African Mango is touted as the superfruit of 2012 by SPINS, the premier sales data provider for the Natural and Specialty products industry. Skyrocketing sales for African mango attest to its immense popularity, its widespread use as weight loss inducer credited to scientific research supporting the claims for its use.
Unlike other food supplements that base their sales pitch on the testimony of strangers, African mango has been studied scientifically. Its effectiveness in triggering weight loss has a scientific explanation. And, it turns out, the explanation is easy enough to grasp.
African mango, also known by its scientific name Irvingia gabonensis, is a fruit commonly found in West Africa, predominantly in Cameroon. Its usefulness has long been known to locals and they use it extensively for its medicinal property, natural flavor, as well as nutritional value. But its real treasure is in the seed, “Dika nut”, as it is called by the locals. The seed is ground up in a paste and eaten during long hunting trips. The locals credit it for staving off hunger for long periods of time, making it ideal for long journeys where food supply may be scarce or unreliable.
What they did not know, and researchers eventually found out, is that African mango does not stave off hunger so much as enable the brain to recognize that there is enough stored fuel in the body to keep functioning normally. That is, it tells the body that it is full and therefore, has no immediate need for food.
African mango does this by making the brain sensitive to leptin, which has been given the nickname “hunger hormone”. Leptin is a hormone secreted by the fat cells in the body when it has had enough food. When we are hungry, leptin levels are low, signaling the brain that the body needs food, and we feel hunger pangs. After we eat, the body releases leptin to tell the brain we are full and thus, to stop eating. People with weight and obesity problems have defects in their leptin levels, or in their brain’s ability to recognize and respond to leptin. As African mango sensitizes the body to leptin, it makes the brain quickly receive the signals from leptin and thus know that it is full and has no need to eat. This explains why obese people whose brains do not recognize leptin keep on eating when they are full. It also shows why the African natives who go on long trips eat the paste from African mango seeds so that they will feel no hunger even during long journeys of all-day walks and minimal food intake.
Defects in leptin production or recognition could result in many health problems. When the body fails to use leptin effectively, it slows down the metabolic rate, mistaking the lack of leptin as signaling that the body is starving. This throws the defense functions of the body in disarray, dissipating energy needlessly and adversely affecting the body’s normal functioning. Having low leptin in the brain (or perhaps failure of the brain’s ability to recognize leptin), exposes brain cells to serious damage and causes it to give off inflammatory signals that may lead to fast ageing and risks for brain ailments such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
Thus, African mango’s ability to make the brain sensitive to leptin enhances brain health to a great degree while enabling the body to function normally with just enough food that it needs. It helps suppress the appetite without the usual accompanying feelings of deprivation, cravings, and hunger pangs, enabling a person to feel full longer.
Several studies done at the University of Yaounde I in Cameroon over the course of several years established that African mango aids in weight loss in adults, even without being accompanied by exercise and a regimented diet. Results were evident within two months of taking the extract in pill form, as against zero changes in the placebo groups. This shows the effectiveness of African mango’s appetite-suppressing qualities alone as sufficient to induce weight loss.
As it helps in weight loss, so also African mango reduces the levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol, in the body. Being overweight increases the body’s LDL levels while lowering HDL, or good cholesterol, levels. So as the weight goes down, the level of bad cholesterol goes down with it and the levels of good cholesterol go up. This reduces a person’s risks for heart attack and stroke.
But that’s not all that African mango does. Irvingia gabonensis is also one of the foods known to be a metabolism booster. That is, it has a themogenic effect that helps increase the body’s basal metabolic rate. What this does is make the body work harder, and burn off more fat. For the most part, metabolism has little to do with weight gain. It is a natural bodily process, and the body adjusts naturally to balance it according to the body’s needs. To lose weight, your body needs to burn off more calories than you consume, and this is best done through physical activity. However, a natural metabolism booster helps the process of calorie-burning by enhancing the body’s ability to burn fat. From the same scientific research done on it, African mango does boost metabolism so that the body burns fat faster and lose weight even without exercise and a strict diet.
Considering that African mango enables a person to lose weight, reduce bad cholesterol levels, and speed up metabolism, it’s no wonder that it is increasingly becoming the favored dietary supplement as attested to by SPIN. If these benefits can be enjoyed as a stand-alone supplement, think of just how much more effective it will be when paired with exercise and a healthy diet.
As news about it spreads, African mango is increasingly becoming more sought out. The fact that Dr. Mehmet Oz promoted it as a “breakthrough supplement” and a “miracle in your medicine cabinet” only increased its popularity and desirability. It is surely living up to its reputation as a superfruit.
To go the healthy route in a sure and natural way, try African mango today.