Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 continued

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 6-30-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2 continued

(The foods to virtually never eat & why.)

Transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Yesterday’s post had how they wound up in so many foods & why they are bad for you.

But I forgot that I read that in addition to sharply increasing the high density, small particle, LDL that triggers cardiovascular disease, eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oils also may help cause or trigger type II diabetes.

This may be found later to be because the people who eat the most partially hydrogenated vegetable oils also tend to do more of the other things that help cause or trigger II diabetes, like eat tons of high fructose corn syrup & very few green & low starch vegetables & never exercise.

But, since partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is not a food humans evolved to eat, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may also disrupt the normal workings of your cell & sugar processing systems.

And, recent health news says a study found that people with type II diabetes develop heart disease 15 years earlier in their lives than people who are normal.

So eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may well cause heart & other cardiovascular diseases TWO ways instead of just one.

As you might guess, I’m convinced that the safe amount of transfats or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils it’s safe to eat is ZERO grams -- ever.

So my reaction that the American Heart Association recently recommended that people limit transfats to one percent of the calories they eat is mixed at best.

The good news is that they had no recommendation against transfats before, so this is a step forward. And, since many Americans eat over five times that much, some of the people who take their advice will damage their health far less than they otherwise would have done.

Secondly, very soon the foods you buy in stores that have ingredient labels will be mandated soon to have a listing for transfats in the food.

This means that a food product that has lots of transfats, will now say so on its label by listing how many grams of transfat a serving of that food contains.

So, you soon will be able read such labels &, if you agree with me on simply NOT eating transfats voluntarily, you can simply not buy such items that list ANY grams of transfat.

The bad news though is that a food with 0.49 grams of transfats per serving will list 0 grams on the label.

Then, if you eat ten or twenty of these servings of that food a week, you’ll actually eat 4.9 to 9.8 grams of transfats that week.

And, since food companies often list serving sizes that fit what a person of about 4 years old actually eats, you could wind up eating 4.9 grams of transfats a day if the food you are eating has a serving size a fifth as large as what you typically eat.

So, what do you look for on the label to avoid this?

The ingredient list !! If a food that bills itself as having zero grams of transfat per serving lists partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as an ingredient, DON’T buy or eat it.

The value of the new grams of transfat labels is to identify foods that either leave out partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in their ingredient list even though partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are actually in the food & to identify foods that are somehow processed in such a way that partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are created in the food even though they weren’t added initially.

Since some companies have decided to start already with the new labels, some foods already have the grams of transfat listed.

When I recently found a food with no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils listed on the ingredient list had several grams of transfats listed, I contacted the company & asked where the transfats they listed came from.

Instead of replying to my question, they mailed me coupons to get more of the product free.

So, I’ve decided it’s simpler to just believe the labels in such a case & NOT buy the product again EVER.

That the company might actually listen to.

The good news is that some companies do realize that their products that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils will begin to sell far less as the news gets out about the horrible effects of eating transfats.

And, they likely also realize that foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may even be outlawed eventually.

So, they are already beginning to offer versions that are either fat free or contain palm oil instead, which nutrition expert & researcher Gene Spiller, PhD, has written is actually somewhat safe to eat & which is cheaper & more shelf stable than other alternatives.

My recommendation is to substitute Superfood whole fruit or nuts or dark chocolate for 90 percent of the snack or treat foods you may have been eating that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils & with the remaining ten percent, choose only the new transfat & partially hydrogenated vegetable oil free versions.

That will give you snacks & treats without the heart & other diseases than come with eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 6-29-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 2

(The foods to virtually never eat & why.)

Transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Like high fructose corn syrup, it’s completely understandable how partially hydrogenated vegetable oils would up in close to all packaged & commercially prepared foods.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are relatively cheap. They result in foods that have a longer shelf life before spoiling than other oils.

And, the foods they go into that need some fat content to taste good or be crunchy taste just fine.

If you were a food manufacturer or a commercial baker or ran a fast food company & that’s all you knew about partially hydrogenated vegetable oils & your understanding was that partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were safe to eat, you or I very probably would do exactly what they did.

But, in the case of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils it was even worse. Initially the medical professionals that study heart disease realized that fatty meats & butter & other dairy foods containing fat tend to create heart disease in people who eat lots of them.

They saw that people would eat margarine & guessed that substituting margarine for butter would be protective.

Here’s WHY to never voluntarily eat transfats or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.:

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Research has since discovered that eating transfats & partially hydrogenated vegetable oils not only boosts your LDL levels, doing so boosts the heart & blood vessel damaging kind of LDL it’s most important to keep as low as possible, the high density LDL that acts like glue & the particles of which are literally tiny enough they go into the chinks in the walls of your blood vessels, even if your blood vessels were healthy to begin with.

The researchers found that partially hydrogenated vegetable oils do this much MORE than meat or dairy fat does.

This is a direct cause of cardiovascular disease of every kind.

If you want to be healthy it’s absolutely the last & worst thing you would want to do to yourself.

Now for the really bad news.

Without you knowing it, you very probably have been doing just that.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are now in possibly as much as over half the foods the average American eats.

They are in most commercially baked cookies, crackers, chips, & pie crusts.

They are in commercially baked donuts, pastries, & cakes.

And, they are in many biscuit & frosting & cake mixes. They are in some peanut butters.

They are in a surprising number of breads & ice creams as well.

They are in many of the best tasting candy bars.

They are in most margarines & in vegetable shortening.

Fast food companies use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils as fry oil for their breaded chicken & breaded fish & their French fries.

And, they are in microwaved popcorn.

Tomorrow’s post will have some of the recent better news about partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The authorities are beginning to act on the new research & the sharper food companies are beginning to offer alternative foods free of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Foods NOT to eat -- part 1

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 6-28-2006

Foods NOT to eat -- part 1

(The foods to virtually never eat & why.)

High Fructose Corn Syrup.

It’s totally understandable to almost inevitable that literally tons of this stuff got into much of our food.

The bad news is that it’s absolutely dreadful for your health. Even worse, it’s still in a huge percentage of foods in a typical Supermarket or grocery store.

This is so much the case that high fructose corn syrup is actually the largest source of calories in the diet of many people in the United States.

Here’s how High Fructose Corn Syrup got in our food.

I’ve heard it’s cheaper to buy in bulk than sugar.

And, it tastes sweeter, so adding it to a food will allow a food company to either use less than they would using sugar; or the food will taste sweeter & the customers will like it more; or both if you get the amount just right.

In addition, it’s in a liquid form. So it’s easier & cheaper to add it to food than granulated sugar which has to be dissolved or mixed more.

Given these things, the food companies switched from sugar to High Fructose Corn Syrup in droves.

So, it’s now in almost all non-diet soft drinks, most canned juices; most jams, & even in ketchup !!

Here’s why it’s absolutely dreadful for your health.

In addition to foods or drinks with high fructose corn syrup tasting good enough to be a bit addicting & high fructose corn syrup appearing in many foods with no or very little fiber content, recent studies found that calories from high fructose corn syrup do NOT register as food or calories by the human appetite regulatory system when you consume them.

This means that if you eat a lot of it, or drink a lot of it in soft drinks, you are virtually certain to be fat.

(If you’d like to be less fat & consume a lot of high fructose corn syrup now, you can lose several pounds of fat with almost NO effort by eliminating high fructose corn syrup from your foods & drinks.)

And, I’ve read that even more than eating a comparable amount of sugar, people who eat a lot of high fructose corn syrup tend to develop type II diabetes.

Apparently, our bodies simply didn’t evolve to process high fructose corn syrup in large quantities.

And, many of the people who consume the most high fructose corn syrup get virtually no exercise.

Add to this the fact that our bodies DID evolve to process sugar well when getting lots of exercise, primarily from walking.

The results have been in the recent news.

People in the United States who consume too much high fructose corn syrup now are so large a percentage of the population that the average American is fatter & sicker than people in comparable developed countries – including England & Canada.

Do you want to be well & healthy & lean & trim?

If you consume foods or drinks with high fructose corn syrup now, you can get perhaps as much as 60 percent of the way there, by slamming the door on foods or drinks with high fructose corn syrup; locking the door; & melting down the key.

Definitely stop drinking regular soft drinks totally.

(If only soft drinks are available, substitute diet soft drinks. But studies show that people who drink lots of diet soft drinks don’t do well keeping fat off.

So, substitute water, green tea, tea, coffee, decaf coffee, or even real fruit juice mixed half & half with plain carbonated water if you possibly can.)

Refuse to buy or eat jams or canned juice or ketchup with high fructose corn syrup.

The good news is that if enough people learn why to do these things & do them, the food & drink companies will give us more health OK choices.

Right now the foods that have NO high fructose corn syrup are either a tiny minority or are only available in stores like Whole Foods Markets.

And, even in such stores, be SURE to read the labels.

At a local health food store, I got my wife a canned juice drink from a company I thought was health oriented; & we found to our shock that it was sweetened with high fructose corn syrup when she read the label.

So, always read the label FIRST – before you buy.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 9

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-27-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 9

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.

Summary:

The foods listed in the first 8 parts either tend to cause health problems if eaten too regularly or too often. And, they can & do cause health problems if eaten daily or more.

But they also tend to be Ok for people in good health who eat them much less often & ONLY eat them occasionally.

And, these foods have some kind of enjoyment or health benefits otherwise.

Or, they are better for you than common alternatives you might otherwise eat.

The foods I just listed in this section are OK for people who are in good health now to eat sometimes & many are much more likely to be OK for people who get plenty of exercise every week.

Want to know how to keep from overdoing eating them?

1. Make sure to eat a lot MORE of the best, plant-based Superfoods from green tea to lentils to broccoli to kiwifruit. (Only leave out the ones you are allergic to or really don’t like.)

2. Know WHY to be sure to limit the foods in this section to occasional eating only.

That’s the subject of today’s post.

A. The foods listed in this section that are high or very high in saturated fat of animal origin should be limited for several reasons.

(Foods that are high in saturated fat of animal origin listed in the only eat occasionally list here are: Cheese; Ham & Bacon; & Liver)

1. Diets high in saturated fat of animal origin have been found to be higher in groups of people who develop high levels of heart & other cardiovascular diseases. This is in part because such diets trigger increases in your high density LDLs in your blood stream.

This effect seems to be greater when the fats are cooked with a high heat or on medium high heat for a long time. (For example, it’s MUCH safer to add the taste of butter by adding it cold or putting a small amount on hot food & allowing it to melt or by melting it over a double boiler at a carefully monitored low temperature for a short time. These ways to add the taste of butter are MUCH safer than frying foods in butter.)

2. People who eat diets high in saturated fat of animal origin also seem to be more likely to get many kinds of cancers.

The reasons for this include:

Any toxins the animal they came from ate tend to be bio-concentrated in their fat.

(One health writer even said there is evidence that MOST of the biotoxins people ingest come from this source. He said that it’s much more important to limit the amount of saturated fat of animal origin in your diet for this reason than it is to eat organic produce !!)

I’ve read that eating foods high in saturated fat of animal origin tends to induce oxidation in your body.

And, when cooked with high heat as they often are, part of the fat and protein in such foods often becomes cancer causing organic chemicals that research has shown often trigger cancer.

3. In the online health news on Friday, 6-23-2006, I read that diets high in saturated fat of animal origin & high in carbohydrate also tend to trigger Alzheimers disease.

You CAN enjoy some foods that are high in saturated fat of animal origin if:
you eat them very infrequently;
avoid cooking them at unusually high heat; --
& eat them with plenty of vegetables when you do eat them.

The vegetables provide fiber to move them promptly through; & sterols & soluble fiber that cut their LDL boosting effects; & also provide antioxidants & anticancer agents.

In addition, they also help you feel full without having two servings of the high saturated fat food instead of one. So you eat less of the high saturated fat food & fewer calories which helps you keep your body lean !!

B. The foods listed in this section that are high in high glycemic carbohydrates should be limited for several reasons.

(Foods that are high in high glycemic carbohydrates listed in the only eat occasionally list here are: Juices & alcoholic beverages, particularly the non-Superfood ones—including: apple juice, white grape juice, white wine, & the more alcoholic drinks like brandy, whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.)

1. They can actually reduce your perceived energy level. The sharp rise in blood sugar they cause can over-increase your serotonin levels making you feel drugged & sluggish.

Then, since your body tries to counteract this effect, the pendulum often swings too far making you feel hungry & spacey from the low blood sugar that causes.

2. Even worse, particularly if you don’t get enough exercise & if you eat foods high in high glycemic carbohydrates too often & do it virtually every day, your body then often will try to counteract this whiplash effect by turning down its response to insulin.

That tends to trigger a breakdown in your body’s blood sugar regulatory system that the doctors call type II diabetes.

3. It also may help cause Alzheimer’s disease. In the online health news on Friday, 6-23-2006, I read that diets high in saturated fat of animal origin & high in carbohydrate also tend to trigger Alzheimer’s disease. And, this is one of several recent news articles saying that Alzheimer’s disease may in part be a kind of type II diabetes.

4. As Dr Atkins & others have discovered, these foods which are uniformly high in fast acting carbohydrates & very low to zero in fiber, tend to make you fat if eaten more than infrequently. And, this is particularly true of people who don’t exercise regularly.

C. Foods that are a bit too high in toxins & pollutants.

It’s always best to minimize these. Overeating them often causes disease & can cause irreversible damage. And, it can cause cancers that can kill you.

(Foods that are higher than one would like in toxins & pollutants that are listed in the only eat occasionally list here are: Liver, tuna fish, & mackerel.)

D. Foods that interact unfavorably with prescription & over the counter drugs.

Grapefruit, which is listed here, can dangerously boost the effects (& side effects) of most prescription & over the counter drugs.

Depending on the drug & the dose that can be from unpleasant to fatal.

If you are taking, or when you take, any prescription or over the counter drug, do NOT eat Grapefruit or drink Grapefruit juice.

Otherwise, it’s a Superfood.


Next time we’ll cover the foods to virtually never eat & why.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 8

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 6-22-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 8

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


Juices & alcoholic beverages, particularly the non-Superfood ones.

(What about apple juice, white grape juice, white wine, & the more alcoholic drinks like brandy, whiskey, gin, vodka, etc?)

Even though they have some natural sugars, &, in the case of alcoholic beverages especially, significant calories, real fruit juices & alcoholic beverages that have no added sugar tend to be MUCH healthier for you than ANY drinks that sugar or high fructose corn syrup has been added to.

In moderation or light, occasional consumption, any alcoholic beverage tends to confirm some health benefits from the alcohol alone.

And, the juices like grape, orange, pomegranate, cranberry, cherry, & blueberry have considerable extra health benefits.

And, these juices are often much more convenient & can even have more concentrated health benefits than the whole fruit. (This includes red wine & dark beer as it also has extra health benefits.)

Particularly if you don’t yet exercise regularly -- or if you are trying to take off or keep off excess bodyfat, it’s important to limit even these beneficial juices to small servings or not more than one to three glasses a day total.

And the risk reward ratio is a lot more favorable if men limit alcohol to two drinks a day & for women one drink a day.

But what about apple juice, white grape juice, white wine, & the more alcoholic drinks like brandy, whiskey, gin, vodka, etc?

If you enjoy them somewhat, have them a few times a year.

And, drink them when outside forces give them to you. Like when you are thirsty & water & cold apple juice are your only decent choices, Or, like when you are at a family dinner, a party, or at a job related event & they are your only options.

If you love them & have them once a day or more, lean towards the once a day & compensate by exercising more or drinking a bit less of the more health-enhancing juices & alcoholic beverages.

And, to the extent you can, drink MORE water &/or green tea to help you moderate your consumption.

And, be sure to eat some of the Superfood fruits as whole fruit so you get those benefits.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 7

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 6-21-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 7

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.

Tuna, Trout, Mackerel, Catfish, Halibut, Mackerel, & other fish.

Some tuna is a bit high in mercury & mackerel can be quite high in mercury content.

If you are feeding kids or are pregnant or have any kind of nerve disease now, you may be better off passing on these fish in particular. (I've read that swordfish is even higher in mercury.)

It may be safe to have mackerel once or twice a year. And, it is quite high in Omega 3 oils.

Tuna is available in convenient cans in virtually every grocery store. It’s usually possible to find the water packed versions. (I’m not sure it’s a good idea to eat the oil packed versions for several reasons.) And, tuna is moderately high in Omega 3 oils.

It may be safe to have tuna two or three times a month or less.

People have developed health problems who, having heard fish was good for you, then ate fish & canned tuna in particular several times a week. And, I’ve read these health problems were thought to be because of the mercury content.

(In addition to eating wild caught salmon or wild caught sardines up to once or twice a week, you can get Omega 3 oils from highly refined fish oil from companies like Nordic Naturals & Carlson—they add lemon flavoring as well; & you can also get DHA supplements made from the same algae the fish get it from are also available. Since DHA may be the most valuable Omega 3 oil, this is good.

You get more Omega 3’s from fish like wild caught salmon; but you can get a good bit from these supplements without getting mercury or PCB’s. So, you can have plenty of Omega 3’s without eating fish every day.)

Trout & catfish have less Omega 3 oils & are often farmed rather than wild caught. I saw a report once that suggested that as fresh water fish, they were safer to eat than farmed Salmon.

These kinds of fish may be safe to have once a month or so.

Halibut is usually wild caught I believe & is on many restaurant menus. It’s got a very mild flavor & can be good to eat occasionally for variety. But it has very little Omega 3 oils.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 6

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-20-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 6

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


SUGAR.

The bad news is that most Americans eat enormously more of it than their bodies can process & stay healthy.

This is often because sugar is an ingredient in a packaged food or a fast food that the people eating it don’t know is there.

And, the health effects are made far worse since you have to get enough exercise for your body to process sugar well -- & most Americans now don’t get that much exercise.

Add to that the fact that in most packaged & bottled foods & drinks today, the sweeter & cheaper high fructose corn syrup has been substituted for sugar & is MUCH worse for you, & you have the train wreck in poor health & obesity our country is experiencing.

(High fructose corn syrup is so bad for you, I’ll list it later in the upcoming foods to totally avoid section.)

In addition, the people who eat the most sugar also tend to be the same people who don’t exercise & don’t eat enough fresh whole fruits & enough vegetables.

Lastly, eating sugar tends to trigger an oxidant effect & produce glycosylation, or “browning” of your cells & damages them -- & their DNA.

So why is sugar here instead of in the NEVER eat category?

For these three reasons:

1. Adding sugar to foods makes them taste better – sometimes a lot better.

And having some of the things you eat taste good or really good helps you enjoy life & stay with a healthy way of eating.

2. If you do get enough exercise & eat enough fresh whole fruits & enough vegetables--& you’ve kept your fasting glucose & HBA1C (the 90 day blood sugar average indicator) in the desirable range, your body can safely handle eating sugar a few times a week.

This is NOT the six or seven times a DAY the average American eats. It’s more like two or three, or at most four, times a week.

(Read the book, Why French Women Don’t Get Fat, for an idea of the difference that makes !!)

3. If you simply ARE going to eat something that tastes good because it’s sweet, no matter what, sugar is a MUCH better choice generally than artificial sweeteners.

And, it’s dramatically better & SAFER for you than high fructose corn syrup.

I’ll cover high fructose corn syrup in the upcoming foods to NEVER eat section.

Oddly, the studies done on people who drink diet soft drinks have found that those who do it to lose excess fat weight tend to do no better than those who drink soft drinks with high fructose corn syrup, which is not very well at all.

To the extent researchers have studied why, it looks like people want to boost their blood sugar if it’s a bit low or they want to have sugar to boost their serotonin levels when they are under a bit of stress are the ones who reach for a soft drink or food that tastes sweet.

And, since the artificial sweeteners don’t do either of those things, people usually compensate by eating high carbohydrate foods of another kind to supply the missing effect.

And, although artificial sweeteners have been tested as safe for most people over short periods of time, it’s still questionable in my mind as to how safe they are for several years or decades of use.

Stevia is not sold in very user friendly or easy to use forms. But it is a noncaloric sweetener that is actually a food & likely to be safer.

But it doesn’t taste like sugar. So when I tried it as a substitute I found the slightly oversweet & marshmallowy taste not very appetizing.

And, like everyone else, I noticed that there was no sugar reward effect to eating it.

What has worked for me as part of dropping my fasting glucose from 115 to 85 was eliminating foods that had sugar added & just eating sugar in just slightly smaller amounts & just 3 or four times a week.

It also helped that I eat sugar with cinnamon. (See the cinnamon Superfood blog post here. Eating cinnamon with sugar tends to prevent sugar’s worst health effects.)

And, it helped that I have been taking chromium polynicotinate, which also helps boost HDL cholesterol. And, I added 200 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid, which is an antioxidant itself & which also helps boost the effect of both the water soluble & the fat soluble antioxidants one eats.

Plus I continued to do both cardio & strength training exercise each week.

And, I enjoy the sugar treats I do allow myself & do NOT feel deprived of it the rest of the time.

Which is why I include sugar as an OK food to eat occasionally – just not very often.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 5

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 6-19-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 5

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


CHEESE.

Cheese comes in many, many flavors & is readily available. And, it has lots of protein.

Some vegetarians eat it as the animals it’s from aren’t killed to get it.

The bad news is that it’s extremely high in saturated fat.

Even fat reduced cheeses are 30 percent by calories & the cheeses with the most flavor run in the 57 percent range. (Nonfat cheeses exist; but they are mostly tasteless; & some even are rubbery & tend to get stuck between your teeth.)

And, the fat in cheese is about 2/3 saturated fat. This means cheeses that taste good have 20 to 38 percent fat by calories.

Since people who are mostly heart disease free usually eat diets that are between five & perhaps as high as nine percent saturated fat by calories, the math is inescapable.

It’s really not safe to eat very much cheese or eat it too often.

That said, if you have low LDLs & high HDLs, you can probably eat cheese occasionally.

You can eat a decent sized serving a few times a year. Or, you can have diced cheese or shredded Parmesan cheese as a component of a salad or other dish a few times a month.

But watch your frequency !! -- because people who eat several larger servings of cheese a week, tend to get or to have high LDL cholesterol.

I’ve had people report to me that their total & LDL cholesterol went UP when they gave up fatty meats to be more heart healthy in their eating & who then ate cheese instead.

Beans & nuts, & to some extent whole grains, are a much better choice for your major protein sources.

Wild caught salmon, sardines, & some of the other Superfoods that provide protein work well when eaten a few times a week also.

And, cheese can have a place. Just be sure to eat cheese a few times a month or a year only &/or eat it in very small servings.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 6-15-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 4

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


HAM & BACON.

These two meats are quite high in fat & saturated fat.

So, why on earth not put them in my foods to avoid list?

1. If you are following a healthful lifestyle otherwise; have LDL cholesterol of 100 or less & no active heart disease, etc, they are safe to have a few times a year or even a couple of times a month.

(Niacin, insositol hexaniacinate, & sterol supplements do cut LDL levels by the way. And, if your total intake of niacin & insositol hexaniacinate per day is 900 mg or less, they are much safer than drugs. And, both also boost your protective HDLs. Sterols like Beta Sitosterol are found in foods & very safe & cut LDLs successfully.

If you have LDLs over 160 or active heart disease, statins are effective. And are safer & de-energize you less if taken with 90 mg a day or more of the supplement CoQ10.

Lastly, the new drug Vytorin may be a good choice if your LDLs are over 180 as it gets the results of a large statin drug with far less of a statin drug combined with a drug that cuts LDLs a different way which also reduces side effects & risks to you if you take a drug to cut your LDLs.)

2. If you are in a restaurant or fast food place & have to order SOMETHING & there’s no health-enhancing choices, ham or bacon may actually be your best choice !!

They are usually NOT cooked by frying them in transfats. Pigs do NOT get Mad Cow disease from what I’ve read. So, you don’t have to choose beef likely to be other than grass fed or organically fed only if ham is on the menu.

And, either ham or BLT’s with bacon or bacon are often on the menu in many places.

3. You may be a guest at a dinner with friends or family & have them serve you ham.

4. You may occasionally want a sandwich with meat & either be tired of turkey or not like it.

(Also, in that case, Healthy Choice sells sliced him the right size in most supermarkets that has had a good bit of the fat & saturated fat removed.)

The other thing you can do is eat ham or bacon with no added fat or saturated fat & eat it with LOTS of onions.

Onions somehow keep saturated fat from sludging up your arteries if its eaten at the same time as lots of onions.

So, if you make such a sandwich or get a ham sandwich or BLT in a restaurant, use no mayo or butter or margarine & go with mustard only. And, add onion slices every time if at all possible. And, pass on eating ham & cheese at the same meal at least 80 % of the time that you eat either one.

5. The meat in ham & bacon is unusually high in vitamin B1 & has good quality protein.

The other two keys to eating ham & bacon safely are:

Don’t eat them at all often. Somewhere between three times a year & no more often than twice a month is about right.

& Don’t eat them if you have active heart disease or your LDLs are too high.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 4

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Thursday, 6-15-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 4

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


HAM & BACON.

These two meats are quite high in fat & saturated fat.

So, why on earth not put them in my foods to avoid list?

1. If you are following a healthful lifestyle otherwise; have LDL cholesterol of 100 or less & no active heart disease, etc, they are safe to have a few times a year or even a couple of times a month.

(Niacin, insositol hexaniacinate, & sterol supplements do cut LDL levels by the way. And, if your total intake of niacin & insositol hexaniacinate per day is 900 mg or less, they are much safer than drugs. And, both also boost your protective HDLs. Sterols like Beta Sitosterol are found in foods & very safe & cut LDLs successfully.

If you have LDLs over 160 or active heart disease, statins are effective. And are safer & de-energize you less if taken with 90 mg a day or more of the supplement CoQ10.

Lastly, the new drug Vytorin may be a good choice if your LDL are over 180 as it gets the results of a large statin drug with far less of a statin drug combined with a drug that cuts LDLs a different way which also reduces side effects & risks to you if you take a drug to cut your LDLs.)

2. If you are in a restaurant or fast food place & have to order SOMETHING & there’s no health-enhancing choices, ham or bacon may actually be your best choice !!

They are usually NOT cooked by frying them in transfats. Pigs do NOT get Mad Cow disease from what I’ve read. So, you don’t have to choose beef likely to be other than grass fed or organically fed only if ham is on the menu.

And, either ham or BLT’s with bacon or bacon are often on the menu in many places.

3. You may be a guest at a dinner with friends or family & have them serve you ham.

4. You may occasionally want a sandwich with meat & either be tired of turkey or not like it.

(Also, in that case, Healthy Choice sells sliced him the right size in most supermarkets that has had a good bit of the fat & saturated fat removed.)

The other thing you can do is eat ham or bacon with no added fat or saturated fat & eat it with LOTS of onions.

Onions somehow keep saturated fat from sludging up your arteries if its eaten at the same time as lots of onions.

So, if you make such a sandwich or get a ham sandwich or BLT in a restaurant, use no mayo or butter or margarine & go with mustard only. And, add onion slices every time if at all possible. And, pass on eating ham & cheese at the same meal at least 80 % of the time that you eat either one.

5. The meat in ham & bacon is unusually high in vitamin B1 & has good quality protein.

The other two keys to eating ham & bacon safely are:

Don’t eat them at all often. Somewhere between three times a year & no more often than twice a month is about right.

& Don’t eat them if you have active heart disease or your LDLs are too high.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 3

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Monday, 6-12-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 3

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.


LIVER.

In some ways, liver is a Superfood & an Honor Roll food.

It’s high in bioavailable iron & other minerals. It’s high in good quality protein. It’s high in vitamin A & vitamin C in its natural form.

And, it’s an extremely rich source for the B complex vitamins.

So, why do I list it here; & NOT in the main Superfoods list?

Because it’s not safe to eat very often.

It’s not on the recommended list for people with LDL levels due to its high saturated fat & cholesterol levels.

And, it has more serious problems.

Pregnant women should NOT eat it if it can be avoided. (And, it can -- by eating other foods & taking vitamins & minerals that have those same nutrients.)

Younger children should probably not eat it. And, older kids & adults should probably eat Liver less than once a month – three or four times a year if that.

The reason, unfortunately, is that animals bio-concentrate the pollutants they ingest.

(That’s another reason to eat plant proteins mostly & some nonfat & lean animal proteins for variety with LOTS of low starch vegetables & some whole fruit as your normal eating style.)

LIVER is even worse in this regard. Since it is the animal’s toxin filter, liver bio-concentrates pollutants far more than you find in the animal's meat.

OUCH !!

Liver from organically fed cattle or chickens may be somewhat safer.

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 2

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 6-9-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 2

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or with foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.

Today’s post is about one such food.:

Ruby Red Grapefruit.

For some of you these are a Superfood. (Why is later in this post.)

First, here are the two groups for which this is NOT true.:

1. The more important one is simple to diagnose.:

Are you on ANY medication that you take every day?

(And, over-the-counter drugs ARE included as medications in this question.)

If yes, it is IMPERATIVE (Commandingly serious & important !) that you NEVER eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice.

Unfortunately, grapefruit juice – both by itself & in whole grapefruits, has been shown to potentiate drugs.

This can kill you if you take the wrong drug & consume grapefruit juice.

For example, if you are on a blood thinner & eat two graefruit halves, you might bleed to death -- just as you would if you took a massive overdose of the drug.

And, if the drug you are taking has nasty side effects in larger doses than your doctor prescribed; & you drink a large glass of grapefruit juice, you may well get the dubious pleasure of enjoying the side-effects !!

The good news is that if you’ve kept yourself in good health or are younger & lucky, you may well NOT be taking a med every day.

For you -- but only on the days you aren’t taking a drug or taking an over the counter drug !! – grapefruit is OK.

The second group is much less scary; but you likely know if you belong to it.

Some people like grapefruit.

Some people – including me – can eat grapefruit but rarely do so as they don’t like it much.

But there are some who just can’t stand how bitterly sour the taste of grapefruit is.

This last group is the one for which Ruby Red Grapefruit is NOT a superfood
– because it’s NOT a food for YOU, if you refuse to eat it.

Here’s why it’s worth trying or eating occasionally otherwise &, in fact, is a Superfood candidate.:

1. Grapefruit zest & peel have the cancer fighters that oranges & lemons have -- as I understand it.

2. For those who wish to discard some unwanted body fat or keep it off, grapefruit is a good choice because:

it’s a bit too harsh to be at all easy to overeat;

it’s time consuming enough to eat that if you have the protein part of your breakfast first, by the time you finish your grapefruit, your body will have registered that you’ve been fed; & you will no longer be hungry;

AND, grapefruit itself is low in calories & moderately high in fiber.

But I’ve saved its strongest claim for Superfood status until last.

It’s been shown that people who eat Ruby Red Grapefruit regularly, drop their LDL cholesterol levels significantly.

(White grapefruit had the effect; but only about 40 to 50 % as much.)

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 1 SOY

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Wednesday, 6-7-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 1

SOY.

*Here's the good news.:

It's on many Superfoods lists.

It's a bean that is unusually high in protein & much, much higher in fat than other beans. And, like all beans, soybeans are a good source of fiber.

So, in times of famine, it would be a good food to keep you from starving or being incapacitated from hunger. (Presuming you don't have Soy or Peanut allergies that is.)

The fat soybeans contain is relatively low in saturated fat; & they have no cholesterol.

This makes them look like they might be a good choice for people eating a heart-protective diet.

In addition, they are a traditional part of Oriental diets & Japanese diets in particular.

And, overall, Oriental diets & Japanese diets in particular seem to produce good health results.

In addition, as a traditional food of hundreds of years standing, they are available in many forms: Edame, a green, ready to eat, version of soybeans; Miso; & Tofu. And you can also get Soybean oil.

Sounds good if you aren't allergic doesn't it?

It does, so many people eat a lot of soybeans. And, some people who like Superfoods & health-enhancing foods eat a diet centered on soybeans.

This is particularly true of people who are allergic to milk or who have decided to avoid it. And, it's true of many vegetarians who rely on soybeans for their protein.

**Unfortunately, there's more to know about soybeans than that. And some of it is surprisingly negative.

Here's why I put Soy here instead of in my superfoods list.:

Eating soybeans has an effect that can CAUSE heart disease. According to Mike Nichols, MD, Director of the TempusClinic in Los Gatos, & one of the best informed doctors I've ever encountered anywhere in all the reading of & by such doctors I've done.

Eating soybeans has been found to increase the levels of the blood lipoprotein Lp(a).

(It's my understanding that high levels of this lipoprotein causes the insides of your blood vessels to become sticky & attract fatty deposits. And, this tends to cause cardiovascular disease & high blood pressure.) OUCH !!

Dr Nichols said he would have the levels of Lp(a) checked to be quite low before eating soy foods on a regular basis. And, knowing him, he would then re-check the level after a couple of months & then regularly every few months after that. And, he'd stop eating soy if his levels of Lp(a) went above the desirable level.

He explained to me that the reason very, very few doctors know of this effect is that the studies that report it are in the basic science literature rather than the clinical, (or medical), literature.

In addition, he said eating soy foods regularly …." also raises Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) which lowers bioavailable testosterone."

He said that eating soy occasionally, by which I think he means a few times a month or less, probably is OK.

But given these two things alone, he simply avoids it & never eats soy foods.

Since bioavailable testosterone is a key to sexual enjoyment in both men & women; it helps maintain your muscle mass to help you be strong & avoid getting fat; & it helps you be focused & proactive, I certainly will no longer consider eating soy foods regularly or taking soy isoflavone supplements as I was doing.

(I'd read the information that Soy & soy isoflavones might have health benefits also.)

In addition, virtually all the health benefits attributed to soy foods are available or even better gotten with different foods that ARE in the consensus Superfoods category.

The other plant protein Superfoods, like lentils & walnuts; & the health-enhancing animal protein foods like wild caught salmon & nonfat dairy products can provide plenty of protein.

And, a diet that's quite high in the cruciferous green vegetable Superfoods, like broccoli & cabbage, has been shown to protect against the harmful breakdown byproducts of testosterone without the necessity of lowering your testosterone level to do it.

In addition, unlike extra virgin olive oil, soy oil is far too high in Omega 6 oils to be used as a regular food source. (Omega 6 oils need to be balanced with adequate omega 3 oils while most of us don't eat enough omega 3's. And, polyunsaturated omega 6 oils tend to lower your levels of the protective HDLs. Lastly, they tend to produce unhealthy byproducts when heated.)

The good news for soybean growers is that soybean oil for use as a biodiesel fuel will likely soon pay better than selling it as a food anyway.

***The other reason I'm including this section in my blog is that eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

So, I might occasionally have a tofu stir fry dish at a Chinese restaurant or eat and enjoy a miso soup at a Japanese restaurant or eat a health bar that provides its protein with soy.

I just don't & won't do it all often. I think I've averaged about two or three times a year.

Next I'll list some foods that I think belong in this category for just that reason.

Some of them, unlike soy, are foods you might otherwise be writing off now while trying to eat a health-enhancing diet.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.

I'll post more Only OK Occasionally Foods soon.

In Defense of Vitamins and Supplements!

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today’s post: Tuesday, 6-6-2006

In Defense of Vitamins and Supplements!

(Tomorrow, I’ll post the first in my series on Only OK Occasionally Foods & why I put Soy there instead of in my superfoods list. And, the last in my foods series will be Foods to avoid or NEVER eat.

Today, I’m publishing on “In Defense of Vitamins and Supplements!”, a topic I covered briefly in my Superfoods post on Brewer’s Yeast.

As Doctor Josephs so eloquently explains in his email I received yesterday, if the government were to decide for us that only some vitamins & minerals of limited doses were available in the United States to the public, it would do U.S. public health grave & serious & unnecessary harm.

His ability to quote what “evidence based medicine” doctors call “good studies” is literally awesome.

Here’s his essay.: (In places, I added paragraphing to make it easier to read.)

In Defense of Vitamins and Supplements

- an eNewsletter email from: newsletter@vitacost.com

Presented by Allen S. Josephs, M.D.

In: For Your Health News, a vitacost.com publication

For Your Health: In Defense of Vitamins and Supplements!

June 02, 2006 - There was recently a panel conference of the National Institutes of Health which concluded that Americans may be taking too many vitamin supplements without any clear benefit.

Although I would agree that certainly not every vitamin study or vitamin out of hundreds of thousands has shown benefit, there have been countless numbers of studies in the last decade that provide convincing evidence for the overall merit of quality vitamin/multi-nutrient supplementation.

This week's newsletter is going to be a primer concerning some of the more notable human studies that have been published in peer-review prominent and reputable medical journals in the last decade regarding the benefits of supplementation.

I do agree many mass market vitamins are worthless but high quality supplements with the correct nutrients, form and levels are truly life-saving and enhancing based on the evidence. Get ready for an eye-opening newsletter.

The first nutrient I would like to discuss is selenium, a micro-mineral that until the 1970s was not even known to be essential to life.

In December 1996, the journal JAMA published the results of a multi-center, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled cancer-prevention trial. Seven clinics throughout the United States participated with 1312 patients. Patients were randomized to receive either 200 mcg a day of selenomethionine or placebo. Patients were treated on average for 4.5 years.

It was found that in the selenium-treated group there was an overall reduction in the incidence of cancer of 37% with a reduction in overall cancer mortality of 50%. There was a decrease incidence in lung cancer of 38%, colorectal cancer of 46% and a 63% reduction in prostate cancer.

If this had been a drug, I am confident that the FDA would have fast-tracked it and approved it as a preventative medicine for cancer. But being that it was just a simple mineral, medical academia looked at it as merely a curiosity to be further investigated.

There was a subsequent study published in 1998 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute measuring selenium concentrations in the toenails of over 50,000 physicians who were followed for more than a decade.

It was found that those men with the highest concentrations of selenium reduced their risk of advanced prostate cancer by about two-thirds.

Sadly the typical multivitamin contains the wrong form and only 20 mcg per day. I strongly recommend people read the labels of the supplements they take and make sure 200 mcg of selenomethionine is included.

The next essential nutrients that I would like to discuss are omega-3 fatty acids EPA & DHA, with the best source being molecularly distilled fish oil. For those of you who are regular readers of this newsletter, you know how strongly I feel about the amazing benefits of fish oil.

For the NIH panel not to indicate the importance of this in their recent news release is quite sad.

In the April 2005 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine, there was a review article published regarding the benefits of lipid-lowering drugs such as the statins and various diets. I had previously written about this study.

Just to recap, almost 11,000 clinical trials that were done in the last 40 years were reviewed. Of these almost 11,000 studies, 97 were randomized and controlled with reliable mortality data. These 97 trials involved over 275,000 people.

When they looked at these studies that utilized the statin drugs, such as Zocor, Lipitor and others, it was found that overall mortality was decreased by 13%.

However, when they reviewed the studies using omega-3 fatty acids (placebo-controlled) they found that this nutrient decreased mortality by 23%, almost twice as powerful as the statin drugs and obviously without any side effects or the outrageously high cost of statin drugs.

In fact, for those that would like to understand and solve our health care crisis that is bankrupting America and its citizens, I strongly recommend you read my new book called Natural Cures from a Real Medical Doctor.

Clearly the NIH is not going to solve any health care issues with their current advice. Omega-3 fatty acids appear to work their magic by improving heart rhythm and decreasing clotting in the heart, leading to a significant decrease in the incidence in sudden death.

The omega-3 fatty acids also have shown benefits in clinical trials as anti-inflammatory agents with great results in arthritis patients.

It can also be of benefit in patients with depression.

In fact I believe ADHD in children and adults can be helped with a low sugar diet combined with B-complex vitamins and fish oil.

Let's go on to coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). This has become an increasingly popular nutrient utilized by people to help improve cardiac function and periodontal disease.

In fact, it is approved in Japan for the treatment of heart failure.

As a neurologist, I was extremely pleased to see a study published in the October 2002 edition of Archives of Neurology regarding Parkinson's disease.

Eighty patients with early Parkinson's disease participated in a double-blinded, randomized, multi-center study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive CoQ10 at doses of 300 mg, 600 mg, 1200 mg a day or placebo. It was found that the higher the dose of CoQ10, the slower the progression of Parkinson's disease. In fact at the highest dosage the progression was reduced by an amazing 50%.

The study concluded that CoQ10 was safe and well tolerated and that it appeared to slow the progressive deterioration of function in Parkinson patients. I am aware that there are neurologists in New York using up to 3,000 mg a day of CoQ10 in clinical trials.

I routinely recommend this nutrient to my patients with Parkinson's disease since there is no effective FDA approved drug that can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.

Another disease that I deal with on a regular basis is stroke. It is said that stroke increases the risk of subsequent hip fracture anywhere from two to four times. There has been discussion in the medical literature that elevations in homocysteine are not only a risk factor for stroke, but also for osteoporotic fractures in the elderly. There was a study published in the March 2005 edition of JAMA involving 628 consecutive patients 65 years or older with residual stroke of at least one year's duration. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 5 mg of folic acid along with 1,500 mcg of B12 versus placebo. After two years, those patients treated with the high dose of folic acid and B12 had a reduction in plasma homocysteine level by 38% versus the placebo group that had an increase in homocysteine level of 31%. What was most fascinating was that the number of hip fractures was only 10 in the folic/B12 group and 43 in the placebo group. This result was highly statistically significant with the likelihood that this result could have occurred by chance of less than 1 in a 1,000. Where was the NIH group regarding the results of this study? There have been other studies in the medical literature pointing to the benefits of folic acid in reducing incidence of tumors in the colon, etc. I must reiterate that your typical multivitamin will not provide these results because the level of B vitamins is too low. Read your labels and choose carefully. The NIH should have pointed this out rather than disparaging all vitamins regardless of their formulations.

The NIH panel did mention in passing the AREDS (age-related eye disease study). This was published about five years ago in the medical literature. It was a multi-center study that followed over 3,500 patients with varying degrees of age-related macular degeneration. Groups were assigned to receive placebo, zinc or zinc and anti-oxidants. The anti-oxidant/zinc formulation consisted of 500 mg of vitamin C, 400 units of vitamin E, 15 mg of beta carotene, 80 mg of zinc and 2 mg of copper. It was found that those patients treated with the high dose antioxidants and zinc reduced the risk of developing advanced age-related macular degeneration by about 25%. I must point out the NIH failed to mention the published study on Medline regarding 10 mg lutein, 10 mg lutein plus antioxidants (NSI's OcuPower) or placebo in 90 patients conduced by the U.S. Veteran's Administration. Vitacost/NSI helped fund this study and it is the first published study in humans to show improvement in vision with nutrients whereas the placebo failed. I am not aware of any drug, laser, surgery or medical treatment that can provide the same benefit. The NIH panel spoke primarily of the zinc, although it was clearly the zinc and the antioxidants that had the most benefit.

Another one of my favorite nutrients is called acetyl-L carnitine (ALCAR). There was a study published many years ago using this nutrient along with alpha lipoic acid. It was found that these nutrients were actually able to regenerate brain cells in aging rats to the point that they were able to function at a much higher level. In the journal Diabetes Care (2005), researchers from Wayne State University evaluated two one-year placebo-controlled trials regarding diabetic peripheral neuropathy. These trials involved the use of acetyl-L carnitine, either 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg a day. Over 1,000 patients were involved in the studies. The two studies were evaluated separately and then combined. Patients underwent biopsy of sural nerves along with other testing to determine efficacy. It was found that those patients treated with ALCAR showed significant improvement in sural nerve fiber number and regenerating nerve fiber clusters. Pain which has the most bothersome symptom showed significant improvement in one study and in the combined cohort. It was concluded that these studies demonstrated that ALCAR treatment is efficacious in alleviating symptoms, particularly pain and improving nerve fiber regeneration in patients with established diabetic neuropathy. Do you know how many drugs are available to help regenerate peripheral nerves in patients with diabetic neuropathy? The answer is ZERO. Where was the NIH panel looking at this nutrient? There have been other recent studies with ALCAR showing benefit for men with impaired sperm motility. I have used ALCAR successfully in my multiple sclerosis patients who suffer with chronic fatigue. There have been double-blinded trials in the medical literature demonstrating efficacy for this problem. There have been studies in the medical literature looking at acetyl-L carnitine in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In one study published in Neurology (September 2000), it was found that patients treated for one year with 1,000 mg three times daily seemed to show stabilization whereas the placebo group showed further decline.

Another great nutrient that is in the category of bioflavonoids is green tea. Green tea catechins have been shown in animal and lab studies to inhibit cancer growth.

There was a study published in the journal Cancer Research (January 2006) looking at men with high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia. Recent studies have shown that 30% of men with this condition go on to develop prostate cancer within one year. In this study, 60 patients with prostate intraepithelial neoplasia were enrolled in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Half of the men were given 600 mg of standardized green tea extract daily whereas the other group was given placebo. After one year, only one tumor was diagnosed in the 30 men treated with green tea (incidence of about 3%) whereas 9 cancers were found among the 30 placebo-treated men (incidence of 30%).

As a side observation, those men treated with green tea extract also had reduced lower urinary tract symptoms, suggesting that these compounds may also be of value with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).

Green tea has been used anecdotally for its potential cancer fighting properties. In an article just published in the June 2006 edition of Leukemia Research, researchers out of the Mayo Clinic reported on four patients with low-grade B cell malignancies, three of which had a partial response after taking green tea extract. The researchers cautioned against widespread use of green tea until further clinical trials can be conducted to define optimal dosing, schedule, toxicity and clinical efficacy.

This is absurd considering the fact green tea is safe and has been consumed for thousands of years. We are not talking about a new drug that may kill you.

Make sure you read the label and look for green tea that has a high percentage of EGCG, the most active component.

cAnother nutrient in the bioflavonoid family is curcumin. This powerful nutrient is also being tested in centers throughout the country, including MD Anderson in Texas, for killing cancer cells.

Lycopene is a nutrient in the carotenoid family. There are approximately 600 carotenoids in nature, the best well-known one being beta carotene. There have been some interesting studies on lycopene regarding cancer and heart disease. In one study, 54 patients with biopsy-proven, metastatic prostatic cancer were randomized to undergo orchidectomy (removal of testicles) alone or orchidectomy plus lycopene supplementation. After six months, both groups showed a significant decrease in the levels of PSA but the group treated with orchidectomy and lycopene showed further decrease. After two years, the changes were noted to be more consistent in the orchidectomy/lycopene group. Approximately 40% of the patients treated with surgery alone had a complete PSA response compared with 78% in the group treated with surgery and lycopene. The researchers concluded that adding lycopene to orchidectomy produced a more reliably consistent decrease in serum PSA level, treating not only the primary tumor, but also diminishing secondary tumors. In another study published in the journal Experimental of Biology Medicine (November 2002), 26 men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer were randomly assigned to receive 30 mg a day of lycopene extract or no supplementation for three weeks before radical prostate surgery. It was found at the time of surgery those men treated with the lycopene had generally smaller tumors compared to those given no therapy. The researchers indicated that this pilot study suggested that lycopene may have beneficial effects in prostate cancer and suggested a larger clinical trial. I would like to point out the primary standardized supplement utilized in many studies is Lyc-O-Mato.

This rather lengthy newsletter was just an introduction into some of the amazing studies on vitamins/nutrients that have been published in recent years. This newsletter, literally, just scratches the surface as I did not cover other important nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin D, calcium, glucosamine/chondroitin, garlic and so on. Recent studies on vitamin D indicate it can help maintain balance and reduce cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis. Current RDA/DV levels of 400 IU per day are too low; scientists are suggesting 700 to 2,000 IU per day is optimal. Glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate have numerous studies proving their benefits for repairing joints and reversing arthritis in humans. Calcium and magnesium may prevent and reverse osteoporosis and even heart disease.

Superfoods part 36 -- Summary by Category

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today’s post: Monday, 6-5-2006

Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 36

Here are the foods I’ve listed by category.

Here are the fruit entries.:

Kiwifruit; Strawberries; Blueberries; Oranges; & Orange Juice; Lemons; Plums & Prunes; Sour, pitted Cherries – available canned & unsweetened; red seedless Grapes; Apples & Apple sauce (unsweetened); Blackberries; Raspberries; Cranberries; Apricots; & organic Peaches & organic Nectarines

Here are the vegetables or foods used as vegetables:

Asparagus; Avocados; Tomatoes; Green Beans; Broccoli; Romaine lettuce; Cauliflower; Sweet Potatoes, Yams, Pumpkin, Squash, Carrots, & Spinach in moderation; Cabbage -- & Kimchi; Kale; Brussels Sprouts; Zucchini; Okra; Black-eyed Peas;

Protein foods:

Oatmeal; Beans & Lentils; Almonds; Wild caught Salmon; Sardines; Nonfat & 1 percent lowfat milk; Hummus; Yogurt; & Walnuts; Whole Eggs & Egg whites; Whole wheat; Wheat Germ; & Buckwheat; Turkey & Free-Range Chicken; Grass-fed Beef & Grass-fed Buffalo; Barley; Black-eyed Peas; Brewer’s Yeast; Shrimp & Prawns; Mushrooms; Crab; & Lobster; Wild Rice; Quinoa; & Bulgur Wheat;

Health enhancing fats & oils:

Avocados; Almonds; Wild caught Salmon; Sardines; Walnuts; & Extra Virgin Olive Oil; Hummus that’s made with Olive Oil;

Most health enhancing drinks:

Nonfat & 1 percent lowfat milk; & Green & black teas; Pomegranate juice; Concord Grape Juice; Red Wine & Dark Beer;

Health Enhancing spices, etc:

Garlic; Onions; Ginger; Turmeric; Curry; Chili; Red peppers & Hot peppers; Cinnamon; Allspice; Nutmeg; Basil; Oregano; Rosemary; & Sage

Also:

Soy is on many superfood lists. It is NOT on mine. Why that is I’ll cover soon.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today’s post: Friday, 6-2-2006

Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 34

For some kinds of more information on the Superfoods I’ve listed & some additional ideas on similar foods to try,

1. Look at this website:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=4 The World’s Healthiest Foods page for whfoods.org by the George Mateljan Foundation.

In my blog so far, I’ve hit some of the highlights of why I’ve listed each food.

Their list has some foods I’ve not listed -- & almost all of them I have listed.

But of more importance, they have a detailed nutritional profile on each food & also list their own health benefits summary for each one.

This is a great resource.

2. Check out the book, SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life
-- by Steven G. Pratt

I mostly agree on 13 of the foods; but have very different & far less positive information on Soy as a Superfood. (I’ll post more on that soon.)

Meanwhile the rest of the book is excellent.

And, even better, he lists a large number of similar foods. For example in his chapter on Blueberries, he also lists Blackberries & Strawberries at the beginning of that chapter.

So for more detailed information on the consensus Superfoods & more similar foods to try than I’ve listed, his book is also a great resource.

So, between my list & these two others, there are about 100 Superfoods.

So, if anyone ever asks you after hearing what they shouldn’t eat, “Now, what am I going to eat?”

Send them here & to those two places.

Next time, I’ll post a summary of the foods I’ve included by category.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today’s post: Thursday, 6-1-2006

Superfoods & Honor Roll Foods, part 33

Other Superfoods.

Other fruit: Sour, pitted cherries – available canned & unsweetened; red seedless grapes;
blackberries; raspberries; cranberries; apricots; & organic peaches & nectarines

Other vegetables: Romaine lettuce; spinach; & cauliflower;

Other protein foods that are low in saturated fat: Mushrooms; lobster; & crab

Other whole grain foods: Wild rice; quinoa; & bulgur wheat

Other OK spices: allspice, nutmeg; basil; oregano; rosemary; & sage

Most foods from these categories are superfoods by definition. Some of these foods like blackberries & cauliflower & quinoa are superfoods for other reasons also.

Before I change topics, I wanted to list them quickly. If you like any of these foods or simply want some variety from the other superfoods, these foods are OK to Great choices.

Also:

Soy is on many superfood lists. It is NOT on mine. Why that is I’ll cover soon.