Coach Judd's Wellness Blog

Why the Mediterranean Lifestyle is Overrated

2012-07-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a month-long trip to Italy. I’m here to report back that the Mediterranean lifestyle is nowhere as healthy as people say it is.

Many Europeans still chain-smoke cigarettes, sometimes desperate enough to light up in train cars, even though it’s forbidden. Breakfast might as well be an IV-injection of sugar: a piece of cake or croissant or white bread with jam, a coffee or two—the norm is cappuccino or espresso--with a pack or two of white sugar, and of course, a cigarette or two.

When I coach people on what to eat for breakfast, I advise eating 10 grams of protein by 10 a.m. to get the metabolism fired up. I also suggest eating some natural fat, such as avocado in an omelet, to feel full longer and have steady-burning energy for at least three to four hours.

Italian breakfasts certainly don’t provide steady energy for a substantial time; breakfast is a heart defibrillator, meant to shock you back to life after begrudgingly getting out of bed and struggling to face the day’s bleak prospects like either having to go to a job you don’t want to go to, or, because of the dire state of the Italian economy, having no job. (Yet somehow, Italians, even those with weak or no job prospects are still are willing to spend a euro a pop on 27 espressos a day!)

After eating a typical continental breakfast, two hours later, I would feel hungry and mentally fuzzy, or fuzzier, than I normally do anyway.

Italians need to sip at least a few espressos (they are tiny portions) to keep their systems running until lunch. Here in the U.S., those in natural wellness are taught, and teach, that a high amount of caffeine consumption drains the adrenal glands and could thus lead to multi-systemic problems (not burning body fat as efficiently, for example).

Do the Italians, by and large, suffer from adrenal exhaustion? The way they vociferously and dramatically communicate with each other, you’d think they have plenty of adrenaline surging through their system. Could it be a case of being exhausted on the inside while appearing energetic?

Whether or not Italians drain their ever-so-important adrenal glands, I can’t say for sure. But I’m banking that several espressos a day isn’t the healthiest thing.

Now it’s time for the carb heavy lunch. Yes, most Italians do eat pasta every day, often twice a day. In the U.S. we’ve been told by every diet guru and health coach (me included) to stay away from starchy carbs as much as possible to keep the belly flat.

Many Italian shopkeepers (how nice it was to not see any chain stores for a month) close down from 1 until 4 in the afternoon. No wonder they need to take such a long reposo with all those carbs and oils digesting.

Dinner is roughly the same as lunch, yet drawn out for an even longer period of time than lunch. This allows for the healthy European lifestyle of smoking more cigarettes and drinking more wine.

Of course the Italian experience is healthy in many ways: dining with close friends and family most likely lowers blood pressure and wards off depression. Taking time to appreciate the important things in life (again, food, family and friends), economic downturn be damned.

The quality of the food, overall is much better in Italy (though I did manage to pick a restaurant that had the worst spaghetti in all of Italy, it was way overcooked and stuck together). Tomatoes aren’t grown by agricultural monolithic corporations. Here in the U.S., we are victim to having to purchase tomatoes that are genetically-engineered to look pretty but completely devoid in taste.

Even though I ate pasta and pizza and gelato every day (When in Rome), I didn’t gain weight. I walked several miles nearly every day. Besides the obvious factor of burning calories for my lack of weight gain, there’s something about Italian food that didn’t trigger allergic symptoms I often get when eating pizza and pasta back in the U.S.

Maybe it’s the quality of the wheat or difference in the gluten or flour. Not once did I get congested or watery, itchy eyes after eating in Italy. Perhaps the amazing quality of the olive oils and Balsamic vinegar helps to burn up the pasta and coat and expedite the digestive system.

I didn’t have amazing food every day in Italy; many meals consisted of bowling-alley quality pizza. Yet I never felt any food allergy symptoms. Even average Italian food lacks the contaminants, pesticides, GMO’s (genetically modified foods) and additives that U.S. food is riddled with. (The exception in Italy: supermarket salami and cured meats often contain nitrates and/or nitrites; buying from a local specialty meat shop is better.)

I don’t think Italians are vastly healthier than Americans. It’s just that far too many Americans are so ill and dis-eased from eating junk food and not walking more than 10 steps to the bathroom all day. All Italians seem as healthy as Dr. Oz by comparison.

It was rare to see a significantly overweight Italian. Hopefully one day, it will also be rare to find an Italian smoker.

Are Saturated Fats Bad For You?

2012-05-18T14:06:00.005-07:00

Are saturated fats bad for you? Many doctors, nutritionists, weight-loss coaches, pharmaceutical companies, TV commercials and government sources advocate that saturated fats lead to chronic disease and early death.

But whale-blubber-loving Eskimos eat a diet comprised of 75 percent saturated fat. The Maasai in Kenya eat beef, drink cattle blood and lots of milk; two-thirds of this tribe’s traditional diet comes from saturated fat.

Neither the Inuit Eskimos nor the Maasai have developed heart disease or any other chronic health problems (as long as they don’t start eating Western-style junk food).

Yet, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines recommend that the average U.S. adult consume no more than 10 percent of total calories in the form of saturated fat.

That amounts to, on average, 20 grams per day.

The American Heart Association recommends even less saturated fat: a total of seven percent of total calories. (Don’t think the AHA is serious about cutting out saturated fat? Check out their animated feature on their website.)

Why do some experts say “saturated fat is bad” if other societies thrive on it?

In the late 1950’s, the University of Minnesota’s Ancel Keys and other researchers conducted the so-called ‘Seven Countries’ study, which concluded that high levels of saturated fatty acids predicted higher rates of coronary heart disease.

It would seem that a half-century later, Keys’ study has left an indelible impression on modern medicine.

Critics of the study, including Dr. Neil W. Hirschenbein, of the La Jolla Institute of Comprehensive Medicine, allege that Keys’ study ignored data from 20 other countries that showed no correlation between saturated fat intake and heart disease.

“There is politics in everything, including medicine. When you’ve been teaching something for over 50 years, it’s hard to go back and say you’ve made a mistake,” Dr. Hirschenbein tells Mother Nature Network.

Hirschenbein adds, “A lot of the studies that comes out linking saturated fat to heart disease doesn’t control for the quality of saturated fat or important lifestyle factors. There is no distinction in the studies, for example, between very healthy, 100-percent grass-fed beef versus meat that is raised in ways we shouldn’t be eating that make the cows as fat as possible as quickly as possible, force-feeding them grains, and pumping the U.S. population with way too many inflammatory-inducing Omega-6 fatty acids (which is an unsaturated fat).”

Are there any medical studies that prove saturated fat doesn’t lead to heart disease?

An editorial, titled, “Saturated fat prevents coronary artery disease? An American paradox,” published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concludes: “…a high-fat, high–saturated fat diet is associated with diminished coronary artery disease progression in women with the metabolic syndrome.”

One study of 347,747 subjects, also published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded, “Intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of CHD (coronary heart disease), stroke, or cardiovascular disease (CVD).”

“The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent,” says Hirschenbein.

What about LDLs, the so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol. Doesn’t saturated fat raise LDL levels?

If so, Demetra Vagias, M.D., and a practicing Naturopathic Doctor, believes this is a good thing.

“HDL brings cholesterol back to the liver for recycling; LDL brings cholesterol back to the circulation for repairing tissues, so if LDL is up temporary in one of my patients, I tell them that they are in a healing mode,” says Vagias, who counsels her patients to eat a diet rich in saturated fat, especially raw dairy sources.

What are the benefits of saturated fats?

Among other benefits, saturated fats play a vital role in:

· forming cell membrane walls

· initiating the building blocks of hormones

· carrying fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K)

· converting carotene to Vitamin A

· absorbing trace minerals

Should I go on an all bacon cheeseburger diet if saturated fats are not bad?
Not quite. But meat, dairy product and fat-lovers in general can take solace in a study of approximately 100,000 female nurses that observed no association between meat, dairy products, cholesterol, or fat intakes and the risk of pancreatic cancer; though the study does note that cooking methods and processed meats may be a contributor to pancreatic cancer.

Even Harvard’s School of Public Health now acknowledges that saturated fat isn’t the evil nutrient other sources claim it is. But the school does recommend “…cut[ting] back on red meat and dairy products, [and] replac[ing] them with foods that contain healthy fats—fatty fish like salmon, nuts and seeds, plant oils, avocadoes—not with foods that are high in refined carbohydrates.”

Strawberry Nutrition Facts

2012-05-18T14:04:00.001-07:00

Like strawberries? If you’re like the average consumer of this fruit — which is actually a member of the rose family — you consume about 5 pounds of strawberries each year.

How are strawberries, which are second only to apples in fresh-fruit popularity, doing your body good? Let’s review some strawberry nutrition facts.

Most strawberry lovers know that a serving contains a lot of vitamin C. In fact, one cup of strawberries (about eight medium-sized berries) yields 150 percent daily value (DV) of vitamin C. Talk about nutrient density! That’s a lot of vitamin C for only 50 calories.

Strawberries are also relatively high in fiber. One cup provides 3 grams, or 12 percent DV.

Some stick-figure-worshipping, conscientious dieters might pass up a handful of strawberries because a single serving contains 12 grams of sugar. But when you factor in the fiber, strawberries have a low glycemic load; they will likely not make your blood sugar levels spike and then subsequently crash.

Just take it easy on the whipped cream if you’re empty calorie-conscious. (Plain strawberries are virtually fat-free.)

Strawberries: Good for your bones and hormones

If you’re concerned about bone health, strawberries are an excellent source of the trace mineral manganese, which is essential for maintaining healthy bone structure, absorbing calcium, creating enzymes that build bone and a host of other benefits, including proper functioning of your sex hormones.

David Handley, small fruit specialist at the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension, says potassium and folate are also highly beneficial nutrients derived from strawberry consumption.

“Seniors and the elderly population sometimes have trouble getting enough potassium and folate, which [also] helps form bone mass,” Handley tells Mother Nature Network.

One cup of strawberries has 240 milligrams of potassium (7 percent DV) and 10 percent DV of folate.

Totally radical(-fighting) anthocyanins: The unsung heroes in strawberries

While Handley praises berries’ high vitamin C content, he says it’s the free-radical fighting compounds called anthocyanins that are the true all-star health components of strawberries.

“Anthocyanin pigments are anti-carcinogenic and berries that have a deep red color like strawberries or deep blue, such as blueberries, tend to be high in these anthocyanin compounds,” says Handley, who adds that strawberries are also rich in another natural antioxidant compound called ellagic acid.

A study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry confirms the health benefits of anthocyanin-rich fruits.

Can strawberries prevent cancer?
There is evidence that they just might. Two years ago, data revealed by researchers at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center concluded that seven common berries, including strawberries, prevented certain cancers from developing in in rodents.

The findings of the Ohio State study suggest that it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money on exotic berries (acai, blackberries, wolfberries, goji, etc.) to derive the same cancer-fighting benefits.

“With respect to cancer prevention, it’s not clear that the ‘exotic’ berry types are any more effective than the less expensive blueberries, strawberries and red raspberries,” researcher Dr. Gary Stoner said in the study’s press release.

Can strawberries prevent memory loss?

Yes, according to researchers at Harvard’s Brigham and Woman’s Hospital. In a studypublished in the Annals of Neurology, berries — including strawberries — can delay cognitive impairments by up to 2.5 years.

One might say, “Why should I bother eating berries if I’m going to have memory loss anyway? Two and a half years … is it worth it?”

Considering that antioxidant-rich berries have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, it’s a good idea to include free-radical fighting berries in your diet.

Does the nutritional content vary between organic and conventionally grown strawberries?

According to the University of Maine’s Handley, there may be some subtle differences.

“I’ve read studies that bounce both ways; they are mostly minor differences. One study claims conventional-grown strawberries contain more potassium, while another study might say that organic strawberries are higher in zinc,” says Handley, who also said it’s difficult to control studies analyzing the difference between organic and conventionally grown strawberries.

“Not all researchers use the same protocols for organic standards and testing methods also vary,” he says.

The good news about conventionally grown strawberries? Handley says that the philosophies and ideas that organic farmers were pushing decades ago in relation to soil health have spilled over recently into conventional farming.

“Conventional farmers are now more concerned about soil health for the long term,” says Handley, who acknowledges that though conventional farmers still rely on fumigation practices, the process now eliminates the most toxic elements such as methyl bromide and also uses drip fumigation instead of a full fumigation assault on the entire crop.

Despite the improvements in conventional farming practices, Handley advises, “Wash your fruit.”

Side effects of becoming vegetarian

2012-05-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

There are several medical studies linking vegetarian diets to lower incidences of certain types of cancers, heart disease, Type II diabetes and other chronic diseases. Many news headlines say vegetarians live longer than meat eaters.

Thinking about going veggie? Before permanently clearing out the steak knives from your kitchen, consider some of the following possible side effects of becoming vegetarian:

1. Low cholesterol levels: Virtually every medical study on vegetarian populations, including the prominent Oxford Vegetarian Study of 5,000 vegetarian subjects, have concluded that vegetarians have lower cholesterol levels than non-vegetarians. Most in the mainstream medical community, including the American Heart Association, recommend keeping total cholesterol levels under 200.

However, another study by the Honolulu Heart Program — which focused on the cholesterol levels more than 3,500 Japanese-American men aged 71-93 years, not necessary what eating trends produced those cholesterol levels — concluded that “Only the group with low cholesterol concentration … had a significant association with mortality.” The Heart Program study, according to at least one medical doctor, demonstrates that having continuously, extremely low levels of cholesterol may lead to an early death.

2. Increased risk of colorectal cancer: One would assume that heavy meat eaters would have a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer but a review published in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition of the aforementioned Oxford study reveals, “Within the study, the incidence of all cancers combined was lower among vegetarians than among meat eaters, but the incidence of colorectal cancer was higher in vegetarians than in meat eaters.”

Vegetarians demonstrated a 39 percent higher incidence of colorectal cancer, which is confounding, given that eating red meat leads to higher colorectal cancer rates. The study’s researchers, although not unequivocal in being able to explain the findings, theorize that the vegetarian participants were perhaps not eating sufficient amounts of fruits and vegetables.

3. Lower bone mineral density: While it’s possible for vegetarians to consume adequate amounts of protein, calcium, iron and vitamin D (if supplementing properly or getting enough sunlight) to ensure proper muscle and bone development, one studyconcluded that vegetarians had approximately 5 percent lower bone-mineral density (BMD) than non-vegetarians. The results of the study, the authors conclude, suggest that vegetarian diets — especially vegan diets — are associated with lower BMD. But don’t despair if you’re a vegetarian or thinking about becoming one. The authors claim that the “magnitude of the association is clinically insignificant.”

4. Lower levels of vitamin B12: A study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry says that omnivores have a significantly higher cluster of cardiovascular risk factors than vegetarians. But one potential risk of becoming a vegetarian seems to be the preponderance of lower vitamin B12 in the blood. B12 helps with metabolism, converting food into stable energy, utilizing iron, producing healthy red blood cells, and a host of other benefits.

The risk of low B12 levels, according to the study’s authors, can result in arteriosclerosis. Several vegetarian-friendly foods such as cereals are fortified with vitamin B12. If you’re a lacto-ovo vegetarian and eat dairy and eggs, you are likely consuming adequate amounts of B12. Yeast extracts are a good choice for vegetarians abstaining from dairy and eggs.

5. Insufficient levels of omega-3 fatty acids: A paper published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition claims that vegetarians have lower levels long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA [See related: Omega-3’s for vegetarians]. Sufficient levels of long-chain omega-3s are beneficial for cardiovascular health, say the study’s authors, who also concluded that DHA supplementation at a dose of about 2 grams per day eventually decreased plasma cholesterol.

Katie Minor, a senior instructor of nutrition at the University of Idaho, tells MNN.com, “Nuts and flaxseed can supply enough sources of essential fatty acids. I haven’t seen evidence that vegetarians are lacking in essential fatty acids. They seem to be adequate.”

Based on the conclusions of numerous medical studies, eating a vegetarian diet offers numerous health benefits. However, the same advice can be offered for vegetarians as for omnivores: exercise regularly, eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit every day and avoid processed foods.

One last morsel for thought: if you’re concerned at all about side effects of becoming vegetarian, Minor says to consider being a “flexitarian.”

“Flexitarians are people who are vegetarian most of the time, but once in a while will consume an animal protein,” she says. “The more restrictive you are with your diet, the more you’ll have to closely monitor what you’re consuming and the more likely your need will be to supplement. Work with a registered dietician to make sure you’re not at risk for dietary deficiencies.”

Oatmeal nutrition facts

2012-05-18T14:01:00.002-07:00

Is oatmeal truly beneficial for reducing cholesterol and keeping our hearts healthy? Let’s review some oatmeal nutrition facts to get the real scoop.

A half-cup of instant, regular oatmeal contains the following:

150 calories
30 grams of carbohydrates
8 grams of fiber
11 grams of protein
5 grams of fat (1 gram saturated)
20 percent daily value (DV) of iron

Oatmeal is also rich in other minerals. The same half-cup of plain, instant oatmeal contains:

30 percent DV of magnesium
33 percent DV of phosphorous
33 percent DV of selenium
20 percent DV of copper
150 percent DV of manganese

Isn’t 30 grams of carbs a lot for weight-watchers?

Maybe for a bodybuilder about to compete in a contest, but for the majority of people, the mix of slow-burning carbohydrates and fiber found in oats is a great source of fuel for breakfast.

In fact, medical studies back this claim.

The fiber found in oats, barley, and pectin-rich fruits and vegetables provides lipid-lowering benefits, says a paper by the American Heart Association. The AHA recommends a total dietary fiber intake of 25 to 30 grams per day from foods.

Current dietary fiber intake among adults in the United States averages about half the recommended amount, says the AHA paper.

In addition to reducing serum lipid levels, diets that include whole-grain sources such as oatmeal helped reduce blood pressure in men and women who have elevated levels of cholesterol, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Not everyone thinks oatmeal should be touted as a healthy food.

An article in the Chicago Tribune reported that a consumer advocacy organization, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing Quaker Oats of exaggerating the health benefits of oatmeal.

But more recent research seems to vindicate the oatmeal claims.

In a review of several studies on oatmeal’s benefits, published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, the data concludes that the soluble fiber in oats does indeed lower cholesterol and contains properties that bolster cardiovascular health.

Other oatmeal benefits mentioned in the study include:

Preventing oxidation of arteries
Curbing weight gain
Preventing type 2 diabetes
Bolstering the immune system

What’s the main compound in oatmeal that’s so healthy?

A fiber known as beta-glucan seems to be the all-star compound in oatmeal. There have been hundreds of studies published on beta-glucan.

One study published in Vascular Health Risk Management concluded, “Dietary intake of beta-glucans has been shown to reduce risk factors to benefit the treatment of diabetes and associated complications. In addition, beta-glucans also promote wound healing and alleviate ischemic heart injury.

Can I take a beta-glucan supplement if I don’t like oatmeal?
You can but the Vascular Health study also concluded, “…The mechanisms behind the effect of beta-glucans on diabetes and associated complications need to be further studied using pure beta-glucan.”

But, at least one study, published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, concluded that a beta-glucan supplement may prevent upper respiratory tract symptoms, and improve overall health and mood following a competitive marathon.

Does oatmeal contain gluten?

Pure oatmeal does not contain gluten; however, most oatmeal is made in facilities that also process wheat, so a bit of cross-contamination may occur. It’s possible that people with Celiac disease may have an adverse reaction to commercially made oatmeal. This group should buy certified gluten-free oatmeal from a health food store.

Why not eat oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Oatmeal is also rich in omega-6 fatty acids, containing almost 2 grams per half-cup serving. Omega-6s seem to be a mixed bag, providing some health benefits, yet too much of them — combined with too little omega-3 fatty acid sources — can cause inflammation and other problems.

Most Americans consume upwards of 20 times more omega-6s than omega-3s, instead of the recommended ratio of 2-4:1 (up to four times more 6s than 3s); most nutritionists would likely caution against consuming large quantities of oatmeal as a result.

What about flavored packets of oatmeal?

The nutrition is roughly the same with the big exception being the amount of sugar. A packet of Quaker Oats’ apple and cinnamon instant contains 12 grams of sugar, as opposed to just one gram in regular oatmeal.

The fiber in the oatmeal will somewhat help prevent precipitous spikes and drops in blood sugar, however, those who are trying to lose weight or prevent diabetes should stick with the regular, unflavored variety.

Adding a handful of blueberries and a small squirt of raw honey can add sweetness to the oatmeal without adding refined sugar.

Coconut oil benefits

2012-05-18T13:59:00.002-07:00

One tablespoon of coconut oil contains 12 grams of saturated fat. Nearly 60 percent of the 115 calories in one tablespoon comes from saturated fat. The remaining 40 percent is unsaturated fat. Coconut oil is 100 percent fat and lacks any vitamins or common minerals.

If you’ve been consuming coconut oil regularly, should you call your cardiologist?

Or, are there some healthy coconut oil benefits that aren’t readily apparent from reading the nutrition label on the jar? Is coconut oil harmful, harmlessly neutral, or healthy? Let’s take a look…

1. Coconut oil raises LDL cholesterol: Stop the presses! Isn’t LDL the ‘bad’ cholesterol? Some medical papers warn that tropical oils like coconut oil increase the body’s level of LDL, also known as low-density lipoprotein. But are higher LDL levels unequivocally a bad thing? Some research goes against popular conceptions. One smallstudy of non-exercisers who were put through a rigorous workout determined that those who gained the most muscle mass also had the highest levels of LDLs. At least one doctor commented on this study, suggesting that LDL cholesterol and muscle function has a direct correlation.

2. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat but won’t make you fat: Again, contrary to public opinion, the fact that coconut oil is high in saturated fat but is considered a health food by many might confound people. But not all fat is created equally; some forms are easily absorbed and utilized by the body (specifically medium and short-chain fats; coconut oil is medium chain). In other words, consuming non-hydrogenated (processed), natural forms of saturated fat will not make you fat, necessarily. One study published in the journal Lipids concluded, “It appears that dietetic supplementation with coconut oil does not cause dyslipidemia [high blood cholesterol levels] and seems to promote a reduction in abdominal obesity.”

3. Coconut oil increases HDL cholesterol: Similar to the popular notion that LDL cholesterol is ‘bad,’ HDL cholesterol is generally regarded as good. Although some researchers claim that cholesterol is cholesterol; it’s neither good nor bad, virtually every doctor encourages healthy HDL levels. Coconut oil was both vilified and lauded by Harvard School of Public Health’s, Walter Willett, M.D. Willett says in a Harvard Health Letter that coconut oil raises both LDL and HDL levels. “What's interesting about coconut oil is that it also gives ‘good’ HDL cholesterol a boost. Fat in the diet, whether it's saturated or unsaturated, tends to nudge HDL levels up, but coconut oil seems to be especially potent at doing so,” Willett concludes.

4. Coconut oil has anti-microbial properties: An abstract of a study in the Journal of Medicinal Food concluded: “It is noteworthy that coconut oil was active against species of Candida at 100 percent concentration compared to fluconazole. Coconut oil should be used in the treatment of fungal infections in view of emerging drug-resistant Candida species.”

A research paper on the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community website by Dr. Jon Kabara, professor emeritus at Michigan State, states that coconut oil was recognized for its “extraordinary health properties” 4,000 years ago by the Ayurveda medicinal community in ancient India. “The medium chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found primarily in [coconut oil has] miraculous healing power. It is rare in the history of medicine to find substances that have such useful properties and still be without toxicity or even harmful side effects.” (p.1)

5. Coconut oil may help prevent heart disease: The Coconut Research Center claims a large number of studies prove a direct correlation between chronic infections and heart disease. Pathogenic organisms are killed by medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil. Therefore, says the Center, coconut oil can reduce the risk of heart disease.

One of the studies the Center points to is one published in the journal, Lipids, which concludes, “[P]olicies that prioritize the reduction of SFA [saturated fatty acid] consumption without specifically considering the replacement nutrient may have little or no effects on [cardiovascular] disease risk, especially as the most common replacement in populations is often [carbohydrates].” In other words, at the very least, some research proves that saturated fat is not necessarily bad for heart health and a diet high in carbohydrates could be much worse.

What is C. difficile?

2012-05-18T13:57:00.001-07:00

A potentially deadly, infectious superbug called Clostridium difficile has exploded in growth three-fold over the last decade and now kills 14,000 people a year, according to theCenters for Disease Control.

What is C. difficile? C. difficile infection (CDI) is a harmful bacterium that produces toxins that attack the lining of the intestine. The toxins destroy cells and produce plaques of inflammatory cells and decaying cellular debris inside the colon.

Common symptoms of CDI include:

Diarrhea and dehydration
Fever
Loss of appetite
Ulcers or abdominal pain
Nausea
Bloody stools

What causes CDI?

Most likely, a visit to your doctor or local health center. In fact, 94 percent of the potentially fatal infections are in people who recently received care in facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, physicians' offices, and outpatient surgical centers, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

C. difficile spores are passed through the feces of people who have the toxic bacteria in their gut. Spores can persist in the environment (on hospital beds or railings) and can also be spread through the air or find their way into the food.

Spores that get into the human gut develop into mature bacteria.

Another major cause of CDI is taking antibiotics, which can kill millions of beneficial micro-organisms in one’s gut. Colitis caused by Clostridium difficile is a major complication of prescribing antibiotics, according to research conducted by Baylor University and published on the National Institutes of Health’s website.

Antibiotics cause a reduction in bacteria that normally reside in the colon. If an antibiotic-treated patient ingests C. difficile bacteria, this organism may proliferate in the colon because it is resistant to most antibiotics and because it does not have to compete with the normal bacteria for nutrients, the paper by Baylor researchers concludes.

How is CDI treated?

Ironically, in some cases, by administering certain antibiotics that target the C. difficile colony in the gut.

A more recent and progressive form of treatment involves taking a stool sample from a healthy individual and transplanting it into the colon of the patient with CDI. CDI can be treated in the vast majority of patients through a fecal transplantation procedure via colonoscopy, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology.

In some extreme cases, surgery is required to remove the infected part of the intestine. This happens only in one or two patients with CDI, according to statistics by the CDC.

Who is at risk for contracting CDI?

Usually, elderly people who have taken several courses of antibiotics and have stayed for several stints in the hospital.

But it’s not just infected people who carry C. difficile. One British medical online forumclaims that three in 100 adults and as many as 70 percent of healthy babies are carriers of C. difficile.

Why don’t more people get sick from CDI? Carriers of C. difficile have a healthy micro-organism portfolio in their gut. Good bacteria neutralize harmful bacteria in a healthy individual.

Are antibiotics to blame for the rise of CDI?

Alternative medicine practitioners have been cautioning against the wanton use of antibiotics for years. Some in the traditional medical community have also blamed antibiotics for the rise in superbugs like C. difficile.

“This micro-organism ecosystem we have in our guts needs to be taken seriously and treated like it’s a delicate rain forest,” says Dr. Steven Lamm, author of the new book, “No Guts, No Glory: Gut Solution — the Core of Your Total Wellness.”

“We have 100 trillion bacteria in our body. That’s ten times more than the amount of cells we have in our whole body. The medical establishment needs to be careful in overprescribing antibiotics because the beneficial bacteria are useful in so many ways, such as detoxifying and sending signals to our brain for mood and weight regulation,” adds Dr. Lamm.

How should I prevent contracting CDI?

Don’t be a ‘germaphobe.’ Frequently washing your hands with anti-bacterial soap or sanitizer can reduce the good bacteria in your gut and make you more susceptible to infections. Also, don’t take antibiotics unless you really need them. Get a second opinion from a medical doctor or a naturopathic doctor. Start taking probiotics if you have taken antibiotics recently.

“I recommend probiotics to my patients who travel out of the country, or have taken antibiotics. Actually, I recommend them to anybody with a pulse,” advises Dr. Lamm.

Have other thoughts on C. difficile? Let us know in the comments below.

2012-04-06T12:09:00.003-07:00

Vitamin D is the only vitamin humans can acquire without food—albeit with a catch.

It’s only if we manage to squeeze enough time in our hectic, hermetically-sealed indoor lives and expose our skin to sunlight that we’ll reap the benefits of vitamin D without food, such as prevention of osteoporosis and rickets.

Despite the lack of large-scale randomized and controlled clinical studies that factor skin color, geographic location, and lifestyle factors such as diet, some researchers claim that increased Vitamin D intake might also help with the following:

Developing stronger immune systems (evidence about preventing cancer is mixed but preventing Multiple Sclerosis [MS] is solid)
Facilitating insulin secretion
Bone strengthening and remodeling
Maintaining proper heart muscle function (also mixed clinical results)
Improving muscle strength

But what if you’re living in Fairbanks and don’t see the sun for a full three months?
Answer: you’ll want to buy UV lighting and supplement with one teaspoon of cod liver oil a few days a week.

What if you live in Boston, during a normal winter, unlike the unusually mild one of this year?
Answer: Get outside, you’ll still get UV ray exposure, but still consider supplementing and eating foods rich in Vitamin D, like salmon and egg yolks.

Does being outside on a cloudy day for an hour supply you with adequate Vitamin D synthesis?
Answer: If it’s late spring and early summer, most likely. But the further away from the equator you are, and if it's late fall or winter, the more you’ll need to supplement.

What if you’re wearing a hat?
Answer: Don’t wear it for the first 10-15 minutes unless you’re in the tropics and burn easily.

And sunglasses?
Answer: You’ll still get UV exposure if other areas of your skin but try to go those first 10-15 minutes without shades to stimulate your regulatory glands.

And sunscreen?
Answer: Only use 100% all-natural (very few brands on the market are truly 100% natural) if you’re going to be in the sun for a long time and burn easily; do try and get some exposure without sunscreen. Northern Europeans who settled in America long ago, like the Vikings, aren’t known to have died from skin cancer.

Do dark skinned-people need more or less sun exposure?
Answer: More. The darker the skin, the more sun exposure you need.

What’s the amount of Vitamin D I need daily?
Answer: It depends on who you ask.

The Fed’s Conservative Take on D versus other independent researchers
Current statistics by the Institute of Medicine claim that people require at least 600 International Units (IUs) of D a day, with an upper intake level recommendation of 4000 IUs.

Prior to 2010, though, the Institute’s upper intake suggestion was 2000 IUs, assuming lack of adequate sun exposure.

Some researchers, however, believe that the recommended daily value of Vitamin D should be doubled.

University of California-Riverside researcher Dr. Anthony Norman is one advocate of increased Vitamin D intake. He tells Mother Nature Network he feels comfortable with people taking the upper intake levels of 4000 IUs per day.

Vitamin D: not really a vitamin?
In a paper he co-authored, titled ‘13th Workshop Consensus for Vitamin D Nutritional Guidelines’ Norman and other researchers concluded that half the elderly in North America and two-thirds of the rest of the world lack adequate intake of Vitamin D, hence his life’s work trying to clinically prove the benefits of increased Vitamin D intake.

Norman, in 1967, was the first scientist to discover that the form of Vitamin D we get from sunlight or food—D3—gets converted into a hormone.

“I don’t know a single thing that D3 does in our bodies except serve as a precursor for the production of the steroidal hormone form of Vitamin D, which we in the scientific community call ‘125 dihydroxy D’ ” says Norman.

“D3 itself is biologically inactive unlike all the other vitamins,” he clarifies.

Two years after discovering Vitamin D was a hormone, Norman’s lab determined, in 1969, that the biologically active form of D is a steroidal hormone. All steroidal hormones function as chemical messengers.

“And all chemical messengers have their personal receptor each of which has a unique binding site for their cognate hormone. And where my lab first found the receptor for ‘125 dihydroxy D’ was in the intestines and bone cells,” adds Norman.

Bones are the obvious receptor sites
If you’ve taken a nutrition class, perhaps you’ve seen heart-breaking pictures of young children with extremely bowed legs or disturbingly distended pot bellies, two of the symptoms associated with the Vitamin D-deficiency commonly called rickets.

The scientific community first became aware that sunlight can prevent rickets in the early 1800s.

First noticed in the mid-1600s in England, as Europe’s industrial transformation was underway, rickets, though highly preventable, still exists all too often, mostly in the developing world, though cases still are reported in the U.S. (Rickets is rare in the tropics because of its sunny climate.)

Dr. Norman says that the Institute of Medicine’s former guidelines (prior to 2010) were “extraordinarily conservative…based on observations that just 400 IUs could help prevent bone decay.”

In 2008, Norman and another researcher recommended that the daily value of Vitamin D be increased to 2000 IUs.

Norman says that the federal guidelines failed to take into account that Vitamin D receptor sites are located in several other areas of the body besides bones.

Where are these other receptor sites?
In muscle cells, the pancreas and heart, among other places. The most recently discovered receptor sites are the brain and male sperm.

“We can’t yet definitively conclude what the benefits of hormonal D brain receptors are, but our guess is that if you don’t get enough vitamin D in utero, developmental problems may result,” says Norman.

In the case of muscle cells, if not enough D receptor sites are activated by sunlight or food, muscle myopathy or increased risk of falls may result.

It was Danish scientists who expanded on the knowledge that D receptors are in sperm cells. They concluded that healthy motility and function of sperm has a direct correlation with sufficient Vitamin D levels in blood.

What about skin cancer? Shouldn’t I stay out of the sun?
According to the journal, Cancer, cancer rates are twice as high in the northeast U.S. as compared to those in the southwest. The journal concluded in one article that, “many lives could be extended through increased careful exposure to solar UV-B radiation and more safely, vitamin D3 supplementation, especially in nonsummer months.”

When it comes to balancing getting adequate amounts of Vitamin D at the risk of getting sunburned, Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of ‘Real Cause, Real Cures’ (available as an iPhone app), suggests, “Just use common sense and don’t be paranoid about being out in the sun.”

Teitelbaum adds, “Historically people spent most of the day outside, weren’t dipped in sunscreen and didn’t have sunglasses on. They got plenty of sunshine. That was the normal way to get Vitamin D.”

Judd Handler is a health coach and writer based in Encinitas, CA.

Tofu nutrition facts

2012-04-06T11:58:00.002-07:00

Now that a recent widely reported Harvard study concluded that red meat consumption shortens lives, should you be eating more plant-based sources of protein such as tofu?

Maybe yes, maybe no. As with many things in nutrition, it’s not a simple thing to decide. But, after reading about tofu nutrition facts, you can choose for yourself whether you want to include it in your diet.

Soy products, the second largest cash crop in the country, valued at $31 billion a year, contain antioxidant compounds called isoflavones, which are chemically similar to estrogen. It is these phyto- (plant) estrogens that have caused controversy in the nutrition world.

Advocates of a rich soy-based diet say that products like tofu can:

reduce the risk of developing certain cancers
lower cholesterol
reduce the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease (CD)
heal hot flashes
prevent artheriosclerosis

But, anti-soy crusaders argue that diets high in phytoestrogens can wreak hormonal havoc by driving estrogen levels too high.

Several research studies on soy's efficacy have been inconclusive. One study published in the American Association for Cancer Research failed to conclude any link between increased tofu consumption and lowered risk of prostate cancer.

The Journal of the National Cancer Research Institute published a Johns Hopkins University study concluding that it would be premature to recommend high isoflavone intake to prevent breast cancer or the recurrence of it.

Women experiencing undesirable side effects from menopause such as hot flashes are frequently urged to eat more tofu and other soy products to make up for the lost estrogen. But a University of Miami study shows that soy does not necessarily help women during menopause.

So where does the truth lie?

Like almost everything else in life, somewhere in the middle. Eating a lot of highly processed soy products (soy cheese, soy hot dogs, soy burgers) could potentially activate too many estrogen receptors in the body.

But eating a moderate amount of unprocessed tofu can be part of a balanced, nutritious, whole-food diet (say, a quarter of a block of tofu or fermented tempeh, or a small cup of edamame).

Soy proponents (especially marketers advertising it as a super food) say that products like tofu contain isoflavones that are potent antioxidants.

University of Washington professor Michael E. Rosenfeld, a nutrition researcher who focuses on the role of antioxidants and cardiovascular disease, recommends including tofu in the diet. But he admits that the role of soy as a powerful antioxidant capable of killing free radicals in human cells is still ambiguous.

Rosenfeld co-authored a study that concluded that genistein, the main isoflavone found in tofu, does not prevent arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

"We administered genistein to mice that developed cardiovascular disease (CD). The isoflavone supplement did not prevent progression of CD in older mice," says Rosenfeld, who also co-authored another study that found that the benefits of antioxidant supplements are also inconclusive, at best, and completely nonexistent, at worst.

Rosenfeld believes that tofu offers the full complement of compounds that cannot be derived from isoflavone supplements (similar to whole-food antioxidants being more effective, possibly, than antioxidant supplements).

But if you're in the winter of your life, Rosenfeld says that starting to eat tofu now likely won't help. The earlier that one consumes tofu in life, says Rosenfeld, the better.

"Up until now, there have been no studies that whole sources of soy, like tofu, can prevent or cure CD [cardiovascular disease]. The key is that CD markers can begin to develop in childhood. Foods like tofu really need to be consumed over a lifetime; CD will not be reversed if you start eating tofu at 50 years old."

What's in a serving of tofu?

One half-cup of tofu contains 10 grams of protein; 25 percent of the daily recommended value of calcium; 11 percent of iron; 5 grams of fat (mostly polyunsaturated, omega-6 fatty acids). One serving of tofu is relatively high in other minerals such as phosphorous, magnesium, copper, selenium, and especially manganese (40 percent of daily recommended value).

Because tofu also contains the aforementioned estrogen-like isoflavones, this brings up a common question amongst those paranoid to partake in soy and tofu.

Will men develop female characteristics if they eat tofu?

Rosenfeld unambiguously and emphatically says, "You’re not going to grow breasts if you eat tofu!"

In the studies he co-authored on genistein, Rosenfeld says, "Markers of effects that would represent estrogen receptor mediated responses were examined and nothing popped out in the study; there's nothing to worry about. You’d have to be taking huge amounts of purified phytoestrogen to have a huge impact."

The bottom line on tofu, according to Rosenfeld: it's a great source of protein for vegetarians and even carnivores should eat more of it.

"The more we can reduce our red meat intake, the better off we’ll be in the long run. People should replace red meat with other sources of protein such as tofu frequently. Consumption of red meat has been linked to multiple forms of cancer and elevated bad blood cholesterol from high saturated fat intake.

Is tofu really a healthier source of protein than red meat?

Not necessarily, according to Kaayla Daniel, a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences and anti-aging therapies, and author of the book "The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food."

"Eating tofu every day could lead to problems," says Daniel. "If someone has a whole block of tofu at dinner and has a cup of soy milk for cereal and snacks on a whole bag of soybeans and eats a soy meal replacement bar, that amounts to a whopping amount of plant estrogens."

The problem with eating a diet rich in plant estrogens, says Daniel: "They may be weaker than human estrogens but nonetheless, they do affect the body's ability to use and make estrogen."

Yet Daniel acknowledges that tofu does have a place in a healthy eating plan, if it's incorporated into the diet similar to how traditional Asians eat it.

"The traditional way in Asia involves eating a couple small squares in miso soup or fishbroth," says Daniel, who adds that the problem is in the U.S. is: "We’re not eating only a few cubes, we’re eating the whole block."

What are the risks of eating large amounts of tofu?

According to Daniel, a whole cup of tofu contains 56 mg of isoflavones. Consumed on a daily basis, Daniel believes the potential for thyroid damage (in the form of hypothyroidism, which produces a sluggish thyroid) is the most serious risk, followed by potential reproductive system damage.

"What I would suggest is don’t eat tofu every day and never eat processed soy products,” she says. “Eating veggie burgers or a whole big bag of edamame is bad; including unprocessed tofu twice a week in a stir-fry is not bad."

If eating a lot of tofu and red meat is bad, what's left ... chicken?

Daniel alludes to the previously mentioned Harvard study on red meat as "Nonsensical...[a] complete misuse of statistics, involving an observational study of unhealthy individuals, using notoriously fallible food frequency questionnaires that produced unwarranted conclusions."

For the omnivore, Daniel suggests that a small serving of humanely raised grass-fed beef offers a lot of nutritional density. But the bottom line, whether it's red meat, or tofu: moderation is the key.

Daniel recommends tofu that has no additives and avoiding pre-flavored block tofu. "Don't get duped by ingredients listed as 'natural flavorings,’” she says. “They are the same as 'artificial flavors.'"

Can tofu affect your brain?

Possibly. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition involving Japanese-American men living on Oahu concluded that higher midlife tofu consumptionwas associated with cognitive impairment and brain atrophy later in life.

Now that's food for thought.

The estrogen-laden moral of the story: soy nuggets and tofu dogs? Avoid. Small portions of fermented tempeh, a block of tofu, or a small bowl of edamame? Enjoy in good health.

How to stay hydrated

2012-03-30T21:01:00.002-07:00

With winter soon coming to an official close, weekend warrior athletes are dusting off their mountain bikes, running shoes, hiking boots and other adventure gear.

If you’re looking forward to getting outdoors more often, especially now that daylight hours are longer, don’t underestimate the power of sweat. The heat can take a toll on your body but here are some ideas for how to stay hydrated.

For most recreational athletes, the keys to hydration will be:

Eating a balanced diet
Avoiding excess alcohol intake
Monitoring body weight and urine color
Drinking water before thirst sets in

What about avoiding caffeine?

Coffee drinkers, rejoice! Although most of us have heard that caffeinated beverages dehydrate, some research studies suggest that caffeine is no more a diuretic than water, and will not in fact dehydrate you.

Dr. Lawrence Armstrong, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, concluded, after reviewing other studies on caffeine, “…athletes and recreational enthusiasts will not incur detrimental fluid-electrolyte imbalances if they consume (caffeine) in moderation and eat a typical U.S. diet.”

Armstrong’s findings were published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

Do I need a sports drink to stay hydrated?

Most likely, no. In fact, Armstrong does not recommend sports drinks for staying hydrated, but he does tell Mother Nature Network that research proves they are beneficial in a couple of situations.

“In rare instances, an athlete can have a severe carbohydrate deficiency, where glycogen stores in muscles and liver are completely depleted,” says Armstrong.

How do you know if you have depleted your glycogen stores? “You don’t really know for sure unless you do a biopsy,” says Armstrong.

But there are common symptoms when you hit the proverbial wall, such as headache, fatigue, dizziness, shakiness and extreme hunger.

If you experience any of these symptoms, you are severely dehydrated and should immediately replenish your electrolytes (sodium, potassium and other minerals) with a sports drink.

Armstrong offers this final word on sports drink: “Unless you’re an ultra-marathoner or have a rare sodium deficiency, which is not likely for those consuming a typical Western diet, you don’t need sports drinks.”

How much water should I drink and when should I drink it?

Courtney Pinard, research scientist at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition in Omaha, Neb., says that if you wait until you’re thirsty while exercising, you are not staying hydrated.

“Biologically, once our thirst cues kick in, it’s most likely too late. You’re already dehydrated, so it’s important to stay on top of it and drink before, during and after exercising,” says Pinard.

Pinard recommends that female athletes drink 3 liters of water per day and male athletes should consume 4 liters.

“Pre-hydrate with two, 8-oz servings of water well before you exercise and try to consume around 32-oz. of water for every hour you exercise,” recommends Pinard, who concurs with Armstrong that if you eat a balanced diet, water is all you need to hydrate and you don’t need extra electrolytes — even if you’re a weekend warrior athlete grinding out a 90-minute mountain bike ride.

How can I tell if I’m properly hydrated?

Look at the color of your urine and also weigh yourself. If your urine is clear, you’re adequately hydrated; if it’s dark you are likely dehydrated.

If you urinate with adequate frequency, roughly every two hours or so, you are most likely hydrated. For those that take supplements rich in B Vitamins, the urine might be discolored with a bright green hue, but that does not mean you are dehydrated; it’s the vitamins being flushed out by the kidneys.

Dr. Armstrong recommends weighing yourself on a scale that is able to measure tenths-of-a-pound first thing in the morning for a week and using the most common number in the weekly reading as a baseline.

After you exercise, weigh yourself and if your weight is lower than your morning baseline reading, you may be dehydrated.

For each pound of bodyweight that you’ve lost, replace it with a pint of water to get back to your baseline.

Omega-3s for vegetarians

2012-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Next time you’re in the supermarket, take a look at some of the products fortified with omega-3 fatty acids: waffles, peanut butter, eggs, milk and yogurt, bread, orange juice and fake butter spreads.

Are sources of omega-3s for vegetarians as potent as cold-water, oily fish such as salmon and sardines?

Fish and fish oil are generally regarded as the best sources of these fatty acids, which we need to get from food, so what’s a fish-shunning herbivore to do? Especially when research has concluded that a diet rich in omega-3s:

Reduces inflammation
Prevents cardiovascular disease (CVD),
Improves immune function (autoimmune disorder prevention)
Reduces allergic reactions
Staves off depression

A study in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine analyzed research on fish oil dating back to 1970 and concluded that omega-3s reduce blood cholesterol and triglycerides as well.

(The same study also revealed that very high doses may prolong bleeding. Another study, from the University of Connecticut, stated that high doses cause blood vessels to rupture, possibly inducing stroke, so don’t start popping a fistful of fish oil pills.)

Strict vegetarians can cut out the middle man, er, fish

Fish aren’t born naturally oozing omega-3s out of their gills. It’s their diet of algae, krill, plankton and other microscopic primordial matter that flush the fish full of fatty acids. In essence, we get omega-3s from the fish because fish eat algae.

Strict vegetarians can now take supplements derived from algae that are free of fish oil. It’s best to get an algae supplement that contains both DHA and EPA, which are two of the three omega-3 fatty acids and regarded as the most beneficial fatty acids for health.

Fish oils are loaded with DHA and, to a lesser extent, EPA, both of which are found in the human brain and retina. One would assume that since fish get their fatty acid profile from algae, that algae supplements would be just as efficient as consuming a salmon filet.

Are DHA/EPA supplements as effective as whole fish?

We don’t know for sure, says, Edward Dennis, a professor at the University of California San Diego and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Lipid Research.

“Until researchers run a controlled study, it cannot be concluded that omega-3 supplements are as effective as omega-3-rich fish,” says Dennis, who is part of a "lipidomics" team of researchers, mapping out all the fatty acid molecules in the human body, much like "genomics" researchers a decade ago sequenced and mapped the protein-rich DNA sequences.

How many milligrams of omega-3 should I have each day?

Dennis also thinks there’s not enough scientific data for recommended dosages, although many health articles will suggest going for about one gram per day.

“Most physicians who give recommendations — either for vegetarians and omnivores — don’t have a basis for the dosage,” he says.

Should vegetarians consume more omega-3’s than non-vegetarians?

Not necessarily so, says a fatty acids researcher, who, coincidentally, is allergic to fish.

Dr. David Bernlohr of the University of Minnesota says he can’t eat fish because of an allergy, but he can stomach fish oil supplements.

“Certain fish have the highest fraction of omega-3s but you can clearly reach an equivalent amount by eating plant-based sources and taking supplements,” he says. “Even strict vegetarians can reap the benefits of the anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties that omega-3s offer.”

What about walnuts and flax seeds or oil? Aren’t they super rich in omega-3s?

Natural vegetarian sources like walnuts and flax seed and flax oil contain more ALA, the third type of omega-3.

Thus the dietary paradox for the strict vegetarian: On one hand, ALAs are the most bioavailable of the omega-3s (the body can metabolize it easier), but ALAs don’t do such a good job converting into DHA and EPA, which are widely regarded as being more potent. Some statistics claim only 5 percent of ALA gets turned into DHA and EPA.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, walnuts have the highest omega-3 content of any common nut, with 30 percent of it comprised of ALAs. (Only an Indonesian nut — the candlenut — has more.)

Flaxseed oil contains the richest amount of ALAs, though it does have a high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, a common trait of the typical Western diet and a factor that theUniversity of Maryland cites as a possible cause for inflammation.

Canola oil (at right) has the best omega-6 to omega-3 ratio: 2 to 1, making it a perfect salad dressing for vegetarians or for light sautéing cooking oil.

A final word on omega-3s for vegetarians:

The Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetics Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says, “Although vegetarians tend to have lower blood levels of long chain omega-3 fatty acids, it is sufficient to meet the needs of most people … however, certain factors can … adversely [affect] this important conversion process [including] high intakes of saturated fat, trans fatty acids, cholesterol and alcohol, an inadequate intake of energy or protein, or a deficiency of certain nutrients, such as zinc or copper.”

Benefits of cocoa

2012-03-30T20:58:00.002-07:00

Cocoa, revered centuries ago by the Aztecs and Mayans as the ‘food of the gods,’ is now being worshipped by modern science.

Two recent independent studies at Harvard and another from Cambridge, published in theBritish Medical Journal, have found that cocoa is a superfood when it comes to improving, among other things:

Blood pressure
Blood vessel health
Insulin sensitivity
HDL Cholesterol
Overall prevention of cardiovascular disease

But do the benefits of cocoa outweigh the risks of eating too much chocolate?

Is chocolate—the combination of cocoa powder, cocoa solids (fats), sugar and other processing ingredients like soy lecithin and milk powders—a powerful medicinal food?

Should the two-thirds of American adults who are overweight consume it liberally in hopes of reversing the potential of developing heart disease and diabetes?

The answer, according to Eric Ding, a Harvard professor of nutrition and epidemiology, and co-author of a study on cacao in the Journal of Nutrition and another in the Current Cardiovascular Risk Report: you’d have to eat a lot of chocolate to derive the benefits of cacao.

Exactly how much?

It would take about eight bars of dark chocolate or 33 bars of milk chocolate to reduce the chance of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, to the level that the study participants achieved, says Ding.

For those watching their weight and sugar intake, “obviously, that’s a problem,” Ding tells the Mother Nature Network.

What Ding and other researchers have found is that a specific subcategory of the antioxidant group, flavonoids, specifically epicatechin (eh-pee-cat-a-kin), is the compound that gives cocoa (or cacao, as it’s also known) its myriad health benefits.

“Cocoa flavonoids are the main beneficial compound of chocolate. Dark chocolate has more flavonoids than milk chocolate and pure cocoa has the most,” Ding says.

Ding and his fellow researchers performed a meta-analysis of dozens of studies involving cocoa. The analysis involved 2,575 participants and concluded that the maximum benefits of cocoa were cashed in after consuming 400-500 mg of cocoa flavonoids per day. Subjects were given a combination of fortified shakes or powders or dark chocolate bars (bars being at least 65 percent cocoa; control parameters included keeping the amount of fat, sugar and total calories of the participants the same).

Due to both pure cocoa’s bitter taste and its relative lack of availability in the U.S., compared to processed chocolate bars (processing destroys most of the flavonoids), one can assume that most Americans would need to supplement with cocoa flavonoids.

Can I take a vitamin to get the health benefits of cocoa?
Sort of. Currently, there are 13 vitamins that are considered essential by the National Institutes of Health. Although some vitamins are antioxidants, the free-radical-damage-fighting flavonoids found in chocolate are not considered essential.

So, at the moment, there are no epicatechin vitamins. There are, however, some cocoa supplements on the market, though not many. It’s also unclear whether supplements are just as effective as naturally-occurring cocoa.

Dr. Norman Hollenberg, another Harvard researcher who has studied cocoa extensively, believes drinking pure cocoa is a certain prescription for good health.

Hollenberg has observed for many years the ethnic Kuna group, who typically drink 5-6 cups of minimally-processed cocoa per day, on their offshore Panamanian island habitat.

Is drinking cocoa healthier than eating it?
Drinking unadulterated cocoa is certainly healthier than bingeing on a dozen bars of chocolate, thinks Hollenberg.

Although his studies of the Kuna were largely observational, compared to the controlled and random studies of Ding and other researchers, Hollenberg believes imbibing in liquid cocoa has kept the Kuna free of modern lifestyle disease.

But that begs the question: does the fact that the Kuna’s lifestyle lacks the same stressors as first-world workers bias Hollenberg’s hypothesis? How do we know that it’s not just the chocolate, but a combination of many factors?

“We just don’t know the answer to that; it’s very hard to quantify stress,” Hollenberg tells to Mother Nature Network.

But Hollenberg is betting on the cocoa. “The Kuna drink 40 cups of cocoa per person per week and manage, for the most part, to avoid getting four of the five most common killer diseases: stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes,” he says.

Are there other foods that contain the same beneficial compounds found in chocolate?
Yes. Every fruit and vegetable contains flavonoids. Hollenberg describes epicatechin as the ‘all-star’ flavonoid. Many fruits and vegetables contain both epicatechin and its closely-related compound, catechin.

So why not just ditch the chocolate all together and eat just fruits and vegetables?

“The flavonoids found in chocolate are too important to ignore,” says Hollenberg. “The health benefits are tremendous.”

Hollenberg, however, adds this cautionary last note, despite all the latest research on the health benefits of cocoa: “We know that cacao is good for you but we still don’t know if you need anywhere near the amount the Kuna drink; there remains a lot of research to do.”

Cinnamon health benefits

2012-03-30T20:57:00.002-07:00

Deep within the inner recesses of your kitchen pantry is a spice that’s been prized for thousands of years. It’s even mentioned in the Bible.

In the United States, cinnamon is mostly used for baking and flavoring, but recent research suggests that cinnamon health benefits are numerous, though somewhat controversial.

Besides sweetening your morning oatmeal or cup of coffee, other benefits of cinnamon may include:

Lowering blood sugar
Killing bacteria
Reducing inflammation
Improving digestion
Speeding up blood flow and circulation
Staving off Alzheimer’s Disease
Lowering cholesterol

Can cinnamon cure diabetes?
By itself, not likely. But cinnamon has demonstrated that it contains compounds that lowers blood sugar after meals and increases insulin sensitivity.

A study from VIT University in India examined cinnamon’s effect on diabetic rats and demonstrated that cinnamon bark is effective in reducing post-meal high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) levels. A meta-analysis of clinical studies on cinnamon published in the Journal of Medicinal Food concluded that cinnamon lowers fasting blood glucose levels in people with Type II diabetes.

Another study led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Department of Human Nutrition, involved 60 people and concluded that cinnamon reduces serum glucose, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol in people with Type II diabetes. It also suggested that adding cinnamon to the diet of people with Type II diabetes will reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Despite these and other studies, not everyone sees cinnamon as a panacea for blood sugar metabolic disorders.

Who’s not buying the hype?
According to the American Diabetes Associaiton, “There is not enough evidence from research to claim that including cinnamon in your daily diet will help regulate blood glucose in people with diabetes.” The ADA points to a study by University of Connecticut and Hartford Hospital researchers that found a lack of efficacy in cinnamon’s ability to reduce blood sugar and fat.

New York University’s Langone Medical Center also doubts the usefulness of cinnamon for diabetes and for other health issues. On its website, it says, “At present, it would be premature to consider cinnamon an evidence-based treatment for Type II diabetes or high cholesterol, but it has definitely shown some promise.”

The Langone Medical Center points to the aforementioned USDA study involving 60 people, who were given doses of one, three, or six grams of cinnamon. The center concluded: “This study has some odd features. The most important is that it found no significant difference in benefit between the various doses of cinnamon. This is called lack of a dose-related effect, and it generally casts doubt on the results of a study.”

The critique continues, “The researchers counter that perhaps even (one gram) of cinnamon is sufficient to produce the maximum cholesterol-lowering effect, and therefore, higher doses simply didn’t add any further benefit. There is another problem with this study as well: no improvements were seen in the placebo group. This too is unusual, and also casts doubt on the results.”

‘Hogwash,’ says one researcher

Richard Anderson is the lead scientist at the Human Nutrition Research Center (a branch of the U.S.D.A.) in Beltsville, Md., and author of the study that NYU’s Langone Medical Center concluded was flawed. Anderson told the Mother Nature Network, “I disagree, vehemently. All doses worked. That’s not a negative. We had 3 groups of 20 people in each group and a corresponding placebo for 1, 3, and 6 grams. In essence it’s three studies in one, so for them to say it’s a weak study is absolutely false. To say cinnamon doesn’t have an effect on humans is wrong.”

Anderson adds that some of the studies that failed to prove that cinnamon is effective in lowering blood sugar levels in patients with Type II diabetes has to do with the fact that the studies were done on people who were already taking blood sugar-lowering drugs such as Glucophage.

“To give cinnamon to people who are already on blood sugar-lowering drugs is ridiculous,” says Anderson.

Studying diabetic rats and mice is easier than humans
“It’s harder to duplicate the studies on cinnamon’s efficacy in humans because you can easily control a rat or mouse’s diet,” says Don Graves, a former distinguished professor at Iowa State University and current adjunct professor at University of California Santa Barbara.

“It’s very hard to control the diet of humans, it varies so much,” says Graves, who was Anderson’s graduate advisor. Nonetheless, Graves concludes, “Both in animals and humans, without a doubt, cinnamon is very effective in helping manage diabetes.”

What other benefits?
Israeli researchers at Tel Aviv University have isolated a section of the cinnamon plant capable of delaying the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The findings were published in a peer-reviewed online science journal.

Cinnamon also fights the E. coli bacteria in unpasteurized juices, according to research byDaniel Fung, Professor of Food Science at Kansas State University.

“Cinnamon has tremendous killing power in controlling some microbes,” Fung tells MNN. “At a minimum, it can preserve food longer, and in some cases it can kill bad organisms,”

So, go ahead and relocate cinnamon front and center in your spice rack. It may be good for you.

Caffeine withdrawal symptoms

2012-03-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

Reading this with a cup of coffee in your hand? Well, you’re not alone. In North America, approximately 90 percent of adults say they drink a caffeinated beverage every day.

But, what happens when you stop?

After sudden caffeine cessation, withdrawal symptoms develop in a small portion of the population, according to a research paper by Jasvinder Chawla, M.D. and Amer Suleman, M.D.

The study notes that the effects of caffeine withdrawal are often mild and transient but typical symptoms include:

headaches
fatigue
weakness
drowsiness
impaired concentration and work difficulty
depression and or anxiety
irritability
increased muscle tension

Tremor, nausea, and vomiting can also occur in extreme cases of caffeine withdrawal.

When do withdrawal symptoms start?

Withdrawal symptoms generally begin 12-24 hours after sudden cessation of caffeine consumption and reach a peak after 24-48 hours, says Daniel Evatt, Ph.D., a psychiatry research fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

For those more sensitive to caffeine, withdrawal symptoms can appear within three hours and last up to a week if no caffeine enters the body to abate withdrawal symptoms.

“The most common symptom we see in people who stop using caffeine is headache, and that’s only in about a half the population who abruptly quit,” says Evatt.

170 years of medical literature

Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University, co-authored a paper in Psychopharmacology that reviewed 170 years of caffeine withdrawal mentions in medical literature.

In 57 experimental and nine survey studies, 13 percent of research participants experienced significant distress or functional impairment. The most severe cases of caffeine withdrawal occurred in those subjects who consumed high doses of caffeine.

But the study also revealed that it takes only 100 mg of caffeine a day (the typical amount of caffeine in a moderate-strength 8-ounce serving of coffee) to experience withdrawal symptoms.

Griffiths’ study, published in 2004, concluded that caffeine withdrawal symptoms are serious enough to merit inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

As of the fourth edition of the DSM, caffeine withdrawal has not been included but caffeine-induced anxiety, sleep disorder and intoxication are included. The fifth edition will be released in 2013. A proposed revision to the DSM-V suggests that caffeine withdrawal may be included in the next edition.

Caffeine’s benefits overstated?

Evatt says that feelings of anxiety, irritability, depression, as well as sluggishness are all symptoms that are opposite of what the supposed benefits of caffeine offer. Evatt has found that to enjoy the benefits of caffeine, only a little bit is required.

“You can get the benefits in less than 100 milligrams,” says Evatt, also cautioning that above 300-400 mg per day of caffeine may lead to more serious withdrawal symptoms.

Jack E. James, Ph.D., the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Caffeine Research, tells MNN via email that the beneficial effects of caffeine are inflated.

“The widely-held beliefs of superior performance and mood after caffeine consumption are simply due to a reversal of adverse withdrawal effects,” James writes.

“Overall, there is little evidence of caffeine having beneficial effects on performance or mood under conditions of long-term caffeine use as opposed to abstinence,” adds James, who had a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluding that even low to moderate consumption of caffeine resulted in half of the subjects experiencing headaches.

Advice for cutting back on caffeine?
According to Evatt, you should not quit cold turkey. Instead, reduce consumption by 25 percent every week and if your goal is total elimination, within three weeks you should be able to abstain.

As for the maximum amount of caffeine allowed per day, Evatt says it’s hard to pin down.

“Due to the massive differences in how people react and metabolize caffeine, it’s impossible to give one guideline,” says Evatt.

Decaf latte, anyone?

Can Calamari Cure Cancer?

2012-03-30T20:45:00.001-07:00

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids are fattening the wallets of supplement distributors. These sources of healthy fats that we can only get from food are clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart disease and other early death sentences.

It's no wonder Omega-3s are one of the top-selling supplements in the $60+ billion dollar supplement industry.

I've jumped on the Omega-3 bandwagon, having purchased several bottles and capsules...even waffles.

But as mentioned in a previous article for MNN.com I covered on Omega-3s for vegetarians, not all sources of 3s are created equally. Humans tend to absorb plant-sources of 3s (ALAs) pretty easily but ALAs don't efficiently convert into the more potent EPA and DHA forms of Omega-3s that are primarily found in cold water oily fish like wild-caught salmon.

Though plant sources don't contain enough EPA and DHA, can it be concluded that vegetarians aren't as healthy as those who eat cold-water sources of oily fish that are rich in EPA/DHA?

That wasn't meant to be the focus of this week's Fit Friday, but it does pose an interesting question, one that was answered at the end of the blog I linked to earlier on Omega-3s for vegetarians who don't eat fish or pop fish oil pills: Does a vegetarian's health suffer by not consuming EPA/DHA-rich fish?

Not if they:

Eat several meals a day, all with protein
Doesn't over-compensate for the loss of animal protein by eating lots of quick-burning carbs
Combines the right foods to get all essential amino acids
The obvious: doesn't smoke or abuse liquor or drugs or eat lots of unhealthy fats (anything hydrogenated or trans fats and too many cooked polyunsaturated fats) and junk food

Although my parents manage to eat salmon the recommended two to three times a week (Good for them!), I don't eat it religiously like they do. So, should I take fish oil supplements? Even if one researcher I interviewed for the Omega 3 for veggies article said until research proves it, supplements aren't necessarily as effective as natural sources.

I'm banking that DHA/EPA supplements are at least partially as potent as cold water oily sources. We don't need that much to begin with (despite what the health marketers would lead us to believe); we primarily need to make sure we don't consume breads and other baked goods that lead to inflammation throughout the body.

The overwhelming majority of traditional cultures that have been studied and been documented with very little chronic modern diseases like heart disease have included animal sources of Omega-3s.

Almost everybody by now has heard about Eskimos being very healthy despite eating whale blubber (not despite; because of!). Eskimos also consume fish oil and krill oil, supplements of which have flooded the markets.

And before long, you'll likely hear about squid (calamari), particularly wild line caught from Scandinavia. Squid is especially rich in DHA. Although DHA and EPA are often lumped together as especially rich Omega-3s, DHA, some researchers believe, is the body's preferred Omega-3.

So don't be surprised if you soon see in your local health food store squid in a bottle.

Just don't eat it fried too often.

How to Stop Sugar Addiction

2012-02-03T18:46:00.001-08:00

We take for granted the idea that sugar is bad for our bodies. And yet, we eat more and more of the stuff. Why? Well, we can’t say for sure but there’s some evidence to suggest sugar is an addictive substance.

A 2008 study by researchers at Princeton University supported the hypothesis that under certain circumstances, rats can become sugar dependant. The animals in the experiment displayed behaviors similar to those associated with addictive drugs, including binging, craving and opiate-like “withdrawal” marked by signs of anxiety and behavioral depression.

Learning how to stop sugar addiction can help prevent a life-long sentence in which addicts face the dangers of diabetes, obesity and a host of other health ailments.

What type of sugar addict are you?

Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of four natural wellness books, including “Beat Sugar Addiction Now,” says that beating sugar addiction doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.

Teitelbaum lumps sugar addicts into four categories:

Chronically exhausted, energy-drink addicts, or as Dr. Teitelbaum calls the beverages, ‘energy loan-shark drinks.’
Hungry, irritable sugar addicts who might be likely to tell you, “If I don’t eat now, I’m going to kill you.”
Those with chronic congestion, sinusitis or spastic colons.
Women who are perimenopausal (as well as some men who might have deficient levels of hormones like testosterone).

“Sugar cravings exist because food processors dump 150 pounds of sugar per person per year,” says Dr. Teitelbaum.

Reaching for sugar because you’re tired

The first of Teitelbaum’s type of sugar addict seeks a serotonin surge to bypass a rough day. Instead of popping into the local saloon for a quick beer, the sugar addict fantasizes about “[w]alking into a bar, asking for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and having the bartender obligingly slide a pint down the bar,” says Teitelbaum.

The problem with this approach: Initially, serotonin will rise, causing a feeling of euphoria, but the insulin resistance will backfire, causing further exhaustion.

The cure, according to Teitelbaum, is fairly simple: “Taking a good multivitamin powder, and adding in a five gram scoop of ribose [Ironically, a sugar, but one that is made naturally by your body], getting enough sleep, getting daily moderate-intensity exercise, and eating 4-5 balanced meals with all-natural food should help defeat sugar cravings.”

I’m hungry, I need sugar NOW!

The adrenal glands, which rest on top of your kidneys play a vital role in controlling blood sugar.

Teitelbaum’s second type likely suffers from adrenal fatigue. “This person is the ‘Feed me now or I will kill you’ variety,” says Teitelbaum. The adrenals also make the stress hormone, cortisol, helping us to adapt to ‘fight or flight’ situations. Cortisol speeds up production of blood sugar during stress.

“If the adrenals are exhausted from stress and sugar is the only food that’s fueling your system, you’re going to see a lot of irritability when hunger arises,” says Teitelbaum.

The solution, besides eating balanced meals: Getting enough Vitamin C, licorice (Opt for the root, which helps slow down cortisol production), Vitamin B5 and adrenal gland supplements.

Does sugar make your runny nose worse?

Candida yeast, which primarily colonizes in the digestive tract, feeds on sugar. Teitelbaum says that scientists have yet to isolate what exactly the candida yeast secretes that ends up stimulating sugar cravings.

For those with candida overgrowth or who often have runny noses, or more serious sinusitis and digestive complications like spastic colon or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Teitelbaum suggests taking probiotics every day, as well as an antifungal natural supplement and, of course, cutting down on sugar.

“When you kill the candida the sugar cravings go away,” says Teitelbaum, who adds that only addressing the problem with probiotics and not cutting down on sugar is like saying, “Will a fire hose help put out a fire? Yes — but not if you keep pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Chronological clock cravings for sugar

As people age, hormone levels, including sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone may plummet. According to Teitelbaum, depression and anxiety can result from hormonal imbalances. Sugar is often the go-to quick fix for the blues.

A simple solution, especially for peri- or menopausal women: eating a handful of edamame every day to make up for the depleted estrogen levels. Teitelbaum also suggests supplementing with bio-identical hormone replacements when needed.

Some sugar addicts may need dopamine

Karen Paquette, a naturopathic doctor based in Solana Beach, Calif., says that those who have insatiable sugar and food cravings might have an underlying condition with brain chemistry, most notably a lack of dopamine, the feel-good chemical.

“We can get a temporary uplift in dopamine from food so that’s why some people indulge in sugar, to make up for the deficit of the dopamine neurotransmitter,” says Paquette, who recommends those with sugar addiction receive a neurotransmitter panel test along with a blood test for a genetic marker for enzyme deficiency.

Do you need to go 100 percent sugar-free?

No, says Teitelbaum. "Why bother living to 120 years old if you have to give everything up?" he says. "Indulge a bit in dark chocolate, which I consider a health food."

Eating fruit is also not a concern according to Teitelbaum, but he does strongly urge sugar addicts to abstain from fruit juices.

"They’re just as bad as regular soda."

Carrots and Carotenoid Compounds

2012-02-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

Did your mother nag you when you were a kid to eat your vegetables, especially carrots? Turns out mom was right, carrots have several health benefits.

Here are some carrot nutrition facts to prove mom knew best.

The Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health claims that foods rich in Vitamin A, like carrots, can help with the following:

· Bone growth
· Cell differentiation (cells know which tissue to become a part of, like blood, brain, lungs, etc…)
· Immune system regulation (white blood cell production to fight off viruses and bad bacteria)
· Surface lining integrity (eyes, lungs, intestines and urinary tracts)

Carrots contain antioxidants called, appropriately, carotenoids, which are natural red, yellow, or, of course, orange-colored compounds found in plants. Beta-carotene, one of approximately 500 types of carotenoids, is the well-known antioxidant component in carrots.

All carotenoids are important, as a diet rich in them may reduce the risk of developing several types of cancers, including bladder, cervix, colon prostate, larynx and esophageal.

Several studies (such as this one focusing on lung cancer, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology) have proven that a diet high in carotenoids leads to a reduced risk of cancer.

In the book ‘150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,’ author Johnny Bowden, Ph.D. in nutrition, dedicates an entire chapter on carrots. He says in the book that although carrots are best-known for their beta-carotene, they also contain alpha-carotene, which might be equally as protective against diseases, if not more so, than beta-carotene.

One study by Japanese biochemists suggested that alpha-carotene was ten times more powerful than beta-carotene in inhibiting tumor growth.

Alpha- and beta-carotene convert in the body to Vitamin A, hence the reason for a single serving of carrot’s 200 percent suggested Daily Value (DV) of Vitamin A.

Aren’t carrots good for the eyes?
The micronutrients in carrots that promote optimal vision are two other of the five major carotenoids: lutein and zeaxanthin, which are the only carotenoids found in the retina. They may help in the prevention of macular degeneration and cataracts, according to one study in the Archives of Opthamology.

The aforementioned Dr. Bowden’s ode to carrots also mentions that carrots contain a purple pigment—rhodopsin—which helps with vision in dim lighting.

Nutrition data for carrots
Eating just three medium-sized carrots contain:

· 6-8 mg of calcium

· 58 mg of potassium

· Approximately 7 percent DV of magnesium, phosphorous and Vitamin C

· 30,000 International Units (IUs) of Vitamin A

· 15,000 IUs of beta-carotene

· 6,000 IUs of alpha-carotene

· 5 grams of fiber

But aren’t carrots high in sugar?
Nutrition data from the FDA says that one-half cup of baby carrots contains three grams of sugar. One gram of carbohydrates (sugar) equals four calories, thus a single serving of carrots has 12 calories of sugar out of the 30 total calories.

So, should you ditch carrots?

No, suggests Diane Madrigal, a San Diego-based clinical nutritionist. “Carrots are extremely healthy whether or not you have diabetes, because in its whole nutritious form, you’re getting all the nutrients and fiber, which will slow down the release of sugar,” she says.

But Madrigal says that because Vitamin A, which carrots are loaded with, is a fat-soluble vitamin, to get the most out of carotenoids, eat them with a little fat.

“Hummus, guacamole, tzatziki and babaganoush are excellent dips for carrots,” says Madrigal.

What if I start turning yellow from eating too many carrots? Is that bad?
Beta-carotene may accumulate in your skin if you eat too many carrots, coating it with a yellowish tint. This discoloration, scientifically referred to as ‘carotenemia,’ is usually harmless. If your skin changes color, cut down on your dietary beta-carotene and discontinue any supplements that contain it. The whites of your eyes, however, should not turn yellow. If so, seek immediate medical help.

Sugar Nutrition Facts

2012-01-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

Sugar: Our brains can’t function without it, yet it’s considered a dietary evil.

Should sugar be avoided like the devil, or is it OK to have plenty of it as long as it’s in the form of fruit sugar (fructose)? Or does the answer lie somewhere in between?

Some sugar nutrition facts to ponder...

A nutritional paradox, sugar is vital for all life on Earth, supplying every muscle, organ and cell in our body, while simultaneously being blamed for the obesity and diabetes onslaught in this country.

Is sugar culpable in bloating the health care system, feasting on nearly 20 percent of the U.S. economy?

Perhaps Dr. Andrew Weil says it best on his website: “The problem with … sugar is not that [it is] ‘bad’ for you, but that we eat far too much of [it].”

No doubt nearly every nutritionist on this planet feels the same as Weil. The American Heart Association has the facts to prove it. The AHA recommends no more than 9 teaspoons a day of sugar per day for men (equal to 150 calories, or about a little more than a can of regular soda) and 6 for women (100 calories).

The average daily sugar consumption for an American: 22 teaspoons (330 calories, yikes!)

Consuming 330 calories a day, equals 2,130 calories per week, equals 9,240 calories per month. Trying to lose weight, specifically body fat? Consider that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat. Doing the math, this is an excess of almost two pounds per month.

Gaining two pounds of body fat a month leaves you 24 pounds heavier in a year. It’s easy to see how the battle of the bulge is lost.

What about alternative sweeteners? Are they healthier?
What if people switched from white table sugar to one of the following alternative sweeteners:

Agave nectar
Molasses
Raw organic honey
Evaporated cane juice
Brown sugar (raw)

The two biggest advantages of alternative sweeteners is that they contain trace minerals (calcium, manganese, iron, zinc and potassium) that aren’t found in white table sugar.

Some sweeteners also have a lower glycemic index (GI) rating than regular sugar, thus potentially raising blood sugar levels less quickly than white table sugar. High blood sugar levels may contribute to diabetes and other health problems.

For example, agave nectar has a glycemic index of only 30 compared to the simplest broken-down sugar known to man and the chemical compound that fuels our brain: glucose, which has a GI rating of 100.

Honey averages 55 on the GI scale; fructose averages about 20; lactose (milk sugar) checks in at 46 and sucrose (common table sugar; a combo of fructose and glucose) has a GI of 68.

If fructose has a lower GI, should I eat a fruit salad for dessert?

As Weil mentioned above, sugar is sugar and too much of it may cause you to gain weight, not to mention the damage to your teeth. Despite some sweeteners eliciting stronger, more effective insulin releases to help regulate sugar’s distribution in the bloodstream, all sugars are pure carbohydrate and contain mostly empty calories, with the exception of the trace minerals in alternative sweeteners and fruit.

But eating too much fruit at one time can cause both indigestion (including the embarrassing kind) and can cause blood sugar levels to crash below normal levels.

The bloodstream can only circulate so much glucose before the sugar gets processed by the liver and stored as body fat.

What about zero calorie sweeteners?

Most health experts recommend natural, plant-based sweeteners like xylitol; another recommendation by many natural health practitioners is to avoid artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

The American Cancer Society, however, claims that aspartame does not cause cancer and is safe for consumption.

The bottom line: if you’re trying to watch your weight, limit your intake of all sugars. If you have a sweet tooth, opt for small amounts of stronger-flavored alternative sweeteners that have lower GI loads. To keep blood sugar levels down, always eat some natural fat and protein either before or with a sweet food.

How to Improve Flexibility

2012-01-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

You’ve gone enough years with your muscles and joints feeling stiff and achy every morning. This year is going to be different. You’re going to start a stretching routine several days a week.

Are you new to stretching? Here’s how to improve flexibility.

There are three main pillars of overall wellness, according to many conventional fitness experts: muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility.

How many pillars support your health? For many U.S. adults who do manage to make time for exercise, two out of three ain’t bad, as the saying goes. After a long day of work, perhaps it’s a trip to the gym for a run on the treadmill and some weights.

Most people, however, neglect stretching. Sure, yoga and Pilates have become popular, but many people remain sedentary all day at work and at home.

As for trying yoga for the first time, the thought of contorting an inflexible body into a pretzel-like figure in front of others intimidates some enough to prevent them from ever entering a yoga studio.

Just like dieting advice, stretching theory varies greatly
Isn’t it frustrating to hear all the conflicting advice about what to eat and what not to eat? Eggs are healthy one decade; the next they’re vilified by the fat police. The same is true with stretching. We’re told to stretch but then we’re told not to stretch before certain activities.

One study by exercise physiologists at Florida State University suggests that if you’re going for a run or performing some other endurance exercise, static stretching can lower your cardiovascular endurance.

Static stretching is when you hold a certain stretch for a prolonged period of time.

There are several other types of stretching techniques, including:

Active Isolated Stretching
Dynamic flexibility
PNF stretching
Ballistic stretching
Isometric stretching

How long should I stretch and how long should I hold the stretches?
As if there aren’t enough different types of stretching to confuse you, different styles of stretching suggest holding a stretch, or pose, for different periods of time. For example, there’s one style of yoga — Yin Yoga — that holds each asana, or pose, for five full minutes. The theory goes that it takes that long to fully relax a muscle into a greater state of flexibility.

Aaron Mattes, a rehabilitation specialist and developer of an athletic stretching technique called Active Isolated Stretching suggests holding stretches for no longer than two seconds.

Conventional flexibility fitness for decades has advocated holding a stretch for 20-30 seconds.

Now I’m totally confused. So what type of stretching should I do?
As the aforementioned study suggests, don’t do static stretching first thing in the morning, especially if you’re going to go for a run.

Consider performing a dynamic flexibility routine before any athletic activity. Although dynamic flexibility hasn’t been shown to remarkably improve flexibility, it does prepare the body quite well for activity and may feel like your joints have greater range of motion.

Examples of dynamic flexibility include controlled leg swings, arm circles and torso/hip rotations.

If you want to improve your flexibility and are recovering from an injury or surgery but want professional guidance, consider hiring a personal trainer or therapist who is schooled in Active Isolated Stretching or PNF techniques, the latter of which can dramatically improve range of motion.

If you enjoy the meditative nature of static stretching, it’s best to think of static stretching as a cool-down. Consider doing static stretching (gentle yoga classes incorporate static stretching) in the evening, especially after going for a long walk.

Isometric stretching is recommended for people who don’t do enough strength training. Nearly everyone is familiar with pushing against a wall with one leg forward to stretch the calves. This is an example of an isometric stretch.

I can almost do a full split. What can I do to improve flexibility?
For those who have been stretching for several years and want to break through a flexibility plateau, consider using deep-breathing techniques. Trying to do a full split but can’t quite get all the way? Deep exhales as you’re going further into the stretch should help. Also, stretching at the beach, on sand, will help get you into a deeper split.

Can’t get to the beach? If you have access to smooth surfaces like wood, wear two pairs of socks and grab onto a chair as you deep breathe your way into a full split.

Symptoms of High Blood Pressure

2012-01-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

The signs of serious high blood pressure can go undetected for years. Here's what to look for.

Is your New Year’s Resolution ‘to get in shape’? If it’s been a while since you’ve worked out, take it easy and pay attention to symptoms of high blood pressure.

Approximately 65 million Americans have hypertension and about 50 million Americans belong to health clubs. No doubt millions more will join shortly after the New Year and many gym newbies will have high blood pressure.

Often referred to as the ‘Number One silent killer’ because symptoms can go unnoticed for years before triggering a massive heart attack or stroke, high blood pressure can lead to the following symptoms while working out:

Headache
Dizziness
Shortness of Breath
Feeling Nauseous
Double or blurred vision

High blood pressure isn’t in itself the leading cause of death in the U.S.; heart disease, cancer and stroke are the top three. But high blood pressure may be responsible, at least in part, for developing these potentially fatal conditions.

It’s for this reason why many doctors acknowledge that hypertension is the Number One killer in the U.S.

How the Silent Killer Strikes
Other deadly symptoms of high blood pressure include blocked arteries, kidney failure, heart attack and brain hemorrhage.

Obesity is one cause of high blood pressure, so it’s important to exercise but at a low intensity if beginning a weight-loss and exercise program.

The responsible way to start an exercise program, if it’s been a long time since your last workout, is to first get clearance from your doctor.

This is especially true if you haven’t had your blood pressure tested in a long time. Even if you’re not significantly overweight, you may have high blood pressure.

Why do I have to ask my doctor if exercise is right for me?
Most likely, your doctor will encourage your exercise program. Even so, there’s always the possibility that because of high blood pressure, an abnormality may rule out any exercise as a precaution until the problem is diagnosed and addressed.

Anybody that’s received the surprising news they need bypass heart surgery can relate. It wouldn’t be good if they went for a stroll on the treadmill.

Which came first, the anger or the hypertension?
It’s human to get angry; anger isn’t necessarily a bad thing to feel. It’s how we relate to it and manage it, though, that can influence blood pressure.

Know someone who has bulging veins popping out of their forehead when they get angry? Afraid they’re going to burst at any second? This is the type of person vulnerable to elevated blood pressure levels (normal is about 120 over 80).

Prolonged high blood pressure can ultimately lead to premature death.

How can I prevent symptoms of high blood pressure?
Obviously, unhealthy lifestyles like smoking and eating junk food, excess sodium and sugar, may lead to high blood pressure. But you can take baby steps in lowering it by practicing some of the following:

Moving Meditation: Take tai chi or qigong classes or workshops. Tight on cash? Watch a YouTube video, though you’ll have better chances of sticking with it if you do it with a group or friend.
Silent Meditation: Silent yoga or still meditation is an excellent way to manage high blood pressure. By focusing on the breath, you’ll improve blood and oxygen flow. It’s been scientifically demonstrated to do so.
Eat More Foods Rich in Potassium: Sodium and potassium play off each other in a game of balance, much like a see-saw within our trillions of cells. The so called Sodium/Potassium pump refers to the intracellular fluid proportion of both these minerals. Eat some French fries loaded with salt and there’ll be more sodium and less potassium. Eating more potassium-rich foods in your diet helps lower blood pressure, studies have found.

3 New Year's Wellness Resolutions for 2012

2011-12-30T17:59:00.000-08:00

Unless you believe that the world will end in 2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar ends, it might be a good idea to set some wellness goals for the New Year.

The goals might be the same ones you set for last year and the year before, and that's fine. I may have even written about these same goals in last year's blog. But they're all worth repeating because they can dramatically help with:

weight loss
energy
pain-relief
sexual performance (This could be linked with energy, but it's such a marketable bullet-point, it's hard to resist including it.)

All the benefits you'll receive from implementing these goals daily are inter-connected. A stronger immune system will give you better energy. Following the goals may result in better digestion and nutrient absorption, which in turn strengthens immunity, which leads to more energy.

Get the picture?

Already follow these principles? Please pass this info on. With 2 out of every 3 U.S. adults either overweight or obese, we all need to play our part in making our country healthier.

Stop the preaching already. Get to the Goals!

1. Eat More

That's right...more, not less. It sounds counter-intuitive with 66 percent of us significantly overweight to recommend eating more. But most people don't eat enough, especially in the morning to properly fuel for the day.

Many still skip breakfast; those that don't tend to eat unbalanced breakfasts that are loaded with carbs (read: sugar) like toast or muffins or waffles with orange juice. An unbalanced or skipped breakfast will throw you off for the rest of the day. The only way to attain steady energy for the rest of the day after an improper breakfast is eating a balanced lunch and a nap. But for those that don't have time for a nap, eating a balanced breakfast with enough calories is critical to having good, streamlined energy.

Remember, food should neither make you hyper, nor make you crash. Eat 3-6 meals a day (Obviously, the more meals, the fewer calories per meal should be eaten), and you'll enjoy rock-steady all-day, all-night energy; no naps needed.

2. Exercise less....

Am I on the Mayan prophecy bandwagon? Do I believe the end is near, so why bother exercising? No, but I do think the key to effective weight loss and all-day steady energy is to exercise as often as you eat: at least 3 times a day, in shorter bursts than traditional workouts.

Good for you if you have to sit all day at work but manage to squeeze in a trip to the gym. But even if you workout for an hour at the gym, sitting for several hours at a time will result in poor blood circulation and tight muscles.

If you're sedentary most of the day, try to do short bursts (as little as a few minutes is highly effective) of exercises that combine strength with flexibility, such as doing a push-up into downward dog. Try to perform at least one set every couple hours.

3. Eat enough Omega 3 fatty acids and less Omega 6 fatty acids

Omega 3 fatty acids have received lots of praise from the mainstream media and nutritionists over the last decade, and for good reasons that aren't over-hyped. Indigenous cultures may not have known an Omega 3 fatty acid from a spear, but they did intuitively know what foods were rich with them.

A very healthy dietary fat, Omega-3's may prevent Alzheimer's. They may also help lower blood pressure and triglycerides, which are processed by the liver and stored as potential energy in the form of body fat.

(Eating too much of anything will result in the body storing triglycerides. This includes protein, which is erroneously presumed to not cause body fat storage by Atkins Diet followers.)

So frequently eat a natural source of Omega 3s (at least a few times a week), such as salmon or walnuts. Don't get fooled into eating cereals or chewing gum with fortified Omega 3's. There's actually no gum with Omega 3s but you get the picture. There's no substitute for cold oily fish and walnuts. Flax and Chia seeds and sardines are also excellent sources. A recent study's results on Omega 3 supplements showed that the pills did not improve Alzheimer's. This is a major bummer but shows that there's nothing like the real thing. If you have inflamed and achy joints, ditch all sugars from your diet and eat more whole food sources of Omega 3s.

Just as ancient civilizations boiled animal bones into soups despite not ever hearing of the word 'calcium', old-world cultures instinctively knew which Omega 3-rich natural foods stimulated health. As advanced technologically as we are, most of us have only realized these benefits for at most 10 years.

If you want to improve your body composition, increase energy and stay healthy, following these 3 tips could result in your breakthrough year, in which you take control of your health and prevent highly preventable trips to the doctor and paying for medications.

Good luck and have a happy, healthy 2012.

Why Potassium Can Save a Life

2011-12-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

When it comes to dietary minerals, calcium gets most of the attractive glory. Consider it the Brad Pitt of nutrition. Sodium, with its unhealthy, high-blood-pressure-inducing, bad-boy image is the Charlie Sheen. But what about potassium? Often misunderstood, neglected and closely related to sodium, it’s the Emilio Estevez (Sheen’s brother) of essential minerals.

What are the best sources of potassium and why is this dietary mineral so important?

Potassium plays several critical roles, including:

· Regulating cell function and electrolyte balance
· Muscle contraction (including the heart)
· Transmitting nerve impulses
· Metabolizing proteins and carbohydrates
· Regulating blood pressure

Most people know that a diet high in processed foods is often loaded with sodium, which can cause high blood pressure. But many people don’t realize that it’s possible to lower blood pressure by reducing sodium intake and increasing another electrolyte salt: potassium.

Research has proved that despite only 20 to 30 percent of Westerners having optimal blood pressure, a diet higher in potassium and lower in common table salt can regulate blood pressure levels as well as possibly preventing strokes.

You’ll want to shoot for about 4,000 milligrams of potassium per day if you’re concerned about blood pressure and electrolyte balance.

Here are some of the top sources of potassium:

1. Tomato paste and other tomato products: According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, tomato products, rich in the free-radical compounds, lycopene and Vitamin C, have the highest potassium content, checking in at a whopping 2,657 mg per cup. Chances are, you’re not going to eat a whole cup of tomato paste in one sitting, but eat it frequently (great for a spread on crackers and cheese), and you’ll reap the benefits of a loaded source of potassium in your diet.

2. Orange juice (unsweetened): Although not the best choice for people concerned with their blood sugar levels, orange juice does have over 1400 mg of potassium in a 6-oz. serving. By comparison one whole orange has less than one-tenth the amount of potassium, but by all means, do not skip out on eating whole foods like oranges. Eat some protein and natural fat to counteract the blood sugar spike that may occur when drinking orange juice.

3. Beets: One cup of boiled, cooked beets has over 1300 mg of potassium. Ancient Romans used beets as a cure for constipation. Your digestive tract depends on muscular movements to pass food through and we all know by now that potassium helps with muscular function.

4. Beans: Beans come in many varieties but nearly all contain adequate amounts of potassium. One cup of white beans has nearly 1200 mg of potassium. Make a salad with some beans and beets and you already have over half your recommended daily intake of potassium.

5. Dates: Like orange juice, dates are relatively high in sugar compared to other fruits, so take caution. But one cup of dates (Noor variety) has 1168 mg of potassium.

Where are bananas on the list?
It’s common perception that bananas contain lots of potassium. But one average banana contains 350 mg. Banana’s close relative, the plantain has more potassium. One medium raw plantain has nearly 900 mg. There are other fruits that have even higher levels of potassium. Dried apricots contain nearly 2000 mg; dried figs contain 1010 mg; avocados have 400 mg. In general, dried fruits contain lots potassium.

What are other good sources of potassium?
If you eat a balanced diet rich in whole food sources of nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit, along with a moderate amount of humanely-raised animal protein, you should have no problem getting enough potassium in your diet.

Soybeans, almonds, pistachios, parsley, bran and potatoes are also on the potassium A-list.

Those with compromised kidneys, however, need to be avoid eating too much potassium.

How to Reduce Stress

2011-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some tips for alleviating pressure created by too much stress....

Having a heart-pounding, nail-biting, blood-pressure skyrocketing kind of day? Or week? Or past several years? It's time to learn how to reduce stress.

Leaving your high-stress levels unchecked can lead to the following health problems:

Chronic hypertension
Heart disease
Gastrointestinal disorders like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Tension headaches
Skin disorders
Sexual dysfunction

If IBS and sexual dysfunction don't get your attention, perhaps this sobering statistic will: stress is widely regarded as the number one killer in the U.S.

Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases are, for the most part, attributed to stress, be it lifelong-lifestyle choices like poor nutrition, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

High-pressure jobs, combative relationships with family and spouses, white-knuckle commutes and financial burdens are also major stressors. Perhaps it's impossible to magically make these stressors disappear, but it's mostly how we deal with stress that will determine our health.

To deal with the bad stressors in life (as well as the good; stress is stress to the body), you'll want to:

Practice breathwork and meditation at least once daily
Engage in moderate-intensity exercise daily
Eat three balanced whole-food meals at regular times daily
Gain a new perspective on the important things in life
Learn to express emotions without acting out on anger

Easier said than done, but if left unchecked, your stress could slowly — or quickly — subtract years from your life.

I'm too busy to meditate. What should I do?

No matter how many kids you have to whip up an omelet for in the morning and whisk away to school, you can always wake up 10 minutes earlier and find a quiet place to focus on slow, meditative breathing. This will calm the mind tremendously.

If it's absolutely impossible to meditate in the morning, make sure you leave some time in the middle of the day, when all the kids are at school. Even if you have a demanding job, say personal assistant for a Fortune 500 executive, go to your car if that's the only place that affords you privacy and focus on slow deep breathing, paying no mind to extraneous thoughts about life's problems.

Evening, before getting in bed is critical to managing stress levels. Don't let the stressors of the day flood your mind and body, possibly leading to a bad night's sleep. Find somewhere quiet with no television or Wi-Fi devices or bright lights to focus on doing nothing but concentrating on slow, full-belly and chest expansion breathing. Thoughts will come into your head but pay no mind to them.

What's the best exercise to combat negative stress?

Many people go to the gym for a workout that gets the stress out of them, but some workouts actually lead to more stress. The popularity of boot-camp style workouts are an example. Sure, they'll whip your butt into great cardiovascular shape, but potentially at the risk of adding more stress.

If you're a "type A" personality focused on financial goal motivations first and foremost in life, you'll want to, besides considering changing your perspective on life, pick an exercise routine that will relax you instead. Moderate yoga (such as Hatha) offers the benefits of focusing on controlling the breath, while simultaneously getting your heart rate up (but not too high) and strengthening muscles and bones.

If you absolutely have to do triathlon-style training, be sure to complement with relaxing and rejuvenating moving-meditation type exercises like Qi Gong or Tai Chi.

Why does stress make my belly ache?

If you've gone the past few decades in life eating much refined carbohydrate, white-flour and sugar-laden foods, you may have a weakened gastrointestinal system. Eating bad foods, including to those that you are sensitive (wheat, soy, corn) can compromise the mucosal barrier in your gut, which is your body's first line of defense against pathogens. Most of your immune system lies within your gut, so eat the wrong foods year after year, and you may end up with more than just a tummy ache.

What can I do to control my anger? My boss is a complete jerk!

Learning to express how you feel without letting your emotions get in the way is as difficult as learning Swahili: difficult, but not impossible. Just getting the basics can be life-transforming.

There are plenty of classes and workshops on Non-Violent Communication (a.k.a. "compassionate communication"), possibly led by facilitators in your area. The major steps to learning how to express your anger include:

Making an observation (My boss yelled at me today)
Stating calmly how the observation makes you feel (It made me feel angry, upset, stressed-out)
Declaring your needs (I have a need for respect and kindness)
Formulating a request (I request of my boss to stop yelling at me and talk to me in a calm tone)

Most negative stress is caused at either the home or workplace. Learning to communicate feelings is indeed like learning a second language, but doing so can extend your life and reduce stress.

Weight loss for diabetics

2011-12-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

It's important for diabetics to keep their blood sugar levels even as they attempt to lose weight....

November is American Diabetes Month, and with about 8.3 percent of Americans having diabetes—and another 80 million at risk of becoming diabetic—it’s crucial for all of us, not just nutritionists and celebrity fitness trainers, to pass on some of these tips on weight loss for diabetics.

The overwhelming majority of diabetics have type-2 diabetes, sometimes referred to as, “The Lifestyle Disease.”

Poor nutrition choices and lack of exercise are almost always the culprits of diabetes. “Nutrition illiteracy,” which can be defined as lacking the knowledge that certain foods are unhealthy, as well as access to affordable healthy options, can both be factors in becoming diabetic.

There are currently no cures or immunity to diabetes, but it is possible to control it.

If you have type-2 diabetes, safe and effective weight-loss strategies include:

Eating at least 3-5 smaller, balanced meals
Drinking enough water
Avoiding eating products with white flour and refined carbohydrates
Including lots of fiber in the diet
Exercising daily

What is a balanced meal?
For those who are nutritionally literate, it might be obvious what constitutes a balanced meal. But for many diabetics who have gone through much of their life raised on sugary cereals, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, fries, Coke and other junk food, it might not be so obvious what constitutes a balanced meal.

Every meal you eat should be at regularly-spaced intervals. Try to go no more than three to four hours without eating. Have breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at noon, an afternoon snack at 4 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Try sticking to the same eating schedule every day as this will help regulate blood sugar levels.

Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the three macronutrients and all three should be eaten at every meal to maintain steady blood sugar levels.

The majority of carbohydrates you eat should come from vegetables (both cooked and raw). Earlier in the day, at breakfast and lunch, you can have a moderate amount of low-starch carbohydrate such as wild rice, oat bran, oatmeal and quinoa, a grainy, high-protein alternative to other blood-sugar spiking carbohydrates like white rice and pasta.

Try to limit your portion sizes of carbohydrates to a fist or fist and a half. Your protein choice should also be limited to about the size of your fist. Good protein choices to choose from at every meal include:

Lean meat and poultry
Fish
Eggs
Soybeans (don’t opt for soy meat substitutes)
Protein powder (perfect for late-morning smoothies)

Dietary fats are the third component of balanced meals. Fats get a bad rap in the media. Eating fat won’t necessarily make you fat. Eating more calories than you burn and consuming too much sugar without burning them by exercising will make you fat. Natural fats help slow down blood sugar and regulate insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. Some nutritionists think that eating full-fat ice cream is actually better for you than fat-free because the fat prevents blood sugar spikes. The problem, of course, with eating any ice cream variety is portion control.

Examples of natural fat include:

Olive oil
Egg yolks
Avocados
Nuts and seeds
Flaxseed oil

The amount of natural fat at every meal should generally be low, as in a tablespoon of olive oil on a salad or an eighth of an avocado and a handful of sunflower seeds and one egg yolk.

If you need to snack, it’s best to eat something that contains all 3 macronutrients, such as an apple with celery and a wee bit of peanut butter.

In addition to eating at least three small balanced meals throughout the day, here are some other tips for diabetics who need to lose weight:

Drink at least eight, 8-oz. glasses of water per day
Have most of your calories come from vegetables
Melt a tablespoon of butter over your veggies and sprinkle some sea salt to make them more appetizing.
If you eat at least 21 meals a week (three a day), allow yourself two very small ‘cheat’ snacks per week. Try to make them healthy ones like one small square of dark chocolate.
Try to walk after every meal for at least 10 minutes. This will help regulate blood sugar.

Iron for vegetarians

2011-12-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Mixing plant-based iron sources with foods that are also high in Vitamin C can increase iron absorption....

Vegetarians, rejoice! Although it might be commonplace to assume that non-meat eaters have lower iron levels than omnivores, numerous studies have proven that there is no noticeable difference between the two groups.

But if you're a concerned vegetarian, here’s a primer on iron for vegetarians.

Iron, an essential mineral, has several functions, including:

Helping transport oxygen to the cells
Making ATP (adenosine triphosphate), our cell’s main energy producer
Aiding in blood cell creation
Supporting protein structures in the body
Creating connective tissue in the body

Vegetarians have good reason to fear lacking adequate amounts of iron. Low iron levels can lead to anemia, which can result in numerous negative side effects, including lethargy, shortness of breath and headaches.

Strict vegetarians are more at risk for developing iron-deficiency anemia than those who also eat some fish and eggs.

Although the iron from some vegetarian sources is harder to absorb than animal-flesh protein, mixing plant-based iron sources with foods that are also high in Vitamin C can increase iron absorption.

Some of the best vegetarian sources of iron include:

Whole grains
Dried beans
Egg yolks
Dried fruits

Iron supplements are encouraged for vegetarians who don’t get enough iron-rich foods. But, they are not absorbed by the body as effectively as the best whole food sources that are naturally rich in iron.

Did Popeye get enough iron from spinach?
Popeye was strong to the finish because he ate his spinach — or most people would like to believe.

In terms of iron density per 100 calories, spinach is unparalleled in its iron content, checking in at over 15 mg. In other words, 100 calories of spinach has the same amount of iron as eating 1700 calories of sirloin steak, according to the Vegetarian Resource Group.

But, if Popeye ate spinach alone, his iron absorption levels might be low. The problem with spinach is that it’s high in oxalic acid, which binds to iron and hinders absorption.

What other foods have oxalic acid?
Whole grains, which, if you’re paying attention, are aforementioned as a great vegetarian source of iron, but they are also high in oxalic acid. So are beans and nuts.

What to do? Eat foods that are high in Vitamin C, which helps absorb iron. Examples include broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes (tomato juice as well), potatoes and red and green peppers.

Other sources of iron-rich foods for vegetarians
One cup of cooked soybeans has almost 9 mg of iron. Cooked lentils are also an excellent source, containing nearly 7 mg. Quinoa has over 6 mg. Swiss chard checks in at 4 mg per cooked cup and black, pinto and kidney beans all have at least 3 mg. And one large potato has 3.2 mg of iron.

Two types of iron
In general, dried beans and dark, leafy green vegetables are excellent sources of iron. On a per-calorie basis, vegetarian sources of iron are often touted as being better sources of iron than meat. But there are two forms of iron: heme and non-heme sources.

Meat contains both non-heme and heme iron, the latter of which is generally regarded as easier to absorb by the body than non-heme sources. Vegetarian and vegan sources of iron are comprised entirely of the non-heme form of iron.

Because of this fact, you’d think vegetarians suffer from iron deficiencies much more than omnivores, but vegetarians who consume plenty of Vitamin C have, for the most part, adequate levels of iron.

Vegetarians are lucky that most vegetables that are high in iron are also high in Vitamin C.