Feeling a little heavier after the holidays? Here’s some food for thought: The number of Americans who are overweight or obese has reached a record high, and experts estimate that if the trend continues, 75 percent of adults will be overweight and 41 percent will be obese by the year 2015. Now more than ever we need to make a change.

New Total DIET Success™ from ReNew Life puts the power of healthy weight loss in your hands with a simple, twice-daily formula designed to help you lose weight and maintain a healthy body weight. Together with a high-fiber, low-calorie diet and regular exercise, it works on three levels to help with appetite control, calorie burning and fat metabolism. And unlike a lot of other weight loss programs, Total DIET Success™ can be taken daily for as long as needed to manage weight. Try it today!

adults, Americans, appetite control, body weight, calorie burning, change, daily, Diet, fat metabolism, food, healthy, High Fiber, holidays, lose weight, low-calorie, maintain, manage, obese, overweight, regular exercise, ReNew Life, simple, success, Total DIET Success, trend, weight loss, weight loss programs Hide

By now many of you have heard about the remarkable health benefits of probiotics. In fact, the good-for-you bacteria seem to be making headlines everywhere these days—especially as we head into another cold and flu season. And as awareness increases about just how good probiotics are for optimal digestion and immunity, there’s another “p” word you might be wondering about: prebiotics.

In technical terms, prebiotics are often defined as “non-digestible food ingredients” that promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the digestive tract. So what does that mean? Quite simply, prebiotics are a food source for probiotics. So as they travel through the digestive system, they nourish all those good bacteria along the way and help them grow and multiply. The result? More good bacteria in the gut, which means better digestion and a stronger natural defense system.

So where do prebiotics come from? Well, mostly from soluble fiber sources such as oats, legumes, flax and almonds—and that’s where the “non-digestible” part comes into play. Dietary fiber—including both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber—really just refers to the parts of plant foods that our bodies are unable to digest and absorb, which is why it’s sometimes called “roughage”. Because prebiotics are not digested, they remain in the digestive tract where they can do their job of feeding their probiotic partners.

In addition to obtaining prebiotics through the diet, nowadays many probiotic supplements will actually include prebiotics to help you get the benefit of this dynamic duo (i.e. probiotics and prebiotics). For example, you may see something called FOS on the label. Short for fructooligosaccharide, FOS is extracted from soluble fiber foods such as chicory root and will help to feed and stimulate the growth of beneficial probiotic bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli.

So there you have it! Two powerful “p” words that can go a long way toward better digestion and a stronger natural immune system—talk about a winning combination!

Prebiotic Food Sources:

• Almonds
• Asparagus
• Bananas
• Barley
• Berries
• Chicory Root
• Flax
• Garlic
• Honey
• Leeks
• Legumes
• Oats
• Onions
• Soybeans
• Wheat
• Whole Grains

absorb, almonds, asparagus, bacteria, bananas, barley, benefits, berries, better digestion, bifidobacteria, bodies, chicory root, cold and flu season, defense system, Diet, dietary fiber, digest, Digestion, Digestive System, Digestive Tract, feeding, Flax, food, FOS, fructooligosaccharide, garlic, growth, gut, headlines, Health, healthy, honey, immunity, ingredients, insoluble fiber, Lactobacilli, leeks, legumes, multiply, natural, non-digestible, nourish, oats, onions, plant foods, prebiotic food, prebiotics, Probiotic Supplements, probiotics, promote, roughage, soluble fiber, soybeans, stimulate, stronger, wheat, Whole Grains Hide