July 6th, 2011 • Posted by Joyce Murdock • Permalink
Chocolate Matters: From Beans to IsaDelight
December 22, 2010,
by Isagenix Nutritional Sciences
Cocoa and chocolate
Chocolate quality depends on care from bean harvest to tempering.
Chocolate is often celebrated as one of the holiday season’s top guilty pleasures, a treat with high appeal and often loaded with calories from fat and sugar that can side track weight-management goals. However, dark chocolate is low on calories and can even help you avoid the holiday bulge by satisfying cravings. It is also dubbed a brain food because it helps ward off bad moods and oxidative stressors.
Yes, science has given a green light to dark chocolate as a “guilt-free pleasure.”
The reasons to eat regular amounts of dark chocolate are appearing limitless, but its health benefits and flavor are contingent on manufacturing. Thankfully, Isagenix recognizes the benefits of this healthy indulgence, and has come up with a delightful solution. IsaDelight Plus is a decadent 50-calorie snack rich in quality cocoa (70 percent) with an abundance of cocoa antioxidants, along with brain-healthy amino acids, and metabolism-boosting green tea included.Additionally, in IsaDelight, cocoa is not just a simple indulgence. It is here that the road in dark chocolate equality divides: in the process of harvesting, fermentation, roasting, grinding, cooling, heating, tempering and molding.
In the case of the IsaDelight, care in processing has made chocolate nutritious without sacrificing the pleasure of the palate.
Isagenix’s VP of Product Innovation Pierre Teissier, Ph.D., gives insight into the intricacies of chocolate production and the ways in which Isagenix has worked to yield a superior cocoa product.
Here is a simple overview: the raw cabosses (cocoa beans still in their shells) must be dried, fermented and roasted prior to their use. They are then cracked, winnowed and the white beans are cleaned. These non-alkalized cocoa nibs (alkalization destroys valuable antioxidant flavanols) are then roasted (giving them their familiar dark brown color), ground and pressed yielding three products: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and, with additional processing, cocoa powder.
The cocoa liquor is a brown paste that contains most of the beneficial antioxidant polyphenols, the cocoa butter is the fat, and the cocoa powder is the fibrous plant material.
Dr. Teissier explains that many companies take the cocoa liquor and add fillers, flavors, fats and emulsifiers to take the difficulty out of finalizing the product. As he puts it, this is bad chocolate. The chocolate that we all know and love, in its purest form, is a combination of cocoa butter and cocoa liquor.
The trouble is that these two substances have different consistencies and melting points.
IsaDelight Plus combines quality dark chocolate with brain-healthy amino acids, vitamins and metabolism-boosting green tea.
IsaDelight Plus combines quality dark chocolate with brain-healthy amino acids, vitamins and metabolism-boosting green tea.
Combining the liquor and the butter occurs during tempering.
Tempering, Dr. Teissier explains, is an integral part of the final product. As the chocolate is tempered, the cocoa liquor and cocoa butter are heated and brought down to a narrow temperature of 35°C. At this temperature, the cocoa butter just starts to solidify as the cocoa liquor starts to soften—here the two may be combined into a beautiful silky emulsion. However, the temperature range is a mere 2°C. It is during this stage that mood-boosting vitamins and amino acids are added to the mix. Isagenix conducts this process under careful temperature regulation to ensure that the emulsion doesn’t separate, the chocolate doesn’t burn, the amino acids and vitamins aren’t destroyed, and the final product does not require any added emulsifiers. Lecithin is added only to suspend the amino acids and vitamins in the emulsion and prevent them from rising to the surface.
Many of the world’s most well-known cocoa products neglect the detail of this process and compensate with unhealthy additives. The process that Dr. Teissier recounted above is often avoided by adding synthetic fats, some even hydrogenated, to mimic the consistency of the cocoa liquor and more easily form an emulsion.
The detailed process of tempering and roasting that Dr. Teissier described requires great precision and attention to detail. The IsaDelight is a good product, he says, because the “chocolate is very delicate. We strictly control the temperature to get the best antioxidant content. It is a good chocolate, and great for your brain! This is the great thing.”
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June 15th, 2011 • Posted by Joyce Murdock • Permalink
What exactly is Nutritional Cleansing? ( article taken from Isagenix scientific board)
In essence, Nutritional Cleansing involves nourishing the body with nutrients that assist in clearing out unwanted substances from your body.
Nutritional Cleansing is not the same as colon cleansing, which is based on using fiber or laxatives to shed gunk and foreign substances from your colon. Instead, Nutritional Cleansing involves using nutrition to help your body perform at its best by ridding it of harmful substances, naturally.
One example is with -
The Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing systems, use natural ingredients to assist your liver and cells in ridding the body of harmful chemicals to help you feel healthier and more energized. Cleanse for Life® includes key ingredients to help your body naturally cleanse itself of harmful impurities on a cellular level while nourishing it with more than 27 vital nutrients, antioxidants, natural botanical extracts, teas, vitamins and minerals. As a side benefit, performing deep cleansing can even help you lose weight.
Isn’t it just a fancy juice?
Well, it does taste great like a juice, but it’s much more than that. Unlike some one-hit wonder juices that use a single berry as their main ingredient (goji, açai, noni, pomegranate fruits, etc.), Cleanse for Life uses a combination of ingredients and nutrients to support the body’s natural cleansing process. When you read the ingredients, you will see that it contains a powerful combination of antioxidants, herbs, vitamins and minerals that work to help you feel refreshed and ready to tackle each new day. Isagenix has spent years perfecting the formula in Cleanse for Life to help give you optimum performance and deliver benefits far beyond what one- and two- ingredient formulas can offer.
Why does your body need cleansing?
Every day our bodies ingest all different kinds of chemicals, toxins and impurities. Not only that, but our bodies are also constantly giving off what are known as free radicals, or negatively charged molecules that attack your body’s cells. These free radicals can happen as a result of environmental challenges such as pollution or even your normal metabolism and exercise. Nutritional Cleansing helps rid your body of these toxins, while at the same time flooding your system with antioxidants — free radicals’ worst nightmare.
What other benefits can I get from Nutritional Cleansing?
Do you feel sluggish during the day? Feel like you can’t get through the afternoon? Do you often experience the 3 p.m. slump? These are all areas where Nutritional Cleansing can make a difference.
Besides helping you lose weight and rid your body of toxins, Cleanse for Life can help you experience increased energy, feel more alert and focused during the day and also help improve your mental and physical performance.
Anti-Aging benefits. Age isn’t your only enemy. Environmental impurities and nutritional deficiency can lead to premature aging both internally and externally. By feeing the body free radical-fighting antioxidants, Nutritional Cleansing helps to offset the effects of toxins, which can accelerate aging.
Is Nutritional Cleansing safe?
It’s important to always examine anything you put into your body. That’s why Isagenix only added all-natural, safe ingredients to our Nutritional Cleansing systems. Cleanse for Life contains no artificial additives, flavors or other ingredients that can mess with your metabolism.
What’s the difference between daily cleansing and deep cleansing?
Daily cleansing naturally helps protect your body from impurities you are exposed to every day — pollutants, chemicals, free radicals and so on. This helps keep you performing at your best.
Over time, some impurities may not get detoxified and cleared out through your body’s natural processes. These impurities bury themselves in your cells and tissues, normally staying there and slowing down your metabolism over time. Deep cleansing gives your digestion a rest while also allowing the liver to detoxify thanks to cleansing nutrients. These nutrients get down deep into your system, ridding contaminants that have collected within your body over time, thus helping your eliminatory systems function effectively. Deep cleansing also creates the accompanying benefit of stimulating weight loss.
How often should I use Nutritional Cleansing?
For everyday cleansing, drink Cleanse for Life two times daily. For deep cleansing, use four times daily as part of the Isagenix Cleansing and Fat Burning System.
I’ve heard of Nutritional Cleansing, but what makes Cleanse for Life different?
Other cleansing products or systems claim only to cleanse part of the body, like the colon, kidneys or liver. Cleanse for Life works for your whole body. Also, Cleanse for Life works with your body on a cellular level, rather than just flushing out your digestive system like some diuretic products or programs out there. And, unlike other products on the market that may deplete the body of vital nutrients, Cleanse for Life actually nourishes the body as it cleanses.
Plus,Isagenixs NEW, state-of-the-art manufacturing and extraction techniques just made Cleanse for Life Natural Rich Berry powder even more powerful! The potency of each rare, no-compromise ingredient has increased by up to 2- to 3-times its original potency level because of the improved manufacturing and extraction process that pulls all of the phytochemical properties from the botanicals at the cellular level.
Founder and Master Formulator John Anderson also added two NEW ingredients to the Cleanse for Life Natural Rich Berry powdered formula, Turmeric and Burdock Root, to enhance your cleansing results naturally.
To learn more, visit: www.CleansedforLife.com. or schedule a complimentary wellness consultation at The Spa...
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May 25th, 2011 • Posted by Joyce Murdock • Permalink
Organic Turmeric
Tumeric
Traditionally used to help purify the blood and provide relief for an upset stomach, Turmeric offers many health benefits that either directly or indirectly promote a healthier liver and gallbladder.
Offering strong antioxidant effects, Organic Turmeric Curcuma longa) helps remove toxins from the body. As a result of this antioxidant effect, your liver does not have to work as hard to filter blood and keep your body healthy. This helps create a healthier liver by allowing it to focus on removing toxins from the body.
Health Benefits of Turmeric:
* Helps flush out toxins to reduce strain on the liver
* Aids in reducing occasional inflammation
* Supports bile production to break down fats for optimal cholesterol levels
* Promotes natural cleansing and protection of the liver
* Works to improve overall blood circulation
* Encourages the growth of digestive flora and discourages the growth of harmful bacteria.
Research has shown that people can help eliminate toxins from the liver and thus reduce their potential for damage to the organ if they consumed regular doses of Turmeric. In fact, research suggests Organic Turmeric works by encouraging the production of several key liver-detoxification enzymes.
Turmeric Also Provides:
Dietary Fiber
Iron
Manganese
Potassium
Vitamin B6.
A number of studies have taken place in India supporting Turmeric’s health benefits, including it ability to help reduce occasional liver inflammation and other negative conditions as a powerful antioxidant. Research has indicated the curcuminoids (phytonutrients) contained within Turmeric are primarily responsible for this inflammation-reduction effect. Turmeric is one of the ingredients in curry. Widely consumed in India and other countries, the ingestion of large amounts of curry may help explain the lower incidence of liver disease and cancer in those populations due to its inherent health benefits.
Article taken from- Global Health Center, Houston/Texas
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May 21st, 2011 • Posted by Joyce Murdock • Permalink
The individual process of human revolution is the very key to sparking change on a global scale. For, as Daisaku Ikeda writes, "A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind." Taking responsibility for transforming our own lives is the first step toward creating a human society based on compassion and respect for the dignity of all people's lives.
Submitted by Daisaku Ikeda, www.daisakuikeda.org
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May 15th, 2011 • Posted by Joyce Murdock • Permalink
It takes courage to become happy .. courage to remain true to one's convictions, courage not to be defeated by one's weaknesses and negativity, courage to take swift action to help those who are suffering.
by Daisaku Ikeda , Joyces Mentor
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