How to Survive Cancer

 

 
Getting a diagnosis of cancer can certainly cause one to totally re-evaluate lifestyle choices and diet.

While diet and lifestyle have a direct effect on whether someone will eventually get cancer, what about diet and lifestyle changes after a cancer diagnosis?

Is it too late? No, according to the research.

Studying survival both before and after a cancer diagnosis can tell a lot.

Does a person’s diet after a diagnosis of cancer affect survival?

Absolutely.

Oddly enough, there have not been that many studies that show how diet affects cancer survival, after diagnosis, even though this is one of the lifestyle changes that can have the most dramatic effect on whether one lives or dies.

One extensive study examined diet after a breast cancer diagnosis and survival of women enrolled in the Nurses Health Study. In this study, almost 2,000 women who had developed breast cancer were followed for an average of 13 years.

A little more than half (1,200) of these women had breast cancer that had not metastasized (spread to other organs or the lymph nodes). Women in this group who ate the largest amounts of poultry, total protein, and omega-3 fatty acids (from oils found in grass fed meats and fish) had a significantly  lower risk of death than women who ate the least amounts of these foods and nutrients. Women who ate more fiber, fish, and vegetables also had a lower risk of death than women who ate less of these food and nutrients.

And another important finding: the type of fats these women ate made a big difference. Those who ate hydrogenated oils had a higher rate of death.

For the 745 women whose cancer had metastasized, those who ate more protein and calcium had a lower rate of death.

Most importantly, in a study of 3,500 patients with breast cancer or ovarian cancer, the results show that a diet high in sugars and carbohydrates contributed to tumor growth and matastases, while a diet of healthy protein, animal products, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber had lower rates of cancer.

One’s diet after a cancer diagnosis is an area that is begging for more research.


Unfortunately, this is an area that major cancer drug companies are not interested in pursuing, so the money for this type of research is just not there. 

Some foods and nutrients have been tied to as much as a 50% decrease in the risk of death from cancer.


Why then, would you ignore something that can have such an incredibly important effect on your health?

While cancer rates climb, traditional medical science looks at more expensive, high tech treatments such as gene therapy, and more advanced cancer-killing drugs. But there is no magic cure.

Although it is far easier to prevent cancer than get rid of it, it can be reversed with diet, nutrition and lifestyle changes.

Think about this: Conventional cancer treatments kill cells, damage the immune system, and don’t go after the underlying cause.


On the other hand, diet and lifestyle changes work on strengthening the body and immune system, and promote healing; while addressing underlying causes and nutritional deficiencies.

Diet alone can make or break cancer treatment and is the most important of all therapies.


Look at it this way–what you put in your body will either help it and strengthen it, or make things worse.

Having a knowledge of which foods feed cancer cells and which foods kill or starve cancer cells is absolutely vital to the healing process.

First and most importantly, any form of sugar, or food that raises the blood level of glucose, will feed cancer cells and should be the very first dietary change you make.

This includes any high glycemic foods that contain sucrose (regular cane or beet sugar), fructose (high fructose corn syrup, agave, honey, and naturally occurring sugars in fruits and fruit juice), or glucose (starchy foods such as potatoes, grain products like bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, granola bars, etc., and corn, popcorn).

Cancer cells feed on glucose in the body, and a low-glycemic diet will virtually starve out cancer cells. This is vital!

Sugar substitutes such as Splenda, Nutrasweet and Equal, refined flours, and trans fatty acids also wreak havoc on the body, and numerous studies have linked them to cancers. Even natural sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup (also sugars) should also be restricted while cancer remains active.

However, the herb stevia is a safe and natural sweetener, and it does not raise blood glucose levels or stimulate an insulin response. Stevia can usually be found in the supplement aisle of health food stores.

Avoid all processed foods and packaged foods—even if it came from the natural foods aisle. These foods contain artificial ingredients, preservatives, and other substances that strengthen cancer cells and interfere with the healing process.

Pasteurized dairy products should also be avoided, as they can contribute to allergies and asthma, and actually decrease immune function in the process. Many of these also contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup, and even if they don't, dairy products contain lactose, a type of sugar in milk. And unless they are 100% grass fed or organic, there are often hormones and additives in the milk or dairy products that speed up tumor growth.

The body’s ability to fight cancer is a function of the immune system, so anything that strengthens the immune system helps it kill cancer cells.

Some cancer-preventative diets recommend avoiding meat (mostly due to the hormones, toxins and antibiotics in conventional meat), but in most cases, the best choice is to eat good quality organic and grass fed meats, organic free range chicken, and wild-caught fish.

These meats are not only high in essential body-building proteins, B vitamins, iron, and zinc, but they also contain larger amounts of healing, cancer-fighting omega 3 fats , as well as Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), a powerful cancer-fighting, immune-strengthening fatty acid.

One of the big concerns with a cancer diagnosis is metastasis when cancer cells spread to other parts of the body or lymph system. Metastasis is increased by a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids (canola oil, corn, soybean, sunflower, safflower or other vegetable oils).

However, omega 3 fatty acids, like those found in grass fed meats, wild caught fatty fish, flax seeds and walnuts actually slow down and inhibit cancer growth.

Omega 3 fatty acids also increase the body’s positive response to chemotherapy and help protect against chemotherapy’s toxic effects.

Healthy fats are essential.

CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is such a potent cancer-fighting fat that studies even small amounts of CLA in the diet can reduce tumors by over 50 percent.

Studies show that even small amounts of CLA can block all three stages of cancer: 1) initiation, 2) growth, and 3) metastasis.

Where do you get CLA? The best source of natural CLA is from meat and dairy products of grass fed animals. Meat or milk from grass fed cattle contains 5 times more CLA than animals raised on grain in a feedlot. Simply switching from grain fed to grass fed products will increase your intake of vital CLA significantly, and eliminate the toxins and additives from conventionally raised meats as well.

Virtually all plant foods contain powerful nutrients and antioxidants that fight cancer, aid in the healing process, and help eliminate toxins from the body.

However, it is important to eat organic fresh fruits and vegetables if at all possible. Pesticides and toxins in commercially grown vegetables are not only toxic to the body, but can encourage the growth of cancer cells.

Certain vegetables have very potent anti-cancer properties including dark green lettuces like arugula, organic spinach, mache, and romaine lettuce, as well as parsley and watercress.

Cruciferous vegetables, a famiy of vegetables that includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, kale, kohlrabi, brussels sprouts, horseradish, mustard, capers, cress, rutabaga, arugula, and turnips, are extremely high in proven cancer-fighting phytochemicals.

Other healing and cancer-fighting plant foods include: edible seaweeds, berries, including: acai, goji berries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, and red or purple grapes, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and green tea, among many others.

A New York based physician, Dr. Gonzalez, who has had incredible results treating so-called “untreatable cancers” with an alternative approach, and a specialized dietary regimen, recommends pancreatic enzymes in cancer treatment.

In a nutshell, his theory is that pancreatic enzymes are the body's main defense against cancer and are extremely useful as a cancer treatment.

Pancreatic enzymes have some amazing tumor-dissolving abilities.

Dr. Gonzalez, who is trained in immunology, uses special diets, aggressive supplementation with nutrients and enzymes, and detoxification methods to successfully fight cancer.

Effective healing not only requires a healthy, clean diet but also getting rid of accumulated toxins and metabolic wastes.


It's also beneficial to begin any healing regimen with a cleanse of the kidneys, liver and colon to remove stored toxins. There are many effective cleansing formulas and procedures that can be found at health food stores, the internet, or through a holistic healer.

Other lifestyle factors that have a significant impact on successfully preventing and battling cancer include:

  • Get out in the sun. Vitamin D from sunlight strengthens the immune system and is a powerful weapon in the cancer battle. Adequate exposure during the midday hours is the best way to obtain the restorative benefits of sunlight.
  • Get some exercise. Regular exercise speeds up the elimination of toxins and is necessary to circulate oxygen in the body and to improve lymph function and drainage, while building immunity. You can achieve these therapeutic benefits with moderate exercise at 3-4 times a week.
  • Keep a positive attitude! It reduces psychological stress and profoundly aids the healing process. Studies in cell biology show that a positive attitude actually affects cell function!  Spend time with friends and loved ones and enjoy life as much as you can. We all have the power to control our own thoughts and attitudes and create our own reality. A positive outlook can interpret a cancer diagnosis as a life-changing event with an opportunity to transform one's life for the better. Laugh, live, enjoy.
  • Don’t neglect your spiritual side. It doesn’t mean you have to become suddenly religious, but to make peace with yourself, your life and your loved ones. Consider resolving unresolved conflicts, forgiving and asking forgiveness, and letting go of toxic emotions such as anger, bitterness, hatred, resentment, regret, and fear, while embracing your capacity for love, compassion and joy. You can do all of this through meditation, affirmations, visualization and/or prayer.
Preventing or healing from cancer may involve a total lifestyle turnaround.

While this can seem to be a daunting task, you may not only save your life, but make a complete change for the better in many ways. You can defeat cancer.


You are worth it, just ask the ones who love you.


Till next time, stay healthy and lean! 


 

Heal your body with superfoods in the Fat Burning Kitchen Superfood Recipe Book. Coming soon!




Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health. 

Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

 

References:
1. http://www.grasslandbeef.com

2.. Plant, Ph.D., J.: The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program. NY, NY: St. Martin's Press, 84-113, 2000

3. Liu, M.D., McManus, M.S., R.D., and Carlino, J.: Healing Gourmet, Eat to Fight Cancer. New York, NY, McGraw-Hill, 53-147, 2006

4. McCabe, Ed: Flood Your Body With Oxygen: Therapy For Our Polluted World. 6th Edition. Energy Publications, 68-9, 2003

5. Gerson, C. and Walker, M.: The Gerson Therapy. NY, NY: Kensington Publishing Corp., 154-77; 190-2, 2001

6. Brooks, Linda: Rebounding and Your Immune System. Urbana, OH: Vitally Yours Press, 13-46, 2003

7. Yance, Donald: Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer. NY, NY: McGraw-Hill, 268-70; 242-4, 1999

8. Laredo, Mary: marylaredoblogspot.com, 2007

9. http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html

The Long Lost Family Dinner

As a kid, I almost always had to make it home for our family dinner. This time was sacred family time for us.

It was important to be at dinner on time, cleaned up and ready to eat.This was our family dinner, where we all came together, and it was a mostly daily occurrence.

We always said ‘Grace’ together, my dad dished up our dinners, and we waited patiently until everyone was served before we could dig in.

Table manners were important– no elbows on the table, napkin goes on the lap, bread is broken in half before buttering, ask to have things passed to us, ask "please" for seconds (but don't interrupt), and never leave the table until everyone was finished eating and we were excused.

We all talked, took turns, and had polite, and not-so-polite conversations. Sometimes there were arguments, sometimes lectures, sometimes scoldings, forgiveness, or words of wisdom passed on. There was a lot of love in that circle around our table. Sometimes hilarity ensued and we laughed until we cried. Sometimes there were tears and pouting. Sometimes there was little conversation, but most of all, we were all together, sharing our meal.

All in all, I remember those times well, and I realize now how incredibly important it was to keep the family together and functioning as a unit, instead of isolating ourselves, coming and going in our own little worlds as we pleased.

Today, I have three teens. When they aren’t away at college, they often seem to be working during dinner time, and catching up with them and their busy lives is a tough proposition. A family dinner these days is often a struggle to get everyone to coordinate schedules and social obligations.

I really miss our own family dinners when the kids were younger.

Too often now, it’s sports practices, after school activities, work, homework, friends, and college that take this precious time away.

The family dinner concept still runs very strong and deep within our culture and its importance goes way beyond simply providing a meal.  

There is something totally sacred and special about a shared meal—not the big holiday gathering, but the simple, regular meal that anchors families, even on nights when preparation is quick, talk is light, and everyone has someplace else they need to be.

Some evenings, the mood is right and the whole family shows up and you can get a glimpse the power of this communal gathering, and why social scientists say such communion acts as a special barrier for kids, protecting them from some of the more harmful aspects of our society.

It is a healing balm for families and children.

As hard as it is, it is during the teen years that this family time pays off the biggest. The more often families eat together, the less likely the kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, be depressed, or have eating disorders.

Kids who come from homes where there is a regular family meal get better grades in school, eat a healthier diet, get along with others better and have better social skills and manners.

Researchers from the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that the family dinner improves with practice. In other words, if a family rarely eats together, the food is less healthy, the talk is meager, and the experience is not so great. Over time, the conversation improves, the food improves and the whole dinner atmosphere gets better.

Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to get A's and B's in school than kids who have less than two family dinners a week. Foreign-born kids are much more likely to eat with their parents. When researchers looked at ethnic and racial breakdowns, they found that more than half of Hispanic teens ate with a parent at least six times a week, in contrast to 40% of black teens and 39% of whites.

The most noticeable effect was among the kids who rarely ate with their families. Girls, especially, fared poorly. They ate fewer fruits, vegetables, and calcium, and consumed more soft drinks and snack foods. Girls who dined alone were also more likely to have some type of eating disorder. Boys, too ate less healthy foods when not eating with their families.

The statistics are clear: Kids who dine with the family are healthier, happier and better adjusted in life.

Being together for dinner really counts. Whether it’s the social interaction, the good examples it provides, or the fact that family dinners usually consist of better food choices is unclear. Most likely it’s the combination of those things.

Mealtime is often the only chance parents have to actually take a good look at their teens, carry on a conversation, catch up on their lives and assess any physical or emotional issues that may be going on.

This is where a family builds identity, culture and memories.

Wisdom is passed down, family jokes are cultivated, and the rest of the world is looked at through the reinforced family values. The harshness of life seems far away.

If work schedules or extracurricular activities keep your family from eating dinner together, make it another meal.

The key here is togetherness, not just the meal.

Perhaps you can work on a few breakfasts together, or even a lunch or two. One of my friends has a family meal, but if everyone cannot make the mealtime, they get together to play cards or a game after dinner and spend time together that way.

Even if you can't do it every night, once or twice a week family meals is better than not at all. It doesn't have to be a fancy meal–it can even be a pizza from the local take-out joint.

Turn off the TV and the put the cell phones away for a while. Pull up some chairs. Invite conversation. Look at each other. Make eye contact. Interact. And please, pass the potatoes.


Till next time, stay healthy, lean and happy!


 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.  

Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

 


Sources:
Nancy Gibbs Time magazine, June 4, 2006
Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times, October 2007

What about Coffee?

 

 

Caffeine was once thought to be bad for us.

But as we can see with the prevalence of coffee shops on virtually every corner, coffee is everywhere. And tea is gaining in popularity too.  

 

According to recent coffee statistics, coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.

And, the United States alone imports around $4 billion worth of coffee per year.  Americans drink about 400 million cups of java a day, and companies like Starbucks would certainly like that number to grow.

 

Coffee, tea and other beverages containing caffeine have a great many health benefits.

And apparently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Surgeon General, the National Academy of Science, the American Medical Association, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Cancer Society, the Framingham Heart Study and many other scientific studies now agree on this fact.

 

Coffee increases the body’s metabolism, your heart rate, breathing, and helps to warm up the body.

It elevates the mood and can actually reduce depression as well, by increasing energy and stimulating the brain, making you more mentally alert.

 

Beyond the obvious stimulating factors that we all enjoy coffee for, there are some other fairly significant health contributions coffee makes. Lets take a look at some of these redeeming virtues of coffee:

 

·    Coffee Lowers Your Risk of Type 2 DiabetesTwo separate studies, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day decreased risk of type 2 diabetes by 27%. It is thought that this is due to the fact that coffee contains antioxidants and minerals like magnesium, that are beneficial for blood sugar metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Coffee may also help with weight reduction, which lessens the tendency to get diabetes as well.

 

·    Coffee Prevents Parkinson’s diseaseSix studies have shown that people who drink coffee daily are up to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s. And some of the newer Parkinson’s drugs actually contain a caffeine derivative.

 

Lowers Your Chances of Alzheimer’s Disease–Drinking five medium-sized cups of coffee a day could lower your chances of Alzheimer’s. One study followed mice that were bred to develop Alzheimer’s. After two months of drinking water with caffeine, the mice performed much better on memory and thinking tests compared to mice that were given only water. Plus, the mice had a 50% reduction of beta amyloid, a protein often found in Alzheimer’s patients’ brains.

 

·    Coffee Reduces Colon Cancer Risk—While colorectal cancer is the second highest cause of cancer related deaths in the US, a recent study from the European Journal of Cancer Prevention showed that colorectal cancer was 24% lower among those who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day than the non-coffee drinkers.

 

·    Coffee Reduces Gall Stones–Researchers from Harvard University found that those drinking one cup a day had a 13% risk reduction of gallstone disease. Those drinking two to three cups a day had a 21% risk reduction and those drinking four or more cups a day had a 33% risk reduction of gallstone disease.

 

·    Coffee Helps Asthmatics—Caffeine and the chemical theophyline in coffee act as natural bronchodilators. Three or more cups of coffee per day help can relieve the symptoms of asthma.

 

·    Coffee Alleviates Headaches and Manages Migraines—Because caffeine is a natural vasoconstrictor, the caffeine in coffee helps to reduce headache pain in many people. Caffeine additives not only help headache medications to work more effectively, it also helps the body absorb headache drugs quicker.

 

·    Coffee Burns Fat—Because caffeine speeds up your metabolism, you have more energy and burn more calories. Caffeine also breaks down fat and frees up fatty acids in the body for immediate fat burning. In fact, conversion from fat to energy is about 30% more effective with caffeine. And because fat is being burned for energy, blood glucose levels don’t get low, and amino acids are preserved and you don’t get hungry as quickly.

 

·    Coffee’s High Number of Antioxidants Fights Free Radicals–Recent studies have shown that coffee is one of the richest sources of antioxidants in the average person’s diet. But little is known about how these antioxidants, including caffeine, work against free radicals.

 

·    Coffee is an Athletic Performance Enhancer—Numerous tests have been conducted on caffeine and its effects on athletic performance and endurance. And the results–caffeine works. About 330 mg (or 5 mg per kilogram of body weight) 30 minutes to an hour before workouts results in better endurance, faster times, less exertion, less fatigue, and more rapid recovery — up to 30% better. 

 

So what about the downside of coffee: What about the jitteriness that it causes? What about other health risks? Can you have too much of a good thing?

 

Coffee can raise cholesterol, spike insulin, be dangerous to those with heart disease, cause irregular heartbeat, raise blood pressure, cause insomnia and anxiety if overdone.

People with panic or anxiety disorders may find that they are especially sensitive to caffeine and usually find that even a little bit of coffee will make anxiety and panic much much worse.

 

Coffee also interferes with your body’s ability to use folate (a B vitamin, especially important for pregnant women), and vitamins B12 and B6. These nutrients are necessary to keep homocysteine levels low. Elevated homocysteine levels are associated with heart attacks and heart disease.

 

Coffee makes the acid/base balance of the blood turn acidic, causing calcium to be used as a buffering agent in the body.

 

Coffee also stimulates your adrenals — the hormones that activate your fight or flight response. If your adrenal hormones are stimulated too often, which is bound to happen if you are a daily coffee drinker, your adrenal glands may eventually burn out.

 

In premenopausal women, the body will substitute progesterone for adrenal hormones.

Progesterone has its own important job to do, and serves as a balance for estrogen. If progesterone is used up, you become estrogen dominant. Estrogen dominance can lead to osteoporosis.

 

Coffee tends to be a heavily sprayed crop so drinking non-organic coffee will expose you to a hefty dose of pesticides with each cup.

 

If you’re pregnant or planning to be, you should avoid coffee altogether. Over 300 mg of caffeine a day, which is the equivalent of two to three eight ounce cups of coffee, can increase your risk of miscarriage, low birth weight baby, and cleft palate, as well as SIDS. It is also transferred through breast milk, and stays in your body and your baby’s body  longer than most people.

 

Caffeine and coffee can also be pretty strong diuretics, so if you are drinking large quantities of it, be sure to drink water to replace the lost fluids.

 

So am I going ditch the ‘Joe’?

No way! I love a nice strong cup in the morning to get me going, mentally and physically. It’s sometimes the only thing that gets me out of bed. I’m not a morning person, without caffeine.

 

If you want to drink coffee, keep this in mind, and you’ll be fine:

 

·    Opt for organic, drink it fresh and grind it every day. Coffee is one of the products that you just should not ingest any other way, so pay a few extra bucks and get the organic kind. This maximizes the antioxidants in the coffee—and it just tastes better. And while you’re at it, avoid drinking coffee out of those nasty Styrofoam containers. Coffee can leach out some bad chemicals from that stuff.

 

·    Drink it black. Leave out the sugar, the cream, the fake non dairy chemical ‘cream’, and the artificial sweeteners. If you MUST have something in your coffee, try a little coconut milk and stevia.

 

·    Avoid drinking caffeinated coffee in the evening. Since coffee has a half life of 6 hours, it can take quite a bit of time to clear out all the caffeine. Instead get a good night’s sleep and sleep soundly, without caffeine.

 

And whatever you do, don’t get your caffeine fix from those fluffy, fattening, sugary, macchiato, mochaccino, cappucino, frappuccino drinks from the coffee shops. That’s not going to do you or your wallet any good.

 

A small amount of caffeine can be very helpful in many instances. A long boring drive when you’re feeling sleepy, crying babies who keep you up half the night, traveling through timezones, and getting up early to be productive in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Sure, it’s good to be health conscious, but a little bit of caffeine to get us up in the morning, through the day, and over the hump is OK, too. And sometimes, a hot cuppa ‘joe’ just really tastes good.

Till next time, stay healthy, lean and energetic!

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.   

Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fitwise.com

 

Mercola, If you drink coffee make sure it’s organic, Jan 2010.

 

Hartley Jack, Caffeine and Sports Performance, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ans/psychology/health_psychology/caffeine_sports.htm

 

Warner Jennifer, New Clues on Caffeine’s Health Benefits

Study Suggests Antioxidants in Caffeine Play a Role in Coffee’s Impact on Health, WebMD Health News.

 

Which is Best: Cows’ Milk, Soy Milk, Almond Milk, Or…?

 

 

“What’s the Best Kind of Milk to Drink?”

I hear this question often, and I know there are a lot of choices out there as far as milk and milk alternatives go, so I thought I would share what my good friend, fitness and nutrition expert, Mike Geary says about this topic. Mike, as you may know co-authored, The Fat Burning Kitchen and is also the author of the best selling ebookThe Truth About Abs”, so I trust his opinion.

Here’s what Mike has to say about milk:

If you have already read The Fat Burning Kitchen, you may already know that drinking regular, conventional pasteurized milk is not the healthiest choice.

We're talking about regular milk (no matter whether it's skim, 2%, or whole) that you get at the grocery store — which is almost ALL from factory farms where the cows are kept in horrendous conditions, poor health, and fed an unnatural diet that makes them sick.

Even if you find milk that is "organic" at your grocery store, it still has the problem that the homogenization process renders the fat molecules unhealthy within your body, and pasteurization that destroys the beneficial enzymes that help the proper digestion of milk proteins and lactose. Pasteurization also radically alters the milk protein molecule, causing allergic reactions in some who may be sensitive to dairy.

Raw, whole milk from grass-fed cows raised in a healthy manner, fed the correct foods, and treated right, is the ONLY healthy source dairy milk. 

And despite the propaganda against it, raw milk is NOT dangerous… not when it comes from a clean grass-fed farm operation certified to produce raw milk with healthy cows.

I'm living proof of that fact… I've been drinking hundreds and hundreds of gallons of raw whole milk for about 8 years now, and never once have gotten sick from it.  Nor have any of the families and friends I know who have been drinking it for years.  Certainly, if raw milk was "dangerous", we'd all be dead by now or at least have been sick multiple times by now.  But the answer to that is, no-not even once!

But for many people, drinking raw milk may not be an option, because they simply can't find a farm in their area that supplies raw milk.  You can search for raw milk near you by going to www.realmilk.com to see if any farms deliver in your area.

For those with dairy allergies or lactose intolerance, raw milk is tolerated much better, but some may still be allergic or lactose intolerant to dairy.

What are the alternatives?

How about soymilk?

Soymilk was the big thing a few years ago, but it's really not the healthy choice it once seemed. It's really just junk! Read this about soy and you may be shocked.

What about Rice Milk?

No!  Way too much sugar and total carbs and almost ZERO protein. It’s not too different from sugar water. If you want to shoot your blood sugar through the roof, rice milk will do the job, and will pack on the blubber just as fast.

What about almond milk?

Actually, I don't have a problem with almond milk as long as it's not heavily sweetened with added sugars or artificial sweeteners.  I've seen almond milk brands that have unsweetened versions and only has 1 gram of sugar per 8oz, just like the coconut milk.  These unsweetened almond milks are actually pretty tasty… I think a bit better tasting than the coconut milk drinks in my opinion.

The only problem with almond milk is that it is very low in protein similar to the coconut milk drink. 

Here's one of the best options I've found…

It's a new "Coconut Milk Beverage" that I've seen recently in the grocery stores here in the US. It seems to differ from the "coconut milk" that you see in cans simply that it's diluted down with water more than canned coconut milk, which usually has more of a thick coconut cream consistency. 

Side note:  try the thick creamy canned coconut milk (organic of course) in your coffee for a healthy creamer alternative… delicious!

As you may already know, coconut fat is one of the healthiest fats you can consume… Yes, it's saturated fat, but research has proven that it is a very healthy form of saturated fat, and is made up of mostly medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are burned quickly as energy–not stored—and lauric acid, which supports a strong immune system.

If you want more info about why saturated fat is actually healthy, here are 2 articles to check out:

Why saturated fat is not so bad after all

The truth about saturated fat (written by a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry)

Back to the healthy milk alternatives…

The flavored "coconut milk beverages" do have some added sugar, but still only have 9 grams of carbs per 8 oz, which is less sugar than a glass of cows’ milk.

There is also an unsweetened version, which only has 1 gram of carbs.

The only problem is that this "coconut milk beverage" only has 1 gram of protein too.  This is one place where this milk is lacking, nutritionally.

So here's the solution… get a good quality vanilla whey protein, preferably grass-fed whey protein (sweetened with stevia instead of typical artificial sweeteners) and mix 3-4 scoops of whey protein into an entire half gallon carton of "coconut milk beverage"… possibly in a blender and then transfer to a new pitcher or container of some sort.

Now you have a milk alternative that's high in healthy fats (fat burning MCTs in this case) and also quality protein, with only 1 gram of sugar per 8 oz serving!

I still won't give up my raw whole cows milk for this (since I do have access to a good raw milk farm)… but this coconut milk mixture would be one of the only options that I would actually drink if I couldn't get my good raw milk.

And one of the newest alternative milk beverages out there now, is hemp milk. So is hemp milk ok? Hemp milk contains healthy fats omega 3 and 6, is low carb and comes sweetened or unsweetened.

Adding the whey protein to hemp milk or almond milk would make a great mixture too and make it more balanced as a good healthy milk alternative as well.

 

If you liked Mike’s information, click below to see more great nutrition and fat burning information from him:

 5 Foods That Fight Abdominal Fat

 

Till next time,

Stay healthy lean and energetic 🙂

 

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.   

Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

The Power of a Hug

We are all born with a hunger for the touch of another human.

 

Of course you know babies have a need for touch. Nurtured in the womb, and held close to feel mother’s beating heart, babies are soothed and nourished by hugs and human touch.

 

Children, too have a physical need for hugging and closeness. A hug or a touch stops bad dreams, helps heal injuries, frightens away the ‘boogieman’, and helps to instill a sense of calm and self worth.

 

Studies show that orphans who are not hugged or touched on a regular basis, actually grow less, have weaker immune systems, get sick more often and have more physical and emotional health problems than children brought up in a home with affectionate parents.

 

These children actually suffer from something called ‘failure to thrive’ when they are lacking the human touch. They have malnutrirtion, lose weight and even die. All from a lack of being touched and held.

 

Hugs can calm a stressful day, relieve tension and turn a bad day into a good day.

 

But physical closeness—touching, hugging, is just as important a need as we get older, but it is often neglected or overlooked.

 

Nothing compares to the loving hugs of a mother or a bear hug from your dad. An embrace from your loved one or spouse can instantly calm a stressful day and relieve tension. And for those who are sad, or mourning a difficult loss, a heartfelt hug does so much more than any well-chosen words.

 

Our skin is the largest organ on our body. Our skin not only protects our insides, but it contains our very important sense of touch. While we know that our sense of touch can protect us from injury, our sense of touch also has the real need to feel closeness from others.

 

 

We are all programmed by nature to want to touch and receive touch from others.


 

Did you know that without physical closeness, relationships will

not progress? Not just between lovers, but also between parent and child.

 

 

Many emotional problems stem from a lack of closeness and bonding between parent and child. Did you know that most failing marriages are lacking in touch and physical closeness? Think of what the power of touch could do…

 

For many who live alone, days and weeks may go by without a touch or the feel of a human, or being physically close to anyone. The elderly, the disabled, and the very ill are at greatest risk of touch deprivation.

 

Touch can do so much:

 

·      It helps loved ones feel more lovable

·      It can forgive or soothe tension

·      Reduces pain

·      Relieves loneliness, frustration, anxiety and depression

·      Overcomes fear

·      Gives one a sense of connection and belonging

·      Transfers energy

·      Strengthens the immune system

·      Lowers the blood pressure and the heart rate


 

We all tend to live in our own little personal technological bubbles now…we text, we email, we talk on our cell phones, we visit on Facebook, we Twitter, but our face-to-face contact is limited, and physical contact, even more so.


It seems that we retreat into our personal space more and more, even though our physical world has become more crowded.

 

For a person to survive, it has been said that we need at least 4 hugs a day, and 12 hugs to feel good and improve our emotional state.

 

While we feed our bodies and eat healthy foods, we need to also feed our spirits and care for our emotional health.

 

Lift your head up and look around. Reach out your hand to shake someone else’s hand, touch someone on the arm when you speak to them, or better yet, give your friends and loved ones a heartfelt hug next time you see them.

 

Till next time,

Stay healthy, lean and happy!

 


Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

       Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

 

 


How to Find Happiness

Did you know that YOU have the power to make yourself happier?  


I know, everyone wishes for things like lots of money and a mate that looks like Brad Pitt, or Megan Fox.

But do these things bring about happiness? And even if we did have those things, would we be happy?

For some of us, happiness may be more harder to find.

When we are stuck in the middle of dreary weather (or blazing hot weather), a bad economy, no job, little money, and rising prices, it can all be very overwhelming. 

Although happiness is the one emotion we all seek, it also is one of the least understood.  

While scientists, doctors and researchers have studied in depth the negative emotions of anger, anxiety, fear, and depression–and how to get rid of these emotions–they have spent little time studying happiness, and how to increase this positive emotion. 

It's been found that over half of a person's tendency for happiness, hopefulness, and positive emotion is based on nature or purely genetic makeup. But that leaves the other half–which has to do with experiences, emotions, upbringing and one's own ability to MAKE oneself happy.

Just making a habit of looking for the good side in people, events or circumstances can actually make one more optimistic.

Happiness is a learned behavior.

Many people, including myself are able to maintain optimism and confidence–in spite of everything.

This ability to survive and even thrive in the face of stress and adversity is the process of 'coping'. Seemingly negative events can be turned into a positive as we become even more resiliant and resourceful. 

Happiness, is a biological need born out of necessity. It is something our brains crave, seek out and create. 

Did you know that happiness is contagious?
Yes, it is true. The more happy people you know, the more likely you are yourself to be happy. The key here is to surround yourself with happy people and to stay in contact with friends, spouses, loved ones, neighbors and other acquaintances. The more social connections you have, the happier you will be.
 
Happy people not only have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is at least partially responsible for illness and disease, but they have higher levels of immune function.

So you see, happiness has an effect not only on your mental health, but your physical health as well.

Happiness has important positive effects on pain reduction, lower blood pressure, improved cardiac function and reduced mortality.

We can train ourselves to be happy, by practicing certain ways of thinking and behaving;  expressing gratitude, following life goals, being true to ourselves, practicing optimism, investing in healthy relationships, and paying attention to those little things that make us smile. Surround yourself with happy people, and stay in touch with your loved ones.

Don't forget to hug, touch and laugh often! A human touch can lift spirits, relax tension and create a positive outlook like nothing else can.

And one last thing– don't forget to smile.

Smiling, even if you are not happy, will actually make you FEEL happier.


To Your Happiness!  🙂


For more tips on mood and the effects of diet, go to www.simplesmartnutrition.com
 


Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

       Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.     Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

Sources:

Reuters; Maggie Fox,"Happiness is Contagious",  Health and Science Editor, December 5, 2008.

Amy Ellis Nutt, "How to be Happier-Research Shows We have the Power to Change", New Jersey Star-Ledger , October 09, 2008,

Diet is the Most Powerful Tool Against Cancer

 

The word "Cancer" is one of the scariest words in our language, and while it may seem like that word often carries a death sentence with it, many people have overcome some of the deadliest cancers by making drastic diet and lifestyle changes.

How you live and what you choose to put in your body has a direct effect on whether you get cancer and whether you can survive cancer.

Cancer will affect, on average, one out of three us in our lifetime. Keeping this information in mind can be a powerful tool to manage one of the world's deadliest diseases.

There are many factors that figure into the causes of different types of cancer, and there are many unknowns as well.

But we do know one thing: what a person eats, or doesn't eat, can dramatically change the outcome and course of this grim disease.

Kate Flaherty is our guest blogger today who has written an article on the power of diet and cancer.

 

We may not always hear about them, but there are countless stories of end-stage cancer survivors who recovered from cancer by changing their diet. In fact a book called "The Cure is in the Kitchen" details the day-to-day diet and recovery of cancer patients.

Cancer studies show that most cancers are related to dietary deficiencies, so it is safe to assume that a positive change in a cancer patient's diet can help dramatically in the recovery process. In fact, many patients claim that changing their nutritional habits have played an enormous role in their recovery.

Dr Dean Ornish is just one of the doctors that has studied the cancer and diet relationship. He looked in particular, at the macrobiotic diet theory and published his reports in the British medical journal "Lancet" in 1990. His research showed that dietary changes had a very positive effect on the cancer patient's PET scans when high-tech surgery and drugs could not.

Many of the chemicals in commercially grown foods can be tied directly to many different cancers.

Chemicals in the food supply can not only block nutrients in the body, but actually contain substances that can disrupt hormones in the body, as well as contribute to the growth of tumors.

Pesticides and preservatives not only block nutrients essential for maintaining a strong immune system, but processed food contain far less of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.

While a diet higher in fruits and vegetables is a great start to helping fight and heal from cancer, it is extremely important to avoid the deadly chemicals in conventionally grown foods.

Fruits such as grapes, peaches, strawberries, apples, and cherries typically have the highest amount of pesticides found on them when they are not organically grown. Vegetables including spinach, bell peppers, and potatoes generally have high pesticide residue as well.

Though more expensive, it is important to know that all organically grown fruits and vegetables are safer, especially for cancer patients.

Avoiding processed foods is especially important. Not only are processed foods missing necessary vitamins and minerals, they also have added preservatives, sugars, and chemicals. One of the worst of these is processed meats and lunchmeat. Nitrates and nitrites added to meats are known carcinogens and should be avoided at all costs.

In addition, conventionally raised meat not only is raised on a diet of pesticide-laden grain, but these animals are given antibiotics and growth hormones as well. Growth hormones have been shown to directly affect the growth of certain cancerous tumors, so avoiding conventionally raised meat is very important.

Eating naturally raised organic and grass fed meats whenever possible is obviously the safest and healthiest choice.

Cancer patients are often missing a variety of vitamins and minerals and this alone could be a key factor in recovery. Adding plenty of organic fruits, vegetables and naturally raised meat in one's diet will go a long way towards replacing those missing nutrients.

Avoid processed foods. And avoid sugar at all costs–high blood glucose feeds many types of cancers.

Multiple studies have proven that cancer does not have to be a death sentence and making necessary in diet and lifestyle can have a huge impact on whether a cancer patient survives or not.

Making these important lifestyle changes will determine whether you get cancer and survive or succumb to it:

– avoid smoking and second hand smoke

– drink alcohol in moderation; 1-2 drinks per day or less

– eat large amounts of organic vegetables and fruit

– avoid all processed, fried, junk, or refined carbohydrate/grain foods

– absolutely avoid all sodas and sweetened drinks, and avoid fruit juice as well

– avoid processed meats

– avoid trans fats, corn oil, soy oil, or canola oil

– eat only organic, grass-fed, free-range meat, fish and eggs

– eat “smart” fats (wild fatty fish, fish oil pills, avocados, nuts, olive oil, butter

– exercise

– get daily sunlight exposure

– get plenty of antioxidants from your diet and supplements

– manage stress to regulate hormones appropriately

For more information on diet and cancer see my article "Sugar Kills".

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

                 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
           Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

Saturated Fat is REALLY Not as Bad as You’ve Been Told

We’ve had it drilled into our heads that saturated fat will cause heart disease and kill us. Well the truth is, that we’ve been mislead.

Another new study shows saturated fats in the diet are NOT linked to cardiovascular disease. Well why hasn’t this made it to to front page new yet?

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition all the way back in February 2010, reports saturated fat in the diet is NOT associated with an increase in coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.

This was no small study either. Data came from 350,000 subjects in twenty-one different studies, and no link at all was established between the subject’s saturated fat intake and the incidence of CHD, stroke, or Cardiovascular Disease (CVD).

This is pretty big news.

“Our meta-analysis showed that there is insufficient evidence from prospective epidemiologic studies to conclude that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD, stroke, or CVD,” wrote the researchers, led by Dr Ronald Krauss from the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California.

The old “lipid hypothesis”  or the high cholesterol leads to heart disease theory just does not hold up under scrutiny. But for some reason, this lipid hypothesis persists. We have very effectively been brainwashed.

While vegetable oils and have been pushed as the “healthy choice” over saturated fats for the last forty years, heart disease has gone way up, and heart disease is the number one cause of death U.S. Excessive consumption of grains, carbs and sugars have made this go up even higher still.

While the rates of heart disease have gone up with the use of vegetable oils, the useage of saturated fats have decreased.

Clearly something is a big out of whack here.

Processed vegetable oils like canola, corn, soybean, and sunflower fuel inflammation in the body with all their omega 6 fatty acids.

Carbohydrates and sugars from food we eat are converted into a type of fat called triglycerides. Elevated triglycerides in the blood are usually linked to a higher than average potential for heart disease, but triglycerides do not come directly from dietary fats. Triglycerides are made in the liver from sugars that have not been burned for energy. Excess sugars in the body are from starchy carbohydrates, particularly refined sugar and white flour. It appears that triglycerides and vegetable oils and excessive Omega 6 fatty acids are causing much of the problem.

Saturated fats play an important role in the body in several ways:

• Saturated fatty acids make up at least 50% of the cell membranes. They give cell walls their necessary stiffness and integrity.

• Saturated fats are extremely important for bone health. For calcium to be effectively utilized in our bones at least 50% of dietary fats should be saturated–so skim milk will not help your bones.

• Saturated fats are vital to the liver and help protect it from toxins such as alcohol and other drugs.

• Saturated fats strengthen the immune system.

• They are needed for the proper utilization of other essential fatty acids – Omega 3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues and utilized by the body when the diet is rich in saturated fats as well.

• The fat around the heart muscle is actually highly saturated. The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of physical stress.

• Saturated fats lower a substance in the blood called Lp(a), or Lipoprotein(a), that indicates a tendency towards heart disease.

• Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.

The scientific evidence is beginning to pile up and does not (and never did) support the assertion that saturated fats clog arteries and cause heart disease.

So while saturated fats have not yet been exonerated in the mainstream public, the tide is beginning to turn. You as an educated consumer, and your own health advocate know the truth about saturated fats vs. the evils of vegetable oils and refined foods. Enjoy your grass fed steaks, butter, cheese and lard and know you are doing your body good.

References:

Mary G. Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon, “The Skinny on Fats”, Weston A. Price Foundation, Jan, 1999.

Stephen Daniells, “Saturated Fats Not Linked to Heart Disease: Meta Analysis”, Food Navigator.com, February 2010.

P.W. Siri-Tarino, Q. Sun, F.B. Hu, R.M. Krauss, “Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2010.

 

Increase Testosterone Naturally–Not for Men Only!

It may come as a surprise, but testosterone is a hormone that is necessary for both men and women.

Optimal levels of testosterone not only affect (men’s and women’s) libido, but also muscle strength, muscle recovery, lean muscle to body fat ratio, good mood and feelings of well-being, bone density, energy levels, and overall aging.

Testosterone levels tend to decrease starting around the age of 40 at the rate of about 1% a year. Short term that doesn’t seem like a lot, but over a few years, it can be a significant amount and be a cause of low libido, obesity, brittle bones, muscle loss. and depression.

Testosterone levels in the low range may also increase your chances of dying of a heart attack. While low testosterone levels primarily affect men and women in middle age, it can also affect men as young as 30.

The first most noticeable symptom for low testosterone levels is lack of interest in sex.

And this applies to women as well as men. Some men may have difficulty obtaining an erection as well. “If you have reduced levels of sexual desire, have your testosterone level checked immediately,” says Dr. Allen Seftel, a urologist at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals of Cleveland.

Men and women with borderline testosterone scores can raise their levels by natural means before getting into medical testosterone therapy.  And it pays to start at a younger age as well.

Do women need testosterone?

Yes. Women’s testosterone levels start to rise in puberty, because testosterone is actually a precursor to estrogen. Testosterone in women increases libido, helps clear thinking, sound sleep, and overall feelings of well-being and confidence as well helping the body maintain lean muscle mass and less body fat.

During perimenopause and menopause, testosterone production drops as the ovaries stop producing hormones. Women’s ovaries produce most of the testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen in the body.

Most women only replace estrogen after menopause, and replacement of estrogen alone will not correct the loss of interest in sex, loss of muscle, and general lack of mental get-up-and-go.

This decrease in testosterone production is sometimes referred to as andropause in men. Falling levels of testosterone can cause a wide variety of unrelated symptoms including:

-sexual dysfunction, including loss of interest, inability to have orgasms and impotence

-depression

-fatigue

-irritability and mood swings

-loss of strength and lean muscle mass

-increased body fat

-hot flashes

Lifestyle factors such as poor diet, excessive beer drinking, stress, lack of exercise, exposure to environmental toxins, smoking, and certain prescription medications can significantly reduce testosterone.

But there is good news. You can actually increase your testosterone significantly naturally by following the guidelines below.

1. Eat grass-fed beef instead of commercially raised beef.

Commercially raised animals are fed growth-stimulating hormones–including synthetic estrogens, antibiotics and processed grains. These hormones in commercially raised beef affect the body’s natural testosterone levels.

Research shows consumption of hormones from commercial beef contributes to falling sperm counts, cancer, and obesity.

2. Increase your zinc. 

Supplementing with zinc can really help raise testosterone levels. Zinc is the most crucial of all the minerals in the body for testosterone production. And, zinc deficiency is very common in the U.S. population, especially among athletes and the aged. Zinc is missing from most commercially-processed foods, and easily lost by drinking alcohol, sweating, and medication.

Red meat, especially grass-fed meat, is high in zinc, as well as seafood–especially oysters.

3. Along with zinc, vitamins A, E, C and B6 are all necessary to convert pre-hormones in the body to testosterone.

Eating bountiful helpings of fresh vegetables is essential in testosterone production–especially green, leafy and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage. These vegetables all contain chemicals that are essential for healthy metabolism of estrogen in both men and women, allowing better utilization of testosterone.

4. Omega 3 fatty acids and saturated fats, are essential for normal testosterone production.

Foods containing cholesterol (your body needs cholesterol, and it will NOT contribute to heart attacks) are excellent, so eating butter, egg yolks and other animal products will supply the necessary cholesterol.

Did you know that the body makes most of its hormones from cholesterol? So, cutting back on fats, cuts down your body’s ability to make the hormones it needs. Studies clearly indicate that low fat diets result in lower testosterone levels. A high protein, moderate amount of fat and lower carbohydrate diet will contribute to the best levels of testosterone.

4. Limit your intake of refined, high-carbohydrate foods.

Of course that means cookies, candy and ice cream, but also starches such as breads, potatoes and pasta. Excess intake of these carbohydrates raise blood sugar rapidly, creating chronically elevated levels of the hormones insulin and cortisol.

Insulin and cortisol oppose testosterone and slow its production.

5. Losing weight alone will restore testosterone production.

In both men and women, fat cells breed aromatase. Aromatase is the enzyme that converts estrogen into testosterone. Fat cells also store estrogen, and too much is harmful to both men and women. As you loose weight your ability to convert testosterone to estrogen diminishes.

6. Lifting weights stimulates testosterone release for men and women, while excessive cardio decreases testosterone.

The best movements involve compuond movements like squats, dead lifts, pushups, pullups and presses. The greatest workout-related testosterone production occurs with the use of heavier weights and lower rep range. A study shows that the best is 85 per cent of your one-rep max. Make sure to train with high intensity for short periods of time. Your overall weight training workout should not last longer than 60 minutes (45 min is optimal). Train hard and get out of the gym to let your muscles recuperate and grow!

Rest Harder Than You Work Out.

If you overtrain — meaning you don’t allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions — your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent.

To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.

If you follow the above guidelines you may find your low testosterone symptoms disappear without having to resort to injections, patches or pellets.

If you see no change in your symptoms, you may need to visit the Doctor to get your hormone levels checked. Both men and women, especially those in their 40’s and 50’s, may find that free testosterone levels need an extra boost.References: 1. The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray, Joseph Pizzorno, and Lara Pizzorno. 2. Benders’ Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. 3. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. 4. Ponnampalam EN, Mann NJ, Sinclair AJ. Effect of feeding systems on omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid and trans fatty acids in Australian beef cuts: potential impact on human health. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2006;15(1):21-9. PMID: 16500874. 5. Li D, Siriamornpun S, Wahlqvist ML, Mann NJ, Sinclair AJ. Lean meat and heart health. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14(2):113-9. PMID: 15927927. 6. Dietary lean red meat and human evolution. Eur J Nutr. 2000 Apr;39(2):71-9. PMID: 10918988. 7. Fung TT, Schulze M, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB. Dietary patterns, meat intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Arch Intern Med. 2004 Nov 8;164(20):2235-40. PMID: 15534160. 8. Harris WS, Sands SA, Windsor SL, Ali HA, Stevens TL, Magalski A, Porter CB, Borkon AM. Omega-3 fatty acids in cardiac biopsies from heart transplantation patients: correlation with erythrocytes and response to supplementation. Circulation. 2004 Sep 21;110(12):1645-9. Epub 2004 Sep 7. PMID: 15353491. 9. Jiang R, Ma J, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Hu FB. Dietary iron intake and blood donations in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes in men: a prospective cohort study. PMID: 14684399. 10. Longcope C, Feldman HA, McKinlay JB, Araujo AB. Diet and sex hormone-binding globulin. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2000 Jan;85(1):293-6. PMID: 10634401. 11. Prasad AS. Zinc in human health: effect of zinc on immune cells. Mol Med. 2008 May-Jun;14(5-6):353-7. PMID: 18385818. 12. Image by yongfook. 13. http://www.elements4health.com/grass-fed-beef-can-boost-testosterone-and-lower-cholesterol.html

Are You Confused About Cooking Oils?

 

 

Cooking Oils seem to be an ever changing debate.

We had it drilled into our heads that we should all avoid lard, butter and saturated fats.

But are vegetable oils any better?

New research says that vegetable oils may actually be contributing to the diseases they were meant to prevent.

And what about cooking with oil? What oils are ok to heat and what oils should NEVER be heated?

Many of the so-called 'healthy' oils are really bad for our health, and many of those oils and fats we were told to avoid may actually be good for us.

My good friend and fitness and nutrition expert, Mike Geary has an excellent article on oils that I wanted to share with you. In it, he clears up some of the confusion on which oils are good for us and which ones are bad for us.

You may be in for a surprise!

Check it out here:

Sugar Kills

Evidence is piling up against sugar and its role in the skyrocketing rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes,  and cancer.

But somehow we still get the message that sugar is okay, if we eat it in moderation.

How much is too much? What’s the harm in sugar?

Gary Taubes, author of “Why We Get Fat,” recently wrote an eye-opening article on sugar in the NY times. In it, he discusses the subject of sugar and its role in disease. If you would like to read the full article, click here.

A few brave medical professionals and research scientists have actually had the courage to speak out on the damage sugar can cause. Sugar, it seems, is actually a much bigger factor than cholesterol and saturated fat in heart disease.

Although sugar is considered an unhealthy indulgence, the medical and scientific community are beginning to find that sugar has a very real and definite role in heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Could it be that sugar is THAT bad?

In my own 25 years of research on diet, nutrition, and disease, I have to say that I too, have come to that same conclusion.

During my recent studies in disease physiology at a major medical institution, for my BSN, it was presented in class that sugar and glucose (as it becomes in our bodies) is highly damaging to the heart, blood vessels and the circulatory system. This is why diabetics experience a higher rate of heart disease, glaucoma, and blood vessel damage.

Blood sugar spikes also stimulate insulin, which causes the body to turn glucose into fat which is then stored in our livers, circulating in our blood or our fat cells. Ok. I got it.

What seemed strange to me is why something as fundamental as that never really made it to mainstream media. If high blood sugar is so damaging to diabetics, then why was there never a connection made to blood sugar and heart disease in the general public?

There seems to be a huge disconnect here. I just don’t get it.

It is startlingly clear to me that sugar is damaging to individuals other than diabetics.

Can sugar actually be deadly?

Let’s define what we are talking about when we say ‘sugar’. We usually think of sugar as the white stuff that sits in the cute little bowls on our tables, or in those little packets at restaurants. Table sugar usually comes from sugar cane or sometimes, beet sugar.

Sugar is also the ‘high fructose corn syrup’ you see on virtually every label of processed or packaged foods, or in most soft drinks. There are many other forms of sugar but for now, let’s concentrate on the two most often consumed sugars, sucrose and fructose.

Regular white table sugar (or brown sugar for that matter) is called 'sucrose'. Sucrose is composed of one molecule of glucose bonded to a molecule of fructose. So, sucrose is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Fructose is 2x sweeter than glucose. Since table sugar is half fructose, it is lots sweeter than starchy carbs like potatoes or bread that also turn into glucose in the body.

So the more fructose in a sugar, the sweeter it is. High fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. That makes it even sweeter than table sugar.

So white sugar and high fructose corn syrup are both a combination of glucose and fructose in our guts and our bodies react pretty much the same way to both.

So really, the question is not whether high fructose corn syrup is worse for our bodies than sugar, it’s how our bodies react to either type of sugar.

The harmful effects of sugar have more to do with the way your body metabolizes the fructose portion of the sugar. While many dietitians and physicians say, “calories are calories”, it’s how your body reacts to calories that really matters.

For instance, if we eat 100 calories of glucose (from a starchy food like pasta or potatoes) or 100 calories of sugar (remember basically 50/50% of glucose and fructose), they are metabolized differently and have a different effect on the body.

This is key: fructose is metabolized by our livers. The glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized by our cells.

Consuming cane sugar or HFCS causes your liver to work harder than if you just ate a starchy food. And, if the sugar comes in a liquid form like soda or fruit juice, the fructose gets in the body very fast and causes the liver to go into overdrive in an attempt to process it. Even worse, since the fructose portion of HFCS is not bound to the glucose it hits your liver even faster than regular cane sugar.

Lab studies show when fructose is ingested quickly in larger quantities, it goes straight to the liver where it is immediately converted to fat.

So you see why soda and fruit juice are so fattening?

Soda, fruit juice and other drinks are quickly ingested. When those liquids hit the stomach, fructose portion of it must be processed by the liver. The liver converts it to fat, which then becomes triglycerides. Triglycerides are the excess fats floating around in your blood and are a major contributing factor to heart disease. Any excess fat is stored in the liver.

What does this have to do with diabetes and obesity?

In 1980, only about 1 in 7 Americans were obese, and about 6 million people had diabetes—it was not a common disease. By the early 2000’s, 1 in 3 Americans were obese, and 14 million had diabetes. More than double the rate in about 20 years.

Interestingly enough, sugar consumption was 75-80 pounds per person per year (according to the USDA) in the 80’s and increased to well over 100 pounds per person per year in the 2003. Direct correlation.
 
In 2009, at least half the population consumed a whopping 180 pounds of sugar per year!

19% of the U.S. population now has diabetes, another 7 million are undiagnosed and 79 million have pre-diabetes accoding to 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet. And 81 million have some form of cardiovascular disease!

Back in the 1970’s, a nutrition expert and scientist in the U.K named John Yudkin, published a report on sugar’s harm called, “Sweet and Dangerous”.

In the 60’s, Yudkin conducted research experiments on rodents, chickens, rabbits, pigs and college students using cane sugar vs. starchy foods. The cane sugar quickly caused elevated levels of triglycerides in the test subjects. Elevated triglycerides are a primary risk factor for heart disease. The sugar also caused insulin resistance, which directly links it to type 2 diabetes.

Unfortunately, though, the mainstream medical community did not take his studies seriously. Most of the medical community was following the saturated fat and cholesterol theory of heart disease, led by scientist, Ancel Keys. 

The two theories butted heads here: saturated fats raised cholesterol and led to heart disease vs. sugar caused triglycerides to go up and caused heart disease.

One must be right and the other wrong–or so it was thought.

Keys published the results of a study in nutrition in the 1970’s called the Seven Countries Study. And the mainstream medical community picked up on the saturated fat and heart disease theory.

But guess what? There actually was a higher correlation between sugar consumption and heart disease in the seven countries studied, but this was never highlighted in the study findings. And, many societies that ate high amounts of saturated fats but little sugar showed low rates of heart disease and other diseases.  

So which is it–sugar or saturated fat?

We now know that one of the most accurate predictors of heart disease and diabetes, is a condition called ‘metabolic syndrome’.  According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) at least 75 million Americans have metabolic syndrome, and probably many more have it but have not yet been diagnosed.

What is metabolic syndrome? It means your body has become resistant to insulin. Normally when you eat carbs or sugar, blood sugar goes up, insulin is released, and blood sugar goes back to a normal level.

If your diet is high in sugars and starchy foods, your body is continually pumping out insulin. Eventually your cells stop responding to the insulin, and your pancreas (which is where insulin comes from) becomes exhausted and cannot create enough insulin in response to the demand.

Blood sugar levels then begin to rise out of control, until you end up with type 2 diabetes.


Elevated blood sugar and insulin levels also result in high triglycerides, high LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff) and low levels of HDL (the good cholesterol). So clearly, excess sugar creates a poor lipid profile.

What then, medical scientists wonder, triggers insulin resistance?

Fatty liver syndrome.

According to Varman Samuel from Yale University, there is a strong correlation in fatty livers and insulin resistance.

What would cause the liver to build up fat? It was once thought that just getting fatter lead to a fatty liver, but many lean people also the same problem.

This all points directly at fructose.

Animals or people fed large amounts of pure fructose or sugar convert the fructose into fat immediately. That fat circulates in the blood as triglycerides. Excess fat also gets stored in the liver. When the liver starts storing excess amounts of fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome follow, and not far behind then, is type 2 diabetes.

Stop the sugar, and fatty liver goes away, and along with it, insulin resistance.

It’s that simple.

So, the answer to the question of whether sugar is toxic is ‘YES’. How toxic, how quickly? We don’t know that answer for certain.

There is one more deadly disease that can be tied directly to sugar—Cancer.

Cancer is also tied to obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome as well.

A connection between obesity, diabetes and cancer was first studied in 2004 in large population studies by researchers from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

This is what they found:

Your chances of getting cancer are much higher if you are obese, diabetic or insulin resistant. What’s the connection? Sugar.

And your chances of dying from a form of malignant cnacer are way higher if you eat sugar. Malignant cancer is a very rare occurrence in populations that do not eat a typical Western diet.

Cancer researchers now know that the problem with insulin resistance and cancer is that as we secrete more insulin, we also secrete a related hormone known as ‘insulin-like growth factor, and the insulin encourages tumor growth.

Craig Thompson, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, has done a big part of this research on cancer and insulin, now says the cells of many human cancers depend on insulin to provide fuel to grow and multiply.

Some cancers actually develop mutations to affect the influence of insulin; other cancers just take advantage of the elevated blood sugar and insulin levels from metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In fact, many pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that transform them into malignant tumors if they weren’t being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it.

Elevated insulin (or insulin-like growth factor) signaling appears to be a necessary step in many human cancers, particularly cancers like breast and colon cancer.

If it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance, then its an easy conclusion that sugar is tied to cancer—at least some cancers. Yes, this may sound radical and this suggestion is rarely if ever been voiced publicly, but the scientific and biological evidence is there.

I know I am convinced of how harmful sugar is to my health and I avoid it as much as possible.

I really wish my teenagers would avoid it as much as possible, and I try to tell my friends and loved ones to avoid sugar too. Especially if they happen to have one of the above health conditions.

It’s a tough call to tell someone with cancer, heart disease or metabolic syndrome that it may be caused by too much sugar, even knowing what I know. Our perception of good foods vs. bad foods is deeply ingrained in our psyches, and our society, and it’s going against the tide to condemn something that most of the medical community accepts, but I know as a health advocate, that will I continue to try.

I wish you all the best of health.


For more great info on sugar, healthy sugar substitutes, and a healthy diet without cravings, read the Fat Burning Kitchen. (note: this link opens to another sales page on my co-author's site).


Look for the Fat Burning Superfood Recipe Book coming next month!! Tons of great, healthy, fat burning, Paleo style recipes everyone will love!


Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

                 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
           Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

 

Sources:
D Kromhout, A Keys, C Aravanis, R Buzina, F Fidanza, S Giampaoli, A Jansen, A Menotti, S Nedeljkovic and M Pekkarinen, Food consumption patterns in the 1960s in seven countries, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol 49, 889-894, Copyright © 1989 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Gary Taubes, Is Sugar Toxic?, New York Times, April 13, 2011.

US News and World Report, One Sweet Nation, March 20, 2005.

Dr. Mercola, This Addictive Commonly Used Food Feeds Cancer Cells, Triggers Weight Gain, and Promotes Premature Aging, April 20 2010.

 

This Missing Nutrient May be the Reason for Your Health Problems

 

Do you have any of the following health issues?

ADD/ADHD
Anxiety and panic attacks
Asthma
Blood clots
Constipation
Cystitis
Depression
Diabetes, High Blood Sugar or Metabolic Syndrome
Facial ticks
Fatigue
Heart Palpitations, or Arrythmias
Hypertension
Hypoglycemia
Insomnia or Restless Sleeping
Gallstones or Kidney Stones
Kidney Disease
Leg Cramps
Muscle Spasms or Twitching
Liver Disease
Migraine
Restless Legs Syndrome
Osteoporosis
Reynaud’s Syndrome
Urinary Incontinence

If any of the above apply to you, it’s very possible you have a magnesium deficiency.

Recent studies show about 80% of the population is deficient in this vital mineral.

Magnesium is one of the most important minerals in our bodies.

About 60-65% of the magnesium found in our bodies in stored in our bones, about 25% percent is in our muscles, and the rest is in our blood and cells. Magnesium can’t be made by our bodies, so we have to get it through our diet or supplements.

The problem is, most of our diets are magnesium poor. And many of the foods that contain magnesium just don’t have the amounts they used to have. So, as a result, the majority of the population is walking around magnesium-deficient, and dealing with one or more of the health issues above.

Who is at risk for a magnesium deficiency?

•    Athletes who work out regularly, especially in warm weather
•    Diets low in dark green leafy vegetables, nuts or seeds
•    Consuming sugar or sugary products
•    Anyone who drinks alcohol regularly
•    Those on a restricted calorie (less than 2000 calories) or low carb diet
•    People on particular types of medication
•    Those with digestive issues such as celiac disease, IBS or crohn’s disease

Magnesium plays a very important role in over 325 bodily functions. It is one of the primary factors in our ability to utilize protein, carbohydrates and fats. Without magnesium, energy in the form of ATP, cannot be stored or utilized properly in our muscles, and it increases our demand for oxygen, decreasing athletic performance.

There is strong evidence that magnesium requirements are much higher in athletes, and athletic performance may benefit from higher intakes.

Aside from being used up in the production of energy, magnesium assists performance by reducing accumulation of lactic acid and reducing the feelings of fatigue during strenuous exercise. Magnesium is also lost through sweat, so athletes training hard in hot and humid environments need even more.

Because magnesium is so vitally important, nearly every body system is affected by a magnesium shortfall.

Just a few of the things magnesium is responsible for:

•    Supplies strength and flexibility to your bones and prevents osteoporosis
•    Regulates and lowers blood pressure
•    Prevents or stops gallstone and kidney stone formation
•    Promotes deep, restful sleep
•    Soothes muscle cramps and spasms
•    Lowers cholesterol levels and triglycerides
•    Helps diabetics maintain proper blood sugar levels
•    Can prevent arthrosclerosis and stroke
•    Stops migraine headaches
•    Relieves chronic pain
•    Effectively reduces or stops asthma attacks
•    Helps the body metabolize nutrients
•    Has a mild laxative effect
•    Prevents heart attacks and maintains a regular heartbeat
•    Improves mood and has a calming effect
•    Improves muscle strength and endurance
•    Ends urinary urge incontinence

So you see, this often overlooked mineral is pretty important for good health and optimal functioning of the body and mind.

One of the problems with magnesium is that there isn’t really an easy way to measure how much or how little you have in your body. So, you can be moderately low for a long time and not even know, until the symptoms become more severe.

Researchers found low levels of magnesium cause cells to age more quickly, and this may be one of the causes of long-term chronic disease.

Another interesting thing—an overabundance of calcium causes an imbalance between the delicate ratio of calcium and magnesium in the body.

Magnesium and calcium work together synergistically and having both in the right amounts is vital. The problem is, the focus has been on getting loads of calcium in the diet, and everywhere you look there are calcium supplements and calcium-fortified foods.

But, even with many people consuming plenty of calcium, bone diseases like osteoporosis are still epidemic, affecting 55% of people over the age of 50! And if you are a big consumer of calcium or  dairy products, you are most likely magnesium deficient.

As a result, many people have calcium to magnesium ratio that is way out of balance.

Calcium in our bodies is an ‘exciter’. It causes muscle–both smooth and skeletal–to contract. Magnesium is a relaxor. It counteracts and balances calcium’s effect.

Excess calcium without the other minerals and nutrients it needs, gets stored in places you don’t want it. Excess calcium gets stuck in your joints, where it can cause arthritis or gout, it gets stuck in your kidneys or gall bladder where it can form painful stones, and it gets stuck in your arteries, where it causes the calcified plaque that contributes to heart disease.

The message here is this: you need about twice as much magnesium in your diet as calcium.

How to get more magnesium?

Foods high in magnesium include dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, mustard greens, collard greens or swiss chard. Some other good sources are broccoli, summer squash, raw almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds.

Conventionally grown vegetables are much lower in magnesium content than the organic versions, so for the most magnesium, buy organic and locally grown.

To be sure you getting enough magnesium, taking a supplement may be the best choice.  Magnesium supplements come in a chelated or non-chelated form. The chelated type of magnesium is absorbed better than non-chelated forms.

Chelated forms include: magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, magnesium aspartate, and magnesium taurate. Non-chelated forms include magnesium oxide, magnesium sulfate, and magnesium carbonate.

Magnesium is inexpensive and generally safe, but too much of a good thing is not so good. Generally most people should supplement about 200 to 600 milligrams of magnesium daily. Larger doses can cause loose stools or diarrhea.

Magnesium is best absorbed in small, frequent doses; so, it is better to take 100mgs three times a day than 300mgs or more all at once.

Magnesium is absolutely essential to your good health, athletic performance and optimal  and function of your body. There is virtually no one that cannot benefit greatly from increasing daily magnesium intake.

Till next time,

Stay healthy, energetic and lean!



P.S. Find healthy sources of magnesium and delicious recipes chock full of the vitamins and minerals you need in my Superfoods recipe book!!

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

                     Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
           Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

What’s For Breakfast? Primarily Paleo, Gluten and Dairy Free Ideas

Breakfast is truly an important meal.It actually jumpstarts your metabolism, fires up your brain and gives you fuel to start your day full of energy. Don’t miss this opportunity to supercharge your day with some essential nutrients. And, eating a healthy breakfast reduces hunger all day.

 

Breakfast is truly an important meal.

Breakfast actually jump starts your metabolism, fires up your brain and gives you fuel to start your day full of energy. Don’t miss this opportunity to supercharge your day with some essential nutrients.

Studies show that in comparing breakfast eaters with breakfast skippers, the breakfast eaters lost weight, lost body fat and were less likely to eat high calorie lunches.
And, a University of Missouri study found that eating a healthy breakfast, especially one high in protein, increases satiety and reduces hunger throughout the day.

In one study done comparing a higher protein/fat breakfast with a high carb breakfast, the higher protein/fat breakfast won big time!

Study subjects lost more weight (with the same calorie intake) eating the higher protein/fat breakfast than the ones eating the high carb breakfast.
The protein/fat breakfast eaters had a healthier metabolic profile than the carb eaters as well, and burned more body fat.

What to have for breakfast if you want to eliminate wheat and dairy? What about a Paleo style breakfast? If your sleepy head wants to reach for that easy bowl of cereal, you may have to reprogram your thinking just a little. But truly, it’s not that hard.

If you are thinking of doing an elimination diet, or if you want to go Paleo, breakfast sometimes creates a dilemma, since the mainstay of many people’s breakfast is wheat and dairy. If you are left scratching your head looking for a  tasty breakfast, here are some great, tasty, alternative ideas:

For those who just want to be gluten free, the easiest route is to purchase some gluten free bread. Now there are lots of gluten free breads out there taking up shelf space in the grocery store, but many of those GF breads are just as bad as processed wheat flour.


Look for ‘whole grain’ gluten free breads or at least bread made from brown rice flour.

My favorite gluten free bread (that won’t break your foot if you happen to drop it) is a brand called ‘Udi’s’. They offer a whole grain version that is quite good—not heavy or chewy, not too starchy—and it tastes great toasted or untoasted.
Gluten free toast and a pan-fried egg make a great egg sandwich on the run.

 

I like to add a couple slices of natural bacon (no nitrates/nitrites) on it for a bacon and egg sandwich.

Or try gluten free toast with peanut butter, almond butter or other nut butter and berries, banana, apple or raisins. This is one of my favorite quick and easy, take-it-with-you breakfasts.

Another easy, light breakfast is a bowl of berries, a handful of nuts and maybe a couple slices of cheese. Antioxidants, protein, healthy fat and fiber all in one healthy meal.

Want to make something a little more elaborate? Try gluten free French toast!

Or grab some brown rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill) and whip up some pancakes with a cup or so of brown rice flour, an egg, a teaspoon of baking powder, pinch of sea salt, and just enough milk to make a thick batter. Pour into a pan or waffle iron, add some REAL butter and real maple syrup (not the kind with corn syrup in it), and Viola! A yummy GF version that will start your day off right.

Ok, so what about ‘Primarily Paleo’ people?

Great Paleo breakfasts are truly not that hard, either.

How about a yummy fresh berry smoothie?

Now that strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries are in season, throw in a generous cupful of these into a blender; add a banana, a few ice cubes, a cup or so of either hemp milk, coconut milk, almond milk or OJ, an organic or pasture raised clean raw egg (don’t use the regular commercially raised eggs, they are more likely to contain salmonella); and blend.

I like to add any or all of these optional ingredients to supercharge my smoothies:

Cold processed grass fed whey protein, a big spoonful of virgin coconut oil, unsweetened coconut flakes, flax or chia seeds, a handful of raw nuts, or half an avocado.

You can even throw in a couple leaves of kale, swiss chard, parsley, or other dark green leafy vegetable to really up the nutritional punch. (Don’t worry, you can’t really taste the green stuff, it just blends in.)

Make this yummy, high protein breakfast the night before and you will have a delicious breakfast that is full of protein, stays with you, and is a quick and easy way to take your breakfast on the run. Makes a great high protein snack too!

Egg quiche cups

6 eggs, beaten

1 small pkg of frozen spinach, drained or 1 big handful of fresh spinach

¼ cup minced onion

1-2 slices of diced natural ham or crumbled nitrate/nitrite free bacon

dash of Tabasco or hot pepper flakes

Sea salt

Preheat oven to 350, spray muffin pan or foil muffin cups with cooking spray. Thaw and drain spinach if using frozen. (You can just squeeze it with your hand to get rid of most of the excess liquid.

Mix all ingredients in with beaten eggs, and pour into muffin pan or foil muffin cups. Bake for 20 minues. Cool and serve.

You can refrigerate and re-warm these in a pan over low heat with a lid if you would like. Try with some fresh salsa and avocados!
And check out this awesome site I found for more great Paleo and gluten free breakfast ideas:

http://wheatfreedairyfreebreakfastrecipes.blogspot.com/

There are some particularly good recipes here for sure!

Gotta go, I am starving and it’s time for breakfast!

 

Till next time, stay healthy, energetic and lean!

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

                     Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
           Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.


 

Scientific ‘Studies’ or Scientific Lies?

 

It seems like every other day there is a headline about our diet or health.

“Saturated fats linked to heart disease”, “High sugar diet linked to heart disease”, “Coffee cuts liver cancer risk”, “Coffee is linked to high blood pressure” and on it goes. One seems to contradict the next.

Anybody else out there confused and wondering what the heck to believe or not believe?

When you read these two words do you instantly believe what follows? “Studies show…”

Well, I’ve got news for you—even if it comes straight out of your physician’s mouth or right out of a news article, it isn’t always true. How do you separate fact from fiction?

There is a difference between ‘good’ studies and ‘bad’ studies.

When I was in nursing school at a major medical research university, one of my professors told us that only a very small percentage of scientific studies (less than 10%) actually made it to mainstream media and were published.

Many of the ‘studies’ we read about have no basis in fact or scientifically gathered data—Really!

The majority of the so-called studies that make it to the media are actually flat out wrong, misinterpreted or totally skewed.

I know, you’re probably thinking, “how can that be?” It is SCIENCE, after all.

Keep this in mind as I go on…

‘Studies’ that we read about in the news can be one of two things:

1. Observational studies–which is just that–purely an observation of a particular situation, and some sort of conclusion is drawn based on that observation. There is no intervention or treatment, just observations and gathering of data.

2. A true clinical or scientific study—which follows these specific steps:

•    An observation is made
•    A hypothesis is formed as a possible explanation
•    Conduct experiments
•    Collect data
•    Reach a conclusion 
•    The results must be CONSISTENT and REPEATABLE

In both types of studies—non-scientific observational studies, or true scientific studies, we look for results that show associations or correlations.  As in ‘A causes B’, or ‘smoking is associated with lung cancer’.

Since our early days as cavemen, our brains have been hardwired to seek patterns. If A occurs, then B results. It was how we survived.

However, some of those ‘A causes B’ were actually just coincidence. For example, after a long drought, the dehydrated and desperate natives dance around wildly, and it starts raining. Did the dance cause the rain, or could it be a coincidence?

Our brains are still looking for the connection. And we tend to generate beliefs consistent to what we already believe.

The problem with purely observational studies, though, is that ‘A’ does not always cause ‘B’ to happen.

These observations can be incredibly inaccurate, and many other factors that may affect the outcome.

Other factors are called ‘confounding’ variables. For instance: It was thought that reading to young children helps them become better readers and get good grades in school. ‘A causes B’, right? Hmmm…

Consider this–parents who read to their children generally have higher IQ’s and better educations, so their children get higher grades in school anyway. There's the confounding variable.

Observational studies only make observations and form an untested guess as to any cause and effect. Not rocket science by any means.

Did you realize that most of the dietary and health headlines we read in the paper are based on observational studies?

Not very accurate, as we now know.

Did you know most of the health and dietary information our PHYSICIANS are giving us are based on purely observational studies?

The gold standard for forming any real scientific conclusions is a true scientific clinical study.

The following is a great example of an observational study versus a clinical study:

In an observational study on middle-aged Harvard nurses taking supplemental estrogen, it was observed that these nurses had 40% less heart disease. So of course, every physician was ready to start prescribing estrogen!

Guess what?

A clinical (real scientific) study on estrogen and middle-aged women was conducted. 16,000 women were studied for 5 years, and results were women taking estrogen had a 30% HIGHER risk of heart disease than the control group.

How did one study show the opposite effect of the other study?

Confounding variables in the observational study, that’s how. Turns out, in the first observational study on the nurses, the nurses had a healthier lifestyle than the general public, so they had a lower risk of heart disease in spite of taking estrogen.

But, even clinical scientific studies can be highly inaccurate.

Scientists skew data and the conclusions depending on the outcome THEY are looking for.

John Ioannidis is one of the world’s foremost experts who investigates the credibility of medical research. He has shown over and over again that the majority of what biomedical scientists conclude in published studies is not only misleading, but exaggerated, and often totally wrong.

These are the studies that doctors use to prescribe antibiotics, blood pressure medication or advise us on diet or lifestyle.

This expert who has made it his life’s work to follow up on medical studies, states that…

“as much as 90% of the published medical information that doctors rely on (to pass onto us) is flawed…"

"...when it comes to cancer, heart disease, and other common ailments, there is plenty of published research but much of it is remarkably unscientific based largely on observation.”

And, 20-25% of conclusions from actual scientific, clinical studies are wrong as well.

While we would all like to think of the scientific process as objective and unbiased, it’s very easy to manipulate results—intentionally, unintentionally or even unconsciously.

So next time you read the a ‘scientific’ study, ask yourself these questions:

1.    Is it an observational study or a scientific or clinical study?

Remember, an observational study is only an observation between two things but may have other factors that affect the outcome. If A and B are associated, could it actually be because of C? Or C, D and E?

2.    Did A cause B or did B cause A?


Consider this simple observation: Running makes you slender. Ok, then does basketball make you taller? Or, is it that good runners are more slender to begin with, like good basketball players are generally taller than average?

Or how about this: Low carb diets can make you fatter. Can it be because most of the people on a low carb diet are trying to lose weight?

3.    Are results consistent every time?

Remember a true scientific conclusion must have results that are consistent and repeatable.

Like this: Saturated fat has been linked to heart disease.
Except for these groups: The Swiss, the French, the Inuits, the Masai, the Spanish and other ‘paradox’ populations.

Or: Red meat is linked to colon cancer–except for another ‘study’ showing vegetarians more likely to get colon cancer.

Neither of these are consistent or repeatable results.

4.    Ask yourself who/what are the real subjects of the study? Do they translate to the general population?

How then can you translate any of the study results from say, mice to humans? We have to realize that many tests are performed on animals being fed a very unnatural diet. Although it seems obvious that mice don’t eat dairy products or saturated fats in their natural diet, the results are still translated to people.

5.    What is a scientific ‘Difference’?

In science, absolute change or results come from subtraction. But, if scientists don’t see a big difference this way, they take the results and use division to come up with a more impressive number.

Here is a real example: Lipitor drug trials used two groups of men who were at high risk for heart disease. Lipitor was given to one of these groups for ten years. At the end of the study, 2 men out of the 100 in the Lipitor group had heart attacks. And, 3.05 out of the 100 men in the control group had heart attacks.

Does 1 out of 100 sound significant? NO!

The difference is 1 less heart attack out of 100 men in 10 years. Obviously to most that’s not an impressive number.

But, when you look for relative change, (2.0 divided by 3.05=0.64 and 1.0 minus 0.64=0.36); you get 36%—a far more impressive looking number! So guess what is plastered all over the ads?  Lipitor reduces the risk of a heart attack by 36%! Sounds very impressive doesn't it?

What about ‘significant’?  To most of us, significant means impressive, major, meaningful, or important. Significant to a scientist means, ‘not due to chance.’ That’s it.

As in this study:  Two groups of people were put on the Mediterranean diet with one group adding large amounts of salt to their food. The other group ate the same diet, but low sodium. What was the difference in blood pressure of the two groups? Scientists called it ‘significant’. I would not.

BP in the high salt diet group was 126/81. BP in the low sodium group was 123/79.

6.    Did scientists control the variables?

Remember this recent headline? “Red meat causes cancer”. Really? Did you know that red meat was grouped in with processed lunchmeats, pizzas, and hotdogs? There was no connection found with cancer and red meat by itself.

7.    Compared to what?

“Whole grain foods prevent diabetes”. Really? Compared to what? Compared to white processed flour, yes.

Compared to a diet with no grains? No. Whole grains do not prevent diabetes.

Another example: Filtered cigarette smokers have a lower rate of cancer. Compared to unfiltered cigarettes, true. Compared to no cigarettes, false!

8.    Do the real results really support the conclusion?

In another (real) study of low carb/high fat diets and high carb/low fat diets, the low carb group lost more body fat and had the biggest improvements in all cardiovascular markers including cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, and LDL.

The conclusion that scientists published was, “Moderate approaches such as a moderate carbohydrate, low fat diet may be prudent.” Could it be because this study was actually funded by Kellogg’s?

We cannot trust the media, the medical community, and scientists to give us the unbiased truth unfortunately. We just cannot faithfully believe or every so-called ‘study’ we read about, until we dig a little deeper, even if it comes from our own doctors.  Apply critical thinking the next time you hear about a 'study' in the news or read one in the headlines. It just may not be true.

We must apply critical thinking to what we read and hear, and go after the real truth ourselves.


Till next time, stay healthy and lean!


 

 

Sources:
“Science for Smart People”, Tom Naughton, YouTube video.
David Freedman, Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science, Atlantic Monthly, November 2010.


Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

The Fountain of Youth Is Right Under Your Nose

 

Our DNA is coded with a life span.

At the ends of each chromosome lies something called a ‘telomere’.

What exactly is a Telomere, and why should I care?

Telomeres protect chromosomes and prevent them from fusing into rings or binding with other DNA. I like to think of telomeres as being kinda like the little hard plastic ends on the ends of shoelaces, to put it simply. They keep the laces from coming undone.

Telomeres do a similar thing with chromosomes.

When a cell divides, as they do thousands of times every day, strands of DNA get snipped to in the process. The places that are snipped are the telomeres. And the telomeres get shorter and shorter each time.

Eventually the telomere gets too short, and the DNA becomes damaged, putting a halt to the cell’s ability to reproduce. This is where aging occurs.

The rate at which this happens varies among individual people and cells. This is why some people are may be more susceptible to age related disease than others.

How does this affect aging in our bodies?

Scientists can actually determine a cell's age and can estimate how many more times it may replicate by studying the length of the telomeres in a person.

As we age, we look for ways to lengthen our lives, slow aging and keep our cells young.

Recent scientific research shows omega 3 fats can actually slow down the rate at which telomeres on chromosomes shorten. This latest study on omega 3’s and their effect on telomeres that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) show that those that had the highest levels of omega 3‘s also had the slowest rates of telomere shortening over 5 years. And the patients with the lowest levels of omega 3’s had fastest rate of telomere shortening.

In other words, those with the highest levels of omega 3 fats, aged the slowest.

This is the first real study that shows a direct connection between a particular nutrient and real anti aging benefits.

Omega 3’s stellar health benefits just keep coming in, including: preventing heart disease, protecting the immune system, weight loss, keeping skin smoother, improving mental health, preventing cancer, and helping fight inflammation.

Telomere length is an important marker of true biological age that accurately predicts illness and lifespan in many areas of health. And, scientists have already shown that rodents live about one-third longer when given a diet enriched with omega 3’s from an animal source.

Obviously you are going to want to load up on omega 3’s.

The best source for well-absorbed omega 3’s fatty acids is from animals, primarily grass fed meat, wild caught fatty fish and pastured eggs. And don’t forget to load up on those antioxidant rich fresh vegetables and fruits.

You can find what foods contain the MOST amounts of quality omega 3 fats in The Fat Burning Kitchen Book.

Till next time,

Stay young, lean and healthy!

 

   

 
Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.
 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.
 
 

Sources:

Nathan Seppa, “Benefits of omega-3 fatty acids tally up”, Science News, February 13th, 2010; Vol.177 #4 (p. 14).

Julie Steenhuysen, Fish oil protects against cellular aging: study, Reuters, Jan 19, 2010 . Guardian.co.uk

Ramin Farzaneh-Far, MD; Jue Lin, PhD; Elissa S. Epel, PhD; William S. Harris, PhD; Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD; Mary A. Whooley, MD, “Association of Marine Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels With Telomeric Aging in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease”JAMA. 2010;303(3):250-257.

Should We All go ‘Paleo?’

 

Have you heard the new diet trend? It’s the ‘Paleo’ diet, primal diet or the caveman diet.

I guess it’s not exactly what I would call new and trendy, since it is based on the diet that our ancient ancestors ate. ‘The Paleo Diet’ is actually a term that author Loren Cordain, PhD coined for his book.

There have been several variations on this same type diet, including "The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson, Weston Price’s Traditional diet, and my own, “Fat Burning Kitchen Program” diet. And if you like Michael Pollen, his dietary principles follow along the same lines too.

Scientists have finally started to figure out that the diet of our ancient ancestors may possibly be the best diet overall for our modern bodies.

This diet is basically avoids all processed foods, grains, sugar, dairy, and legumes.

Is it any wonder that in today’s world there is so much illness, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other disease?

Today’s diet is a far cry from that of our ancestors.

Interestingly enough, our ancient ancestors were strong, healthy and were far more likely to be killed by a woolly mammoth or saber tooth tiger than a heart attack or diabetes.

If you would like to see a graphic presentation of the differences food makes on people, check out Weston A. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration–written in the 1940’s by a dentist who traveled the world studying primitive cultures and their diets.

It’s eye opening, to say the least! 

In a single generation, these natives go from the picture of health to unhealthy, diseased and deformed, and it has nothing to do with saturated fat, but everything to do with sugar and processed grains.

These photographs of Dr. Weston Price illustrate the difference in facial structure between those on native diets and those whose parents had adopted the "civilized" diets of  devitalized  processed foods. This occurred in all different primitive groups all over the world.

The "primitive" Seminole girl (left) has a wide, handsome face with plenty of room for the dental arches. The "modernized" Seminole girl (right) born to parents who had abandoned their traditional diets, has a narrowed face, crowded teeth, and a reduced immunity to disease.

This, and my own dietary evolution, has convinced me.

And I am more convinced the further away I move from processed foods, grains, sugars and more towards this ‘primal’ way of life.

The dramatic health benefits that result from this type of diet, seem virtually endless.

It reduces, prevents or cures: High cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, cancers, heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, inflammatory disease, arthritis, joint problems, allergies, digestive problems, depression, ADD, and so much more.

That alone speaks for itself.

Let me add that my own dietary and health journey can vouch for the fact that this diet really seems to be working. In the past, I had health issues like asthma, allergies, celiac disease, arthritis,  depression, frequent colds and flu, digestive issues, fatigue, foggy-headedness, PMS, rashes, and more.

With each dietary ‘tweak’, I moved closer to THIS diet.

Isn’t it another low carb diet? Well…no.

However, our paleolithic ancestors did eat a pretty low carb diet. Different primitive societies did eat varying combinations of animals, plants and carbs, but generally the human diet was about 2/3 animal foods, and 1/3 from plant foods.

And no one cared about saturated fat and cholesterol either.

Along came the agricultural revolution and the cities, civilizations and manufactured foods. And, a boatload of nutritionally-related diseases that were totally unknown to the hunter-gatherers. These new foods are vastly different in so many ways from the real, healthy foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.

So, I guess in a sense, we can blame the agricultural revolution for bringing us most of the chronic disease and obesity that we see in this modern world.

These mostly grain-based foods (cereals, dairy products, grain-fed meats, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugars and oils) do not work in bodies that were originally built for a diet of free-ranged meats, fruits, nuts, and vegetables.

The paleo diet is high in healthy omega 3 fatty acids, and Conjugated Linoleic Acid, low in omega 6 fatty acids, low on the glycemic index, high in USABLE natural nutrition, high in antioxidants, and no empty calories, no chemicals, or over-processed carbs.

And here is an interesting study: Medical researchers released results of a study that shows just how beneficial a primal diet can be:

A group of non-obese volunteers were fed a paleo diet for 10 days. Only 10 days!

And the conclusion is… Even very short term consumption of a paleo diet improved blood pressure, glucose tolerance, decreased insulin secretion, increased insulin sensitivity and improved lipid profiles in healthy sedentary humans.

I am not surprised. I’ve seen my lipid profile, my blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. All of them, off-the-charts excellent.

Primal Diet Principles:  

  1. Eat REAL food. No packaged or processed foods. Make your meals from combinations of one-ingredient foods and spices.
  2. Avoid most sugar, including: sucrose, fructose, agave (fructose), artificial sweeteners, and corn syrup. You may have small amounts of raw honey, maple syrup, raw cane sugar, and stevia if needed. 
  3. No grain. Not ‘whole grains’, and especially not refined, processed, white flour. No refined starches. 
  4. Eat plenty of healthy fat–from: grass fed meat, grass fed butter, pastured eggs and free range poultry, wild caught fish, raw dairy, avocado and coconut.  Extra virgin olive oil is ok, although I’m guessing a caveman probably didn’t eat this. 
  5. High quality protein is important. Grass fed, pasture raised, or wild caught–meat, fish and poultry, and eggs. No grain fed, commercially raised meat. 
  6. Eat lots of vegetables–locally grown is best, and fresh, raw or barely cooked. Organic if possible. Some fruit is ok, but our modern fruit is very high in sugar. 
  7. Eat organic. Eat them as close to where they grew as possible and in the most natural state. 
  8. Beware of what you are drinking. While I doubt cavemen drank their ‘cuppa joe’ to get going, drinking one cup of organic coffee or tea won’t ruin the diet. An occasional beer or glass of wine is ok, but a sugary, artificially flavored mixed drink is NOT ok. No fruit juice…these are full of sugar. Drink pure water as much as possible. 
And if you follow this diet, even 90% of the time, you WILL see major health benefits. 
 
Many pro and amateur athletes are gravitating towards this type of diet as evidence comes in that it improves athletic performance and endurance, reduces body fat and helps add lean muscle.
 
So, as of this writing, I am going to follow this diet as closely as possibly during the bicycling racing season this summer, and I will report back to you how it goes.      
 
Looking for more info?
 
There is plenty of information on the internet. One of my favorites is Mark Sisson’s site, Mark’s Daily Apple. This guy knows his stuff. Great articles, lots of entertaining and interesting info, and a lot of awesome recipes to help you get a better idea of how truly good food can be even without grains, sugar, or processed food.
 
And I have to put in a plug for my own website, Simple Smart Nutrition which is based on this type of diet, with tons of great information on various health conditions, from weight loss to maximizing your athletic performance and more.
 
And I have some delicious Paleo-style recipes too.
 
The very best way to check out the Paleo diet is to try it yourself. Even if you just follow principle #1 you will improve your health as you remove all of the junk, fast food, and “frankenfood” in the typical American diet.
 
Healthy and feeling good is normal.
 
Feeling tired, getting sick, gaining weight and all those other health issues are not normal. And, if you decide you just can’t commit to a Paleo diet, try following a few of the principles above and I guarantee you will see and feel so much better!
 
 
Sources:
Mark Sisson, The Primal Blueprint, Mark's Daily Apple, 2011.  Jennifer Pinkowski, Should you Eat Like a Caveman? Time magazine, Jan 2011. Dr. Loren Cordain, the Paleo Diet, 2010-2011.  
 
 
Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist.
In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.
 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.
     

Essential Steps For ‘Gluten Free-dom’

Ok, so you found out you are sensitive to gluten. Now what? It can seem like an overwhelming task to figure out what to eat, what not to eat, how to make meals, snacks, etc.

Don’t be upset–there is still a way to enjoy many of your favorite foods! I’m here to help walk you through the maze of gluten free.

I have had problems with wheat and gluten for about 25 years. Going wheat and gluten free was not near as easy back then and the easy to find substitutes that are available now, did not exist 10-20 years ago.

Over the years I found easy ways to cook without gluten, and how to avoid it when going out to eat, so I am here to help you find ways to enjoy most all of your favorite foods without feeling deprived.

First of all, let me point out that gluten sensitivity and celiac disease are all one and the same. While some doctors may distinguish between the two, both are essentially the same disease, just a difference in the severity of the reaction.

And it’s important to know, gluten sensitivity is inherited, so if someone in your family has it, the chances of someone else having some degree of gluten problem is about 1 out of 4. And sometimes it takes time to develop noticeable symptoms. Many people don’t realize they have problems with gluten until they are adults, or even middle-aged or beyond. Often it’s easier and healthier for everyone in the family to adopt the gluten-free lifestyle, rather than having the tempting off-limits foods around the house, making it hard for the gluten sensitive person to avoid.

Ok, so first of all, how the heck do ya’ cook gluten free?

Well, you CAN make most of your favorite recipes. The easiest solution that I have found is Brown rice flour, which you can substitute for most everything. Rice flour does not have the gluey-ness that regular wheat flour has, so some things may tend to crumble more easily (like cookies) but it does work. I use brown rice flour for everything from breading and coating meat, thickening sauces and gravies, to pancakes, waffles, cakes, cookies, muffins and more. Often nobody can even tell the difference between the brown rice flour and regular flour.

There are plenty of different gluten free baking mixes out there, but I generally prefer not to use them. Many of them use a lot of refined tapioca starch, corn starch and other refined starchy additives, so really you are just trading in one bad food for another. Check out your favorite health food store, Whole Foods, your local grocery store or online for flour, baking mixes and prepared foods.

There are many other flours out there worth experimenting with–one of the newest is coconut flour. This has a much heavier texture than rice flour but it is low glycemic, lower in carbs and can be mixed with rice flour for extra fiber. I have used coconut flour in several recipes with great results. Generally you need to use a ratio of about 1 part coconut flour to about 4 parts rice flour. And coconut flour requires you add a little bit more liquid as it tends to absorb liquids more readily.

Sometimes cooking your own favorite recipes may take a little bit of ‘tweaking’ to get them perfectly right, but I have found I can eat most all of my favorite goodies that I once ate with a little bit of experimenting.

So, where to start…

-Learn to read and recognize ingredients that contain gluten. Many prepared sauces, gravies, soups, and other foods will contain wheat, wheat flour, barley, barley malt, or modified food starch (usually ‘iffy’ since you can never be of the food source).

-Shop the gluten-free section of your food aisles carefully. Many of the gluten free substitutes may taste good but they are of little value as food, since the ingredients may be highly refined grains and starches.

-Learn to make your own gluten free food. Obviously the safest place for gluten free foods is in your own kitchen, since you have control over both the ingredients and the method of preparation.

-Move towards eating WHOLE foods with one ingredient. There is no mistaking the ingredients in an apple, a handful of raw nuts, a slice of cheese, or a fresh, healthy salad. (Watch out for the dressing though!)

Celiac.com has one of the most informative websites on gluten sensitivity and celiac disease.

And stay tuned to www.simplesmartnutrition.com as I will continually be adding more recipes all the time. Check the ‘Recipes’ section on the menubar for new gluten free recipes added frequently.

Watch for my new book, The Fat Burning Kitchen Superfoods Recipes, full of delicious, healthy, easy to fix recipes that are gluten, dairy, corn and soy free. Healthy simple foods for your health and enjoyment.

And feel free to email me with any questions you may have about gluten, dairy, corn or soy allergies. I’m happy to help! cat@simplesmartnutrition.com

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN,is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health, food allergies, and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

 Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
                             Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

Chia, the New Superfood?

Have you seen Chia seeds in the stores?

No, I’m not talking about those funny little terra cotta animals that you smeared with little seeds until they sprouted green “hair”. Chia pets do get their sprouts from Chia seeds. 

But what do you know about Chia seeds?

Chia seeds are actually an amazing food. Chia seeds are edible and are incredibly high in omega 3 fats—even more so than flaxseeds.

Chia seeds have been around for a very long time—since the ancient Aztec and Mayan days, actually. Chia seeds were a part of the Aztec and Mayan diets and carried into battle as  an important part of their daily rations.

It was thought that only 1 tablespoon of chia seeds would sustain a person for 24 hours.

Even the Mayan and Aztec religious ceremonies had chia seeds in them. Chia seeds have been used for joint pain, skin conditions and other medical problems. Chia is an edible seed that comes from the desert plant Salvia hispanica, a member of the mint family that grows abundantly in southern Mexico.

These tasty seeds are loaded with omega 3 fatty acids and also extremely high in antioxidants—way more than even blueberries!

Becuase of the high amount of antioxidants, Chia seeds have a much longer shelf lifethan flaxseeds and do not get rancid as easily. And while flaxseeds are easier to digest if ground up, Chia seeds do not need to be.

Chia provides fiber and other important nutrients, including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, niacin, and zinc.

All that in one tiny seed!

Here is something interesting about Chia seeds–when you add water or liquid to them and let them sit for a few minutes, the seeds form a gel. This reaction also takes place in the stomach, and it slows down their absorption and keeps the blood sugar stable.

Chia is just now being studied in depth, but some studies are already out on this amazing seed–in one study from University of Toronto, researchers fed 21 diabetics either a supplement made from chia or from other grains.  In 3 months, the blood pressure in patients on Chia seeds, dropped significantly, while the other grain group's BP stayed the same.

Chia seeds are about 16 % protein, 31% healthy fats,  and 44% carbohydrates, with tons of fiber.

Most of its fat is the very healthy omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA.

But keep in mind, if anyone gives you a Chia pet for Christmas as a gift, the chia seeds that came with it are not edible.

Get your chia seeds from a health food store or order online. About two servings of about 1.5 ounces a day are recommended for the best benefits.

Chia seeds are delicious sprinkled on yogurt, oatmeal, or salads. You can even eat them whole as a snack or mix them up in your favorite muffin or bread mix.

I like them best in my smoothies!

Because of its high nutritional value and its shelf life, chia is being added to a wide range of foods. It's now being added to chicken feed for eggs rich in omega-3s. Chia is also fed to chickens to help their meat contain a higher amount of omega-3s. When chia is fed to cattle, their milk becomes enriched with omega-3s.

Chia can also be added to commercially prepared infant formulas, baby foods, baked goods, nutrition bars, yogurt, and other foods.

Here’s another bonus: insects don't like chia, so it is easier to find organically grown varieties.

We will soon be hearing much more about chia and its health benefits soon!


Till next time,

Stay healthy, lean and energetic!

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.   

Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

Heal and Prevent Sports Injuries

Jim rugby

Injuries, both minor and major, are one of the hardest and most frustrating thing an athlete has to deal with.

Injuries usually seem like they occur  just as you are beginning to ramp up your training for big events. And now that the weather is warming up, amateur and professional athletes are starting to pick up their training for another competitive season in their favorite sport.

Injuries can often be your body’s way of telling you are pushing it too hard, too quickly, or overtraining, and not getting enough rest and recovery in between demanding workouts.

Is there any way to prevent injuries?

Of course–you probably already know some of the things you can include in your training to prevent injury, like rest days, warming up slowly, easing into your training, and stretching.

But, did you know, your diet will also make a HUGE difference in whether you get injured and how quickly you recover?

Think of it this way: your body is a machine. Just as you work out hard to become stronger, feeding and fueling your body well will help to strengthen and maintain the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bone in the best and strongest condition possible.

In contrast, a diet high in refined sugars, starches, and poor quality protein will result in weaker muscles, increased inflammation and a higher likelihood of injury.

So, what’s the best diet for a serious athlete or weekend warrior?

First of all, high quality protein is absolutely essential. Good protein sources are VITAL to grow and repair muscle, strengthen bones and tendons, and allow for proper function of cells.

Most training protocols tell you to eat protein right after exercise in order to help rebuild muscles; however, the best time of all may be shortly before a workout as well. It’s been found, that to limit the loss of muscle fiber associated with overuse injuries, eating protein shortly before exercising, and then immediately afterwards is best.

An active teen or adult needs to have at least 1.0 to 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight a day.

To figure this out, one pound of body weight is roughly equivalent to about .45 kilograms. So dividing your weight in half will give you a rough estimate of your weight in kilograms.

For example, an 150 lb male would weight about 70 kilograms and will need 70-100 GRAMS of protein a day, which comes out to about 30 grams per meal, or a decent sized serving of meat, chicken, fish or eggs at every meal.

The very best, most usable protein is grass fed meat, with 5 times the muscle-building Conjugated Linoleic Acid as regular grain fed meat, healthy omega 3 fats, and important muscle-building minerals–zinc and iron.

Other great sources of protein are wild caught fatty fish, free-range poultry, and organic eggs. All of these are higher in the healthy omega 3 fats, and lower in omega 6 (inflammatory) fats, as well as being free of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones.

Many athletes rely heavily on protein bars, shakes and powders, which is a big mistake.

The protein in these processed foods is very poor. This protein usually comes from heat-processed whey or soy protein isolate. Both of these protein sources are denatured, weak versions of protein and virtually unusable by the body.

Whey protein can be an excellent protein source, but it must be cool-processed (which keeps the protein intact) and should be from grass fed dairy cows as well, for the maximum amount of CLA and healthy fats.

Healthy fats are absolutely necessary.

Fats also help to lubricate the body, muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs and skin, and increase feelings of vitality and energy.

Athletes who switch to a higher fat diet see the results with more energy, less injuries and better recovery times. Be sure to include these fats:

•    Omega 3 fats–Provide plenty of fuel for energy, and anti-inflammatory properties to heal and protect the damage that hard training wreaks on the body. Omega 3 fats are found primarily in wild caught fatty fish, grass fed meat, organic eggs and grass fed butter. Walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds also contain healthy doses of omega 3 fats.

•    Conjugated Linoleic Acid–Helps to provide the fuel the body needs to power through a demanding practice. CLA builds muscle, burns fat, raises the metabolism, and helps prevent cancer, heart disease and high cholesterol.

•    Saturated fats and cholesterol--The good saturated fats (like the kind that come from grass fed meat, organic egg yolks, and butter) actually help to strengthen and repair muscle fibers, strengthen the immune system, aid in the proper functioning of the heart, lungs and brain, and boost metabolism. So don’t shy away from these important fats. However, you do want to avoid the grain fed versions of this fat as it is high in inflammatory omega 6 fats.

•    Monosaturated fats like coconut, nuts and olive oil are extremely effective at reducing inflammation and increasing energy, so be sure to include these healthy fats as well. Coconut oil is quickly and easily metabolized for energy as well as being an excellent healing agent, so be sure to include this in your diet.

Antioxidants are extremely important to athletes as well. Intense exercise creates tons of free radicals which can lead to damage and breakdown of tissue–including muscle–within the body.

Be sure to include LOTS of brightly colored fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to supply the body with the necessary antioxidants. The brighter and more colorful, the more antioxidants! Raw organic veggies and fruit contain the highest amounts of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals; they also contain massive amounts of enzymes because they are raw.

Enzymes are proven healers of damaged tissue.

To prevent and heal injuries try to eat at least 50% or more of these raw.

Vitamin C is one of the most powerful antioxidants and is also very important for the repair of the collagen, connective tissue, and cartilage; it is helpful add extra to your diet when injured.

Aim for five or more sources of foods that are high in vitamin C such as red peppers, papaya, cantaloupe, kale, oranges and broccoli.

And don’t forget about Vitamin A for its rebuilding properties.

Higher amounts of vitamin A also aid in repairing micro-tears that occur after a hard workout, so it is a valuable addition for any runner, cyclist or weight lifter. Best food sources of vitamin A are: grass-fed dairy products such as raw cheese, grass-fed butter, and grass-fed (commercially raised beef liver contains lots of toxins) liver; bright orange or red vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, mangoes, papaya, winter squash, red peppers, apricots and spinach.

Digestive enzymes also aid in the recovery process.

Look for ones that contain plenty of bromelain and protease, and take with meals. Bromelain is an enzyme found in pineapple, and is effective as an anti-inflammatory. Protease is an enzyme that digests  proteins and will travel to the injured sites to dissolve the byproducts of the injury. Other enzymes have similar healing effects.

One of the most important building and repairing nutrients for injuries is zinc.

Zinc works alongside protein and other nutrients in the body synergistically. Zinc is also an immune enhancer which is powerful in the whole healing process. To ensure you are getting enough, include grass-fed beef, liver, oysters and other shellfish, seeds, nuts, chicken and egg yolks in your diet.

So now you know what foods to be sure to include in  your diet, but there are definitely some foods that must be avoided as well.

These foods not only fatigue the body, run down the immune system, and interfere with the processing of important nutrients, but they also contribute to inflammation in the body.

A tough and demanding training plan adds enough inflammation, so why add to that burden?

Inflammatory foods include the obvious junk foods–cookies, candy, excess alcohol, processed foods, and artificial foods with chemicals and preservatives.

Sneaky food additives (even in so-called health foods)  such as transfats, omega 6 oils such as corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grains of all kinds including wheat, rice, oats, corn, and soy ( a legume) and sugars are also highly inflammatory as well.

Many athletes are switching to a gluten free training diet, even if they do not have gluten issues.

Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley. It has been found that gluten is an inflammatory agent in many people (even those who seemingly do not have issues with gluten sensitivity) to some degree.

Athletes who have adopted a gluten free training diet report that they feel more energetic, less sluggish, lose a little weight, sleep better, have better digestion and generally feel better overall.

Sugar in all forms is highly inflammatory and actually stimulates an inflammatory response, so avoid it at all costs.

Pasteurized, processed dairy foods,  (as opposed to raw dairy) also tend to add to inflammation.

Dairy contains a lot of histamines, which will add to the inflammation already present in the body.

And last of all, be sure to be getting enough water.

Water helps to carry away toxins and keep your metabolism and healing processes working efficiently. There is no excuse not to stay well hydrated as the benefits are really endless.

You will feel better, have better energy and heal quicker!

Eat well, work hard and you will most definitely reap the benefits of a stronger, faster body!

 

Till next time, stay healthy, lean and active!

 

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist. In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.

               Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.    

       Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.


 

 

References:

Michelle Schoffro Cook, DNM, DAc, CNC, CITP, The 12 Step Program to Healing Sport Injuries http://hubpages.com/profile/Shannon+Clark Horwitz,

Dr. Steven, Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Inflammation, Prevent Sports Injuries, Jan 21, 2011. http://preventsportsinjuries.blogspot.com    

 

Three Interesting Ways Cherries Improve Your Workouts

 

 I love cherries in smoothies, in pies (yes once in a great while, a little pie won’t kill you), or just out of a bowl for an awesome healthy snack.

They are full of healthy antioxidants and are an excellent fat burning food.

But did you know that cherries can actually help your workout?

Cherries, especially tart cherries, have actually been proven to get rid of the aches and muscle soreness that come from an intense workout. And, cherries are also extremely effective for arthritis pain, gout, hemorrhoids, allergies, and helping you sleep better.

These little red powerhouses contain phytochemicals called “anthocyanins” that give them their deep red color. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University found that the powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins in tart cherries were as effective at decreasing inflammation as anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, aspirin and Tylenol.

And inflammation is what makes your muscles ache after working out.

Cherries also help you sleep more soundly because they are one of the only foods that contain a natural substance called ‘melatonin’. Melatonin is a hormone in the body that regulates sleep cycles.

Tart cherries contain high levels of melatonin.

Just two tablespoons of concentrated tart cherry juice has been found to promote good quality, deep sleep necessary for healing and repair of the body.

Did you know a good night’s sleep is proven to help you burn fat better too?  And melatonin contains powerful antioxidants that helps reverse aging as well.

Cherries also help you burn fat, since they are full of antioxidants and high in fiber, as well as chock full of vitamins and minerals. Because they are a filling and satisfying snack they will fill you up and reduce cravings.

So there you have it—three GOOD reasons to make cherries a part of your everyday diet.

While sweet cherries are effective, tart cherries contain even more of the powerful antioxidants that burn fat, help with muscle aches and soreness and help you sleep more soundly. Enjoy cherries in your next smoothie, on top of your breakfast oatmeal, or just plain for a sweet, satisfying snack! One of my favorite snacks is frozen organic cherries mixed with raw almonds, and sprinkled with a little bit of cinnamon. 

Give it a try!

Till next time,

Stay healthy, lean and energetic!

See more great healthy, fat burning foods in The Fat Burning Kitchen. And look for the Fat Burning Kitchen Superfood Recipes coming in July!

[note this link takes you to my co-author's page where you can order the book–plus free bonus videos.]

 

Catherine (Cat) Ebeling RN BSN, is a back to basics diet and nutrition specialist.

In addition to her advanced degree in nursing from a major medical school, she has spent the last 30 years intensely studying diet, health and nutrition. She also has a book titled "The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation" that has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide, and has helped thousands of people transform their lives, lose weight and improve their health.
 
Her mission is to help others prevent disease and live their best life ever.
Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.