Review: KITRICS NUTRITIONAL SCALE

Good Morning everyone, and HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Since my last post was a bit "medical", I thought I would do a review of a wonderful product I highly recommend. I love Nutritional Scales, and have tried quite a few of them. I recently tried the Kitrics Nutritional Scale, and so far am really liking it. I deal with a lot of clients who are constantly wanting to know which products to buy, which are worth the cost, and most importantly, which will help them reach their goals.

The Kitrics Nutritional Scale is easy to use, sleek, programmable, small and looks nice on the counter. I love that it isn't bulky, and hardly takes up any room at all.

It does the following:

• Computes calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, cholesterol, and sodium
• Includes information for 1999 foods; user can easily create and store up to 99 customizable food code entries
• Weighs in grams or ounces with accuracy of +/- 1 gram; weighs up to 72 ounces (2000 grams)
• Calculate your daily nutritional intake to help you achieve your health goals.

"Precision Scale

Weigh your food in grams or ounces, with a high-precision reading of +/- 1 gram (.05 oz.). The unit features a removable, washable stainless steel platform, and can weigh up to 72 ounces (2000 grams). Calibrate for whatever container you're using and you're all set.

 I love that you can use it directly out of the box. The programmable mode is easy to use once you get the hang of it. I love that you can customize your favorite foods, or meals, for an easy "one-touch" Nutritional read-out. This would be fantastic for any health-minded person; diabetic (it does exchanges and grams of sugar); athletes (protein, nutrients etc); anyone with Hypertension and Heart concerns (sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat); bakers (you can tare items); cooks (you can tare, program meals); dieters (reads out all macro nutrients, tallys your meal/daily Nutrition totals, and allows you to program meals and foods to track your Calorie needs). You enter your food code for a portion of food and it will compute the following: calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, cholesterol, and sodium.

I do wish it had more "raw vegetable" program options. I have used other scales that had a lot more vegetables programmed in (cucumber with skin and without, etc). I also noticed that it only has buttered, microwave popcorn programmed in the miscellaneous section. I would have loved it to have the unpopped kernels programmed, as well as air-popped, non-buttered popcorn. However, with the programmable feature you can program this in quite easily. With foods such as CHIA seeds, Peanut Flour, Greek Yogurt, and protein powders being used regularly, this is great as you can program them right into the scale. Since more us us are moving away from more conventional junk food, towards a more whole-foods, healthier options type lifestyle, I think having a customizable readout is essential. For those of us who regularly use sugar-free products, or products made with Almond/coconut flout etc, this is a great tool to have. I tried programming GG SCANDINAVIAN BRAN CRISPBREAD, and it worked really well.

The Scale comes with a Nutritional Code book, which has the codes you enter to obtain the nutritional readout for the foods you weigh. You just enter the code, and it reads out all the information automatically. The book also has additional blank pages where you can write in your programmed custom foods/meals and their corresponding codes so you don't forget!

I was impressed with how sleek the KITRICS NUTRITIONAL scale looked on the counter. Some of the Nutritional Scales I have used cost $99 or more, and I was really impressed with the price of this product. It is accurate, works well, and has more features than most scales for half the price. This really is a great product to have in the kitchen and would make a fantastic gift as well.

Nattokinase and Serrapeptase for Thrombosis

I have had a few emails regarding Thrombosis, and have had a few clients dealing with this medical issue as well. I was asked if I could recommend any natural supplements to help with the blood clotting. I have had success with a few supplement regiments, however this has to be carefully monitored when combining with prescription blood thinners and medications such as  Warfarin, Heparin and Coumadin (brand name).
I urge anyone who has questions to communicate with their doctors and make sure they don't have any contraindications! Many doctors didn't know what the following two supplements were, whereas other doctors did, and were able to incorporate them into the clients health plan.

Here are two interesting products that merit further research by someone looking for an alternative way to help with Thrombosis (If given the "okay" by your medical team!):

1. Nattokinase: Nattokinase is an isolated enzyme extracted from Natto, and has been found to have blood clot dissolving abilities and prevents the aggregation of red blood cells. It helps with healthy blood flow, cardiovascular integrity and can help maintain cardiovascular and arterial health.
2. Serrapeptase. This is made out of silk work, and works as an enzyme. I have had great success treating joint pain and inflammation with this product. It is safe, effective and has many additional benefits to its use. It has many European studies on it, and induces fibrinolytic, anti-inflammatory and anti-edemic activity. It helps some people manage pain, and can help arterial blockages. Make sure you get a quality product with at least 40000 active units.

As always, I urge you to discuss these options with your doctor. These are not to be taken without supervision when you are already on blood-thinners, as they can further thin the blood and cause internal bleeding. Both of these are natural and have been used safely for thousands of years for a variety of health benefits.

These work well for joint pain and stiffness, and are worth trying if you have no medical conditions that would be exacerbated by these. Nattokinase has been used to improve bone health, as it is full of Vitamin K2.