What really works the best for athletic performance? These results are pretty astounding! See below for the full presentation.
Fat vs. Carbs for Athletic Performance?
Surprising research and results show healthy fats may be better.
Tag: Sugar
Addicted to Food?
Are you addicted and don’t know it? From time to time, we all stray off of our normal ‘healthy’ or weight loss diet. It’s not a big deal unless you have trouble getting back on track…
Are you addicted and don’t know it?
From time to time, we all stray off of our normal ‘healthy’ or weight loss diet. It’s not a big deal unless you have trouble getting back on track. Did you know you can have hidden addictions to foods that you eat on a regular basis? These addictions can be as strong as nicotine to a smoker or heroin to a junkie.
For most people, it’s foods containing sugar, grains (especially wheat), and dairy products. While these foods seem to be everywhere, they are also actually highly addictive. And don’t be fooled for a second in thinking that food manufacturers don’t know this little factoid, and do their best to put sugar, wheat and dairy in as many things as they can.
These foods can stimulate opiate-like receptors in the brain, and your body actually responds to these foods just as it would heroin or morphine. The opiate-like ingredients in dairy and wheat are proteins, which coincidentally are also known to be highly allergenic. In dairy, that protein is casein, and in wheat, it is gluten.
These proteins trigger the release of exorphins (very similar to endorphins) that go straight to the brain and create a feeling of instant comfort and pleasure. Think of all the combinations of dairy and wheat that people love and consider as comfort foods, or foods they can’t live without: macaroni and cheese, pizza, bagels and cream cheese, cookies and milk, grilled cheese sandwiches, and on and on.
Are sugar, wheat and dairy your weakness? Think about it. Maybe you weren’t even aware of that addiction.
The tough thing about straying off your diet and eating foods with wheat, dairy or sugar makes it especially difficult to get back on track. You become addicted. And just like the heroin junkie who thinks he can have “just a little”—once you’re off track, it becomes exceptionally difficult to break free from these foods’ grasp.
The interesting thing about wheat and dairy is that most often if you find you have a hard time living without, or staying away from these foods, you most likely are allergic to those proteins—the gluten and the casein. And I don’t mean the kind of allergy that makes you break out in hives, and or makes your throat swell, but it is often an allergy, nonetheless.
What do these allergic reactions cause? Inflammation in the form of stuff like bloating, weight gain, (usually excess water) stomachaches, sinus and nasal drainage, earaches, irritability, depression, fatigue, brain fog, ADHD, acne, joint pain, headaches….and non-stop eating.
This vicious cycle of allergy and addiction can interfere with digestion and your body’s ability to extract nutrients from food. It also affects the immune system, helping to magnify allergies, and weaken it’s defense system, so you become more susceptible to viruses, bacteria, and yeast overgrowth.
Ironically, the very foods that you just cannot live without are usually the same foods that cause some of the worst reactions, and cause you to overeat. So you are caught in an allergy-addiction cycle.
Think about it.
Have you ever eaten a bowl of cereal and as you are eating it, you get hungrier and hungrier? Next thing you know you’ve eaten three bowls of cereal. Have you ever said, “I just can’t live without my bagels? Or “My pasta”? You need bread and butter at every meal, or just can’t stop when you eat crackers and cheese? Is your favorite comfort food ice cream or pudding?
Take a look at what you are eating…addiction often lurks in your daily habits.
Does this mean you’re weak? Do you lack willpower? No. It’s just that these addictive substances are wreaking their havoc on you and your best laid dietary plans.
Many ‘diets’ actually contain a built-in plan to fail if they contain dairy, wheat or sugar. How many times have you heard the standard “Eat whole grains and lots of dairy” instruction? Some of the most popular diet plans like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig all contain moderate amounts of the big three addictive allergens—wheat, dairy, and sugar. This should come as no surprise. They want consumers to keep coming back and buying more of this stuff.
Having an allergy-addiction to any one or more of these substances is a little like an alcoholic thinking it’s ok to have just a small glass of wine or beer, instead a big one. What would you guess is going to happen at some point? That small portion grows or becomes more and more frequent.
The best solution to break free of the addiction/allergy cycle is to eliminate wheat, sugar and dairy from your diet altogether. While may sound somewhat extreme, you will be amazed at how much easier it becomes to stick to a healthy diet that keeps you at your optimal weight.
If giving up bread or milk makes you feel anxious and deprived, I can sympathize. I too, was once addicted to bread, milk and sugar as well. I’d try to cut back and cut calories to lose weight, only to end up on a (coffee cake, cookie, bagel, cinnamon toast) wheat binge after a few days.
I tried to eat less only to be on that same Merry-go-Round of addiction and overeating. I gained weight, and I felt awful. It wasn’t until I actually tried a two-week elimination diet, that I realized how fantastic and energetic I felt once I had gotten totally away from those foods.
This blog will go into the details of an elimination diet, but basically you totally remove wheat, dairy and any other foods you feel you just can’t live without. Then you re-introduce them, one at a time, and observe your reactions over a period of 24-48 hours
I’ve kinda developed and evolved a dietary strategy that helps me get back on track after a few days of this type of dietary disaster. I’d like to share that with you and hopefully you will be able to adopt this and find success as I have.
First of all, the best thing to do is to go ‘cold turkey’. Take the offenders out of your diet, totally. Remember the alcoholic with the small glass of wine? It doesn’t work. Take it all out—the sugar, the wheat and grains (other grains contain addictive gluten-like substances as well), and the dairy.
Then plan out your meals for the next couple days. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but make it super healthy and high fiber. You’re doing a mini detox basically.
Surround yourself with awesome superfood veggies that are brilliant and brightly colored and will make you feel so spectacular that you won’t want to go back to those addictive foods. Add in some top quality protein and good fats and you’re golden. Cravings go away when you give your body what it truly needs.
So the idea is to load your body up with a ton of powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, powerful nutrition to overcome the toxic load you’ve put in your body. And you want to have a lot of veggies in there that will feed your body what it needs and help to clean house as well.
So I generally plan on a few humongous salads with a good portion of healthy protein added in—free range chicken, grass fed beef, or some wild-caught fish, like salmon.
TAKEAWAY #1
Wheat, Dairy and Sugar are addictive substances, and for many people they produce an allergic, inflammatory reaction in addition to the addiction, making it extremely difficult to eat ‘just a little’. Meanwhile, you make it harder to lose weight and mess with your health.
TAKEAWAY #2
AVOID Wheat, Dairy and Sugar all the time. Avoid all processed, packaged foods and especially avoid “Diet” foods. Just an alcoholic cannot drink once in a while, neither can you eat this stuff “once in a while”.
TAKEWAY #3
When you get off track, quit the grains, sugar and dairy, COLD TURKEY, and arm yourself with a healthy diet plan for the next few days. Load up on veggies and healthy proteins and let your body detox this crap out. You’ll feel better quickly! Have a plan, and have some healthy meals lined up and you will feel satisfied and ‘clean’ again in no time.
Stay healthy and lean, my friends!!
Find out what foods age you the fastest and how to reverse aging here.
The Top 101 Foods that Fight Aging
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.
Cat’s book titled “The Fat Burning Kitchen, Your 24 Hour Diet Transformation” has sold over 100,000 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.
These Foods Accelerate AGE-ing in Your Body
AGE’s are the key to aging in our bodies. AGE’s are responsible for wrinkly, sagging skin, diabetes, and damage to blood vessels. Where do they come from?
AGE’s That Age Us
What are AGE’s? AGE’s are Advanced Glycation Endproducts. AGE’s can be either in the food you eat or formed within your body. AGE’s occur when sugar molecules attach to protein or fat molecules without an enzyme.
So what’s the big deal about this, you ask?
Well, AGE’s are a serious promoter of aging in the body, as well as the beginnings of many chronic diseases. In fact AGE’s are one of the biggest factors in diabetes, heart disease and others as well.
These AGE’s form a sticky plaque-like substance in the brain, nerve tissue, and the rest of the body. It is reported that when AGE’s are consumed, about 10-30% are absorbed into the body. The body’s ability to eliminate these once they are absorbed is very limited, meaning that once these gunky, gooey, nasty things get in human cells, it’s damage that cannot be undone.
While all human tissue is subject to damage by AGE’s, the lining of blood vessels is especially sensitive, as well as certain nerve cells that can quickly accumulate damage—especially in blood capillaries of the kidneys and eyes, brain and nerve cells, collagen, and your DNA. This is pretty serious and destructive stuff.
AGE’s are responsible for wrinkly, sagging skin, damage to the pancreas that causes diabetes, and damage to blood vessels, which leads to the plaque buildup that causes heart disease.
Besides the irritation and inflammation they create in blood vessels, they damage collagen in blood vessel walls, which leads to high blood pressure. Glycation also weakens the blood vessel walls, can cause aneurisms and deadly hemorrhagic strokes.
AGE’s also help form the sticky amyloid proteins and neurofibril tangles that take over the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease, causing severe memory loss and dementia.
They can easily damage the nerves, causing peripheral neuropathy and deafness, as well as attacking the tiny blood vessels in the eyes, which in turn can lead to blindness, as well as creating dangerous by-products that can become cancer.
The wide variety of diseases is the result of glycation interfering with molecular and cellular function in the body and its release of highly oxidizing byproducts.
As you can see, AGE’s are highly destructive. Where do they come from?
Advanced Glycation End products can come from two primary sources:
- From our diet (Exogenous AGE’s)
- Internally produced in the body (Endogenous AGE’s)
Any food that is browned or roasted such as brown bread, browned or grilled meat, bacon, crispy brown cookies, chips, crackers, etc. contains AGE’s. They form whenever food browns with heat as in roasting, frying or grilling. Cooking food at high temperatures without water or liquids (as in frying) causes the sugars in the food to bind with the proteins or fats to form AGE’s.
Any food that is high in fat, protein or sugar is likely to cause AGE’s when cooked. Using water when cooking as in steaming, poaching or boiling helps to prevent the sugars from attaching to the proteins and fats and helps to prevent AGE’s. Cooking at a lower temperature also helps to minimize AGE’s.
You know that crispy skin on the roasted Thanksgiving turkey? That’s full of AGE’s. So are French fries, bacon, chips, and just about anything that is baked or fried to a golden brown. Even that juicy steak, dark roasted coffee in your espresso, and that delicious caramel on your dessert are full of AGE’s.
Processed, packaged foods often have added AGE’s to enhance their flavor and make the food look more appealing. Caramel coloring is a good example of this. The list of foods with added AGE’s also includes donuts, cakes, crackers, chips, dark colored soda, and even dark beer.
Endogenous (or internally formed) AGE’s occur in the body from the sugar and carbohydrates in the food you eat. Excessive sugar in the body (in the form of glucose) binds to proteins causes glycation. People with chronically elevated blood sugar have the most damage from AGE’s, such as those with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
As nutrition expert Johnny Bowden says, “It’s like putting sugar in your gas tank, it totally gums up the works.”
Certain types of sugars such as fructose, are much more likely (as much as 10x more likely) to glycate. If you look at the huge amount of foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, or the large numbers of people eating sugary, processed foods and drinks, is it any wonder why there are such high rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other inflammatory diseases?
AGE’s can be measured by the same test given to diabetics to monitor long-term blood sugar control. This relatively new blood test is known as the Hemoglobin A1c test.
For optimal aging, your A1C levels (whether diabetic or not) should be less than 5%, which would mean keeping an average blood sugar level of about 90 mg/dl. While that seems fairly low by some conventional medical standards, this percentage is easily attainable if you eat to keep blood sugar stable.
Minimize the effects of AGE’s
- Keep blood sugar low with a low carb/low sugar diet. Especially avoid the sugar that comes from fructose, as in high fructose corn syrup and fruit juices.
- Avoid grains—especially wheat and corn, they tend to raise blood sugar. And grains are often baked or fried to become crispy and brown which makes them even higher in AGE’s. Yes, that includes that wood fire roasted pizza, too.
- Cook meats at lower temperatures – Higher temperatures produce far more AGE’s than slower cooking over low heat. Cook meat in broth if possible. For example, rare and medium-rare meats will have fewer AGE’s than fully cooked meats, like barbeque, bacon, or well-done steak.
- Eat vegetables and fruits raw, boiled, stewed, slow-cooked, or steamed – boiling and steaming introduce water to the cooking process, which stops glycation.
- Avoid processed foods. Not only are they higher in sugar content, they often have caramel coloring and other additives high in AGE’s to improve color and appearance.
- Avoid browned, roasted, grilled, carmelized, or fried foods. If it’s golden brown or brown, it most likely contains AGE’s.
- Avoid dark colored sodas, dark beer, and anything with caramel coloring in it.
Combat AGE’s With These Foods
All low-glycemic foods
Kale, collard greens, or spinach
Tomatoes
Carrots
Sweet potatoes
Red, yellow or green peppers
Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts
Artichokes
Berries
Cherries
Kiwi
Plums
Red or black grapes
Beans
Green tea, black tea, and rooibos tea
Cinnamon, Cloves and Turmeric
Supplements that Battle AGE’s
- L-carnosine – An amino acid found in protein. L-carnosine helps prevent glycation by generating an enzyme that is able to counterattack AGE’s that have already been formed. This supplement is said to decrease the risk of attracting neurodegenerative disorder and inflammatory diseases by removing the unsaturated aldehydes (sugars). Since meat contains this amino acid, eating meat is less likely to produce as many dangerous AGE’s in the body.
- Benfotiamine – A fat-soluble synthetic form of vitamin B-1. This substance has been studied to stop AGE’s from being formed. It blocks the biochemical processes that can cause vascular, nerve, kidney and retinal damage that are connected AGE’s and high blood sugar levels. Benfotiamine is a supplement and not naturally found in foods.
- Pyridoxamine – A unique form of vitamin B6, called Vitamin B6 is involved in hundreds of beneficial enzymatic reactions in the body. While the benefits of conventional vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) are well documented, this unique form of vitamin B6 called pyridoxamine is thought to interfere specifically with the toxic glycation reactions in the body.
- Antioxidants – Foods and supplements high in antioxidants will help to combat the damage that AGE’s do in the body. Supplements include alpha lipoic acid, astaxanthin, vitamin C and vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc, selenium, quercetin, and flavonoids.
While it may be virtually impossible to avoid the glycated end products, you can minimize them and the damage they do with your diet. And that, in itself will go a long way towards keeping you young.
Till next time,
Stay healthy, lean and young!
Get the latest Gluten Free, Superfoods Recipe book HERE–The Fat Burning Kitchen Superfoods Recipes.
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. Cat 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.
Agave-A Healthy Sweetener or Fat Fuel?
Is Agave the New “Healthy” Sweetener?
Agave syrup has been advertised as a new “healthy” sweetener that is low glycemic, good for weight loss, and better for you than either regular sugar (sucrose) or high fructose corn syrup.
And sales of agave syrup have skyrocketed in the last few years.
But is it really that much healthier? No, not so much.
What is agave?
Agave is an exotic plant that is a member of the yucca family that grows in the tropical heat of Mexico. It has been used for thousands of years by the Mayans in herbal remedies to help with indigestion, bowel irregularity, and skin wounds. Fermented agave juice is the familiar alcoholic beverage, tequila.
The agave industry would like you to think that agave nectar is a very natural product that goes straight from the plant to a jar and is a healthy, natural sweetener great for weight loss, but this is not really the case.
Agave syrup has been deceptively marketed as a ‘health food’ and it most certainly is not.
The truth is, agave nectar or agave syrup is not a natural sweetener at all, but a highly refined type of fructose sweetener—very similar to the common sweetener, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Depending upon where the agave comes from and the way it is processed, agave syrup can be anywhere from 50-90% fructose!
Guess what?? High fructose corn syrup is about 55% fructose, the rest glucose.
Yep, you heard that right–almost the same exact composition as agave syrup! So that doesn’t make agave syrup a good choice if you’re hoping to avoid the high levels of fructose in HFCS (high fructose corn syrup).
Ok, so what is wrong with fructose?
Isn’t that the sugar that is found in fruit? Well yes, and no.
There is a huge difference between how our bodies handle the natural fructose in fruit and the highly refined unnatural fructose in sweeteners. The fructose eaten in the form of fruit is in its natural form along with lots of fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, and is way different than the concentrated, refined fructose in agave syrup.
When fructose is extracted from fruit, concentrated and made into a sweetener, it wreaks havoc with your metabolism.
Don’t be fooled by agave syrup’s reputation as a great weight loss sweetener. It is not low calorie—in fact it has about the same number of calories as regular table sugar. And while it is often marketed as “low glycemic”, it still contributes to weight gain.
According to most research, fructose, more than any other kind of sugar, contributes not only to insulin resistance, but it raises blood levels of triglycerides (a risk factor for heart disease) in both obese and healthy people.
Triglycerides are a form of fat in the blood, and are stored in the body as excess body fat.
Elevated triglycerides (a key marker for heart disease), contribute to clogged arteries and increased inflammation. Fructose also has a greater propensity than other sugars to increase abdominal fat, which then elevates the risk for diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndrome.
And the fructose, like that in agave, is most often linked to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
So, if you need to lose weight, fructose is a sweetener you will definitely want to avoid, especially in its refined form.
And if that’s not enough, here are a few other good reasons to avoid agave:
• Eating sweeteners in the form of fructose (both agave and HFCS) doubles advanced glycation end products, (AGE's), which are harmful chemical byproducts that age (no pun intended) the human body.
• Yucca species, together with other agaves, are known to contain large quantities of saponins. Saponins are toxic steroid derivatives, and should be avoided during pregnancy because they might contribute to miscarriage.
These toxins have negative effects on non-pregnant people as well. They can destroy red blood cells, and are especially harmful to people taking statins (cholesterol medicine) and high blood pressure drugs.
• Poor quality control and pesticides. There are very few quality controls in place to monitor farming and production of agave syrup. Most agave sold in the U.S. comes from Mexico. There is concern that agave producers are using other more toxic species of agave plants due to a shortage of blue agave and the agave is heavily sprayed with pesticides.
• Some agave syrups contain a contaminant called hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF, also called 5-hydroxymethyl furfural), an organic heat-formed compound that forms during the refining process of both agave syrup and HFCS. HMF has possible toxic and carcinogenic effects on humans. HMF is also extremely toxic to honey bees.
• Agave syrup is not a whole food–it is refined and processed; devoid of the nutrients contained in the original, whole plant.
Bottom line—agave syrup or agave nectar is NOT the healthy alternative to high fructose corn syrup or sugar.
Nor is it a good sweetener for fat burning or weight loss.
If you are looking for a low calorie, healthy and natural sweetener, use Stevia, or use raw honey or maple syrup (although not low calorie) in small amounts.
Till next time, stay healthy 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.
Sources:
Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, Jeannette Bessinger, “Agave Health Claim Doesn't Match Its Hype;
Prickly Health Problems Arise from Agave Nectar Sweeteners” Bottom Line’s Daily Health News, March 8, 2010. Bottomlinesecrets.com
Joseph Mercola, “Agave: A Triumph of Marketing over Truth”, July 2, 2009. Mercola.com Joseph Mercola, “Shocking! This 'Tequila' Sweetener is Far Worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup”, March 30, 2010.
Mercola.com Joseph Mercola, “Is this Popular Natural Sweetener Worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup?” July 3, 2010.
Mercola.com Morell SF and Nagel R. , "Agave nectar: Worse than we thought," April 30, 2009.
Weston A. Price Foundation. Westonaprice.org Carr C. "Agave’s sweet spot," January 31, 2009. Time Magazine.
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 ebook “The 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.
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.
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.
The Most Preventable Epidemic
According to some of the most recent estimates, the number of Americans with diabetes will double in the next 25 years — from the current 23.7 million to 44.1 million in 2034. And of course, annual health costs for treating those patients are expected to soar, nearly tripling from the current $113 billion to some $336 billion.
This latest information on the diabetes trends in the United States is a very sad testament that the food pyramid, the media, conventional medicine and the food industry are very wrong in their standard diabetes recommendations–in terms of lifestyle, diet and medication.
Even sadder is that these current figures are on conservative side as they are based on the obesity levels staying the same and not increasing. So, it is entirely possible and even likely, that the number of the cases of diabetes, and resulting health care costs, could be even higher than predicted.
And the past is a great example. Previous estimates from 1991 projected that around 11.6 million Americans would have diabetes by 2030. The number of Americans with diabetes right now, in 2010, is double that number!
Besides the rapidly growing numbers of diagnosed diabetics, even worse are those with ‘pre-diabetes’, who are only steps away from having the full-blown disease. Nearly one out of four people in the US have a condition called ‘pre-diabetes’. And many do not even know they have this condition.
What is ‘pre-diabetes’?
Before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have ‘pre-diabetes’–in which blood glucose levels stay higher than the normal range, but are not high enough to be diagnosed as full-blown diabetes. There are approximately some 60 million people in the United States who have pre-diabetes. Recent research has shown that similar long-term damage to the heart and circulatory system may already be occurring during the pre-diabetes stage.
Physicians can use three different tests to check for pre-diabetes conditions:
# The A1C test
# The fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
# Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).
The blood glucose levels measured after these tests determine whether you have a normal metabolism, or whether you have pre-diabetes or diabetes.
Because it’s now so common, it’s almost easy to overlook the seriousness of this disease. It increases your risk of early heart disease and fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events up to 15 years earlier than in those without diabetes, as well as significantly shortening your lifespan.
The additional health complications are numerous and include:
· Heart disease and stroke
· High blood pressure
· Blindness
· Kidney disease
· Nervous system disease
· Amputations
· Dental disease
· Pregnancy complications
However, in spite of all these dire statistics, the fact is that diabetes can be preventable. And if you already have it, you can improve or actually cure it. Especially type 2 diabetes. No you won’t hear this from mainstream medical practice, or pharmaceutical companies, because treating diabetics is just too darned profitable. But a real cure can come from YOU — by changing your lifestyle, your diet and increasing exercise.
Drew Carey did it and many others less famous have done it too.
Conventional treatment focuses on treating the symptom of elevated blood sugar, rather than addressing the true causes of the underlying disease. Treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar while raising insulin levels can actually worsen the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication.
Consider this–diabetes may not be caused by elevated blood sugar–but more likely is caused by insulin resistance and faulty leptin signaling, both of which can be managed with diet and exercise.
What is Leptin?
The hormone leptin is largely responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and whether you become insulin resistant or not.
Leptin, is a relatively recently discovered hormone produced by fat cells in the body. It communicates to your and brain how much energy it has, whether it needs more (appetite increases), whether it should get rid of some (decrease in appetite) and most importantly, how to utilize the energy.
When your blood sugar becomes elevated it signals for insulin to be released to store the extra energy. A small amount is stored as glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply–fat. So, insulin’s major role is not to lower sugar, but to take that extra energy and store it as fat for energy.
Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of moving the extra energy to the fat cells. This is why treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar for diabetes while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication.
Lifestyle Changes Can Get Rid of or Drastically Improve Diabetes
The good news is if you can make–and maintain–major changes in your diet and lifestyle, you can reverse diabetes yourself! Diabetes is actually not a difficult disease to prevent or reverse because it’s not really an affliction that takes over randomly. It is the biological and cumulative effect of following unhealthy diet and lifestyle choices and you have control over these factors!
Even the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine concludes that “the majority of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented by the adoption of a healthier diet and lifestyle”.
The results of a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine show that intense lifestyle changes including diet and exercise demonstrated significant decreases in body weight and lowered blood pressure and A1C blood glucose readings. Cardiovascular health also improved as blood pressure was reduced and HDL cholesterol levels increased.
The study continued over the course of four years and found that compared to a control group the lifestyle intervention participants experienced a considerably lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as biomarkers which predict diabetes. The study also found that the prescribed lifestyle intervention group also lost (around 7%) weight as a beneficial side effect. This is significant as research has shown that losing as little as 5% of total weight can reduce the risk of mortality from all causes.
Diet is the single most important factor which leads to metabolic dysfunction, rising blood sugar, insulin control issues, and excessive levels of triglycerides which then become stored as abdominal fat.
Following a natural diet which excludes all sugar, processed carbohydrates, grains and hydrogenated fats in favor of grass fed meats, wild caught fatty fish, free range chicken, and plenty of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables is the best and healthiest way to regain your body’s natural balance, prevent diabetes and related cardiovascular disease.
1. Eliminate Grains and Sugars
For the last 25 years, many people have been following the nutritional recommendations dictated by the food pyramid, uninformed physicians, and the food industry of consuming a high carbohydrate diet and avoiding fats. The end result has been a several hundred percent increase in diabetes–so this route is obviously NOT working.
Eliminate foods that cause an insulin response in your body–this includes all types of sugars and grains–even so-called “healthy” grains such as whole, organic grains promote an insulin response. Avoid all breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn (which is in fact a grain not a vegetable and highly glycemic). You may even need to avoid most fruits until your blood sugar is under control.
Stop eating all refined sugars. This means totally avoiding made with HFCS (especially soda) or other refined sugars, including regular table sugar, syrups, honey, fructose, agave and more. This means reading labels carefully and HFCS has been snuck into many foods you would not suspect–catsup, sauces, soups, mixes, etc.
Do NOT substitute with artificial sweeteners. These sweeteners are very harmful and will cause more health problems in the long run. In addition, they do not help keep blood sugar and insulin levels in check–contrary to what you may have been told. Best to use Stevia–an all natural low calorie sweetener that will not affect blood sugar levels.
2. Eat real, whole foods. Refuse to eat refined or processed anything. That includes packaged foods, processed meat (which strongly promotes diabetes) and commercial dairy products.
3. Get plenty of omega 3 fats in your diet.
There is clear evidence supporting the link between fish oil and diabetes relief. Administration of EPA (a component of omega 2 fats) was shown to decrease the glucose and get clotting factors under control (a major contributor to heart disease), as well as lowering LDL cholesterol.
According to some researchers omega-3 fatty acids may improve the adverse effects of insulin resistance by lowering blood pressure. Omega 3 fats given to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus also resulted in significant beneficial effects on diabetic neuropathy and serum lipids and triglycerides. Research studies suggest that omega-3 is useful in combating circulation problems associated with diabetes by rendering the walls of the veins and arteries smoother and more elastic.
A large study on the omega 3 fats and the diabetes link found that taking one gram of omega 3 a day reduced cardiovascular mortality by 30% and the risk of death by heart attack by 45%.
4. Optimize Your Vitamin D Level
More than 70% of white Americans are vitamin D deficient. That number rises to an even higher percentage among those people with darker skin pigmentation. Vitamin D deficiency promotes diabetes (and cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, immune suppression, and more).
Boost your vitamin D levels with either daily sunshine or quality vitamin D3 supplements. Interestingly, optimizing your vitamin D levels can not only help improve type 2 diabetes if you have it, but can likely eliminate the risk of type 1 diabetes in your children if you are pregnant.
Ideally the best way to receive vitamin D is to get it from the sun, but if you live in colder climates in the winter, it is often hard to do. In that case, you may want to use an oral vitamin D3 supplement. If you choose to take an oral supplement it is suggested that you get your levels tested to make sure you’re not reaching toxic levels, and are within the therapeutic range.
5. Exercise
Exercise is an absolutely essential factor, without which you’re highly unlikely to get this devastating disease under control. It is clearly one of the most potent ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance.
Regular exercise reduces the demand for medication by 20% in diabetics and checking the blood glucose levels before and after exercise can be a motivator to continue the exercise regimen. The benefits of exercise for diabetes are many and include:
· Control of blood glucose levels: Glucose is the source of energy in our body. Physical activity utilizes the glucose and helps to reduce the blood glucose levels. Physical activity also decreases insulin resistance. A few studies have also indicated that activity increases the insulin receptors in the red blood cells. All this together helps to keep the glycosylated hemoglobin (three-month average of blood glucose levels) levels normal.
· Improved cardiovascular function: Individuals with type II diabetes are more prone to cardiovascular diseases (hardening of arteries, heart attack, and stroke). Exercise increases the cardio-respiratory fitness by
Lowering the blood pressure
Lowering the bad cholesterol (triglyceride)
And increasing the good cholesterol (HDL)
· Psychological benefit: Physical activity is associated with an increased sense of well-being, a positive attitude and improved quality of life.
· Weight control: Physical activity helps obese/overweight individuals to lose weight and also helps them to maintain a healthy BMI.
6. Monitor Your Fasting Insulin Level
This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You’ll want your fasting insulin level to be between 2 to 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin receptor sensitivity is.
Serious lifestyle and dietary changes mean making a huge commitment to implementing and maintaining the changes. However, you can and will greatly improve your health, your quality and length of life if you follow these guidelines. Don’t be a diabetes statistic!
Sources:
Time, “Why so Many of Us are Getting Diabetes” November 27, 2009
Elbert S. Huang, MD, MPH1, Anirban Basu, PHD1,Michael O’Grady, PHD2 and James C. Capretta, MA3, “Projecting the Future Diabetes Population Size and Related Costs for the U.S”. Diabetes Care, December 2009, vol. 32 no. 12 2225-2229
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, “How I cured diabetes in five steps, and why one-third of U.S. adults will have diabetes by 2050” Natural News, October 23, 2010
Dr. Joseph Mercola, “Diabetes Epidemic Expected to Double”, December 15, 2009.
Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acids on Lipids
Glycemic Control in Type II Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome and on Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Renal Disease, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, and Osteoporosis, http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/o3lipidsum.html.
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Best Healthy Sweeteners
Our craving for sweets often ruins the most well intentioned lean body plan, and we succumb to
chocolates, handfuls of cookies, a slice of cake, a generous scoop of ice cream, or other such decadent
fare. The key ingredient in all of these items and essentially most of the sweets available on the market
is sugar or worse, high fructose corn syrup.
Too much sugar is often the culprit in sabotaging our diets, but it seems hard to avoid or resist. Sometimes you just crave a little something sweet. Artificial sweeteners are loaded into so many foods and snacks promoted as “diet” foods, but the long-term negative health aspects, as well as the potential weight gain is good reason
for you to avoid any and all artificial sweeteners.
Fortunately there are a variety of natural sweeteners that have been quite common in
supermarkets for a very long time, and are likely sitting on your shelf in your pantry at this
very moment.
Honey makes an excellent alternative to sugar and has some health benefits for you
compared to refined sugar. Although honey is still a form of sugar (and you need to be
aware of its caloric impact), one benefit of honey vs. refined sugar is that several studies
have found that raw honey can actually improve your body’s ability to process glucose. On
the other hand, refined sugar negatively affects your body’s ability to process glucose over
time.
Different types of honey contain different nutrients and health benefits, depending on types
of pollen and flowers the honey comes from. All honey possesses antibacterial agents and
act as an antioxidant. Honey contains vitamins B2 and B6, and is a good source of iron.
Consuming just a spoonful of honey each day can raise the antioxidant levels in our bodies,
and it is also the healthiest natural sweetener available for those with Type 2 Diabetes. Raw
honey can often be found at Whole Foods, local farm stands, and even some grocery stores,
and is by far the best you can get—and chock full of enzymes, as well as the above listed
nutrients.
Honey is a great replacement for sugar in many recipes, and because it is quite a bit sweeter,
you can use a smaller amount. The rule of thumb is about a 1/2-cup of honey per cup of
sugar. Also when cooking, you should also reduce liquids in the recipe by a 1/4 cup to
ensure proper consistency. Honey also serves to brown foods more easily as they cook, so
cooking temperatures should be lowered by 25°F.
Maple syrup is another product many of us have in the home and another natural sweetener
that can often be used in place of sugar. We are talking about real, pure, natural maple
syrup—not Aunt Jemima (which is just flavored corn syrup)! Real maple syrup is a good source of minerals and trace nutrients. As with honey, maple syrup is also a useful antioxidant, and possesses a good amount of zinc,
which can help prevent atherosclerosis and lower cholesterol, as well
as strengthen the immune system.
Maple syrup can be purchased in three specific colors or grades, each
denoting a particular flavor. The lighter syrups (grade A) will possess a more subtle flavor, while the darkest coloring (grade B or C) yields the strongest, sweetest flavor. The darker maple syrups typically contain higher
antioxidant and nutrient levels than Grade A maple syrup.
As with honey, you need to be aware of the high caloric level of maple syrup as it is still a
concentrated source of sugar, but it is definitely a better choice than refined sugar. My
personal preference is to use just a tiny pour of real maple syrup in my coffee instead of
white sugar. For teas, I prefer to use a small dab of raw honey instead of refined sugar.
Maple syrup is also great on oatmeal too.
Even though honey and maple syrup are slightly healthier options compared to refined white
sugar, your best bet is to still reduce your dependence on added sweeteners to food and
drinks by learning to adjust your taste buds to prefer less sweetness. As a matter of fact,
I’ve trained my taste buds over the years to prefer the taste of unsweetened iced tea these
days compared to years ago when I absolutely needed some added sweetener. Same with
coffee – although I still occasionally use a small dab of real maple syrup in my coffee, I’ve
adapted my taste buds to be able to enjoy a plain black coffee as well.
Blackstrap molasses is another option for a natural sweetener that can be used in baking. It
is a particular type of molasses that is rich in several essential vitamins and minerals,
including a good concentration of manganese, iron, calcium, potassium, and more. It is also
substantially lower in calories than other natural sweeteners.
Because molasses has a such a distinctive flavor, it may not be used as often as other natural
sweeteners as a replacement for sugar, but it can impart some foods with unique flavors,
such as baked beans and gingerbread.
A natural sweetener option that is calorie-free
Newer low or no-calorie sweeteners are just coming out. The healthiest of these is
stevia. Stevia comes from the leaves of a shrub native to Paraguay and Brazil, stevia has
been used as a sweetener for many years in South America. Stevia is about three hundred
times sweeter than sugar, and has all the benefits of a sweetener without being bad for you
or fattening. It’s truly natural, not some chemical compound from a laboratory, free of
calories, doesn’t promote tooth decay, and won’t elevate blood sugar levels, or cause weight
gain.
To sugar-crazy, and diet conscious Americans, stevia should be incredibly popular and well
known, but up until recently, it was not allowed in food or easily found. The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) banned stevia in 1991. Why? Like many proponents of stevia, the
sugar industry has a hand in the FDA’s strict stance. The FDA ban allowed it to be sold as a
dietary ‘supplement’, and it can be found in most health food stores in the supplement aisle,
right next to the vitamins. Most of the time, it is pretty difficult to find and never in the
sugar or sweetener aisle…until now.
In the many years that stevia has been used in South America, and Japan, no ill health
effects have ever been attributed to its use.
Just this year, US-based beverage giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola reported they were looking
to switch from (or at least offer customers the choice) Splenda for a sweetener they have
more invested in: Rebaudiosides A (Reb-A), developed from stevia.
The actual name of the plant is stevia. The stevia plant also contains the sweeteners Reb-A,
B, C, D and E; dulcoside A; and steviolbioside. “We’re testing stevia and Reb-A in a variety
of products, but it absolutely comes down to taste,” said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing officer
for Coca-Cola.
Like all the previous low-calorie sweeteners out there, there have been some conflicting
stories on the health benefits and safety of stevia but it has been approved by the FDA as a
general-purpose sweetener since December 2008.
In 2005, Coca-Cola and the food giant Cargill began to work on their own form of the
sweetener. The companies are now marketing their stevia sweetener as Truvia. You may see
food items now sweetened with Truvia. Coca-Cola is initially using Truvia in two of its
Odwalla juice drinks and in the new Sprite Green.
PepsiCo’s stevia sweetener is being marketed as PureVia, and like Truvia, the marketing is
pushing the fact that it is natural. “This is a potential game-changer among zero-calorie sweeteners,” said Lou Imbrogno, PepsiCo’s senior vice president of Pepsi Worldwide Technical Operations, at a press
conference in July 2008. PepsiCo’s partner is using stevia in its Sobe Lifewater drinks and in
a new line of Tropicana orange juice, Trop50.
Stevia is the standout sweetener in the marketplace, because it is what the public is looking
for in a low-calorie sweetener to replace the questionable and not-so-natural Splenda and
NutraSweet chemical artificial sweeteners.
Stevia’s sweetness comes from its leaves. The stevia leaves are milled, and a freshwater
brewing method is used to extract the sweetness. This extract is then purified further until a
very high purity Reb-A is obtained.
Splenda’s creater, McNeil Nutritionals is getting in on the stevia craze as well. In March,
Sun Crystals All-Natural Sweetener was launched, which combines stevia with pure cane
sugar. This will be marketed as being as natural as sugar with half the calories.
NutraSweet has reported that they were not worried about stevia.
But coincidentally, the company is working on its own NutraSweet Natural made with
stevia! At least now they can compete head-to-head with stevia in the market.
While the previous chemically-processed artificial sweeteners have been connected to lung
tumors, breast tumors, and other rare types of tumors; several forms of leukemia, and
chronic respiratory disease in several rodent studies, as well as rashes, headaches, and other
serious and nasty side effects, stevia, Reb-A and its derivatives seem to be the safest of all
low-calorie sweeteners for the moment.
You can find stevia blends for your own use at this site: Naturally Stevia
Try Stevia in your favorite beverages like coffee, tea, lemonade, and more. Depending on
the brand and type of Stevia you use, the taste may vary. Some of the health food store
varieties had a “green” aftertaste, but really not bad—just something to get used to. Now
that Stevia is becoming more mainstream, the taste has improved. And some Stevia comes
in liquid form with great flavors like vanilla, toffee, lemon, etc. Give it a try!