Q: Refined sugars come from pastries, cookies, pies, cakes — items from the bakery and snack-food aisle. Refined sugar also shows up in white bread and rice. The Mediterranean diet includes very little to no refined sugar, so aim to eliminate these products from your diet. Switching from white to whole grains is a great step. Try using natural sweeteners in coffee and cooking like honey, molasses, or agave. Replace butter in cooking with olive oil. Put hummus, olive oil, or tahini on bread instead of margarine or butter. Use non-stick cookware so you don’t have to grease with butter. Experiment with recipes that replace butter with healthier alternatives. For instance, replace butter with applesauce or prune puree in baking recipes. Red meat is rarely included in the Mediterranean diet. Limit red meat consumption to two to three times per month. When you do eat it, be sure to get lean cuts of meat. Keep your meat serving to about the size of a deck of playing cards.  Meat is graded by its fat content, with “prime” cuts being the highest in fat. Lower cost cuts of meat have less fat, and are healthier options. Loin and round cuts are good lower-fat selections.  Cut visible fat off of meats before cooking, and drain the grease afterwards.
A: Significantly reduce the sugar in your diet. Eliminate butter and margarine from your meals. Save red meat for special occasions.

Q: From some early studies, a safe dose of Garcinia appears to be up to 2800 mg per day. But, it's not known what may happen if you take these amounts, so you should stay well below that dose. Once you have found a good place to buy the supplement, you need to understand how much of the HCA you need to take. The dose of HCA should be about 1500 mg per day, though this varies from supplement to supplement. Make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions and you consult a knowledgeable healthcare professional before starting. Garcinia comes in two different forms. The first is a pill form, either in a tablet or capsule. If you buy the supplement as a pill, take the recommended dosage of garcinia as a tablet or capsule with water.  Take the pill about 30-60 minutes before each meal. In general, garcinia is taken three times a day. This means that each pill should be 500 mg. That way, you stay within your daily dosage suggestions. The second form that you can take of garcinia is liquid. The liquid form of garcinia usually recommends taking 1-2 drops before every meal, but the amount can vary based on the dropper or concentration. Take the drop or drops under your tongue and let them stay for a minute or so. Then, have your regular meal 30-60 minutes later. Before you take the liquid form, ask your pharmacist or a knowledgeable healthcare professional how much garcinia is in every drop for the particular kind you have. You should also ask how many drops would equal a total of about 1500 mg of garcinia every day. Once you have the total number of drops, divide that by three and take that amount before each meal.
A:
Learn the correct dose. Take garcinia as a pill. Consider liquid garcinia.