK for you to take Acai.
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Who Should Pay for Obese Health Care?

When paramedics come to the rescue, they typically look for vital signs first -- breathing, a pulse. But in more communities each year, paramedics might also be sizing up the patient to see if a bariatric ambulance specially designed to carry severly obese people needs to be called.

Topeka, Kan., is one of at least 30 communities across the United States that has commissioned ambulances with a specialized cot, ramp and winch to lift patients who weigh more than 350 pounds, according to ABC News affiliate KTKA in Topeka.

Patients who need the special ambulances in Topeka will be charged more money for the service -- $1,172 rather than $629, plus $16 per mile rather than $11.

After a decade of spiraling weight problems in America, hospitals across the country are responding with bariatric specialized care -- from floor-mounted toilets to specialized prenatal clinics for obese women.

"We really think this helps provide dignity to a patient," said Douglas Moore, public relations manager for American Medical Response, a private ambulance service that operates in 43 states and is the developer of the "bariatric" ambulance used in Topeka's Shawnee County. The company's first bariatric ambulance debuted in 2002, and they have spread across the country ever since.

"A lot of our profession is lifting patients from the cot into the bed," he said.

Moore said clients across the country, including fire departments, occasionally have had to call for backup to lift severely obese patients.

Obesity activists reacted with disdain to the practice of charging more for use of the new bariatric equipment, especially in a service funded by taxpayers.

"Increasing that rate from $629 to $1,172 is price gouging, and it's targeting a particular group of people," said Barbara Thompson, vice chairman of the Obesity Action Coalition in Tampa, Fla. "It can be looked at no other way than discriminating against them."

AMR markets the higher charge as a solution to cities, counties and towns that respond frequently to such patients at an extra cost to ... someone.

"We don't advertise this as a bariatric ambulance. ... You wouldn't know that it was a different ambulance on the outside," said Moore. "We do advertise it to the hospital."

Paying for Specialized Obesity Care

Many ambulance services and hospitals do not charge the patient directly for the specialized services. But it will cost something to continually serve such patients or keep up with the obesity rates. In 1999, 32 states had an obesity rate below 20 percent. Today, only one state has an obesity rate below 20 percent.

"We look at it as an investment in service and quality versus an additional cost that we have to pass off on somebody," said Steve Lawler, president of Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C.

Similar to a sub-specialty in geriatrics, Lawler said Pitt County Memorial Hospital has worked with the American Nurses Association to develop an accreditation for bariatric nursing. The hospital also has invested in lifts and special beds to accommodate bariatric patients in or outside of the bariatric surgery center.

"It [the change] really has been over the last two years," said Lawler. "It's reflective in regards to what's going in health care and what's going on in health reform."

Perhaps spurred either by the idea of changing the focus of hospitals and health care, or by sheer logistics, hospitals in many areas are implementing similar renovations.

When Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, Ky., opened a 144-private-room tower, the administrators kept weight in mind.

"Each nursing unit [floor] includes two bariatric rooms equipped with an overhead lift to assist the patient from the bed, or even all the way to the handicapped accessible bathroom," wrote Kit Fullenlove, public relations manager for Baptist Hospital East, in an e-mail to ABCNews.com.

Such lifts are intended for 440 to 660-pound patients, and the renovations have extended to older areas of the hospital.

"We are renovating many of our older nursing units and converting many semi-private rooms to private rooms. In the process, we are creating one bariatric room per nursing unit, each of which features a larger doorway to better accommodate the use of a larger, bariatric bed," Fullenlove said.

Treating Obese Patients in Obstetrics and More

The hospital is adding to the number of bariatric wheelchairs, blood pressure cuffs and gowns it already had.

"None of these costs have been passed on to the patients," Fullenlove said.

Alongside the movement to revamp equipment is a move into specialized treatment for bariatric patients in other specialties. Both the University of Michigan Hospital and St. Louis University Hospital developed special units for obstetric care for obese mothers.

"We want to monitor these patients very closely," said Dr. Raul Artal, a professor and chairman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at St. Louis University Hospital in Missouri. "We see them more frequently. We have a dietician who works full time and [will] dedicate more time to these patients."

Artal explained that women who are obese, especially if they have a Body Mass Index of 40 or higher, are more likely to have miscarriages, babies with birth defects and "a multitude of problems."

"For some of these patients, they are so obese for the last weeks of their pregnancy [that] they cannot walk, so they are confined to a wheelchair," he said.

But the clinic has good news, too. Artal said about 40 percent to 50 percent of his patients are able to fully comply with nutrition, diet and exercise programs during their pregnancy and, overall, 70 percent to 80 percent of patients make some progress.

"We see patients who have had hypertension when they enter the program, and when they exit the program their blood pressure is normal," he said. "We have success stories, but we would like to extend this clinic."

Artal said the patients at his clinic pay no more for their extra care than any other woman with a high-risk pregnancy.

Activists have felt that while additional charges might be considered discriminatory, specialized bariatric care, in general, might be supportive.

"Women who are at a BMI of 40 -- they may have special care available because they are at a greater health risk," said Thompson. "It strikes me as good medicine, and I applaud them for not charging a higher rate."
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Fatty Diet Linked to Pancreatic Cancer

To the risk of obesity and heart attack, the government had added yet another reason to avoid eating lots of fat, especially from meat and dairy products: pancreatic cancer.

The National Institutes of Health has determined that people who indulge heavily in meat and dairy fats are likely more to develop this deadly disease, which will strike more than 42,000 Americans this year and kill more than 35,000, according to the American Cancer Society.

Men and women who consumed large amounts of saturated fat were 36 percent more likely to suffer from pancreatic cancer, researchers reported online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study found that the link between fat intake and cancer was strongest for saturated fat from animal food sources, which were associated with a 43 percent increase in cancer risk.

To reach their conclusion, NIH researchers analyzed records of more than 500,000 people enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Participants completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1995 and 1996 and were followed to track a variety of health issues, including pancreatic cancer.

Over an average follow-up of 6.3 years, 865 men and 472 women were diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic cancer.

Among the participants who consumed the highest amounts of total fats, the rate of cancer was 53 percent higher for men and 23 percent higher for women, compared to participants with the lowest fat diets.

Combining the data for men and women, the researchers found that total fat consumption was associated with 23 percent higher rates of pancreatic cancer, while high intake of monosaturated fats was associated with 22 percent higher cancer rates.

They theorized that the association between fat intake and pancreatic cancer could be related to the so-called exocrine function of the pancreas, which excretes enzymes such as those that help digest fat.

They also noted that studies have linked saturated fat to insulin resistance and that diabetes and insulin resistance have been associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk.

Diet Link to Pancreatic Cancer Needs More Study

In an accompanying editorial, two prominent cancer researchers praised the NIH team, although they noted that more research would be necessary to definitively prove a direct link between fat intake and pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Brian Wolpin of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Dr. Meir Stampfer of the Harvard School of Public Health noted that pancreatic cancer kills 95 percent of its victims, and though it's far less common than many other types, it's the nation's fourth leading cause of cancer deaths.

Overall, they called on scientists "to push our research efforts in novel directions and provide hope for meaningful progress in this highly lethal disease."
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Doctors Fight Labeling Obesity a Disability

Fat can be disabling. A person 180 pounds over a healthy weight is susceptible to arthritis, has increased blood pressure, a weakened heart and could soon need a walker just to get around.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, such a person could legally be labeled as disabled.

But should obesity be considered a disability? On Tuesday the American Medical Association voted a resounding no at its annual meeting.

But in a country where nearly one in three people is obese but where laws do not always cover size discrimination, and many health insurance policies do not cover obesity treatments until a patient develops a more serious health condition -- not all who deal with obesity agree on the matter.

"We believe that we passed this for the patient's benefit," said Dr. Domenic Federico, an AMA delegate from Michigan. "We do not want to have this limit the ability to have doctors talk about a very serious condition."

Federico explained that doctors are worried they could be legally reprimanded for discussing obesity with a patient who doesn't want to hear it.

"If obesity is designated as a disability, physicians could be sued or reprimanded for discrimination under the Americans with Disability Act if a patient takes offense at the physician discussing obesity," the resolution states. "Therefore be it resolved that our American Medical Association not support the effort to make obesity a disability."

Federico said he hasn't heard of any similar lawsuits between doctors and patients with any disability or of an activist group specifically lobbying for obesity to be designated a disability. But he pointed out that bringing up weight in a doctor's office can be a difficult conversation.

"I have people who told me that they choose to go to an obese physician because they know they will never talk to them about their weight," said Pam Davis a registered nurse in Nashville, Tenn., and a bariatric surgery patient.

Doctors Struggle to Address Weight in Office Visits

Davis, 44, said she has struggled with weight issues her entire life, even after she lost 160 pounds following bariatric surgery eight years ago. At her largest -- 330 pounds -- Davis said she knew she had a problem. But it was the talk at the doctor's office when she really felt a burning stigma.

"I know the first time I left my physician's office carrying that chart that said 'morbidly obese' and seeing it in black and white like that -- it almost feels like it had been tattooed on my forehead, a scarlet letter," Davis said.

"It's definitely is difficult talking to people about obesity," said Dr. Keith Ayoob, a nutrition and obesity specialist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "It takes somebody with decent beside manner to approach the topic without placing blame ... but it can cause immobility. It's also a gateway condition to so many other problems."

Davis said that for all practical purposes, her weight was disabling. She could not go up stairs easily and she couldn't run and catch her dog in her yard. She was tired all the time and couldn't get down on the floor to play with her young children.

"But I think that for some it would take it as a step forward in that scarlet letter, if it said, 'Now at that weight we consider you disabled,'" she said.

As a nurse, Davis said she's well aware that many insurance companies do not offer general obesity counseling unless there's a co-morbid condition or a patient is approved for surgery. But she said she'd rather see that issue handled with anti-discrimination laws than under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I think it makes more sense where we don't discriminate against someone for their sex, for their ethnic basis, and for their size," Davis said. "If we were to say, 'Well, if somebody's of a certain size then we are considering that as part of the disability act,' you set up a resentful atmosphere."

Yet while doctors and obese patients are concerned about the label "disabled," lawyers who specialize in obesity suits said many people are missing the point.

The Term 'Disabled' Used Broadly Under the Law

"There isn't one paramount definition of disability from a legal standpoint," said Walter Lindstrom of the Obesity Law and Advocacy Center -- a private firm in the San Diego area that specializes in "fighting for the rights of people of size to receive equal access to health care and be free of discrimination in life."

Lindstrom explained that a disability label from a social security benefits point of view would require different criteria than a disability label from an insurance point of view, or disability as classified under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Each "disability" label also wins a person different rights. According to Lindstrom, the Americans With Disabilities Act covers civil rights protections such as employer discrimination more than compensation benefits.

"You're talking about disability with a small 'd' and disability with a capital 'D,'" Lindstrom said.

"The problem that the AMA resolution has in all honesty is that they fundamentally don't understand disability law: Very few medical conditions are a disability by definition," he said.

Getting a disabled label under the Americans With Disabilities Act requires a person to prove their condition has a physical impairment that also puts substantial limitations on major life activities, Lindstrom said.

However Lindstrom said no two obese people are alike: One obese person might have health issues serious enough to be labeled disabled, while another obese person might not qualify.

"You could have that same scenario with people who suffer from certain joint conditions, brain conditions or diabetes," Lindstrom explained. "It's not like there's a laundry list of diseases to fill in the disability boxes -- the AMA knows that and in my mind this is a little bit of grandstanding."

Lindstrom also thought the move might be "self-protective."

But the Obesity Action Coalition had a less intense reaction.

"As a coalition of those affected, the OAC encourages discussion around this topic of obesity and disability, as it is not clearly defined and is not simple. The determination of obesity should be based on scientific and medical factual data and not fear of litigation," OAC executive director Joseph Nadglowski wrote in statement responding to the AMA vote.

"Every individual who is affected by obesity is not disabled, but this does not mean that obesity does not and cannot contribute to disability," the statement said.
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