Health OK & NOT OK sweeteners....
Today's post: Friday, 3-28-2008
Healthy people who get enough exercise can eat whole fruit & handle occasional sugar or honey, perhaps one to four times a week.
(One of the first health experts to publicize that exercise improves your body’s ability to process sugar & other carbohydrates & handle them safely was exercise specialist, Dr. Kenneth Cooper.)
And, if the sugar is in the form of honey a few times a year, you also have the intake of sugars humans evolved to eat.
Unfortunately, people who have sedentary work & get virtually no exercise tend to get fat & develop high levels & spikes of glucose & resulting diseases if they eat many carbohydrates, particularly if the carbohydrates are sugars or are eaten or drunk without fiber &/or protein taken in at the same time.
So, in today’s world, it pays to avoid all refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, & most sugar. And, since we no longer get the daily exercise built in to our normal activities that people got until a few decades ago, in order to eat ANY sugar safely, it’s critical that we get abundant regular exercise each week.
How about diet soft drinks & artificial noncaloric sweeteners?
They tend to induce overeating of other carbohydrate foods & may also cause metabolic problems. Most people who eat them in any quantity have been shown to develop the same diseases & often get even MORE fat than people who take in sugar.
Further, it’s now known that nonstarchy vegetables, health OK protein foods, & moderate amounts of health OK fats don’t make you fat. But virtually all carbohydrates not in vegetables or whole fruit or nuts or beans do tend to make you fat.
A recent issue of the TotalHealhBreakthroughs.com email had two very interesting articles on these issues. So did a recent issue to EarlyToRise.com
Taken together, these articles show why artificial noncaloric sweeteners tend to be unsafe, some natural ones may be safe (or at least much safer) & how very low carbohydrate intake needs to be for people who want to keep excess fat off their bodies.
I include them next & then will add my comments on them.
“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”
How to Get Your Sweet Fix Without Sabotaging Your Health
By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison
If you could make one simple change in your diet to help you melt fat, sleep better, and improve your memory... wouldn't you do it? What if that same simple dietary change could increase your energy, conquer depression, save your eyesight, restore your mental alertness, get your bedroom energy rockin', and increase your lifespan?
This may sound too good to be true. But it's not. And you don't have to take drugs. Nor do you have to try some newfangled experimental supplements. Or stop eating. Or even give up the foods you love.
It's as simple as reducing the amount of sugar you eat.
This is not a trick. I said you don't have to give up the foods you love. And that includes sweets. You can actually give up sugar and keep your sweet tooth happy. This is the greatest health secret of all time. And I'm gonna teach you how to incorporate it into your life.
Before I tell you how, I want you to know just why you should give up sugar.
It's not just because of all the aforementioned benefits. It's because sugar can have serious health consequences.
Have you ever been plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems? You know something is wrong, but your doctor can't seem to figure out what's causing them? You...
• can't lose weight, no matter how hard you exercise or diet
• feel depressed, even though you're typically a happy person
• can't get a solid night's sleep
• feel sluggish at work
• lack mental focus
• have lost your libido
• suffer from rising blood pressure
Well, it's not all in your head. It could be your sugar addiction.
My six-year-old can recite all the dangers of sucrose (table sugar) in a matter of two minutes. She can also warn you of the risks associated with those artificial sweeteners in pretty packets. And because she still likes to get her "sweet fix," she can tell you which natural sweeteners are best to use in tea, cookies, and cake. Not bad, considering that the self-appointed custodians of our health - physicians - are totally clueless about the sweetener epidemic that is sabotaging us.
If a first grader can master the problems with sugar and understand how to choose the right alternatives, you can too.
We all have the need to get a sweet fix. It's part of our biological makeup. When consumed, sweets elicit a chemical cascade of events that lead to the triggering of feel-good receptors within the brain. If this happens repeatedly, an emotional bond between happiness and sugar is formed. We become fully dependent on sweets.
Sugar addiction is best illustrated by children who break down with temper tantrums if not given sugar, women who consume chocolate in times of stress, and men who suck down soda to make it through the "afternoon blues." In a study comparing the addictive properties of sweeteners, saccharin and sucrose proved more addictive than cocaine!
The irony is that your body doesn't actually need any sugar. What you do need is glucose for energy. And you can obtain it from fruit and vegetables.
If left unchecked, an addiction to sweets spikes blood sugar and the fat-storing hormone insulin, disrupts satiety (causing users to overeat), and gives rise to age-accelerating molecules known as AGE products (advanced glycation end products). These aging molecules are responsible for causing wrinkles and age-related blindness, as well as premature heart attacks and stroke.
Over time, "sweetener addiction" leads to the hard-to-diagnose symptoms listed above, and a host of dreaded diseases like insulin resistance, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. To avoid the sabotage, you must understand how to get your sweet fix without becoming addicted.
Years ago, people didn't eat much sugar - as little as 10-15 pounds per year. And their health was much better for it. As time passed and sugar production became easier, people gave into their sweet cravings and began to overindulge. Today, the average consumption of sugar is a whopping 160 pounds! It's suicide in slow motion. Sugar addicts eliminate 11-20 years from their lifespan.
Few people realize how much sugar they are putting into their body. They are simply giving into an addiction while slowly ruining their health. To judge whether or not you are at risk, read your food labels for one day and count how many grams of sugar you are eating. Insert that number into my People's Chemist Death by Sugar Calculator. Watch as the graph calculates how many pounds of sugar you are stuffing into your mouth annually.
But that doesn't mean you should replace sucrose with artificial sweeteners to get your sweet fix. Artificial sweeteners are nothing more than drugs in disguise. Splenda is a perfect example.
Splenda contains the drug sucralose. Invented in a pesticide lab, this chemical is 600 times sweeter than sugar. To make sucralose, chlorine is used. Chlorine has a split personality. It can be harmless or it can be life threatening. In combo with sodium, chlorine forms a harmless ionic bond to yield table salt. When used with carbon, the chlorine atom in sucralose forms a covalent bond. The end result is deadly organochlorine, known simply as RNFOC (a Really Nasty Form of Chlorine). Unlike ionic bonds, covalently bound chlorines are a big no-no for the human body. They yield insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides - not something you want in your sports drink or your child's lunchbox.
Think aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet) is safe?
Think again. As an organic chemistry teaching assistant, I taught my students how to identify the active ingredients in soda using a technique known as TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography). The byproducts of sodas containing aspartame are all known poisons (that would slowly kill you): methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. I never saw my students with a diet soda after that.
Safe alternatives to artificial sweeteners are abundant: erythritol, stevia, agave, xylitol and luo han guo.
Choosing which natural sweetener to use depends on which one tastes best to you. Agave nectar usually wins. It stimulates taste buds exactly the same way sucrose does. But unlike common table sugar, very little of its active ingredient - inulin - is absorbed. Therefore, you are protected from the dangers of sugar addiction.
As a "nectar," agave is a bit harder to bake with. This is where erythritol wins.
All natural sweeteners are known to help control appetite, keep insulin and blood sugar low, and prevent the formation of AGE products. None of them are addicting, nor will they diminish your lifespan.
Getting your sweet fix doesn't have to be deadly. If you learn to gauge your sugar intake with The People's Chemist Death by Sugar Calculator and start using natural sweeteners, you won't be plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems. And you'll have more years to enjoy life and those you love.
[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison (www.thepeopleschemist.com) is an author, organic chemist, and contributor to ETR's free natural health newsletter. He is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition and the founder of The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery package.
X*X*X*X*
I have only tried Stevia & luo han guo. The product I once tasted with luo han guo tasted as if real sugar had been used. I find Stevia to be overwhelmingly marshmallow flavored & maybe even a bit off for a marshmallow flavoring.
Also, erythritol & xylitol are what are called “sugar alcohols” & when eaten in large amounts give some people gas. They may be just fine tho for smaller amounts.
Also, I think people are much more likely to be healthy if they have very few sweetened food treats. And, it may turn out to be that these natural sweeteners might cause you to overeat just as the artificial ones do.
So, my take on it is to eat only occasionally sweet treats, get a LOT of exercise, & either use real sugar or use sweetening a bit sparingly in the recipes if you cook, & use half real sugar & half one of these natural very low calorie sweeteners.
X*X*X*X*
Next are the two articles from TotalHealthBreakThroughs.com :
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"
The following two articles were both in their
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 edition.
Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Brain Lesions...and Alzheimer's
By James LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND
Over the years of working with patients, I have found people really fear losing their mind to dementia or Alzheimer's. Now, two new studies show that Metabolic Syndrome may be a risk factor of these dreaded conditions.1-2
Why? Because at the core of Metabolic Syndrome is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance goes on to become belly fat. Belly fat releases inflammatory chemicals that create the oxidative free radicals that damage our artery linings and LDL cholesterol, and create lesions in the brain. These lesions may become a precursor to stroke, dementia, or Alzheimer's disease.3-4
Armed with this information, any of us would be foolish not get serious about taking care of our health. Here's what you can do today to lower your risk of Metabolic Syndrome.
1. Eat a low carb diet: Don't eat more than 80 to 100 grams of carbs per day. Most carbs should be from abundant non-starchy vegetables -- so put down the potatoes!
2. Recondition your insulin receptors: The following supplements that are easy to obtain and affordable can help improve insulin sensitivity: chromium, alpha-lipoic acid, magnesium, and zinc.
3. Exercise: Walk, run, workout, take the stairs...just get out and get some exercise. Many studies show that vigorous exercise will improve Metabolic Syndrome by creating a need for all the glucose building up in the blood stream. But take note that in our clinic I have seen many who cannot lose weight despite intense exercise. This is a sure sign that nutrients are lacking that are needed by insulin and insulin receptors as discussed in number 2.
4. Stress Management: For many people, stress plays a major role in insulin resistance. Controlling the stress hormones that are promoting insulin resistance is vitally important. Relora®, holy basil, and rhodiola are well-studied supplements shown to alleviate stress symptoms themselves and help prevent their unwanted side effects.
Remember that diet, exercise, and well-chosen supplements should be our treatment of choice. Prescriptions that are often used for the pre-conditions of diabetes and heart disease are risky (unless there is an already dangerously high blood pressure or blood sugar present). These meds can even hasten our path toward the very diseases we are trying to prevent by depleting essential nutrients from our body. (See Total Health Breakthroughs article, "Drug Induced Nutrient Depletion" in the February 1 issue.)
References
1. Bokura H, et al. Stroke. 2008 Mar 6.2
2. Lazaros L, et al Acta Neurol Scand. 2008 Mar;117(3):186-90. Epub 2007 Sep 14.
3. Park K, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2008 Feb 12.
4. Park JH, et al. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2008 Mar;110(3):215-21.
Epub 2007 Dec 4.
[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine, LaValle has authored 13 books, including his latest, Cracking the Metabolic Code.
Healthy Living:
The Wrong Diet Can Raise Your Cardio-Metabolic Risks
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
Americans are experiencing a shocking epidemic of health problems from insulin resistance and the Metabolic Syndrome that it leads to. It's even more shocking that many mainstream doctors are still recommending diets that are making these conditions even worse!
Here's why. A number of studies over the last few years have shown that lower carb diets are superior for control of insulin resistance and its related conditions like Metabolic Syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and high-risk cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Low-carb diets that are higher in protein and healthy fats have been shown to drastically improve the components of Metabolic Syndrome while promoting weight loss.1-5
And...they have been shown to help maintain a better metabolic rate than conventional low calorie diets.7
Yet conventional medical circles still won't recommend lower carb diets, favoring instead, low calorie, low-fat diets. This is despite the fact that studies show that conventional diets containing 50-60% of calories as carbs, not only make Metabolic Syndrome worse,6 they lower resting energy expenditure, slowing the metabolism even further.7 (This is especially true for diets containing carbs that are high on the glycemic index)8. As resting energy expenditure is lowered, it becomes harder and harder to maintain long term weight loss and control Metabolic Syndrome.
The bottom line is that conventional diets are not effective and may be setting people up for long term failure when it comes to controlling weight and insulin resistance. Low-carb higher protein diets on the other hand are effective for maintaining weight loss and controlling Metabolic Syndrome. They have even been shown to be effective in people who have progressed to type 2 diabetes.
While many mainstream practitioners are still stubbornly adhering to a low-fat, higher carb diet, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In one published study, the authors concluded that recommending traditional diets such as the American Heart Association Diet is in error for Metabolic Syndrome.6 And in another, the authors recommend focusing on reducing high glycemic foods rather than on restricting fat as a means to improving metabolic and cardiovascular health.9
At the LaValle Metabolic Institute, we have been recommending a 25 to 30%
carbohydrate diet for years, based on some of the early research and the positive results we see in practice. If you have insulin resistance or any signs of it, you should make this dietary change as fast as you can to lower your cardio-metabolic risk!
References
1. Guiterrez, et al. JACN 1998;17(6) 595-600.
2. McAuley, et al. Diabetologia (2005) 48:8-16
3. JAMA. 2007;297:921.
4. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;87;114-25
5. Luscombe-Marsh, et al. AJCN 81(4);762-772 Apr. 2005
6. Volek J, Feinman R. Nutr and Metab 2005,2:31
7. Pereira, MA, et al. JAMA 292:2482-2490
8. Arch Int Med, July 24, 2006
9. Hu F. Health Editorial J A Coll Cardiol 2007;50:22-24.
[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute (formerly part of Living Longer Institute). She offers personal nutritional counseling at LMI for clients who need help with their diet in relation to illness or disease. Laura also provides educational services in the areas of health promotion, wellness, and disease prevention. “
X*X*X*X*
The study on how people with fat bellies are more likely to develop dementia in later life is something that deserves its own post on how to protect your brain if your have a fat belly.
The study proves it’s important to do that. I’ll cover other reasons that this effect exists & the several effective ways to turn off this effect & keep your brain working well anyway.
80 to 100 mg a day of ALL carbohydrates means no grains, not even whole grains, no sugar or sweets containing it, only ONE piece of whole fruit & possibly not every day, & no milk.
Jon Benson, see www.fitover40.com , now sells a book that promotes eating this way but just every other day.
And, Tim Ferris who eats mostly this way, does take one day a week off. He also used eating this way plus cutting out half his normal calories one day a week.
Over time the half calories one day a week idea will lose most people 1/14th of their bodyweight as fat, particularly if they exercise & do strength training each week & eat a higher protein, moderate fat, & low moderate carbohydrate diet the rest of the time.
I like these strict on some days of the week & healthy eating but less strict on carbohydrates some other days a week is a much less restrictive & sustainable way to take fat off & keep it off than doing it every day.
I tried Tim Ferris’s idea of a half calorie day with almost no carbohydrates besides nonstarchy vegetables, pinto beans, & nuts and with extra protein. I found it quite doable because I ate a LOT of nonstarchy vegetables & my normal amount of pinto beans, & nuts. That, plus the extra protein kept me from being hungry. And, I still cut out 70 % of my carbohydrate intake & cut my calories in half.
Since , I found it doable, I’ll keep doing this almost every Thursday for several weeks to see if it makes the predicted difference.
And, I’ll post the results here.
Today's post: Friday, 3-28-2008
Healthy people who get enough exercise can eat whole fruit & handle occasional sugar or honey, perhaps one to four times a week.
(One of the first health experts to publicize that exercise improves your body’s ability to process sugar & other carbohydrates & handle them safely was exercise specialist, Dr. Kenneth Cooper.)
And, if the sugar is in the form of honey a few times a year, you also have the intake of sugars humans evolved to eat.
Unfortunately, people who have sedentary work & get virtually no exercise tend to get fat & develop high levels & spikes of glucose & resulting diseases if they eat many carbohydrates, particularly if the carbohydrates are sugars or are eaten or drunk without fiber &/or protein taken in at the same time.
So, in today’s world, it pays to avoid all refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, & most sugar. And, since we no longer get the daily exercise built in to our normal activities that people got until a few decades ago, in order to eat ANY sugar safely, it’s critical that we get abundant regular exercise each week.
How about diet soft drinks & artificial noncaloric sweeteners?
They tend to induce overeating of other carbohydrate foods & may also cause metabolic problems. Most people who eat them in any quantity have been shown to develop the same diseases & often get even MORE fat than people who take in sugar.
Further, it’s now known that nonstarchy vegetables, health OK protein foods, & moderate amounts of health OK fats don’t make you fat. But virtually all carbohydrates not in vegetables or whole fruit or nuts or beans do tend to make you fat.
A recent issue of the TotalHealhBreakthroughs.com email had two very interesting articles on these issues. So did a recent issue to EarlyToRise.com
Taken together, these articles show why artificial noncaloric sweeteners tend to be unsafe, some natural ones may be safe (or at least much safer) & how very low carbohydrate intake needs to be for people who want to keep excess fat off their bodies.
I include them next & then will add my comments on them.
“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”
How to Get Your Sweet Fix Without Sabotaging Your Health
By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison
If you could make one simple change in your diet to help you melt fat, sleep better, and improve your memory... wouldn't you do it? What if that same simple dietary change could increase your energy, conquer depression, save your eyesight, restore your mental alertness, get your bedroom energy rockin', and increase your lifespan?
This may sound too good to be true. But it's not. And you don't have to take drugs. Nor do you have to try some newfangled experimental supplements. Or stop eating. Or even give up the foods you love.
It's as simple as reducing the amount of sugar you eat.
This is not a trick. I said you don't have to give up the foods you love. And that includes sweets. You can actually give up sugar and keep your sweet tooth happy. This is the greatest health secret of all time. And I'm gonna teach you how to incorporate it into your life.
Before I tell you how, I want you to know just why you should give up sugar.
It's not just because of all the aforementioned benefits. It's because sugar can have serious health consequences.
Have you ever been plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems? You know something is wrong, but your doctor can't seem to figure out what's causing them? You...
• can't lose weight, no matter how hard you exercise or diet
• feel depressed, even though you're typically a happy person
• can't get a solid night's sleep
• feel sluggish at work
• lack mental focus
• have lost your libido
• suffer from rising blood pressure
Well, it's not all in your head. It could be your sugar addiction.
My six-year-old can recite all the dangers of sucrose (table sugar) in a matter of two minutes. She can also warn you of the risks associated with those artificial sweeteners in pretty packets. And because she still likes to get her "sweet fix," she can tell you which natural sweeteners are best to use in tea, cookies, and cake. Not bad, considering that the self-appointed custodians of our health - physicians - are totally clueless about the sweetener epidemic that is sabotaging us.
If a first grader can master the problems with sugar and understand how to choose the right alternatives, you can too.
We all have the need to get a sweet fix. It's part of our biological makeup. When consumed, sweets elicit a chemical cascade of events that lead to the triggering of feel-good receptors within the brain. If this happens repeatedly, an emotional bond between happiness and sugar is formed. We become fully dependent on sweets.
Sugar addiction is best illustrated by children who break down with temper tantrums if not given sugar, women who consume chocolate in times of stress, and men who suck down soda to make it through the "afternoon blues." In a study comparing the addictive properties of sweeteners, saccharin and sucrose proved more addictive than cocaine!
The irony is that your body doesn't actually need any sugar. What you do need is glucose for energy. And you can obtain it from fruit and vegetables.
If left unchecked, an addiction to sweets spikes blood sugar and the fat-storing hormone insulin, disrupts satiety (causing users to overeat), and gives rise to age-accelerating molecules known as AGE products (advanced glycation end products). These aging molecules are responsible for causing wrinkles and age-related blindness, as well as premature heart attacks and stroke.
Over time, "sweetener addiction" leads to the hard-to-diagnose symptoms listed above, and a host of dreaded diseases like insulin resistance, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. To avoid the sabotage, you must understand how to get your sweet fix without becoming addicted.
Years ago, people didn't eat much sugar - as little as 10-15 pounds per year. And their health was much better for it. As time passed and sugar production became easier, people gave into their sweet cravings and began to overindulge. Today, the average consumption of sugar is a whopping 160 pounds! It's suicide in slow motion. Sugar addicts eliminate 11-20 years from their lifespan.
Few people realize how much sugar they are putting into their body. They are simply giving into an addiction while slowly ruining their health. To judge whether or not you are at risk, read your food labels for one day and count how many grams of sugar you are eating. Insert that number into my People's Chemist Death by Sugar Calculator. Watch as the graph calculates how many pounds of sugar you are stuffing into your mouth annually.
But that doesn't mean you should replace sucrose with artificial sweeteners to get your sweet fix. Artificial sweeteners are nothing more than drugs in disguise. Splenda is a perfect example.
Splenda contains the drug sucralose. Invented in a pesticide lab, this chemical is 600 times sweeter than sugar. To make sucralose, chlorine is used. Chlorine has a split personality. It can be harmless or it can be life threatening. In combo with sodium, chlorine forms a harmless ionic bond to yield table salt. When used with carbon, the chlorine atom in sucralose forms a covalent bond. The end result is deadly organochlorine, known simply as RNFOC (a Really Nasty Form of Chlorine). Unlike ionic bonds, covalently bound chlorines are a big no-no for the human body. They yield insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides - not something you want in your sports drink or your child's lunchbox.
Think aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet) is safe?
Think again. As an organic chemistry teaching assistant, I taught my students how to identify the active ingredients in soda using a technique known as TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography). The byproducts of sodas containing aspartame are all known poisons (that would slowly kill you): methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. I never saw my students with a diet soda after that.
Safe alternatives to artificial sweeteners are abundant: erythritol, stevia, agave, xylitol and luo han guo.
Choosing which natural sweetener to use depends on which one tastes best to you. Agave nectar usually wins. It stimulates taste buds exactly the same way sucrose does. But unlike common table sugar, very little of its active ingredient - inulin - is absorbed. Therefore, you are protected from the dangers of sugar addiction.
As a "nectar," agave is a bit harder to bake with. This is where erythritol wins.
All natural sweeteners are known to help control appetite, keep insulin and blood sugar low, and prevent the formation of AGE products. None of them are addicting, nor will they diminish your lifespan.
Getting your sweet fix doesn't have to be deadly. If you learn to gauge your sugar intake with The People's Chemist Death by Sugar Calculator and start using natural sweeteners, you won't be plagued by hard-to-diagnose health problems. And you'll have more years to enjoy life and those you love.
[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison (www.thepeopleschemist.com) is an author, organic chemist, and contributor to ETR's free natural health newsletter. He is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition and the founder of The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery package.
X*X*X*X*
I have only tried Stevia & luo han guo. The product I once tasted with luo han guo tasted as if real sugar had been used. I find Stevia to be overwhelmingly marshmallow flavored & maybe even a bit off for a marshmallow flavoring.
Also, erythritol & xylitol are what are called “sugar alcohols” & when eaten in large amounts give some people gas. They may be just fine tho for smaller amounts.
Also, I think people are much more likely to be healthy if they have very few sweetened food treats. And, it may turn out to be that these natural sweeteners might cause you to overeat just as the artificial ones do.
So, my take on it is to eat only occasionally sweet treats, get a LOT of exercise, & either use real sugar or use sweetening a bit sparingly in the recipes if you cook, & use half real sugar & half one of these natural very low calorie sweeteners.
X*X*X*X*
Next are the two articles from TotalHealthBreakThroughs.com :
"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"
The following two articles were both in their
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 edition.
Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Brain Lesions...and Alzheimer's
By James LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND
Over the years of working with patients, I have found people really fear losing their mind to dementia or Alzheimer's. Now, two new studies show that Metabolic Syndrome may be a risk factor of these dreaded conditions.1-2
Why? Because at the core of Metabolic Syndrome is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance goes on to become belly fat. Belly fat releases inflammatory chemicals that create the oxidative free radicals that damage our artery linings and LDL cholesterol, and create lesions in the brain. These lesions may become a precursor to stroke, dementia, or Alzheimer's disease.3-4
Armed with this information, any of us would be foolish not get serious about taking care of our health. Here's what you can do today to lower your risk of Metabolic Syndrome.
1. Eat a low carb diet: Don't eat more than 80 to 100 grams of carbs per day. Most carbs should be from abundant non-starchy vegetables -- so put down the potatoes!
2. Recondition your insulin receptors: The following supplements that are easy to obtain and affordable can help improve insulin sensitivity: chromium, alpha-lipoic acid, magnesium, and zinc.
3. Exercise: Walk, run, workout, take the stairs...just get out and get some exercise. Many studies show that vigorous exercise will improve Metabolic Syndrome by creating a need for all the glucose building up in the blood stream. But take note that in our clinic I have seen many who cannot lose weight despite intense exercise. This is a sure sign that nutrients are lacking that are needed by insulin and insulin receptors as discussed in number 2.
4. Stress Management: For many people, stress plays a major role in insulin resistance. Controlling the stress hormones that are promoting insulin resistance is vitally important. Relora®, holy basil, and rhodiola are well-studied supplements shown to alleviate stress symptoms themselves and help prevent their unwanted side effects.
Remember that diet, exercise, and well-chosen supplements should be our treatment of choice. Prescriptions that are often used for the pre-conditions of diabetes and heart disease are risky (unless there is an already dangerously high blood pressure or blood sugar present). These meds can even hasten our path toward the very diseases we are trying to prevent by depleting essential nutrients from our body. (See Total Health Breakthroughs article, "Drug Induced Nutrient Depletion" in the February 1 issue.)
References
1. Bokura H, et al. Stroke. 2008 Mar 6.2
2. Lazaros L, et al Acta Neurol Scand. 2008 Mar;117(3):186-90. Epub 2007 Sep 14.
3. Park K, et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2008 Feb 12.
4. Park JH, et al. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2008 Mar;110(3):215-21.
Epub 2007 Dec 4.
[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine, LaValle has authored 13 books, including his latest, Cracking the Metabolic Code.
Healthy Living:
The Wrong Diet Can Raise Your Cardio-Metabolic Risks
By Laura LaValle, RD, LD
Americans are experiencing a shocking epidemic of health problems from insulin resistance and the Metabolic Syndrome that it leads to. It's even more shocking that many mainstream doctors are still recommending diets that are making these conditions even worse!
Here's why. A number of studies over the last few years have shown that lower carb diets are superior for control of insulin resistance and its related conditions like Metabolic Syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and high-risk cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Low-carb diets that are higher in protein and healthy fats have been shown to drastically improve the components of Metabolic Syndrome while promoting weight loss.1-5
And...they have been shown to help maintain a better metabolic rate than conventional low calorie diets.7
Yet conventional medical circles still won't recommend lower carb diets, favoring instead, low calorie, low-fat diets. This is despite the fact that studies show that conventional diets containing 50-60% of calories as carbs, not only make Metabolic Syndrome worse,6 they lower resting energy expenditure, slowing the metabolism even further.7 (This is especially true for diets containing carbs that are high on the glycemic index)8. As resting energy expenditure is lowered, it becomes harder and harder to maintain long term weight loss and control Metabolic Syndrome.
The bottom line is that conventional diets are not effective and may be setting people up for long term failure when it comes to controlling weight and insulin resistance. Low-carb higher protein diets on the other hand are effective for maintaining weight loss and controlling Metabolic Syndrome. They have even been shown to be effective in people who have progressed to type 2 diabetes.
While many mainstream practitioners are still stubbornly adhering to a low-fat, higher carb diet, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In one published study, the authors concluded that recommending traditional diets such as the American Heart Association Diet is in error for Metabolic Syndrome.6 And in another, the authors recommend focusing on reducing high glycemic foods rather than on restricting fat as a means to improving metabolic and cardiovascular health.9
At the LaValle Metabolic Institute, we have been recommending a 25 to 30%
carbohydrate diet for years, based on some of the early research and the positive results we see in practice. If you have insulin resistance or any signs of it, you should make this dietary change as fast as you can to lower your cardio-metabolic risk!
References
1. Guiterrez, et al. JACN 1998;17(6) 595-600.
2. McAuley, et al. Diabetologia (2005) 48:8-16
3. JAMA. 2007;297:921.
4. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;87;114-25
5. Luscombe-Marsh, et al. AJCN 81(4);762-772 Apr. 2005
6. Volek J, Feinman R. Nutr and Metab 2005,2:31
7. Pereira, MA, et al. JAMA 292:2482-2490
8. Arch Int Med, July 24, 2006
9. Hu F. Health Editorial J A Coll Cardiol 2007;50:22-24.
[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute (formerly part of Living Longer Institute). She offers personal nutritional counseling at LMI for clients who need help with their diet in relation to illness or disease. Laura also provides educational services in the areas of health promotion, wellness, and disease prevention. “
X*X*X*X*
The study on how people with fat bellies are more likely to develop dementia in later life is something that deserves its own post on how to protect your brain if your have a fat belly.
The study proves it’s important to do that. I’ll cover other reasons that this effect exists & the several effective ways to turn off this effect & keep your brain working well anyway.
80 to 100 mg a day of ALL carbohydrates means no grains, not even whole grains, no sugar or sweets containing it, only ONE piece of whole fruit & possibly not every day, & no milk.
Jon Benson, see www.fitover40.com , now sells a book that promotes eating this way but just every other day.
And, Tim Ferris who eats mostly this way, does take one day a week off. He also used eating this way plus cutting out half his normal calories one day a week.
Over time the half calories one day a week idea will lose most people 1/14th of their bodyweight as fat, particularly if they exercise & do strength training each week & eat a higher protein, moderate fat, & low moderate carbohydrate diet the rest of the time.
I like these strict on some days of the week & healthy eating but less strict on carbohydrates some other days a week is a much less restrictive & sustainable way to take fat off & keep it off than doing it every day.
I tried Tim Ferris’s idea of a half calorie day with almost no carbohydrates besides nonstarchy vegetables, pinto beans, & nuts and with extra protein. I found it quite doable because I ate a LOT of nonstarchy vegetables & my normal amount of pinto beans, & nuts. That, plus the extra protein kept me from being hungry. And, I still cut out 70 % of my carbohydrate intake & cut my calories in half.
Since , I found it doable, I’ll keep doing this almost every Thursday for several weeks to see if it makes the predicted difference.
And, I’ll post the results here.
Labels: abdominal fat, artificial sweetners, carbohydrates, diet soft drinks, dieting, fat loss, sugar
posted by David at 2:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home