-- Simple Smart Nutrition

Calcium Supplements and Heart Attacks

Millions take calcium to prevent osteoporosis, but calcium increases your risk of heart attacks…

Millions of people, especially women and elderly people are taking calcium on the misguided advice that calcium supplementation will prevent osteoporosis. Unfortunately without the balance of other bone-promoting minerals, calcium can lead to atherosclerosis (‘hardening’ of the arteries), and heart attacks.

In a study from the National Institutes of Health, published May 2012, it was shown that calcium supplements can actually INCREASE the risk of heart disease. This study showed that men who take calcium supplements are more likely to die of heart disease than those who do not take supplements.

Males who took at least 1000mg of calcium a day, had a 20% higher chance of dying from heart related causes compared to those who did not.

Says the lead Physician in the study, Qian Xiao, “It’s possible that calcium build-up in the blood vessels may affect cardiovascular risks in some people.”

Many of the issues surrounding calcium supplementation have to do with magnesium deficiency.

The fact is, calcium must be taken with magnesium, another vital mineral that is key to preserving bone health and also vital for heart and blood vessel health. If calcium and magnesium are not in the correct balance and ratios in the body, the calcium cannot be utilized properly in the body, and excess calcium can end up in kidneys and blood vessels instead of the bones and teeth.

MAGNESIUM deficiency can induce elevation of intracellular calcium concentrations and actually accelerate atherosclerosis. Calcium is a primary component of atherosclerotic plaque.

Magnesium, on the other hand, is a natural calcium channel blocker and should always be taken addition to supplementing with calcium or when increasing dietary calcium.

Some nutrition experts estimate that about 80% of the population is deficient in magnesium, and since magnesium and calcium must remain in the correct ratios, that means every person with a magnesium deficiency has an overabundance of calcium.

Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, who is a specialist on magnesium and its role in our health, says this about calcium and magnesium:

“Magnesium is the key to the body’s proper assimilation and use of calcium as well as Vitamin D. If we consume too much calcium with sufficient magnesium, the excess calcium is not utilized correctly and may actually become toxic, causing calcification in the arteries, leading to heart attacks, and cardiovascular disease.”

Says Dr. Dean, “There is an increasing amount of research-based verification suggesting that a high calcium combined with low magnesium intake [will] result in atherosclerosis which is the leading cause of death in the US”.

Magnesium, along with another essential vitamin, vitamin K2, remain two of the most important but overlooked ingredients for bone AND heart health.

While we have all had it drilled into our heads that insufficient calcium can lead to osteoporosis, did you know that calcium MUST be taken with both magnesium and vitamin K2 for proper absorption and utilization in the body?

Vitamin K2 is a little known, but very essential vitamin, not related to the better known vitamin K1 which comes from dark green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin K2 is somewhat difficult to obtain in the diet, as this vitamin comes primarily from the milk and butter of grass fed cows. The typical dairy products that we get in our grocery stores come from commercially raised, grain-fed cows, and do not contain vitamin K2, so consequently the majority of people get little or none of this essential vitamin.

Without vitamin K2’s ability to help escort calcium to the important areas of the body where it is needed and put to use like the bones and teeth, calcium ends up floating around in the bloodstream, with the excess being deposited in places where it is not needed and not utilized.

As a result, virtually all aging adults may suffer from excess calcium deposits in the brain, glands, heart and blood vessels. Individuals who are able to get enough vitamin K2 in their diets, actually have a 57% reduction in risk of dying of heart disease, and women who take K2 have an 81% reduction in bone fractures.

Bones contain a protein called osteocalcin that functions like studs in a house. When activated by vitamin K2, osteocalcin grabs on to the calcium and holds it in place in the bones and teeth where it is needed.

The ability of vitamin K2 to activate calcium regulating proteins and thus maintain bone density and inhibit calcification is undisputed, yet the majority of adults do not supplement with vitamin K2.

The benefits of calcium supplements in protecting against osteoporosis have been widespread for over 30 years and the result is that the aging population and women have been gobbling large quantities of calcium but neglecting to include magnesium and K2. The result has been an overabundance of calcium in our bodies and runaway osteoporosis.

So for healthy bones, and a healthy cardiovascular system, take calcium in a 1:1 ratio with magnesium, and add vitamin K2. You’ll strengthen your bones, avoid osteoporosis, and greatly reduce your chances of heart disease!

Sources

William Falloon, Life Extension Magazine, Collectors Edition, Potential danger of calcium supplements. 2013

Sarah Glynn, “Calcium Supplements Lead to Heart Disease”, Medical News Today, Feb 22, 2013

3 ‘Healthy’ Foods to Stop Eating

Historically, humans consumed over 80,000 species of edible plants, animals, and fungi, but in our modern dietary world, the average American gets almost 70% of their caloric intake from THREE foods!

And those foods have been pushed as ‘healthy’ but they are actually leading us to multiple chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes–as well as obesity.

What are these so-called ‘healthy foods’ we need to stop eating?

3 ‘healthy foods to stop eating

You’ll see in that article what these 3 foods are, and why it is NOT a good idea to obtain 67% of your caloric intake from only 3 foods.

This article also has 7 great tips on how to how to eat to get lean for life from fitness and nutrition specialist, Mike Geary.

3 Healthy Foods to Stop Eating

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.

Diabetes–A Deadly Epidemic You Can Avoid

On a recent trip to the grocery store, I noticed several magazines devoted entirely to diabetes. An entire magazine devoted to a disease?

Why?

The number of Americans with diabetes is expected to DOUBLE in the next 25 years — from the current 25.8 million to 48.3 million in 2050. That is 1 in 3 adults in the US with diabetes, it is predicted.

Of course, annual health costs for treating those patients are expected to soar, doubling from the current $174 billion to some $350 billion and crippling the health care system.

This latest information on the diabetes trends in the United States are pretty convincing proof that the food pyramid, conventional medicine, and the food industry are very wrong in their diabetes diet and lifestyle recommendations.

Those numbers should be DECREASING not increasing.

Obesity is the number one most preventable risk factor to avoid diabetes.

Besides the rapidly growing numbers of diabetics are those with ‘pre-diabetes’, who are well on their way to having full-blown diabetes.

Nearly one out of four people in the US have a condition called ‘pre-diabetes’.
What is ‘pre-diabetes’?

Pre-diabetes is a condition of elevated blood levels higher than normal, but not quite high enough to be diagnosed as full-blown diabetes. Similar long-term damage to the heart and circulatory system is already happening 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).

Both diabetes and pre-diabetes are becoming so common, it’s almost easy to overlook how serious this disease is. It increases your risk of early heart disease and fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events, as well as significantly shortening your lifespan.

The additional health complications include:

·       Heart disease and stroke
·       High blood pressure
·       Blindness
·       Kidney disease
·       Nervous system disease
·       Amputations
·       Dental disease
·       Pregnancy complications

The fact is that diabetes can be preventable and curable.

No you won’t hear this from mainstream medical practice, or pharmaceutical companies, because treating diabetics is incredibly profitable. But a real cure can come from YOU — by changing your lifestyle, your diet and increasing exercise.

Drew Carey did it and countless others 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.

Lifestyle Changes Can Get Rid of or Drastically Improve Diabetes

Diabetes is actually not a difficult disease to prevent or reverse because it’s not really an affliction that takes over randomly.

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.

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. This alone will reduce sugars and lower blood sugar, in addition to giving your body more valuable, disease fighting nutrients.

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 3 fats) decreases blood sugar and clotting factors, as well as lowering LDL cholesterol.

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.

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 include:

• Control of blood sugar: Glucose is the source of energy in our body. Physical activity uses glucose and helps to reduce the blood sugar levels. Physical activity also decreases insulin resistance. A few studies have also indicated that activity increases the insulin receptors in the red blood cells.

• Improved cardiovascular function

• 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.

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!

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:

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.

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.

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!!

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

Nutrition made Easy. Simple.Smart.Nutrition.

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:

Eat REAL food. No packaged or processed foods. Make your meals from combinations of one-ingredient foods and spices.
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.
No grain. Not ‘whole grains’, and especially not refined, processed, white flour. No refined starches.
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.
High quality protein is important. Grass fed, pasture raised, or wild caught–meat, fish and poultry, and eggs. No grain fed, commercially raised meat.
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.
Eat organic. Eat them as close to where they grew as possible and in the most natural state.
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.

What They Didn’t Tell You About Cholesterol

I talk to so many well-informed, health-conscious people who are concerned about eating a healthy diet, but the one thing that comes up over and over again is this 'cholesterol-phobia' towards cholesterol and saturated fats.

And if you pay attention to mainstream media, you are probably convinced that high cholesterol and saturated fat intake will lead directly to heart disease.

Well guess what ? That's not necessarily true.

There have been several research studies showing that cholesterol IS NOT the villain in heart disease, but the media and mainstream medicine have yet to adopt this fact.

And so, it is little known–but very valuable–information. Why the big Secret??

While statin drugs (cholesterol lowering medications) are one of the top selling medications in the US, and as the drug companies continually seek to lower the cholesterol level guidelines for administration of these drugs, there is no absolutely no motivation to stop this moneymaking practice.

The drug companies want you to be convinced that you MUST lower your cholesterol in order to live a long and healthy life and avoid heart disease.

Physicians have been taught for the past four decades that cholesterol is dangerous and that it must be lowered at all costs. The "cholesterol is harmful" hypothesis, although never proven, has come to be accepted as an unquestionable fact by physicians and patients alike.

Sad to say, any information that points towards cholesterol being beneficial, tends to fall upon deaf ears.

Well here is a startling fact– Did you know that approximately 75% of the people who suffer heart attacks have cholesterol levels within the 'normal' range?

Just how did this whole "cholesterol will kill you" hypothesis come about?

Back in 1799, an English physician found a waxy substance in the coronary arteries while doing an autopsy. Another English physician, Joseph Hodgson, looking at the same waxy stuff, came up with a theory for it. Hodgson suggested that inflammation was actually the reason the waxy substance was in the arteries. Hodgson's theory, though, ended up mostly ignored.

When another physician, Dr. Ansel Keys observed that death rate from heart attacks were much lower in areas where the food supply was low during World War II, it was assumed it was because people were eating less fat. But the researchers overlooked the fact that these people were also eating less sugar and starchy foods. And so, the connection was established with dietary fats and heart disease.

Dr. Keys proposed a diet high in vegetable oils and low in animal fat, and dieticians, physicians, and medical researchers all jumped on the "cholesterol is harmful" bandwagon too.

But, despite its popularity, the "cholesterol is harmful" theory remains unproven. Conclusive proof that cholesterol itself is harmful does not exist.

In fact, just the opposite is true. People with high cholesterol have been scientifically shown to actually live the longest. Really??

Consider the findings of Dr. Harlan Krumholz of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, who reported in 1994 that elderly people with low cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack as did elderly people with high cholesterol.

In fact, most studies of elderly people have shown that high cholesterol is not a risk factor for coronary heart disease.

In fact, studies have repeatedly found that senior citizens with high cholesterol levels tend to live longer than their peers with low cholesterol values. As a group, elderly people with higher levels of cholesterol outlive those with low levels of cholesterol.

Researchers at Texas A&M University also discovered that low cholesterol levels affect muscles, including the heart muscle, and reduce gains in strength while exercising. These findings were recently published in the Journal of Gerontology.

At the conclusion of the study, the researchers found that there was a direct association between dietary cholesterol intake and strength.

Cholesterol actually plays an important role in muscle repair and rebuilding. So considering that the heart, too is an important muscle, why would we want to make our muscles weaker?

There are over twenty studies that show cholesterol is actually beneficial to the health.

In fact, the studies concluded two main facts:

-There is little benefit in lowering cholesterol levels below 260 mg/dL in elderly people.

-Efforts to lower cholesterol increase the risk of developing cancer and shorten life span.

Ok, so what causes heart attacks then?

In 1976, one of the most promising theories about the cause of atherosclerosis and heart disesase, was proposed by Russell Ross, a professor of pathology, and John Glomset, a professor of biochemistry and medicine at the Medical School, University of Washington in Seattle.

These scientists suggested that atherosclerosis is the consequence of an inflammatory process which results from a localized injury to the lining inside the arteries. This injury results in inflammation and the plaques that accumulate from cholesterol in the blood vessels are simply healing lesions. Injury from inflammation may result from high blood sugar levels and other inflammatory substances in the blood like an excess of omega 6 fats, and trans fats.

Think of it this way: if you fell, injured yourself and skinned your knee, then a scab resulted from the body's attempt to heal the injury, would you blame the scab for being the problem?

No–the skinned knee is the result of an injury, right? The scab is not at fault, it is simply the body trying to heal the injury, which ulitimately resulted from a fall.

Same thing with the cholesterol theory. We are blaming the wrong thing.

Cholesterol is a repair substance. Higher levels of cholesterol do not clog arteries. Injury and inflammation cause the arteries to clog up.

So regardless of your overall cholesterol numbers, it is the ratio of HDL and overall cholesterol that matters.

HDL is the component in cholesterol that actually cleans up the plaque in arteries, so obviously striving to keep that number high is key.

How to raise HDL?

Following the diet in The Fat Burning Kitchen Program will get your cholesterol ratios in the healthy range very quickly.

Increase your intake of omega 3 rich foods such as grass fed meats, wild caught fatty fish, organic free range chickens and eggs, grass fed dairy, nuts and olive oil. Reduce your intake of all grains and starchy foods.

Reducing starchy grains in the diet lowers the triglyceride levels–one of the key factors in heart disease. Avoid all sugars (don't forget high fructose corn syrup is in almost everything) and keep blood sugar at a stable level. High blood sugar levels increase inflammation in the blood vessels.

Constant high blood sugar levels not only increase the risk for diabetes, and in turn heart disease, but also lead to metabolic syndrome with weight gain, insulin resistance and damage to the blood vessels.

Avoid omega 6 fats found in vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil and more, increase inflammation in the body. Most any processed food contains one of these types of oils–or even worse trans fats! (Trans fats are any type of 'hydrogenated' oil which are extremely damaging to our bodies.)

Increase your intake of B vitamins. B vitamins are known to lower levels of homocysteine, a key inflammatory component in heart disease.

And of course, STOP smoking, smoking raises LDL cholesterol levels, raises inflammation in the blood vessels and increases chances of having arterial plaque buildup in the arteries.

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.

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.

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).

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.

· 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.

Sources:

Time, “Why so Many of Us are Getting Diabetes” November 27, 2009

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.

The Super Powerful Spice, Turmeric

Do you like Curry?

The rich yellow color of curry comes from a super-spice called Turmeric. Turmeric has been around forever and used in India and other countries for thousands of years as a yellow dye, for delicious spicy curry dishes, and traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine.

But did you you know that turmeric has some of the world’s most powerful fat-burning and healing qualities of any food or spice?

It is not only a potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial substance but it also has other very powerful properties as well.

What is turmeric? Well, turmeric grows on a type of shrub in India and other parts of Asia. The roots are used for the turmeric and ground up to make the bright yellow powder.

The active ingredient in turmeric is something called curcumin and bright yellow part of the turmeric. This spice has medicinal properties as well as adding its pungent color and taste to many delicious dishes.

Traditional Indian medicine has used this spice as an internal cleanser, as an digestive aid, and in treatments for fevers, infections, liver and gall bladder problems as well as arthritis.

It also has fat burning properties, and has been scientifically proven to be effective for heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. In fact, Indians and Asians who eat lots of this spice in their diet are known to have some of the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s and dementia in the world.

The large amounts of powerful antioxidants fight free radicals which contribute to premature aging, disease and cancer.

Turmeric helps to stimulate the flow of bile in the gall bladder and helps to emulsify fats and so is very effective as both a digestive aid and fat-burning compound.

Studies also show it works very well to reduce the inflammation from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis, and Crohn’s disease as well.

Turmeric also contains strong anti-platelet substances which help prevent the blood from clotting too easily, and so is very helpful to prevent against heart attacks and strokes.

In addition, homocysteine, a chemical component which signals inflammation in the body, and is one of the primary predictors of heart attacks, is significantly lowered in the presence of curcumin. The curcumin in turmeric also lowers and reduces the oxidation of plaque on the artery walls, making it a double edged sword against heart disease and ischemic strokes.

Turmeric is also often used as a treatment for all types of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and for joint pain, due to anti-inflammatory properties.

Turmeric also prevents and fights cancer as well. This super spice can actually prevent cancer tumors from growing, and in those who already have cancer, turmeric will slow down the growth and spread of cancer.

In a research study done with mice injected with cancer cells, the curcumin in turmeric was proven to be more than twice as effective as the cancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol). And with far less negative side effects!

When combined with the antioxidant quercetin (found in red onions, apples and cherries) the curcumin in turmeric is also highly effective against pre-cancerous polyps in the colon. These polyps were actually reduced by 50-60%.

One of the most exciting new studies has shown turmeric’s value against Alzheimer’s. Studies of the Indian population who have a high intake of turmeric in their curry dishes show a very low incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia in the elderly.

This is thought to be due to the fact that Alzheimer’s victims have a buildup of a certain type of plaque in the brain and turmeric is highly effective at breaking down this plaque and protecting brain health.

How to eat more Turmeric:

Yes, turmeric does exist in the prepared ‘curry’ spice, but the best way to get the highest concentrations of curcumin is to use the spice turmeric instead of curry. Curry is a combination of several spices in varying amounts, and it is hard to tell how much turmeric is in the curry powder you buy.

Turmeric is very deep yellow and can stain skin and clothing so be careful when using it. Although this spice tastes great in curries, it is much more versatile than that. Turmeric is often the yellow color in regular mustard, so if you are not a fan of curry, you can get this awesome spice by eating lots of mustard too.

It is delicious on sautéed apples, or steamed or baked cauliflower, green beans and onions, or any of your favorite veggies.

For a great, low-calorie dip, try mixing turmeric and dried onion with a little omega 3-rich mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Try it with raw veggies like cauliflower or broccoli, celery, sweet pepper, jicama or radishes.

Turmeric is also a great spice to add to dishes that feature lentils. Give salad dressings an appetizing orange-yellow hue and a little extra flavor by throwing some turmeric powder to them.

Once you start using turmeric on a regular basis, it’s fun to find new ways to use it in recipes. My favorite way to use it is to add a pinch of it to egg salad or adding to scrambled eggs or veggie omelets.

It adds a great flavor, and gives the eggs a yummy rich yellow hue.

Turmeric can also be purchased in capsules from a health food store, or you can make your own if you want to buy gelatin capsules and fill your own. The freshest, most powerful turmeric is available in bulk in natural food stores and is usuually less expensive and most potent.

If you are pregnant or nursing, check with your physician before using it; it can be a uterine stimulant. And if you have a tendency to get gallstones or bile obstructions; or have congestive heart failure, best to avoid. Because turmeric is so powerful, check with your doctor if you are taking any prescription drugs as it may interfere with the medication or the treatment.