Good news on preventing breast cancer....

Today's post: Monday, 6-30-2008

I’ve long thought that all or most of the things that prevent prostate cancer, also prevent breast cancer.

Certainly everything on the list in my post on Friday, 6-20-2008, that tends to prevent all cancers apply to preventing breast cancer.

Resveratrol looks to be a compound that tends to prevent all cancers.

And, it seems that the same group that found resveratrol looks to be effective in preventing prostate cancer did a similar test that suggests it works as well to prevent breast cancer

[Just a bit over a week ago, I did a post on a way new to me to cut your chances of getting prostate cancer in half.

(Slash your risk of prostate cancer....Friday, 6-20-2008)

And, in that post, I also listed a quick summary of many other ways to prevent cancer, prevent prostate cancer, & prevent the most dangerous & aggressive form of prostate cancer.

I also posted not long ago about the information I read that taking resveratrol, in addition to likely slowing your rate of aging, apparently both increases new blood vessels for health supporting needs AND turns OFF new blood vessels being connected to cancer cells which made it an effective cancer preventative & possibly an effective complementary treatment for cancer.

Most if not all the things on that list likely all prevent breast cancer also. So I encourage you to read that post.]

Here’s the Early to Rise article on resveratrol testing as preventive for breast cancer.:

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.

“An Antioxidant That Beats Breast Cancer

By Dr. Ray Sahelian, MD

Yesterday, I told you that animal studies have shown that resveratrol can help prevent the development of prostate cancer in men. Women, too, have a specific reason to pay attention to this powerful antioxidant: It can help protect against breast cancer.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology found that female mice given resveratrol had a significantly reduced risk of developing breast cancer.

This anti-aging substance has a host of additional health benefits - and we look forward to more research over the next few years to give us a fuller understanding of them.

Meanwhile, blueberries, red grapes, cranberries, bilberries, and - of course - red wine are all good sources of resveratrol. You can also find it in supplement form in many health food stores.”

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As I mentioned above & in earlier posts, there is MUCH more to the anti-cancer & anti-aging action of the resveratrol than its antioxidant effects alone.

So, my take on it is that taking it is considerably more likely to prevent cancer & breast cancer if you take resveratrol daily.

And, the foods that contain resveratrol all have other health benefits. So including them in your diet, is also a good idea.

(Note that women have to be stricter with the amount of red wine it’s safe to drink each week than men. For most women, more than 6 glasses a week or more than one each day is probably not a good idea.)

Good news on preventing prostate cancer....

Today's post: Friday, 6-27-2008

Just a week ago, I did a post on a way new to me to cut your chances of getting prostate cancer in half.

(Slash your risk of prostate cancer....Friday, 6-20-2008)

And, in that post, I also listed a quick summary of many other ways to prevent cancer, prevent prostate cancer, & prevent the most dangerous & aggressive form of prostate cancer.

I also posted not long ago about the information I read that taking resveratrol, in addition to likely slowing your rate of aging, apparently both increases new blood vessels for health supporting needs AND turns OFF new blood vessels being connected to cancer cells which made it an effective cancer preventative & possibly an effective complementary treatment for cancer.

I forgot to include it in last week’s post. It seems I really should have included it.

The good news is that resveratrol has tested as particularly effective in preventing prostate cancer & preventing the dangerous & aggressive kind.

That is good news indeed.

As often happens, I got that news in my Early to Rise earlier today.

Here’s their article.:

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.
“An Antioxidant That Can Help Prevent Prostate Cancer

By Dr. Ray Sahelian, MD

Wine lovers are probably already aware that red wine contains a powerful antioxidant: resveratrol. And Dr. Sears has written about the anti-aging effects of resveratrol in ETR. For instance, animal studies hint that it can help prevent weight gain and developing the symptoms of diabetes and obesity. But the health benefits of this antioxidant don't end there.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology gave male mice, on a daily basis, the equivalent of resveratrol found in a bottle of red wine. They discovered that the mice were significantly less likely to develop prostate cancer. And those mice that consumed resveratrol but still got cancer developed less serious tumors.

Red wine has about two to three milligrams of resveratrol per liter. (A liter is almost 34 ounces.) But even if you drink wine fairly regularly, taking resveratrol in supplement form is a good idea. Most resveratrol supplements on the market have about 10 mg per capsule. Taking one or two resveratrol supplements a week is fine if you are also consuming many other antioxidants every day. However, if you hardly take any antioxidant supplements, you can take the resveratrol more frequently. You can find resveratrol supplements in most health food stores.

[Ed. Note: Sometimes the difference between poor and good health is simply knowing the right supplements to take. ....For more about the supplements you should and shouldn't be taking, visit www.RaySahelian.com, the website of Ray Sahelian, MD, internationally recognized as a moderate voice in the evaluation of natural supplements and the author of Mind Boosters.]”

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As I mentioned above, there is MUCH more to the anti-cancer & anti-aging action of the resveratrol than its antioxidant effects alone.

So, my take on it is that it is considerably more likely to prevent cancer & prostate cancer if you take resveratrol daily.

Healthy Chocolate 3 Ways....

Today's post: Thursday, 6-26-2008

First, chocolate is now known to have significant heath benefits.

The main benefits are all closely related. Dark chocolate, shortly after you eat it and possibly after that also, has been shown to reliably produce improved blood vessel health & responsiveness. This effect is strong enough, your blood flow improves -- & if your blood pressure is high, your blood pressure goes down. It may even stay down to that level if you eat dark chocolate just a few times each week.

(Note: Milk reduces this effect a lot, which is why dark chocolate is better for you. And, sugar has some reverse effects that reduce it somewhat. Below we describe several ways to get the kind with the most effective health benefits.)

Second, many people find that chocolate itself – NOT the sugar is sometimes comes with -- is a mood improver almost strong enough to qualify as an antidepressant that works. (There are very few of those.) And the effect happens in seconds. It doesn’t take hours, days, or weeks.

Third, between the different kinds of bad news currently going on, it’s nice to have something that reminds us life is worth living,

Here are three sources for the healthier kinds of chocolate:

1. The kind with the most health benefits is hot chocolate made ONLY with unsweetened cocoa. And, the kind I’ve found in most grocery stores is Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa.

Be warned however NOT to buy their other cocoa & hot chocolate products as the ones I’ve seen recently still contain hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats.) Ouch !!

Their unsweetened cocoa not only has no sugar & no trans fats, it also costs less than their bad for you offerings.

For some reason, they do NOT seem to offer it for sale on their website.

Whole Foods carries several kinds of unsweetened cocoa. And, I think they all carry Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa.

2. Dagoba also makes an unsweetened cocoa. Sometimes my local Whole Foods has Dagoba unsweetened cocoa in stock; & sometimes it does not.

But Dagoba chocolate is health oriented & makes its chocolate available online at:

http://www.dagobachocolate.com/

“Dagoba crafts chocolate using organic ingredients and sustainable methods.”

They have a full line of chocolate products & two of the best ones for health are Unsweetened Hot Chocolate & Cocoa Nibs --- 100% pure cacao.

Their unsweetened cocoa costs more than the Ghirardelli; but my wife says for her it gives her more of a lift than the Ghirardelli. (I find them about the same.)

The cocoa nibs are a bit expensive but are quite literally pure dark chocolate. They make great snacks as they have a nutty flavor in addition to the dark chocolate mood elevation. And, they likely have as much health benefits as a good bit more regular dark chocolate.

3. Some people are allergic to tree nuts. And, many people are allergic to peanuts.

These allergies can be life threatening. The dangerous amounts can be surprisingly tiny. And, since many, if not most, companies that make chocolates make some with nuts or peanuts in them, the straight chocolates made in their facilities are often unsafe for these people to eat.

A mom in Vermont loved fancy chocolates; & her son developed a bad case of peanut allergy.

So, she found out how to get the ingredients for the fancy chocolates she liked to make that had no peanuts or nuts in them at all.

Since, she was a good cook too, this soon became a business.

They are doubly pricey since they not only have extra costs to ensure their chocolate has no nuts or peanuts even in tiny amounts; & they also currently only carry fancy chocolates & no cocoa or regular dark chocolate candy bars.

However, my daughter once gave me a few of their chocolate hearts. They seemed a bit harder than I prefer chocolate at first. Then I realized they tasted good. Then I realized they had the most feel-good kick of any chocolate I’d ever eaten. Wow !!

Unfortunately, by then the few chocolate hearts were all gone.

Their website is: http://www.vermontnutfree.com/

Their toll free phone number is: 1-888-468-8373.

And, they say this on their website: “We make peanut free and tree nut free chocolate candy exclusively. Our entire product line is safe for those with a peanut allergy or a tree nut allergy.”

How to make regular exercise a habit....

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-24-2008

Regular exercise that you keep doing has a huge & almost unbelievable set of benefits.

Here are a few highlights.

If you do it, you’ll be less fat. You’ll be a lot healthier & much more likely to stay healthy. And, we now know you’ll grow new brain cells and think & remember better. Your sex life will tend to be good & stay good. And, you’ll be more resilient in the face of stress.

But if you haven’t been exercising regularly, you might find it hard to get into & keep doing.

Here are some ideas that have worked well for me & other people.

Use the ones that sound like a fit for you & consider trying some of the rest.

1. Do all or part of your exercise in the first part of the morning. And, doing that exercise or that part of your exercise at home also helps.

That’s one of the most important strategies. With very rare exceptions the unexpected demands of your day tend to happen later in the day. And, when they do, instead of derailing your exercise that day, you’ve already done some exercise that day.

In fact, one study I read about found that about 70 % of people who exercised first thing in the morning stuck with it while only 35% of the people who exercised later in the day kept exercising.

In my case, I schedule a 15 minute strength training session at home in the early morning. Saturday, Monday, & Weds I do an upper body set; Sunday, Tuesday, & Thursday I do leg exercises; & on Friday I do a 5 minute abdominal routine. Using only a relatively light dumbbells for upper body exercises & my bodyweight for leg exercises & push ups, this is not enough to build my strength a lot. But I hardly ever miss doing any of these sessions.

In contrast to that, though I schedule to go the gym to do heavier upper body exercises Monday & Weds evenings, I tend to only make about half of the Mondays as I get home late Mondays & about 80 % of the Weds evenings. The list of things that prevents me from going 100 % of the time is long.

Since I do my at home exercises & do make a special effort to go when I can, I don’t lose ground very much when I miss my evenings at the Gym. I would if I didn’t exercise at home in the early mornings also.

3. It’s great if you can do more; but it’s not necessary to be super strict with yourself about exercising a lot every week. However, even 500 calories a week gives you 40% of the health benefits of exercising an hour a day seven days a week.

Since walking or running a mile or 15 minutes of strength training with no long waits between sets tends to burn 100 calories, 500 calories a week is quite doable. (My early morning strength training at home works out to about 700 calories a week. And I make the gym often enough to average another 400 calories or so a week.)

And, since the health consequences of not doing at least that much are so bad, I suggest you be very strict with yourself about always doing 500 calories a week or more every week.

Similarly, be flexible about your exercise routine if events force you to be any given day. But be very strict with yourself about hitting this minimum each week.

4. As long as you do at least two or three days of exercise during the week, you may be able to do a good bit of your weekly exercise on weekends if you have more time then. Weekends only is not enough but exercise on Saturday, Sunday, & any two other days can be.

5. Keeping a log book also helps you to stay on track. Not everyone will be willing to do a log book that they write a brief note of the date & that day’s exercise in.

But almost everyone who knows what exercise does FOR you & not exercising does TO you & who keeps a log book will keep exercising. If you are willing to use a log book at all, I recommend it very highly.

6. If you are at all social or if you want to have heavy enough weights to do strength training well or need access to cardio equipment for interval cardio, give serious consideration to joining a gym & going as regularly as you can.

It’s nice to see the other regulars each time. And that helps me to go as often as I can. We are good examples for each other & it’s nice to see other people I know are getting health benefits.

And, I like the extra strength & muscle I have because I work out there.

In addition, if you are new to strength training, many gyms will help you learn and set up a workout plan. Plus, in many exercises, the machines are safer to use, particularly for people new to strength training, than the free weights.

7. Finally, remember these two points:

a) You may not be able to do all the exercise you’d like or do all the exercise you schedule every single day you schedule it, but almost everyone can do 500 calories a week or more.

&

b) If you do regular exercise every week, it does incredibly good things FOR you. And, if you don’t, it does all the reverse of those things TO you.

Strength training increases ENDURANCE....

Today's post: Monday, 6-23-2008

In sports & sometimes in life it can be very desirable to have high levels of endurance.

And, it is true that if you do an endurance related activity such as running & you run regularly, your endurance usually increases as your body gradually becomes more fit to adjust to the running you are doing.

We now know that interval cardio of relatively brief duration is often the fastest & safest way to build this kind of endurance.

But whether people train for endurance the older way or with interval cardio, it’s quite common for them to only do that activity, running, swimming etc & NOT do strength training.

We’ve posted many times on the health benefits of also including strength training as well as cardio or endurance training. So, we have recommended it on that basis & still do.

But today, we have news.

If you strength train the muscles you use in your chosen endurance activity, in addition to all the other benefits of strength training, your ENDURANCE when using that muscle also goes up more than it would have if you only trained directly for endurance.

We’ll comment on probable reasons why that’s so in a bit.

(There is even reason to think your endurance in all the rest of your body will improve to some degree as well.)

First here’s the article with the news.:

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.

“Runners Need Strength Training

By Craig Ballantyne

Runners are notorious for trying anything to improve performance, from eating "power gel" to buying space-aged shoes. But most runners are missing one key performance booster: strength training.

In a study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers had eight subjects (four men and four women) perform heavy barbell squats three times per week for eight weeks in addition to their regular endurance training. A control group did only the endurance workouts.

Not surprisingly, the strength-training group got stronger (by an average of 33.2 percent in the squat). However, it was a surprise that these men and women also increased their endurance by an average of 21.3 percent. In comparison, the control group did not get stronger or increase their endurance.

This study proves that strength training will make you stronger and improve your endurance - and that will make you a better runner. All it takes is three strength workouts per week for eight weeks, focusing on an exercise such as squats or split-squats.

[Ed. Note: Long, slow cardio is NOT going to help you get healthy. But strength training and short-burst interval training can. ....]”

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It’s very useful to know this tested as happening as there might have been something that prevented this effect.

But it’s not surprising that this is the case either.

Here’s why. When you do strength training, several things occur that all are likely to increase your endurance as well.

1. If you do progressive strength training, eventually each set other than warm ups or take it easy sets requires considerable effort to do that last few repetitions. And, you often have to support this effort by breathing harder & having your heart rate increase. This is exactly the same set of things that happens in progressive interval cardio (or aerobic) exercise that directly increases endurance.

2. If you do progressive strength training, your body releases growth hormone that improves all of your physical systems somewhat in addition to greater improvement on the body part you are exerting force with.

3. When your muscle gets stronger, it does so by either growing in size or by responding more efficiently to the orders your nervous system gives it – or both.
That means that any endurance activity you do with that muscle is then easier to do. That means that the endurance activity will improve as it simply becomes a bit easier to do.

To use his example, without strength training in addition, running a given distance is perhaps like running slightly uphill. But running that distance after also strength training is more like running on flat ground or even slightly down hill.

So, since it’s simply easier to do, you will go faster or be able to run farther or both.

Slash your risk of prostate cancer....

Today's post: Friday, 6-20-2008

We’ve already posted on many ways to prevent cancer, prevent prostate cancer, & prevent the most dangerous & aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Suppose you did all those things & could cut your risk in half again.

You just may be able to do that.

It would certainly boost your chances of escaping prostate cancer & being able to escape having the treatments for it end your sex life.

I’ll list a few of the things I’ve already posted on that will help prevent cancer, prevent prostate cancer, & prevent the most dangerous & aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Then I’ll add & comment on the article I read today that may be able to cut your risk in half on top of all that whole list.

Prevent all cancers:

People who take 200 micrograms a day of selenium are more likely to survive if they get cancer & may be less likely to get it.

People who take or get 2,000 to 4,000 iu a day of vitamin D or more from food, supplements, or sun exposure look now to be much less likely to get cancer & less likely to get the severe forms. They also look to be more likely to escape autoimmune diseases & be healthier in other ways.

Taking resveratrol apparently helps prevent cancer by reducing your rate of aging so your immune system can fight off cancers longer & by promoting new blood vessels to healthy cells while PREVENTING cancer cells from getting new blood vessels.

Eating right as we have been describing it here means you will be less fat & you will ingest far less herbicides and pesticides & other harmful chemicals.

Exercising each week with progressive strength training, interval cardio, & walking or other more moderate activities will make you less fat than you otherwise would be.

And, eating right, exercise, & not being too fat have each independently been shown to reduce the incidence of cancer.

As we posted on recently, eating right & exercising can even reset the expression of a genetic pattern that has resulted in a family history of getting prostate cancer. In fact, that study showed a curative effect on existing prostate cancer as well.

It also looks like eating cooked tomatoes, particularly with garlic & extra virgin olive oil AND also taking 30 mg a day of lycopene make prostate cancer less likely.

Taking 30 to 45 mg a day of Zinc – but NOT more -- may also help.

Taking 200 to 600 mg a day of magnesium may also help & is health protective, as is vitamin D, in many other ways.

Eating raw broccoli or cauliflower at least once every week has been shown to cut the incidence of the dangerous & aggressive kind of prostate cancer about in half.

Suppose you do all that. Wouldn’t it be nice to cut your remaining chances of getting prostate cancer in half from there?

Here’s the Total Health Breakthroughs article that suggests it may be possible to do just that.:

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

“Friday, June 20, 2008

This Cancer Fighter Isn't Even on their Radar Screen

By Al Sears, MD

If you're a man in this country, you've probably heard a lot about skyrocketing rates of prostate cancer. With good reason: it's the second leading cause of cancer death in American men.

Today I'll tell you about a little-known weapon in the battle against this man killer. It's a basic, plentiful mineral, but few doctors know much about it -- or its health benefits. It's called boron.

Boron is one of nutritional science's ugly stepchildren. It's a "trace element," meaning it's toxic in high doses, but vital to health in small amounts. It's also toxic to animals and insects, which is why it's still used as a commercial pesticide in the form of boric acid.

That's one reason people don't know about boron. Another is that researchers didn't even recognize its role as an essential nutrient until the late 1980s. They stumbled on it by chance while conducting animal studies.

Add that to the mainstream medical establishment's focus on drugs and surgery to deal with prostate cancer, and you can see why boron's not on the radar screen. You won't find it in most multi-vitamins. And most men don't get enough of it through diet alone.

That's a big problem, because all men really need it.

Boron's one of your prostate's most potent allies. Scientific research has revealed that it can cut your risk of prostate cancer in half.

One recent study compared the eating habits of 76 men with prostate cancer with those of 7,651 men who were cancer-free. The men whose diets were the most boron-rich were 64% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who got the least boron in their diet.1

Boron's power is not only preventive; it may become an alternate form of prostrate cancer treatment in the future. In mice, boron shrank prostate tumors by 25-38% and reduced PSA levels by 86 to 88%.2

What's more, boron has the power to reverse the signs of aging. It acts like an iron shield against arthritis by blocking the enzymes that cause pain and inflammation.3

It's crucial to bone strength and brainpower, with increasing benefits as people age. Boron keeps bones from losing calcium and magnesium. It also keeps your mind razor-sharp by improving eye-hand coordination, attention span, and even short- and long-term memory.4

Now you can understand why you should know about boron. But how can you get enough of it?

One way is through diet, of course. Foods rich in boron include fruits, nuts, and legumes. Plums (and prunes), red grapes, apples, pears, and avocados all contain boron. I tell my patients to make all-natural trail mix their snack food of choice -- all those raisins and nuts are a great source of boron.

Another surefire way to get enough boron is to take a supplement. I recommend 3-6 mg per day.

References

1. Zhang Z-F et al. FASEB Journal. 15:(2001)A1089.

2. Gallardo-Williams et al. Proceedings of the American Cancer Association. 43(2002):77.

3. Hall et al. Archiv der Pharmazie (Weinheim). 328(1995):39-44.

4. Penland JG. Environmental Health Perspectives. 1994. 102 Suppl 7:65-72.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, Chairman of the Board of Total Health Breakthroughs, is a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure. He is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness and heart health…..]”

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Here are two other things that are worth noting.

1. The foods he lists that are high in boron have multiple other health benefits. Avocados are so nutritious they are almost as good as a natural vitamin mineral pill & they have fiber & health OK fat. They are a real superfood. Apples help prevent being too fat & are heart protective. And, purple and red grapes & plums and the juices & wines made from them contain resveratrol. Plus. eating a diet plentiful in these foods provides other vitamins, antioxidants, & phytonutrients.

Lastly, eating a lot of these foods tends to increase your HDL & lower your LDL cholesterol. It also tends to keep your blood pressure in the normal zone. This definitely protects your heart & blood vessels. I’ve seen studies that suggest doing these things may also prevent prostate cancer directly.

2. I’ve taken 3 mg of boron a day as a supplement for many years. Now I’m very thankful I did.

But I didn’t know any of the other benefits described in this article. I did it when I read that people who had higher blood levels of boron were more alert than people with low blood levels.

I took it because it looked like it would help me think better & be more effective.

When you add that benefit to the others listed above, taking boron & eating a lot of these foods looks to be quite valuable indeed.

GMO Foods cause allergies & more....

Today's post: Thursday, 6-19-2008

My daughter has peanut allergy. It came very close once to killing her. She got this because she became allergic to soy protein & the foods containing it. Some people do die from their peanut allergies.

Allergic asthma has also killed people.

And, allergies often lower the quality of life of the people who have them even when they aren’t life threatening. Wheezing, sneezing, & itching are NOT fun. Nor are funny looking skin blotches & rashes fun to have.

So, anything that causes you (or people you care about) to have allergies they could easily have never gotten is a real health threat. And, no one would want to eat kinds of foods that contained that kind of thing if they knew it was in those foods.

Oops !! It seems you very probably ARE eating such foods now. Ouch !!

Genetically modified foods are in a huge percentage of the foods most Americans eat it seems.

Here’s a sentence from an article I’ll quote below & then comment on.:

(GM foods & GMO food components are Genetically Modified.)

“The United Kingdom tracks food allergies, and the year after GM soy was introduced into their food supply, soy allergies jumped 50 percent.”

Here’s the whole article from today’s Early to Rise.
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.

“What's in Your Tomatoes?

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN

You may be certain that your plate is full of healthy food... but the truth might surprise you. Your tomatoes, corn, soybeans, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, crooked neck squash, and even ice cream could have genes from cloned fish, bacteria, or viruses. That's because you're not always dealing with the "real thing." Your grocer's shelves are likely stacked with genetically modified (GM) foods.

GM foods are increasingly prevalent, but the FDA does not require food labels to specify when ingredients are genetically modified. So it's not surprising that most people aren't even aware they're eating them.

According to the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, 54 percent of people polled hadn't even heard of genetically modified foods. And though, according to a CBS/NY Times poll, 53 percent said they would not purchase these foods, many common ingredients (including soy lecithin, corn syrup, and cottonseed or canola oil) originate from GM crops. In the United States, three-quarters of the corn used to produce cereals, tortilla chips, and other such products is Roundup Ready corn, which has been genetically altered to resist the weed killer Roundup, according to U.S. News and World Report.

So why avoid GM foods? For one thing, they may be more allergenic. The United Kingdom tracks food allergies, and the year after GM soy was introduced into their food supply, soy allergies jumped 50 percent.

High pesticide content is yet another reason to avoid GM foods. The Center for Food Safety noted that from 1994 to 2005, pesticide use on GM corn, soybeans, and cotton increased by a multiple of 15 due to the increased pesticide resistance of Roundup Ready crops.

Last, but certainly not least, cultivation of GM crops may disrupt our ecosystem. According to the 2004 scientific consensus report of the Food and Agriculture Organization, increased pesticide use may result in herbicide-resistant weeds and pesticide-resistant insects. This affects non-pest insects like butterflies as well as animals like frogs and birds.

Whenever possible, avoid GM foods. Do so by purchasing USDA certified organically grown foods which, by definition, cannot be bio-engineered or genetically modified. You can also look for "non-GMO" on the label.”

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As author & journalist Michael Pollan has written, a huge percentage of the processed foods & grain fed cattle & poultry that people eat today contain corn & soy.

Many people also eat a lot of wheat foods, unfortunately mostly as refined grain foods. If a majority of the wheat we eat or a large percentage of it has also been taken over by GMO wheat that is pesticide & herbicide resistant, we have even more of a problem. Since the use of these pesticide & herbicide resistant grains need not be disclosed and the practice is so widespread in corn & soy, I think this is quite likely also.

So, in addition to staying away from corn, soy products included in food, & refined grain foods, eating grain fed cattle & poultry is not only likely to expose you to GMO proteins & excessive levels of omega 6 oils, it also exposes you to herbicides & pesticides in their fat.

It seems that GMO foods & high pesticide & herbicide use go together.

Apparently GMO foods are similar to high fructose corn syrup & hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats). They make our food cheaper but harm our health if we eat the cheap food.

I have been against GMO foods on the grounds that the traditional varieties are nutritious & the long term safety of the health of people eating these new & experimental & untested foods might be harmed.

It seems that the evidence is already in. They ARE harmful & should be banned from all food.

At the very least, all foods containing them, including meat & poultry fed grains containing them should be labeled as containing them. And, they should be fully taxed for the avoidable medical costs they create.

Of course if that was done, they would disappear from the market. So the makers & users of GMO foods have lobbied against this. They would rather you didn’t know what they were up to.

Meanwhile, it is possible to avoid much of the GMO foods by hardly even eating packaged foods or commercial baked goods, avoiding refined grain foods, buying organic produce, rarely eating foods with soy in them, rarely eating corn or foods made from it, & by eating naturally fed meats & fish only.

Set your genes for good health....

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-17-2008

It’s been all over the health news the past two days that Dr Dean Ornish did some research that showed that eating right, exercising, & stress relief in combination literally switched on genes that promoted good health & switched OFF genes that tended to produce bad health.

In particular, the group he worked with & studied ate a version of the DASH diet with abundant vegetables & fruit and limited the amount of grain fed fatty meats and junk foods the people in the group ate. They also exercised regularly & did stress relief activities.

The heredity in this group was unchanged but the health effects were dramatically upgraded.

And, the slow growing prostate cancers were in a lot better shape in this group than in the control group.

Other health writers have been writing over the past year about similar studies. And, taking resveratrol has been show to have similar effects, slowing aging and helping to fight obesity & obesity caused diseases. In particular, it seems to slow the aging of the heart & helps to prevent or possibly get rid of cancer.

We’ve posted about many of these methods to protect & improve your health. But it’s really interesting to find that these methods also reset your genetic switches for good health.

Dr Ornish’s study also showed that these changes happened in 3 months or less to people who began these good health measures.

Your workplace -- health help or minefield?....

Today's post: Monday, 6-16-2008

Some workplaces are literal minefields of foods & drinks that will make you fat & sick.

In fact, from what I’ve heard & seen, that may be more likely for most people today.

From vending machines with soft drinks & unhealthy snacks to free donuts to birthday parties & even company events where commercial baked goods & other unhealthy fare is plentiful, just showing up at work is a health minefield.

And, if you skip breakfast, it can be extremely hard to nearly impossible to turn down all these goodies.

When people who don’t exercise or eat that well at home work in such places, they tend to get really fat.

Even worse, many people who know better & eat good foods at home wind up eating enough of this fare to be much fatter & heavier than they should be.

It is possible to overcome such a workplace, particularly if you know how bad these foods are for you. Many of our posts have been on the now documented fattening & sickening effects of “foods” that mostly contain refined grains, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, & trans fats.

But it IS unfortunate as it makes it difficult to follow a good health lifestyle at work.

And, it COSTS the companies in which this is common practice too.

Health care costs go up driven by illnesses a better workplace policy might have avoided. Absenteeism goes up for people going to the extra doctor visits or staying home sick. Some key employees become incapacitated or die from the illnesses they could have avoided. And, the average competence & productivity of their employees is less.

So, far employers have largely been unaware of what they need to STOP doing. And, with rare exceptions, they make efforts in the right direction that are close to ineffective.

My wife works at a workplace that does both.

It offers massive amounts of free or low cost unhealthy foods daily & more on special occasions.

Recently, apparently due to a suggestion or request from their health insurance provider, they have been offering fresh fruit as an alternative food.

They also set up a mini-gym with some strength training equipment at their facility.

A small number of their employees happily use these new resources. My wife is one of them.

But, with no supporting education as to the value of these changes, no reduction or elimination of the unhealthy choices, & no interactive checking to be sure they provide the fresh fruit or other healthier alternatives that people would most like, the program gets very little use by most of the employees.

The bad news is that with their businesses to run & less knowledge themselves of why all this is important, few businesses as yet have done well in this area.

The good news is that each part of what employers could do differently is fixable.

They could, & are welcome to, email our posts to all their employees & read them themselves. That way, their employees can begin to know why to eat differently. This costs very little to set up & almost nothing to continue.

They could begin to cut back or eliminate these unhealthy foods as an expected & routine part of their workplace.

And, they could let their employees know that fresh fruit will be provided as well as foods like relish trays with a variety of vegetables & health OK dips. Then they could generate a large list of things they could provide & ask everyone to pick the ones they would most like to be included.

Even the employees who don’t reply to this invitation or have much interest in it initially will use the new resource more because they were asked.

And, since they share preferences with the group that does respond, this is particularly true.

This increase in use will even happen from people who already make healthy choices. To use me as an example, in a company that provided celery sticks & grapefruit halves, they’d see very little response from me. But if they had fresh strawberries that already had the green leaves removed & guacamole, I’d use it almost every day.

And, inhouse exercise facilities or deals with nearby gyms to make it easier for employees to exercise can be very effective. This is particularly true if the employers educate their employees about how incredibly much regular exercise does for them & arrange for free introductory classes on how to do strength training and interval cardio programs.

So dramatic improvement IS possible.

If you would like to see these changes in your company, your CEO or Human Resources Director are the people who would be most likely to make them.

By all means pass on this post to them.

And, if it’s your company, because you ARE the boss, see if you can find a part of this set of things or two that you could try first. Even one or two of these things done well can help.

Avoid simple carbohydrates to protect your heart....

Today's post: Thursday, 6-12-2008

It used to be that the recommendation to avoid heart disease was to eat a low fat diet that was very low in saturated fat.

As we posted on recently, some restriction on eating saturated fat from animals does protect your health.

But there are some new additions that make an enormous difference in how well that works to protect you.

The amount of the harmful LDL the saturated fat converts to in your body is controlled by how high your blood glucose is & whether or not you exercise regularly and do other things to increase your HDL levels.

(The tiny particle kind of LDL that goes into the molecular chinks in your blood vessel walls, particularly if it becomes oxidized, is the kind that we now know causes heart & cardiovascular disease.)

If you do enough regular exercise & eat health OK protein & fats and unstarchy vegetables for most of your food & carefully avoid most simple carbohydrates, your HDL will be high & your triglycerides & blood glucose readings will be desirably low.

This keeps your total LDL cholesterol readings down to some degree. But the really important thing is that it forces the bad kind of LDL to be very, very low.

This works even better if you get progressive strength training and interval cardio exercise each week & totally avoid the worst simple carbohydrates or high glycemic load foods.

Here’s a recent Early to Rise article on this. I’ll add my comments after it.

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.

“The Diet That Cardiologists Are Being Urged to Recommend

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN

What would you do if you were a researcher and you realized that a diet that had been accepted for years is all wrong? Would you write letters and more letters, urging your colleagues to be aware that research is showing the need for a change? That is exactly what some of the country's top researchers have been doing, including Dr. Walter Willett (who chairs Harvard's Department of Nutrition) and Dr. Frank B. Hu.

Research has clearly shown that the low-fat and low-cholesterol diet that many doctors have been recommending since the late 1980s has done almost nothing to prevent heart disease. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered that a diet with high levels of carbohydrates, specifically those with a high glycemic index and load, is hard on the heart.

Studies as far back as the 1940s show that low-carb diets are effective for fat loss. And epidemiological studies from the 1970s showed a correlation between high carbohydrate intake and the risk of coronary heart disease. But those results were ignored, because everyone thought fat was the lone culprit.

Low-carb diets have now been validated in study after study - not only for weight management, but to control insulin and glucose elevations. This means they are also very effective for controlling Type II diabetes and hypertension. And that is why researchers and some members of the medical community are urgently calling for a change. But will anyone hear them?

A diet that is higher in good fats (not harmful trans-fats) and protein but lower in high glycemic index and high glycemic load foods is the diet that is best for lowering what is now being called cardio-metabolic risk. This new term implies what I and other ETR experts have been teaching for years. The best way to control your weight and reduce your risk of diabetes and coronary disease is to control your glycemic response.

If you haven't yet gotten serious about a low-carb approach to health, it is time for a change.

[Ed. Note: By modifying your diet, medications, lifestyle, and exercise habits, and with nutritional supplementation, your health is largely in your control. James B. LaValle, RPh, ND, CCN - the founder of the LaValle Metabolic Institute and a nationally recognized expert on natural therapies - has come up with an approach to health that has worked for thousands of patients…..]”

X* X* X* X* X* X*

Foods that boost your blood sugar the worst, even more than sugar, include all refined grain foods, high fructose corn syrup, white rice, & white potatoes without the skin.

The glycemic load of your diet is found by multiplying the blood sugar boosting rate, or glycemic index, of the food by the amount of the food you actually eat.

And, the glycemic index of a food when you eat it is influenced by what you eat it with. If you eat it with healthy fats & proteins & fiber the effective glycemic index of the food is lowered & the blood sugar boost you get & its speed is lowered.

Interestingly, straight sugar is only moderately high in glycemic index. But if you eat a lot of it every day, its glycemic load in your diet will be high.

The good news is that you can eat a wide variety of good tasting foods that are low in glycemic load. And, if you only eat it a few times a month in small amounts AND exercise regularly, you can even get away with some real sugar.

The bad news is that at least half the foods that the average person in the United States eats now, have the ingredients in the list above that you are well advised to simply NEVER eat.

And, you have to not buy about that many of the food items in most grocery stores today to avoid those ingredients.

One secret is to buy organic nonstarchy vegetables, health OK fats like extra virgin olive oil, health OK protein foods like beef fed only grass or walnuts for most of your food.

Fresh fruit, real fruit juice with NO sugar or high fructose corn syrup added, nonfat & very low fat dairy all are OK but since their glycemic load is higher, you have to keep your intake down to moderate levels.

Low moderate intake of whole grain foods can be OK. But you have to be careful not to overdo the amount you eat of these foods as they have nearly the glycemic index of sugar.

And, if you have fat you need to lose, the low carb people are right, you need to eat even less.

Unfortunately, the list of packaged foods that have refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, or excessive sugar is astonishingly long.

If it comes in a package, to avoid this stuff, you absolutely must read the label.

It used to be that foods were sweetened with sugar. Some foods still are. But a majority of packaged foods in your local supermarket are sweetened now with high fructose corn syrup.

Jam, jelly, regular soft drinks, ice cream, ketchup, snack foods, breakfast cereals, even some peanut butter, are sweetened today with high fructose corn syrup.

Most breads, and virtually all snack foods, breakfast cereals, & commercial baked goods are made with refined grain.

Your health & your heart health will be MUCH better; & you will be a good bit less fat, if you totally stop buying and eating these foods.

The good news is that if enough people do this, our health & health insurance costs will be lowered by the cost of the illnesses people no longer get.

And, grocery stores & food companies will make more health OK choices available to us.

But if you do this, the health benefits & protection you get are virtually immediate.

Smoking hurts your BRAIN & Exercise Doubles Quitting Success...

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-10-2008

Smoking harms your brain too.

As we’ve posted here before, some people who smoke get cancer; but everyone who smokes loses breathing capacity enough to measure & begins to get heart & cardiovascular disease & lose good circulation of their blood.

In addition, many people who smoke don’t do regular exercise either.

So, it would seem likely that with less oxygen, less blood flow, & less new brain cells from the effects of exercise smokers gradually would be prone to some mental decline as they continue to smoke.

It seems that has recently been verified as happening !!

Here are the key facts from yesterday’s news story on this.:

“Smoking hurts mind as well as body: study

Mon Jun 9, 2008 4:12 PM ET CHICAGO (Reuters) –

Middle-aged adults who smoke tended to perform poorly on tests of memory and reasoning compared to nonsmokers, adding to the list of reasons not to smoke, French researchers said on Monday.

Analyzing previously collected data on about 5,000 British civil servants, the researchers found those who smoked were more likely than people who never smoked to be in the lowest-performing of five groups in tests of memory, reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency.

Smoking was associated with mental decline in middle age, as it is with dementia and a host of physical ills later in life, they found.

"Smoking in middle age is associated with memory deficit and decline in reasoning abilities," concluded Severine Sabia and colleagues from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Villejuif, France.”

The authors point out that people who quit smoking also tend to do better on other things that produce good health including eating right & exercising.

They also pointed out that it was harder to test the smokers after several years had passed as many of them had died & many of the remaining ones declined to participate the second time.

These facts have two implications.

For most jobs, employers will get employees more likely to think well, stay alive, & be cooperative if they only hire nonsmokers.

And, if you smoke, you are much more likely to keep your thinking abilities intact & more likely to get hired for jobs when you need them if you quit smoking.

That’s in addition to cutting your risk of cancer somewhat, & dramatically slashing your risk of heart attacks, strokes, erectile dysfunction, & peripheral artery disease AND of dying early.

In a separate online health article I read in the last week or so, was that:

People who do or begin doing regular exercise when they try to quit smoking had DOUBLE the success rate of the people who didn’t exercise.

In addition, those who gained weight after quitting & exercised only gained half as much as the people who gained weight and did NOT exercise.

This dramatic effect on quitting success is NOT at all well known.

But it clearly has these two causes I think.

1. The people who have the strongest motivation to take charge of their health and proactively stay healthy are those who are most likely to also exercise & the most likely to quit smoking.

So the people who do exercise AND try to quit smoking start out as more motivated.

2. People often smoke or keep smoking because it has some anti-depressant and some stress relieving components. Some even smoke as they get temporary improvement in mental concentration.

Exercise has each of those 3 effects. Many studies show it relieves depression, often as well or better than anti-depressant drugs. Exercise & the related deep breathing while exercising work to relieve stress. And, people who exercise DO think & concentrate better.

So the people who do exercise AND try to quit are getting a good bit of what smoking used to do for them WITHOUT needing to get these things from smoking.

So it’s then EASIER to quit smoking for the people who try to quit AND exercise.

And, I think the reason that the improvement in the success rate is so large, is because BOTH of these causes help produce it.

So, if you are trying to quit, here are 3 things to use.:

1. Realize it protects your memory & ability to think to quit -- in addition to everything else quitting does for you.

2. Begin thinking of yourself as someone who is proactively taking steps to protect & keep your good health.

3. And, be SURE to include regular exercise as part of your quitting effort.

(Even a few 10 minute walks each week or a few pushups when you get stressed will help. Just keep doing it.)

Exercise you CAN do after injury...

Today's post: Monday, 6-9-2008

Quite often people get injured in just one hand or arm or leg while their other side is still healthy. And, by using dumbbells, they CAN exercise their good arm or leg etc.

They also may be able to do exercise for both arms when one leg is hurt or for both legs when one arm is hurt.

But the surprising & very little known fact is that the injured arm or leg safely benefits from the exercise also even though you don’t exercise it directly at all.

Of course, you do have to use care NOT to stress your injured side when it’s still hurt & vulnerable. But it IS usually doable.

It makes sense that you want to keep doing regular exercise if you possibly can after you are injured since the benefits of the exercise are so great. And, for some people it’s important to not get out of the habit of doing regular exercise.

But it’s been discovered that even though it’s NOT exercised directly, your injured arm or leg or shoulder also benefits. It does so for sure if you exercise that body part on the other side of your body.

I’ve known this & used this myself for quite a while & am even using it now as I recently hurt my left foot.

Here’s a short, well done article on just this subject that I got today in my email.:

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 Exercise When Injured

By Craig Ballantyne

It happens. You strain your shoulder, sprain your wrist, or even break an arm. Most people think that working out with an injury like that will be a waste of time. But that's plain wrong. In fact, by exercising your strong arm, you can actually maintain - or possibly even improve - the strength in your injured arm.

European researchers put 10 women on a two-month strength-training program for one arm only. At the end of the two months, though the women had done no additional activity with the other arm, they had increased strength in both arms.

Scientists call this the "cross-over" effect. When your brain sends instructions to one arm, the "untrained" arm receives the same instructions. The end result is that you build strength in the untrained arm because of the connection between your brain and your muscles.

So if you injure your arm or shoulder, there's no reason to stop exercising the good arm (provided your doctor clears you for exercise). Just make sure you avoid exercises that would further damage the injured side. You can, for example, continue to press and curl dumbbells with your good arm to keep both arms strong.

[Ed. Note: "Don't exercise while injured" is one myth you shouldn't put stock in. Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne debunks 5 more health myths and shows you how to combat them with his Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system.]"

X* X* X* X* X* X*

There is also another reason for this effect that suggests also exercising the other unhurt parts of you may also be helpful.

When you exercise, your circulation improves all over your body. And, your body releases growth hormone.

That means that when you exercise your legs, your arms get some benefit and when you exercise your arms your legs get some benefits for the same reason.

So, when you are injured, the only part of your exercise that needs to be stopped for sure is for the injured part of your body until it is safe to begin exercising it again with less weight than it used to do safely.

You do have to be a bit conservative with starting up exercise with the injured part & then be careful to build back slowly enough.

But the good news is that by continuing to exercise the other side of your body & the rest of your body that is unhurt, you’ll recover faster & have more strength in the injured part than would have had otherwise.

Low fat and Low Carb pros & cons part 2...

Today's post: Friday, 6-5-2008

Low fat diets were & still are promoted as a way to lose excess fat & prevent heart disease.

Low carb diets have been promoted as a way to lose fat but attacked as sometimes increasing heart disease risk.

There are three kinds of fats your health will be better if they are very low or even zero in what you eat.:

We posted these 3 yesterday as well. But we add some commentary today.

1. We now know that trans fats & all kinds of hydrogenated vegetable oils are basically heart & cardiovascular disease fertilizer. A diet low in these is unsafe. A diet higher than low is frighteningly unsafe. For these fats, low isn’t low enough. Zero is the right amount of them to eat. That’s right -- absolutely none if you can possibly arrange it.

Unfortunately, you have to read labels on every food that has one to be sure to avoid these as they are still in thousands of food & processed foods in stores. And, at this writing, you have to be very careful of restaurant food & ask what kinds of oils they use.

And, you have to simply avoid virtually all commercial baked goods to avoid these oils. Since the other ingredients of commercial baked goods tend to be sugar, high fructose corn syrup, & refined grain flour, which are the exact carbs that are the WORST for your health & waistline, avoiding commercial baked goods is likely a very good idea, healthwise.

>>> Here’s the take home. Note that the two articles from yesterday support all of the above about trans fats.

a) If you value your health, make an enormous special effort to never eat foods with hydrogenated oils or foods that list ANY trans fat content above 0.

Since this kind of fat helps trigger heart attacks, strokes, peripheral artery disease, kidney disease, circulation related mental decline, & erectile dysfunction, it’s that important. This is a kind of fat it PAYS to be so low in your consumption that you approach eating zero amounts of it.

And, health experts & doctors today all agree. There is no disagreement on this of which I am aware.

This can be both logistically and emotionally difficult. But it is that important to do.

If they list zero but the label includes hydrogenated oils, the label is WRONG. They can LIST zero if the product actually has 0.499 grams of trans fat per serving. So if you eat 5 small servings of a snack food with 0.42 grams of trans fat per serving that is LISTED as having 0, you actually take in 2.0 grams of trans fat if you eat that snack food. Ouch !!

Another example is pie. I’ve always loved eating pie when I’ve had the opportunity. And, I’ve loved pit crust combined with the filling. Guess what. If you don’t know that you or the home cook who made it used butter or some other real food fat to make the crust, you MUST assume it’s been made with shortening which contains ONLY transfat loaded hydrogenated vegetable oil. So, when I am served pie now, unless I know it was cooked with butter or some other real food, I only eat the filling & leave the crust.

b) The carbs it helps your health most to avoid are those that tend to be combined with transfats. These are the ones that tend cause you to be fat & sick. They are high glycemic carbs that tend to cause heart & cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, AND obesity. Ouch !!

So, make an enormous special effort to never eat foods or drink drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup. (And, just as with transfats, it’s now in so many commercial baked goods & processed foods, you have to be a bit paranoid & ALWAYS read labels to avoid it.)

Regular sugar is MUCH safer to eat than high fructose corn syrup – but not by as much as people with a sweet tooth would like. So eating sugar or foods that contain it a few times a week is dramatically better for you than eating it a few times a day. And, working to keep your carbs moderate to low will help you achieve that.

It also helps if you eat something with fiber or a health OK fat with your sugar or spice your sweet treat with cinnamon. These things buffer the high glycemic effect of the sugar.

And eating that much is likely only OK IF you eat a lot of vegetables, usually eat it only a few times a week AND exercise regularly.

Try as best you can to avoid eating ALL refined grains. These foods are almost as bad for you & your waistline as high fructose corn syrup. And, they are still everywhere. These are a great kind of carb to simply eliminate from your food intake 100 %.

They are high glycemic, have virtually no fiber, & have very little nutrition in them compared with whole grains.

Refined grains are quite literally junk food. If you must eat grain, eat ONLY whole grains & not too much.

If you eat some whole wheat bread or non-“quick” oatmeal you’ll weigh less & be much healthier than people who eat a lot of refined grain foods.

(By the way, white rice is a refined grain food.)

2. Saturated fat in your diet in large enough quantities will increase the amount of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood & increase your risk of heart disease. However, that effect is dramatically increased if you eat too many high glycemic, high carb foods.

Here’s the more comment I promised from yesterday.:

It is true that people who go on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet tend to lose fat. And, it’s true that when they lose fat they tend to get improved cholesterol readings even if they have been eating fatty meats & some full fat dairy products. (As we’ve posted on before, protein turns off hunger longer & more completely than carbs AND carbs tend to turn off hunger at first and then turn it back on high later. Protein foods don’t.)

However, studies in both France AND China show that in those parts of each of those countries where people eat the most saturated fat, the rate of heart disease is highest.

In my opinion, this proves pretty conclusively that a low or low moderate amount of animal based saturated fat is MUCH better for you than a high intake is.

And, other studies have found that a Mediterranean diet that is higher in extra virgin olive oil & fish & a variety of vegetables produces less heart disease & type II diabetes & cancer than a diet high in butter & fatty meat.

So, wild caught fish, nuts, beans, and a moderate amount of lean meat from animals fed only grass or only pasture fed & NEVER fed grain, & perhaps some eggs, other wild caught seafood, & nonfat or very lowfat dairy ARE better for your health than fatty meat, cream, full fat cheese, & butter.

The one piece of good news is that IF you eat a lot of vegetables, usually eat the low saturated fat proteins listed above, AND exercise regularly eating fatty meat, full fat cheese, & butter occasionally is likely OK.

3. Most animal fat from most commercially raised meat animals is fed grain that has been raised using pesticides & herbicides. That means the meat you get is high in pesticide & herbicides, higher by far than animals that are pasture fed or grass fed only. And, it’s even higher than in produce raised using pesticides & herbicides !! These animals bioconcentrate the pesticides & herbicides in their fat. It’s also too high in omega 6 oils than is Ok for good health & too low in omega 3 oils. Farmed fish, unfortunately, is even worse.

Similarly many fatty meats from grain fed animals are sold as sausage, bacon, salami, ham, & sandwich meat. Those foods & farmed fish tend to be high in nitrates & nitrites & have been implicated as causing cancer & colon cancer in particular.

So, it’s clear that there ARE 3 kinds of fat it’s very desirable to avoid: Transfats, excessive saturated fat, & fat from unnaturally raised animals. Since the majority of high protein foods in stores now is this third kind, this makes it a bit difficult to follow a high protein, low carb diet.

So, wild caught fish, nuts, beans, and a moderate amount of lean meat from animals fed only grass or only pasture fed & NEVER fed grain, & perhaps some eggs, other wild caught seafood, & nonfat or very lowfat dairy ARE better for your health.

Mercifully they are becoming more available. And by eating them & some extra virgin olive oil & avocados, you can get enough omega 3 & other essential oils to support good health.

AND, studies show that people who lose weight by cutting back on the worst carbs & fats and by doing regular progressive strength training & interval cardio are successful. In addition they are MUCH healthier & likely to KEEP OFF the fat they lose than people who eat a very, very low fat diet.

So the bottom line is both low fat & low carb approaches have some ways in which they are valuable & some ways in which they are not good for you.

It depends TOTALLY on which KIND of carbs & fats & protein foods you eat AND whether or not you exercise regularly in addition to eating right.

Low fat and Low Carb pros & cons ...

Today's post: Thursday, 6-5-2008

Low fat diets were & still are promoted as a way to lose excess fat & prevent heart disease.

Low carb diets have been promoted as a way to lose fat but attacked as sometimes increasing heart disease risk.

There are three kinds of fats your health will be better if they are very low or even zero in what you eat.:

1. We now know that trans fats & all kinds of hydrogenated vegetable oils are basically heart & cardiovascular disease fertilizer. A diet low in these in unsafe. A diet higher than low is frighteningly unsafe. For these fats, low isn’t low enough. Zero is the right amount of them to eat. That’s right absolutely none if you can possibly arrange it.

Unfortunately, you have to read labels on every food that has one to be sure to avoid these as they are still in thousands of food & processed foods in stores. And, at this writing, you have to be very careful of restaurant food & ask what kinds of oils they use.

And, you have to simply avoid virtually all commercial baked goods to avoid these oils. As I’ll cover in today’s post & tomorrow’s, since the other ingredients of commercial baked goods tend to be sugar, high fructose corn syrup, & refined grain flour, which are the exact carbs that are the WORST for your health & waistline, avoiding commercial baked goods is likely a very good idea, healthwise.

2. Saturated fat in your diet in large enough quantities will increase the amount of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood & increase your risk of heart disease. However, that effect is dramatically increased if you eat too many high glycemic, high carb foods. (I’ll have more to say on this subject in tomorrow’s post.)

3. Most animal fat from most commercially raised meat animals is fed grain that has been raised using pesticides & herbicides. That means the meat you get is high in pesticide & herbicides, higher by far than animals that are pasture fed or grass fed only. And, it’s even higher than in produce raised using pesticides & herbicides !! These animals bioconcentrate the pesticides & herbicides in their fat. It’s also too high in omega 6 oils than is Ok for good health & too low in omega 3 oils. Farmed fish, unfortunately, is even worse.

So, it’s clear that there ARE 3 kinds of fat it’s very desirable to avoid: Transfats, excessive saturated fat, & fat from unnaturally raised animals. Since the majority of high protein foods in stores now is this third kind, this makes it a bit difficult to follow a high protein, low carb diet.

Today I’m posting two articles suggesting that low carb diets are actually better for you than low fat diets. As I’ll discuss tomorrow, there is some truth to this. But there are some complicating factors as well that are not in these articles.

Given the above info, I think the second article is a good bit more helpful than the first. But they are both a good example of what much of the current thinking is on the subject now.

(I’ll have more to say in tomorrow’s post.)

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

When Will Low Fat Diets Go Away?

By James LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND

For the average person, the changes we've seen as to how diet contributes to heart disease have been interesting, but for many people they have also been exhausting and confusing.
For two decades we were taught that diets high in fat and cholesterol contribute to heart disease; this teaching has been dubbed the "diet-heart hypothesis." Low fat diets were recommended by every large health organization, and people adopted the low fat way of life. There was only one problem -- heart disease rates did not drop. They continued to climb.

Over the years, the diet-heart hypothesis has been crumbling one wall at a time. First, we learned that only one type of fat clearly contributes to heart disease, and that some oils even have health benefits. So trans-fats are out and olive oil is in.

Then, newer studies showed that eating dietary cholesterol does not have a significant impact on raising cholesterol in the blood, which is still considered a risk factor for heart disease.1 So we are "allowed" to eat eggs and shrimp again. So far, most of you are still on board and rolling with the punches.

In the meantime, low-carb diets held some serious surprises. People did not want to believe it at first, but low-carb diets showed they do indeed lower risks of heart disease and diabetes. Longer-term studies have even shown no deleterious effects from them, despite the higher animal protein, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake.

In fact, low-carb diets are the primary reason that the whole saturated fat and cholesterol ideas have pretty much collapsed. Low-carb diets have been studied now from nearly every angle, and what is consistently seen is that low carb diets -- even though they are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol -- lower risk of heart disease and even diabetes, a disease that greatly increases risk of heart disease.

What concerns me however, is that despite evidence to the contrary, and despite the urging of the most prominent researchers in this area, the American Heart Association (AHA) still has not changed its dietary guidelines; they still recommend lowering one's intake of saturated fat and cholesterol to lower risk of heart disease.5
Because we have not yet had a paradigm change on this by the AHA, most practitioners hold back from recommending a low-carb diet and continue to instead recommend a low-fat diet. And this creates a lot of confusion for the average person who is just trying to decide what they should really be doing.

While all of this may be tiring for you to keep track of, the progression of information has actually been extremely helpful in defining what REALLY causes heart disease -- and that is inflammation. Therefore, anything that increases inflammation in the body, like insulin, caused by high-carb diets is the real risk factor for heart disease.

When it comes to diet and heart disease, consumers need to rest assured in the fact that the best diet for prevention of heart disease is one that is lower in carbs, but high in dietary antioxidants. The only fat to concern yourself with, is trans-fat. I no longer advise lowering intake of cholesterol.

But what about saturated fat? I can tell you that clinically, I do not find saturated fat to be a factor in elevated cholesterol, even "bad" LDL cholesterol. In fact, almost all of my clients experience improved lipid profiles by lowering carb intake, not saturated fat.
Over the past few years, I have seen conflicting headlines and messages about saturated fat. As the one remaining factor in the debate on diet and heart disease, saturated fat deserves our time and attention.

In my next article I will discuss where the science is now, and what we will need to keep our eye on when it comes to saturated fat.

Getting Over Fear of Fat

By Laura LaValle, RD, LD

We've noticed an interesting phenomenon in our practice -- many people are still afraid to eat fat. Even those who are experiencing the benefits of a low-carb, higher-fat diet can't seem to make the change without having some guilt or concern about the butter on their sautéed vegetables or the cholesterol in their steamed shrimp.

I appreciate the concern very much. People should take seriously the tsunami of diabetes and heart disease that can result from a poor diet unless they take quick and serious action. A preventive diet is right up there with not smoking and getting enough exercise in avoiding these life-threatening health risks.

In implementing a healthier diet, the problem of course is that the message from the medical establishment has changed so many times over the years, that people are not sure what to believe.

Fortunately, the new recommendations are now soundly in the low-carb camp.1 In fact, let's just sum it all up. The latest research shows that the best diet for heart disease and diabetes prevention restricts the intake of trans fats and starchy and sugary foods. It is rich in non-starchy vegetables and salads, includes a little daily fruit but not too much, and offers a variety of healthy proteins and fats. High antioxidant foods like red wine and low sugar dark chocolate can also be enjoyed.

This diet naturally contains higher amounts of cholesterol, saturated fat, and overall fat than has been recommended in the past. But despite that fact, study after study has shown it improves all the factors that will help avoid diabetes and heart disease. So it is now being urgently promoted by leading health professionals as the recommended diet to replace the old low-fat dietary guidelines.

So how can we get over our fear of fat? All some people will need to do is remember what it was like eating very low-fat diets. Meals lacked full rich flavor. We got dry skin and hair, were fatigued, felt depressed, had achy joints and menstrual cramps, or even had deficiencies of essential fatty acids.

But the most noticeable side effect was that we often did not feel full and satisfied with our meals. And the increased carbohydrate intake we adopted during that time led to a rebound in our weight and lipids anyway.

So if you're not yet convinced to include more fat in your diet, keep these facts in mind:

" Each and every cell in our body is surrounded by cell membranes that need healthy fats as part of their structure.

" Without the flexibility of healthy fats, nutrients can't enter cells and waste products can't be disposed of as efficiently.

" Neurotransmitters can't send and receive as well.

" You may not be consuming enough cholesterol for healthy cell membranes and the production of bile, sex hormones, adrenal hormones, and vitamin D.

" Your diet may be lacking omega-3 fats to fight inflammation in the body, help with healthy brain function, raise "good" cholesterol levels, lower triglycerides, and reduce blood pressure.

" If you do not eat coconut oil and butter, you may be deficient in butyric acid that improves digestion, and lacking in enough healthy dietary fat for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

The best way to get over your fear of fat is to try the lower carb, antioxidant rich higher fat and protein diet, and see what happens in your body. Besides getting a smaller waist and losing a percentage of body fat, you should feel better and more satisfied with the food you can eat.

And most importantly, if your blood glucose, insulin, and lipid profiles all improve, you can trust that your body is thanking you for the change.

Ginkgo PREVENTS Alzheimer's disease...

Today's post: Tuesday, 6-3-2008

Taking the herbal supplement Ginkgo Biloba, has been reported to improve & preserve memory in healthy older people. It’s an antioxidant. It’s been reported to help prevent excess clotting of the blood & improve brain circulation. And, it’s been reported to improve function some for early stage Alzheimer’s patients also.

We’ve already posted that frequent social contacts & a good social support network tend to prevent mental decline of all kinds.

We’ve posted that regular exercise grows new brain cells; tends to mostly prevent “normal” memory loss & “senior moments” in healthy people who do it regularly every week; & it makes Alzheimer’s disease less likely according to the studies.

We’ve posted that taking turmeric supplements (or Curcumin, its active ingredient) apparently prevents Alzheimer’s disease by helping enable your immune system to remove any beta amyloid that forms in your brain.

But today I read an email from Dr Singh Khalsa, the author of the book, Brain Longevity, in which he reports that he recently heard a paper on a study by a French researcher which found that taking ginkgo biloba prevented beta amyloid deposits or plaques in the brain.

(I’ve read that people taking anti-coagulants or “blood thinning” drugs may get too much reduction in blood clotting & may have problems from that if they also take ginkgo.

And, Wikipedia in addition to that said: “Ginkgo should also not be used by people who are taking certain types of antidepressants (MAOIs and SSRIs.)” It doesn’t say why.

WholeHealthMD.com reports that it may cause problems to combine taking ginkgo with “trazodone, a modified cyclic Antidepressant or "mood elevator" that works in a unique way.” Or taking it “with prochlorperazine, an antipsychotic drug” might cause problems.

But apparently, it is thought to be safe otherwise.)