*How Your Spice Cabinet Can Boost Your Metabolism**
I've written before about the power of certain herbs and spices in terms of antioxidant capacity and other health benefits. If you remember, I wrote a couple months ago about the super-food status of cinnamon and how powerful a health food (or rather spice) that it can be.
The next super-spice -- Chili!
I was just reading about a recent Australian study that documented how you can burn more calories, increase your metabolism slightly, and help control your blood sugar and insulin levels by including chili peppers and chili spice (or cayenne) in your foods.
Keep in mind, this may be a minor "detail", but when you add up a lot of these types of "details", you can make significant changes to your body over time.
As you've probably heard in the past, the active ingredient in chili pepper (capsaicin) can cause slight increases in your metabolic rate and calorie burning from a meal. This has been reported many times in both animal and human studies.
However, in this Australian study, Madeleine J. Ball, MD, one of the researchers from the study, sought to find out how chili pepper affected blood sugar and insulin response after a meal.
As you know, chronically high insulin levels in your body can not only cause deposition of excess body fat, but also can lead to diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The study was split into groups of subjects that ate meals without chili spice, and other groups of subjects that ate meals with chili pepper.
As it turned out, the chili pepper eating groups had lower insulin levels and more stable blood sugar after the meals than the groups that ate the same food without chile. According to Dr. Ball, "the chili is probably having some effect on the ability of the body to clear -- or remove -- insulin from the bloodstream".
Aside from the temporary calorie burning boost and insulin controlling response, apparently chili pepper also has significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties...
So if you can handle a bit of spicyness, go ahead and enjoy adding some extra cayenne or chili pepper to your pot of meat & bean chili, your morning eggs, meat dishes, and other meals, knowing it's possibly giving you a slight edge in the fat burning department.
One of my favorite meals that I've been eating a lot of lately is my home-made chili. I make big batches of it, and that leaves leftovers for quick and healthy meals whenever you need them.
Saturday 30 July 2011
The Dark Side of Soy
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
co-author - The Fat Burning Kitchen
Only a few decades ago, unfermented soybean foods were considered unfit to eat - even in Asia. These days, people all over the world have been fooled into thinking that unfermented soy foods like soymilk and soy protein are somehow "health foods". If they only knew the real truth!
The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of fermentation techniques, some time during the Chou Dynasty. The first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy sauce.
At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century BC, Chinese scientists discovered that a puree of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (plaster of Paris or Epsom salts) to make a smooth, pale curd - tofu or bean curd. The use of fermented and precipitated soy products soon spread to other parts of the Orient, notably Japan and Indonesia.
Growth-depressant compounds are deactivated during the process of fermentation, so once the Chinese discovered how to ferment the soybean, they began to incorporate soy foods into their diets.
The Chinese NEVER ate large amounts of unfermented soy foods or soymilk
The Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other legumes such as lentils because the soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes vital for protein digestion.
These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer.
Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. Weaned rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow normally.
Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress thyroid function.
Although soy has been known to suppress thyroid function for over 60 years, and although scientists have identified the goitrogenic component of soy as the so-called "beneficial isoflavones", the industry insists that soy depresses thyroid function only in the absence of iodine.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham reports a case in which consumption of a soy protein dietary supplement decreased the absorption of thyroxine. The patient had undergone thyroid surgery and needed to take thyroid hormone. Higher oral doses of thyroid hormone were needed when she consumed soy -- she presumably used iodized salt so iodine intake did not prevent the goitrogenic effects of soy.
A very large percentage of soy is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages of contamination by pesticides of any of our foods.
Soybeans are high in phytic acid, present in the bran or hulls of all seeds. Phytic acid is a substance that can block the uptake of essential minerals - calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc - in the intestinal tract.
The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume that has been studied, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.
When precipitated soy products like tofu are consumed with meat, the mineral-blocking effects of the phytates are reduced. The Japanese traditionally eat a small amount of tofu or miso as part of a mineral-rich fish broth, followed by a serving of meat or fish.
People who substitute tofu or bean curd for meat can get severe mineral deficiencies
Vegetarians who consume tofu and bean curd as a substitute for meat and dairy products risk severe mineral deficiencies. The results of calcium, magnesium and iron deficiency are well known; those of zinc are less well known, but equally as bad. Far far more healthy is to eat pure grass fed meats, cheese, and butter, all high in nutrients and protein rich.
Zinc is called the intelligence mineral because it is needed for optimal development and functioning of the brain and nervous system. It plays a role in protein synthesis and collagen formation; it is involved in the blood-sugar control mechanism and thus protects against diabetes; it is needed for a healthy reproductive system. Grass fed beef is very high in this necessary nutrient, in contrast to soy.
Soy processors have worked hard to get these anti-nutrients out of the finished soy product, particularly soy protein isolate (SPI) which is the key ingredient in most soy foods that imitate meat and dairy products, including baby formulas and some brands of soy milk.
Soy Protein Isolate is an Industrially Produced Food -- Far from Natural or Healthy!
SPI is not something you can make in your own kitchen. Production takes place in industrial factories where a slurry of soy beans is first mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution.
Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into the final product. The resultant curds are spray - dried at high temperatures to produce a high-protein powder. A final indignity to the original soybean is high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion processing of soy protein isolate to produce textured vegetable protein (TVP).
Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying, and a toxin called lysinoalanine is formed during alkaline processing.
In feeding experiments, the use of SPI increased requirements for vitamins E, K, D and B12 and created deficiency symptoms of calcium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid remaining in these soy products greatly inhibits zinc and iron absorption; test animals fed SPI develop enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increased deposition of fatty acids in the liver.
Yet soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein (TVP) are used extensively in school lunch programs, commercial baked goods, diet beverages and fast food products. They are heavily promoted in third world countries and form the basis of many food give-away programs.
Soy Protein Isolate was once considered a waste product (before they discovered they could make money promoting it as health food!)
Advances in technology make it possible to produce isolated soy protein from what was once considered a waste product - the defatted, high-protein soy chips - and then transform something that looks and smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings. Flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned soy protein isolate, the food processors' ugly duckling, into a new age swan.
"The quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less affluent society," said an industry spokesman, "is to have the product consumed on its own merit in a more affluent society." So soy is now sold to the upscale consumer, not as a cheap, poverty food but as a miracle substance that will prevent heart disease and cancer, whisk away hot flushes, build strong bones and keep us forever young. Or so they want you to believe!
The competition - meat, milk, cheese, butter and eggs - have been duly demonized by the appropriate government bodies. Soy serves as meat and milk for a new generation of virtuous vegetarians.
The soy industry hired Norman Robert Associates, a public relations firm, to get more soy products onto school menus. The USDA responded with a proposal to scrap the 30 per cent limit for soy in school lunches.
The 'NuMenu' program would allow unlimited use of soy in student meals. With soy added to hamburgers, tacos and lasagna, dieticians can get the total fat content below 30 per cent of calories, thereby conforming to government dictates. With the soy-enhanced food items, students are receiving better servings of nutrients and less cholesterol and fat, so says the soy industry. We now know this to be a negative, rather than positive addition to their food supply.
You've been deceived into thinking Soy Milk is healthy
Soy milk has posted the biggest gains, soaring from $2 million in 1980 to $300 million in the US last year. Recent advances in processing have transformed the gray, thin, bitter, beany-tasting Asian beverage into a product that Western consumers will accept - one that tastes like a milkshake, but without the "guilt"... they claim.
The long and demanding road to FDA approval actually took a few unexpected turns. The original petition, submitted by Protein Technology International, requested a health claim for isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in soybeans, based on assertions that only soy protein that has been processed in a manner in which isoflavones are retained will result in cholesterol lowering.
In 1998, the FDA made the unprecedented move of rewriting PTI's petition, removing any reference to the phytoestrogens and substituting a claim for soy protein - a move that was in direct contradiction to the agency's regulations. The FDA is authorized to make rulings only on substances presented by petition.
Are soy isoflavones actually toxic?
The abrupt change in direction was no doubt due to the fact that a number of researchers, including scientists employed by the US Government, submitted documents indicating that isoflavones are toxic.
The FDA had also received, early in 1998, the final British Government report on phyto-estrogens, which failed to find much evidence of benefit and warned against potential adverse effects.
Even with the change to soy protein isolate, FDA bureaucrats engaged in the rigorous approval process were forced to deal nimbly with concerns about mineral blocking effects, enzyme inhibitors, goitrogenicity, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems and increased allergic reactions from consumption of soy products.
One of the strongest letters of protest came from Dr Dan Sheehan and Dr Daniel Doerge, government researchers at the National Center for Toxicological Research. Their pleas for warning labels were dismissed as unwarranted.
Research that ties soy to positive effects on cholesterol levels is incredibly immature, said Ronald M. Krauss, MD, head of the Molecular Medical Research Program and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He might have added that studies in which cholesterol levels were lowered through either diet or drugs have consistently resulted in a greater number of deaths in the treatment groups than in controls - deaths from stroke, cancer, intestinal disorders, accident and suicide.
Cholesterol-lowering measures in the US have fueled a $60 billion per year cholesterol-lowering industry, but have not saved us from the ravages of heart disease.
The health risks of soy are finally becoming known in the media
The media have not only questioned the health benefits of soy but begun reporting on the risks. In July, the Israeli Health Ministry warned that babies should not receive soy formula, that children should eat soy no more than once per day to a maximum of three times per week and that adults should exercise caution because of increased risk of breast cancer and adverse effects on fertility.
The Ministry based its advice upon the conclusions reached by a 13-member committee of nutritionists, oncologists, pediatricians and other specialists who spent more than year examining the evidence. They concluded that the estrogen-like plant hormones in soy can cause adverse effects on the human body and strongly urged consumers to minimize their consumption of soy foods until absolute safety has been proven.
Soy has the potential to disrupt the digestive, immune and neuroendocrine systems of the human body and its role in rising rates of infertility, hypothyroidism and some types of cancer including thyroid and pancreatic cancers.
Soy is also highly allergenic. Most experts now place soy protein among the top eight allergens of all foods, and some rate it in the top six or even top four. Allergic reactions to soy are increasingly common, ranging from mild to life threatening, and some fatalities have been reported.
People are finally starting to learn that soy is NOT a miracle health food, and more and more expert scientists are issuing warnings about soy.
I hope this article has convinced you to consider reducing or eliminating your consumption of soy foods, soy milk, or soy protein. Fermented soy such as tempeh, natto, and miso are ok on occasion and in moderation.
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
co-author - The Fat Burning Kitchen
Only a few decades ago, unfermented soybean foods were considered unfit to eat - even in Asia. These days, people all over the world have been fooled into thinking that unfermented soy foods like soymilk and soy protein are somehow "health foods". If they only knew the real truth!
The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of fermentation techniques, some time during the Chou Dynasty. The first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy sauce.
At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century BC, Chinese scientists discovered that a puree of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (plaster of Paris or Epsom salts) to make a smooth, pale curd - tofu or bean curd. The use of fermented and precipitated soy products soon spread to other parts of the Orient, notably Japan and Indonesia.
Growth-depressant compounds are deactivated during the process of fermentation, so once the Chinese discovered how to ferment the soybean, they began to incorporate soy foods into their diets.
The Chinese NEVER ate large amounts of unfermented soy foods or soymilk
The Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other legumes such as lentils because the soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes vital for protein digestion.
These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer.
Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. Weaned rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow normally.
Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress thyroid function.
Although soy has been known to suppress thyroid function for over 60 years, and although scientists have identified the goitrogenic component of soy as the so-called "beneficial isoflavones", the industry insists that soy depresses thyroid function only in the absence of iodine.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham reports a case in which consumption of a soy protein dietary supplement decreased the absorption of thyroxine. The patient had undergone thyroid surgery and needed to take thyroid hormone. Higher oral doses of thyroid hormone were needed when she consumed soy -- she presumably used iodized salt so iodine intake did not prevent the goitrogenic effects of soy.
A very large percentage of soy is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages of contamination by pesticides of any of our foods.
Soybeans are high in phytic acid, present in the bran or hulls of all seeds. Phytic acid is a substance that can block the uptake of essential minerals - calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc - in the intestinal tract.
The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume that has been studied, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.
When precipitated soy products like tofu are consumed with meat, the mineral-blocking effects of the phytates are reduced. The Japanese traditionally eat a small amount of tofu or miso as part of a mineral-rich fish broth, followed by a serving of meat or fish.
People who substitute tofu or bean curd for meat can get severe mineral deficiencies
Vegetarians who consume tofu and bean curd as a substitute for meat and dairy products risk severe mineral deficiencies. The results of calcium, magnesium and iron deficiency are well known; those of zinc are less well known, but equally as bad. Far far more healthy is to eat pure grass fed meats, cheese, and butter, all high in nutrients and protein rich.
Zinc is called the intelligence mineral because it is needed for optimal development and functioning of the brain and nervous system. It plays a role in protein synthesis and collagen formation; it is involved in the blood-sugar control mechanism and thus protects against diabetes; it is needed for a healthy reproductive system. Grass fed beef is very high in this necessary nutrient, in contrast to soy.
Soy processors have worked hard to get these anti-nutrients out of the finished soy product, particularly soy protein isolate (SPI) which is the key ingredient in most soy foods that imitate meat and dairy products, including baby formulas and some brands of soy milk.
Soy Protein Isolate is an Industrially Produced Food -- Far from Natural or Healthy!
SPI is not something you can make in your own kitchen. Production takes place in industrial factories where a slurry of soy beans is first mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution.
Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into the final product. The resultant curds are spray - dried at high temperatures to produce a high-protein powder. A final indignity to the original soybean is high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion processing of soy protein isolate to produce textured vegetable protein (TVP).
Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying, and a toxin called lysinoalanine is formed during alkaline processing.
In feeding experiments, the use of SPI increased requirements for vitamins E, K, D and B12 and created deficiency symptoms of calcium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid remaining in these soy products greatly inhibits zinc and iron absorption; test animals fed SPI develop enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increased deposition of fatty acids in the liver.
Yet soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein (TVP) are used extensively in school lunch programs, commercial baked goods, diet beverages and fast food products. They are heavily promoted in third world countries and form the basis of many food give-away programs.
Soy Protein Isolate was once considered a waste product (before they discovered they could make money promoting it as health food!)
Advances in technology make it possible to produce isolated soy protein from what was once considered a waste product - the defatted, high-protein soy chips - and then transform something that looks and smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings. Flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned soy protein isolate, the food processors' ugly duckling, into a new age swan.
"The quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less affluent society," said an industry spokesman, "is to have the product consumed on its own merit in a more affluent society." So soy is now sold to the upscale consumer, not as a cheap, poverty food but as a miracle substance that will prevent heart disease and cancer, whisk away hot flushes, build strong bones and keep us forever young. Or so they want you to believe!
The competition - meat, milk, cheese, butter and eggs - have been duly demonized by the appropriate government bodies. Soy serves as meat and milk for a new generation of virtuous vegetarians.
The soy industry hired Norman Robert Associates, a public relations firm, to get more soy products onto school menus. The USDA responded with a proposal to scrap the 30 per cent limit for soy in school lunches.
The 'NuMenu' program would allow unlimited use of soy in student meals. With soy added to hamburgers, tacos and lasagna, dieticians can get the total fat content below 30 per cent of calories, thereby conforming to government dictates. With the soy-enhanced food items, students are receiving better servings of nutrients and less cholesterol and fat, so says the soy industry. We now know this to be a negative, rather than positive addition to their food supply.
You've been deceived into thinking Soy Milk is healthy
Soy milk has posted the biggest gains, soaring from $2 million in 1980 to $300 million in the US last year. Recent advances in processing have transformed the gray, thin, bitter, beany-tasting Asian beverage into a product that Western consumers will accept - one that tastes like a milkshake, but without the "guilt"... they claim.
The long and demanding road to FDA approval actually took a few unexpected turns. The original petition, submitted by Protein Technology International, requested a health claim for isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in soybeans, based on assertions that only soy protein that has been processed in a manner in which isoflavones are retained will result in cholesterol lowering.
In 1998, the FDA made the unprecedented move of rewriting PTI's petition, removing any reference to the phytoestrogens and substituting a claim for soy protein - a move that was in direct contradiction to the agency's regulations. The FDA is authorized to make rulings only on substances presented by petition.
Are soy isoflavones actually toxic?
The abrupt change in direction was no doubt due to the fact that a number of researchers, including scientists employed by the US Government, submitted documents indicating that isoflavones are toxic.
The FDA had also received, early in 1998, the final British Government report on phyto-estrogens, which failed to find much evidence of benefit and warned against potential adverse effects.
Even with the change to soy protein isolate, FDA bureaucrats engaged in the rigorous approval process were forced to deal nimbly with concerns about mineral blocking effects, enzyme inhibitors, goitrogenicity, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems and increased allergic reactions from consumption of soy products.
One of the strongest letters of protest came from Dr Dan Sheehan and Dr Daniel Doerge, government researchers at the National Center for Toxicological Research. Their pleas for warning labels were dismissed as unwarranted.
Research that ties soy to positive effects on cholesterol levels is incredibly immature, said Ronald M. Krauss, MD, head of the Molecular Medical Research Program and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He might have added that studies in which cholesterol levels were lowered through either diet or drugs have consistently resulted in a greater number of deaths in the treatment groups than in controls - deaths from stroke, cancer, intestinal disorders, accident and suicide.
Cholesterol-lowering measures in the US have fueled a $60 billion per year cholesterol-lowering industry, but have not saved us from the ravages of heart disease.
The health risks of soy are finally becoming known in the media
The media have not only questioned the health benefits of soy but begun reporting on the risks. In July, the Israeli Health Ministry warned that babies should not receive soy formula, that children should eat soy no more than once per day to a maximum of three times per week and that adults should exercise caution because of increased risk of breast cancer and adverse effects on fertility.
The Ministry based its advice upon the conclusions reached by a 13-member committee of nutritionists, oncologists, pediatricians and other specialists who spent more than year examining the evidence. They concluded that the estrogen-like plant hormones in soy can cause adverse effects on the human body and strongly urged consumers to minimize their consumption of soy foods until absolute safety has been proven.
Soy has the potential to disrupt the digestive, immune and neuroendocrine systems of the human body and its role in rising rates of infertility, hypothyroidism and some types of cancer including thyroid and pancreatic cancers.
Soy is also highly allergenic. Most experts now place soy protein among the top eight allergens of all foods, and some rate it in the top six or even top four. Allergic reactions to soy are increasingly common, ranging from mild to life threatening, and some fatalities have been reported.
People are finally starting to learn that soy is NOT a miracle health food, and more and more expert scientists are issuing warnings about soy.
I hope this article has convinced you to consider reducing or eliminating your consumption of soy foods, soy milk, or soy protein. Fermented soy such as tempeh, natto, and miso are ok on occasion and in moderation.
Grow Younger With This Special Fat
By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RD
It starts sometime after you hit 30: you get out of bed one morning and your back feels like a stiff branch and your knees are more creaky than they’ve ever been. For at least a few seconds, you take slow steps, one by one, until your body loosens up and feels no pain, like it normally felt when you were a younger person.
That morning, when you got out of bed, you realized that the hill you’ve been climbing is starting to get a bit rockier. All those past years of jumping off rooftops, or lifting extremely heavy weights, is starting to feel it’s damaging effects. Today you realize it: you’re getting old.
The realization of stiffness, and perhaps even the start of arthritis or joint degeneration, is even worse than finding your first grey hair – at least with the hair you can cover it up. But, this stiffness in your back and achiness in your knees is a bit harder to hide; and you know it’s going to get worse.
Age-spots, wrinkles, thinning skin, aching joints; these are all signs of the proverbial time bomb that is our lifespan. We all want to go out with a bang, but how fast we go and how good we feel during this process all depends on how we treat our bodies from day one. Everything from nutrition, to our choice of exercise, to our choice of “recreational activities”, has an influence on our bodies’ aging lifeline.
How old are you, really?
Recently, scientists have discovered a truly unique way to measure how old your body really is. In 2009, the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to molecular scientists for uncovering unique proteins in our bodies, called Telomeres, and their enzymes, telomerases, that play an important role in the aging process.
Telomeres are snippets of DNA at the end of our chromosomes that function like little end-caps, providing stability and protection to our genetic material. The enzyme telomerase is responsible for rebuilding and maintaining telomere structure and is found within our cells. Most normal human adult cells however, do not have enough active telomerase to maintain telomere length indefinitely, and therefore undergo telomere attrition with age.
Our telomeres shorten as a normal process of cellular division (which occurs all the time within our bodies). Each time a cell divides, the telomere is decreased in length until a critical length is reached, signaling cell death. This process of telomere shortening represents a ‘molecular clock’ that underlies aging. Usually telomerase enzymes rebuild your telomeres, but as we noted above, they have their own life span too.
Measuring age with telomeres
Telomere length is currently the best measure of your actual biological age compared to chronological age. It is also an important barometer of your overall health. Obesity is closely associated with chronic diseases, several cancers and premature death. Obese adults are found to have shorter telomeres than their normal weight counterparts. These findings support the notion that excess body fat may accelerate aging. Exercise, on the other hand, is found to up-regulate telomerase activity, which may provide the underlying molecular mechanism for the anti-aging effects of regular physical exercise.
Many human diseases of different origins that are associated with aging, as well as late stages of cancer are characterized by the presence of short telomeres. It then stands to reason that therapies directed at preserving telomere length may slow aging and retard the onset of age-related diseases.
Preserving telomeres with omega-3s
When people think of omega-3 fats from seafood, they often think heart health and fat loss.
However, they can now associate a new benefit to omega-3s: Longevity.
New research suggests that these special essential fatty acids may actually preserve telomerase activity, and in turn, prevent shortening of telomeres themselves.
Cardiologists from the University of California, San Francisco, and other hospitals measured telomere length over five years in 608 patients who had coronary-artery blockage and previous heart attacks. Researchers found that people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their white blood cells experienced significantly less shortening of telomeres over five years, as compared with patients with lower omega-3 levels.
This study focused on levels of omega-3s from marine sources, not from vegetable sources like flaxseed or walnuts. Omega-3 from plants don’t have the same effect on telomere length as seafood omega-3s, but still have other benefits, like improving the blood cholesterol profile.
Although all these patients had experienced some cardiac event, those with longer telomeres have less cellular aging and are most likely to live the longest with the most vitality.
The researchers in this study hypothesized that omega-3s work via two mechanisms to protect telomeres and preserve cellular health. First, omega-3s protect your cells against oxidative stress, a process that occurs in every one’s body and accelerates the aging process (free radicals and oxidative stress are one of the causes of age spots, wrinkles, joint pain and disease through cell damage). Second, omega-3s increase the activity of telomerase enzymes so that telomeres are always being rebuilt and preserved.
Marine Omega-3s for Healthy Longevity
Omega-3s from marine sources may be one way to preserve your youthfulness and protect against the damaging effects of aging. Think of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) like little super heroes of the fat world: in one punch they knock down free radical enemies while helping telomerases keep your telomeres healthy and long.
5 Powerful Foods that Lower Your Blood Pressure
Are you eating enough of these 5 amazing foods that help reduce high blood pressure?
by Frank Mangano
Consumer Health Advocate
Author of the popular book: Blood Pressure Miracle
Did you know that stroke and coronary heart disease still remain to be on the list of the top three main causes of death in the USA? It's time to take your health seriously so you don't fall victim to these!
What is High Blood Pressure and how does this come into play?
According to the National Institute for Health, blood pressure levels of 140/90 mmHg or more can be classified as hypertension.
The worst part about having high blood pressure is that the condition can sometimes be present without any symptoms and before we know it, the damage is already extensive. Serious problems that have been associated with high blood pressure include kidney failure, heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
What are the Risk Factors Associated with High Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure can be influenced by a lot of factors – age, race, family history, tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, diet, binge drinking, and stress levels. Chronic conditions such as sleep apnea, diabetes and high cholesterol levels can also precipitate the development of hypertension.
What can You Do to Lower Blood Pressure?
You don't need potentially dangerous drugs to control and reduce your blood pressure. Controlling blood pressure levels could be as simple as doing lifestyle modifications and eating healthier.
If you are a smoker, quit. If you drink heavily, try to practice self-control. At work, take the stairs instead of the elevator. And if you have been obsessed with sweet, sugary foods as well as processed fast-food meals, then modify your eating habits as well. Learn to eat the right kinds of food before it's too late.
Below are 5 of my top picks for powerful foods that could help you lower your blood pressure levels:
1. Artichokes
The use of artichokes has been implicated in the lowering of cholesterol levels in the blood. Since hypercholesterolemia is one of the risk factors for high blood pressure, this information is actually good news. Three clinical trials conducted separately by Dr. Barbara Wider supports this fact. In Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews’ October 2009 issue, where the result of the study was published, it was shown that patients who were diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia and given Artichoke leaf extract exhibited a decrease in their blood cholesterol levels.
Artichokes taste amazing steamed (generally steam for about 1 hour) and then dip each piece into a mixture of olive oil, grass-fed butter, and garlic. Delicious!
2. Bananas
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine says that incorporating bananas in your day-to-day meals can actually cut stroke-related deaths by as much as 40 percent. A 1997 study at Johns Hopkins University recommended eating at least five bananas daily to achieve the desired effect, and that is to lower elevated blood pressure levels. However, a study conducted by Indian researchers at the Kasturba medical college revealed that people who eat two bananas a day, for one whole week, can lower their blood pressure levels by 10 percent.
Bananas are rich in potassium, which is responsible for the proper functioning of the heart. It works with sodium to maintain balance of the body’s fluids, which is an important factor in the regulation of blood pressure.
3. Beets
A research study conducted by scientists from Barts and The London School Medicine revealed that simply drinking one 500 ml glass of beetroot juice each day can produce astounding health benefits, especially to the heart.
Beetroot juice has been found to lower high blood pressure levels. Professors Amrita Ahluwalia and Ben Benjamin, from the William Harvey Research Institute and Peninsula Medical Center, respectively, led the research efforts, which revealed that the consumption of dietary nitrate that is found in beetroot has BP-lowering effects in as fast as 1 hour after ingestion, with the effect lasting for up to 24 hours. The result of the study was published in the March 2008 issue of Hypertension.
You can try beetroot juice, or also try baked beets sliced on salads or as a side dish to dinner.
4. Cocoa
A study conducted by researchers from Germany’s University Hospital of Cologne revealed that cocoa can significantly lower high blood pressure levels. Study results were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The beneficial heart effects of cocoa are attributed to its flavonoid content, specifically procyanids.
Because cocoa is most commonly found in chocolate, people falsely assume that eating a lot of chocolate could be good for the health. Keep in mind that cocoa in chocolates have undergone a lot of processing, and it has been mixed with loads of sugar, so this is not totally healthy. The best way to take advantage of the health benefits offered by cocoa is to choose raw cacao – it is good for the heart, the brain and the liver. Raw cacao nibs go great in smoothies! Also use organic cocoa powder in smoothies or homemade hot cocoa sweetened with stevia instead of sugar.
5. Garlic
Researchers from South Australia’s University of Adelaide have conducted studies, which provide solid proof that the consumption of garlic can indeed help lower elevated blood pressure levels. Garlic supplements in powder form were given and results revealed that it produced a reduction in systolic blood pressure. Garlic has been known all over the world as a very important herb, especially with its heart-protecting capabilities. It helps lower blood cholesterol levels and prevents blood from forming clots (which could lead to heart attack and stroke).
Furthermore, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal has published the results of a laboratory test showing how garlic juice can lead to a decrease in blood pressure levels. Eating the equivalent of 2 cloves of garlic each day can significantly contribute to the health of the heart.
Are you eating enough of these 5 amazing foods that help reduce high blood pressure?
by Frank Mangano
Consumer Health Advocate
Author of the popular book: Blood Pressure Miracle
Did you know that stroke and coronary heart disease still remain to be on the list of the top three main causes of death in the USA? It's time to take your health seriously so you don't fall victim to these!
What is High Blood Pressure and how does this come into play?
According to the National Institute for Health, blood pressure levels of 140/90 mmHg or more can be classified as hypertension.
The worst part about having high blood pressure is that the condition can sometimes be present without any symptoms and before we know it, the damage is already extensive. Serious problems that have been associated with high blood pressure include kidney failure, heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
What are the Risk Factors Associated with High Blood Pressure?
Blood pressure can be influenced by a lot of factors – age, race, family history, tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle, diet, binge drinking, and stress levels. Chronic conditions such as sleep apnea, diabetes and high cholesterol levels can also precipitate the development of hypertension.
What can You Do to Lower Blood Pressure?
You don't need potentially dangerous drugs to control and reduce your blood pressure. Controlling blood pressure levels could be as simple as doing lifestyle modifications and eating healthier.
If you are a smoker, quit. If you drink heavily, try to practice self-control. At work, take the stairs instead of the elevator. And if you have been obsessed with sweet, sugary foods as well as processed fast-food meals, then modify your eating habits as well. Learn to eat the right kinds of food before it's too late.
Below are 5 of my top picks for powerful foods that could help you lower your blood pressure levels:
1. ArtichokesThe use of artichokes has been implicated in the lowering of cholesterol levels in the blood. Since hypercholesterolemia is one of the risk factors for high blood pressure, this information is actually good news. Three clinical trials conducted separately by Dr. Barbara Wider supports this fact. In Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews’ October 2009 issue, where the result of the study was published, it was shown that patients who were diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia and given Artichoke leaf extract exhibited a decrease in their blood cholesterol levels.
Artichokes taste amazing steamed (generally steam for about 1 hour) and then dip each piece into a mixture of olive oil, grass-fed butter, and garlic. Delicious!
2. BananasA study published in The New England Journal of Medicine says that incorporating bananas in your day-to-day meals can actually cut stroke-related deaths by as much as 40 percent. A 1997 study at Johns Hopkins University recommended eating at least five bananas daily to achieve the desired effect, and that is to lower elevated blood pressure levels. However, a study conducted by Indian researchers at the Kasturba medical college revealed that people who eat two bananas a day, for one whole week, can lower their blood pressure levels by 10 percent.
Bananas are rich in potassium, which is responsible for the proper functioning of the heart. It works with sodium to maintain balance of the body’s fluids, which is an important factor in the regulation of blood pressure.
3. BeetsA research study conducted by scientists from Barts and The London School Medicine revealed that simply drinking one 500 ml glass of beetroot juice each day can produce astounding health benefits, especially to the heart.
Beetroot juice has been found to lower high blood pressure levels. Professors Amrita Ahluwalia and Ben Benjamin, from the William Harvey Research Institute and Peninsula Medical Center, respectively, led the research efforts, which revealed that the consumption of dietary nitrate that is found in beetroot has BP-lowering effects in as fast as 1 hour after ingestion, with the effect lasting for up to 24 hours. The result of the study was published in the March 2008 issue of Hypertension.
You can try beetroot juice, or also try baked beets sliced on salads or as a side dish to dinner.
4. CocoaA study conducted by researchers from Germany’s University Hospital of Cologne revealed that cocoa can significantly lower high blood pressure levels. Study results were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The beneficial heart effects of cocoa are attributed to its flavonoid content, specifically procyanids.
Because cocoa is most commonly found in chocolate, people falsely assume that eating a lot of chocolate could be good for the health. Keep in mind that cocoa in chocolates have undergone a lot of processing, and it has been mixed with loads of sugar, so this is not totally healthy. The best way to take advantage of the health benefits offered by cocoa is to choose raw cacao – it is good for the heart, the brain and the liver. Raw cacao nibs go great in smoothies! Also use organic cocoa powder in smoothies or homemade hot cocoa sweetened with stevia instead of sugar.
5. GarlicResearchers from South Australia’s University of Adelaide have conducted studies, which provide solid proof that the consumption of garlic can indeed help lower elevated blood pressure levels. Garlic supplements in powder form were given and results revealed that it produced a reduction in systolic blood pressure. Garlic has been known all over the world as a very important herb, especially with its heart-protecting capabilities. It helps lower blood cholesterol levels and prevents blood from forming clots (which could lead to heart attack and stroke).
Furthermore, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal has published the results of a laboratory test showing how garlic juice can lead to a decrease in blood pressure levels. Eating the equivalent of 2 cloves of garlic each day can significantly contribute to the health of the heart.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
One of The World's Greatest Snacks -- A Healthy Treat for a Lean Body
Why pistachios not only taste delicious, but are also jam-packed with nutrition for your lean healthy body
by Cat Ebeling, RN, BSN & Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialistco-authors of the Fat Burning Kitchen program
Some people mistakenly think that pistachios are a "fattening" food... but despite having loads of healthy fats, these yummy little snacks can actually HELP you to burn off stomach fat. Let's see why...
Do you remember eating pistachios when they used to be dyed a deep pinkish/red? They were always so delicious, but after eating a bunch of those bright "red" nuts, your fingers and hands would be stained red.
Pistachios, as we now know, do not grow as magenta-colored nuts but come in a nice natural tan colored shell with a mild-tasting, crunchy, green and yellow interior. Nuts have risen in popularity lately, but did you know that pistachios are probably one of the most nutritious of all nuts?
It's hard to compare anything to the nutritional benefit of nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans... but pistachios give them a run for the money!
Just a one-ounce serving of pistachios will give you over 30 vitamins, minerals and other super nutrients.
One of the best things about nuts in general, is that they are full of minerals that are VITAL to our body's proper functioning. And if you have paid much attention to nutrition news lately, you may be aware that minerals are getting harder and harder to obtain from our diet, and many people are mineral-deficient in one way or another.
So what are these great nutrients in pistachios?
Well for starters, pistachios are full of copper, phosphorus, and manganese (different from magnesium).
Copper is made up of multiple enzymes that help to create many of the necessary biochemical reactions in your body and also forms connective tissue. Manganese also helps form connective and skeletal tissue, and is instrumental in growth, reproduction and (this is good!) carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Phosphorus is very important for strong bones and teeth and works with calcium to prevent osteoporosis.
Other important minerals are magnesium -- necessary for more than 300 different important biochemical reactions in your body, and good for your heart and blood pressure; potassium --an electrolyte that keeps the body in the correct acid/base balance and also helps in forming proteins, metabolizing carbohydrates and building muscle.
And there is more to this nutritional powerhouse...
Pistachios are a rich source of B vitamins. B vitamins are essential for good nerve transmission, muscle building, a good mood, lots of energy, and infection-fighting power. They are also one of the highest protein nuts (as well as healthy fats), so they make a great satisfying snack that keeps your blood sugar and insulin at a good steady level.
In one study on pistachios and antioxidants, pistachios ranked up in the group with the highest amount of antioxidant activity above over 100 other foods. Antioxidants help to prevent free radical damage, which saves your cells and prevents aging and disease among other things.
We hear a lot about eye health and nutrients for the eyes lately, and guess what-- pistachios contain generous amount of lutein and zeaxanthin which prevent macular degeneration and other eye diseases related to aging.
Fiber
Last but not least, pistachios are full of appetite satisfying fiber -- as much as a serving of oatmeal.
Nuts in general are a great source of fiber, which is valuable for fighting cancer, controlling blood sugar, and aids in a feeling of fullness. Most people only get about half the recommended amount of fiber they need in their diets, so eating pistachios will help add to your dietary intake.
Healthy Fats
While eating extremely large quantities of pistachios would be a LOT of calories... the good news is that the protein, good fats and fiber in them are nutritious and satisfy so much of the nutrient needs of your body, it's VERY difficult to overeat them.
Even when only eating small servings of these nuts, they have been proven to provide a high rate of satiety. Besides, having to shell all those pistachios actually ends up making you eat them a little more slowly, so the message to your brain that you are full happens on less nuts than if you were eating something already out of its shell.
Try to go for the all-natural or organic pistachios with no salt of low salt. Some brands of pistachios are a bit heavy on the salt.
7 "FATTY" Foods that Can Help You to Get a Flat Stomach (some of these will surprise you!)
These 7 shocking Fatty (but healthy) super-foods can actually help you to burn body fat faster!
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of the best-seller -- The Truth about Six Pack Abs
I think at this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, keep blood sugar under control, and so on. Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...
1. Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher) - It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.
However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts. In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of pie.
Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content (I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to the amount of healthy fats. In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate... I look for more total fat than total carbs (or about the same number of grams of each).
The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood sugar response compared to other "sweets".
In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants, including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits. The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats. Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.
The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar. However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness. If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better. Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste. Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!
You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.
2. Coconut milk, coconut flour, and coconut oil -- Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system, and is lacking in most western diets. In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as bodyfat compared to other types of fats.
Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!). Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!
Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely NEEDS to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.
3. Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter -- yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, not deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to get lean. In fact, I eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter daily and maintain single digit bodyfat most times of the year.
There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter. It just shows that the majority of the population has zero idea that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
This discussion of why butter is actually healthy would take up too much room on this article, so I refer you to this article: how REAL butter can make you leaner.
If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and even though the label doesn't clearly state "grass-fed", the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids.
4. Whole Eggs, including the yolk (not just egg whites) -- Most people know that eggs are one of the highest quality sources of protein. However, most people don't know that the egg yolks are the healthiest part of the egg... that's where almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such as lutein) are found in eggs.
In fact, the egg yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids. Also, the protein of whole eggs is more bio-available than egg whites alone due to a more balanced amino acid profile that the yolks help to build.
Just make sure to choose free-range organic eggs instead of normal grocery store eggs. Similar to the grass-fed beef scenerio, the nutrient content of the eggs and the balance between healthy omega-3 fatty acids and inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (in excess) is controlled by the diet of the hens.
Chickens that are allowed to roam free outside and eat a more natural diet will give you healthier, more nutrient-rich eggs with a healthier fat balance compared with your typical grocery store eggs (that came from chickens fed nothing but soy and corn and crowded inside "egg factories" all day long).
If you want more details on eggs, here is an article that details more about why egg yolks are BETTER for you than egg whites.
5. Grass-fed beef or bison (NOT the typical grocery store beef!) -- I know most people think that red meat is unhealthy for you, but that's because they do not understand how the health of the animal affects how healthy the meat is for consumption. Keep this in mind -- "an unhealthy animal provides unhealthy meat, but a healthy animal provides healthy meat".
Typical beef or bison that you see at the grocery store is raised on grains, mainly corn (and to some extent, soybeans). Soy and corn are NOT the natural diet of cattle or bison, and therefore changes the chemical balance of fats and other nutrients in the beef or bison. Grain-fed beef and bison is typically WAY too high in omega-6 fats and WAY too low in omega-3 fats. In addition, the practice of feeding cattle corn and soy as the main portion of their diet upsets their digestive system and makes them sick... and it also increases the amount of dangerous e-coli in the meat. This is not the case with grass-fed meat.
On the other hand, grass-fed beef from cattle and buffalo (or bison) that were raised on the type of natural foods that they were meant to eat in nature (grass and other forage), have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fats and lower levels of inflammatory omega-6 fats (that most people already eat way too much of) compared to grain fed beef or bison.
Grass fed meats also typically contain up to 3 times the Vitamin E as in grain fed meats.
In addition, grass-fed meat from healthy cattle or bison also contain a special healthy fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in MUCH higher levels than grain-fed meat. CLA has been proven in scientific studies in recent years to help in burning fat and building lean muscle (which can help you lose weight!). These benefits are on top of the fact that grass-fed meats are some of the highest quality proteins that you can possibly eat... and this also aids in burning fat and building lean muscle.
Grass-fed meats are a little harder to find, but just ask your butcher or find a specialty grocery store and they usually have cuts available. I've also found a great site to order grass-fed meats online and have gotten to know the owner of this company well, and they are dedicated to the quality of their foods.
6. Avocados -- Even though avocados are typically thought of as a "fatty food", they are chock full of healthy fats! Not only is this fruit (yes, surprisingly, avocados are actually a fruit) super-high in monounsaturated fat, but also chock full of vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, and antioxidants.
Also, in my opinion, guacamole (mashed avocados with garlic, onion, tomato, pepper, etc) is one of the most delicious food toppings ever created, and you can be happy to know that it's also one of the healthiest toppings you can use on your foods. Try sliced avocados or guacamole on sandwiches, burgers, eggs or omelets, on salads or with fish, or as a delicious side to just about any meal.
The quality dose of healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients that you get from avocados helps your body to maintain proper levels of hormones that help with fat loss and muscle building. Also, since avocados are an extremely satiating food, eating them helps to reduce your appetite in the hours after your meal. Say goodbye to junk food cravings and bring on that fat burning! I personally eat anywhere from a half to a full avocado DAILY and it only helps to keep me lean.
7. Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Macadamias, etc -- Yes, this is yet another "fatty food" that can actually help you burn belly fat! Although nuts are generally between 75-90% fat in terms of a ratio of fat calories to total calories, this is another type of food that is all healthy fats, along with high levels of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Nuts are also a good source of fiber and protein, which of course, you know helps to control blood sugar and can aid in fat loss.
Nuts also help to maintain good levels of fat burning hormones in your body (adequate healthy fat intake is vitally important to hormone balance) as well as helping to control appetite and cravings so that you essentially eat less calories overall, even though you're consuming a high-fat food. My favorite healthy nuts are pecans, pistachios, almonds, macadamias, and walnuts, and by eating them in variety, you help to broaden the types of vitamins and minerals and also the balance of polyunsaturated to monounsaturated fats you obtain.
Try to find raw nuts instead of roasted nuts if you can, as it helps to maintain the quality and nutritional content of the healthy fats that you will eat.
Also, try to broaden your horizons beyond the typical peanut butter that most people eat, and try almond butter, cashew butter, pecan butter, or macadamia butter to add variety to your diet.
One of the little "tricks" that I've used with clients when trying to cut down body fat is to have them eat a handful of nuts such as almonds or pecans about 20 minutes before lunch and dinner. This ends up being a perfect time to control your appetite before lunch or dinner and helps you to eat less overall calories on that meal.
I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the healthiest "fatty" fat-burning foods you can possibly eat. I could list a ton more, but wanted to give you a few of my favorites for now. Enjoy!
These 7 shocking Fatty (but healthy) super-foods can actually help you to burn body fat faster!
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of the best-seller -- The Truth about Six Pack Abs
I think at this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, keep blood sugar under control, and so on. Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...
1. Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher) - It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts. In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of pie.
Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content (I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to the amount of healthy fats. In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate... I look for more total fat than total carbs (or about the same number of grams of each).
The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood sugar response compared to other "sweets".
In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants, including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits. The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats. Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.
The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar. However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness. If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better. Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste. Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!
You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.
2. Coconut milk, coconut flour, and coconut oil -- Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system, and is lacking in most western diets. In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as bodyfat compared to other types of fats.Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!). Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!
Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely NEEDS to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.
3. Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter -- yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, not deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to get lean. In fact, I eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter daily and maintain single digit bodyfat most times of the year.There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter. It just shows that the majority of the population has zero idea that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
This discussion of why butter is actually healthy would take up too much room on this article, so I refer you to this article: how REAL butter can make you leaner.
If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and even though the label doesn't clearly state "grass-fed", the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids.
4. Whole Eggs, including the yolk (not just egg whites) -- Most people know that eggs are one of the highest quality sources of protein. However, most people don't know that the egg yolks are the healthiest part of the egg... that's where almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such as lutein) are found in eggs.In fact, the egg yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids. Also, the protein of whole eggs is more bio-available than egg whites alone due to a more balanced amino acid profile that the yolks help to build.
Just make sure to choose free-range organic eggs instead of normal grocery store eggs. Similar to the grass-fed beef scenerio, the nutrient content of the eggs and the balance between healthy omega-3 fatty acids and inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (in excess) is controlled by the diet of the hens.
Chickens that are allowed to roam free outside and eat a more natural diet will give you healthier, more nutrient-rich eggs with a healthier fat balance compared with your typical grocery store eggs (that came from chickens fed nothing but soy and corn and crowded inside "egg factories" all day long).
If you want more details on eggs, here is an article that details more about why egg yolks are BETTER for you than egg whites.
5. Grass-fed beef or bison (NOT the typical grocery store beef!) -- I know most people think that red meat is unhealthy for you, but that's because they do not understand how the health of the animal affects how healthy the meat is for consumption. Keep this in mind -- "an unhealthy animal provides unhealthy meat, but a healthy animal provides healthy meat".Typical beef or bison that you see at the grocery store is raised on grains, mainly corn (and to some extent, soybeans). Soy and corn are NOT the natural diet of cattle or bison, and therefore changes the chemical balance of fats and other nutrients in the beef or bison. Grain-fed beef and bison is typically WAY too high in omega-6 fats and WAY too low in omega-3 fats. In addition, the practice of feeding cattle corn and soy as the main portion of their diet upsets their digestive system and makes them sick... and it also increases the amount of dangerous e-coli in the meat. This is not the case with grass-fed meat.
On the other hand, grass-fed beef from cattle and buffalo (or bison) that were raised on the type of natural foods that they were meant to eat in nature (grass and other forage), have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fats and lower levels of inflammatory omega-6 fats (that most people already eat way too much of) compared to grain fed beef or bison.Grass fed meats also typically contain up to 3 times the Vitamin E as in grain fed meats.
In addition, grass-fed meat from healthy cattle or bison also contain a special healthy fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in MUCH higher levels than grain-fed meat. CLA has been proven in scientific studies in recent years to help in burning fat and building lean muscle (which can help you lose weight!). These benefits are on top of the fact that grass-fed meats are some of the highest quality proteins that you can possibly eat... and this also aids in burning fat and building lean muscle.
Grass-fed meats are a little harder to find, but just ask your butcher or find a specialty grocery store and they usually have cuts available. I've also found a great site to order grass-fed meats online and have gotten to know the owner of this company well, and they are dedicated to the quality of their foods.
6. Avocados -- Even though avocados are typically thought of as a "fatty food", they are chock full of healthy fats! Not only is this fruit (yes, surprisingly, avocados are actually a fruit) super-high in monounsaturated fat, but also chock full of vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, and antioxidants.Also, in my opinion, guacamole (mashed avocados with garlic, onion, tomato, pepper, etc) is one of the most delicious food toppings ever created, and you can be happy to know that it's also one of the healthiest toppings you can use on your foods. Try sliced avocados or guacamole on sandwiches, burgers, eggs or omelets, on salads or with fish, or as a delicious side to just about any meal.
The quality dose of healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients that you get from avocados helps your body to maintain proper levels of hormones that help with fat loss and muscle building. Also, since avocados are an extremely satiating food, eating them helps to reduce your appetite in the hours after your meal. Say goodbye to junk food cravings and bring on that fat burning! I personally eat anywhere from a half to a full avocado DAILY and it only helps to keep me lean.
7. Nuts: Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Macadamias, etc -- Yes, this is yet another "fatty food" that can actually help you burn belly fat! Although nuts are generally between 75-90% fat in terms of a ratio of fat calories to total calories, this is another type of food that is all healthy fats, along with high levels of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Nuts are also a good source of fiber and protein, which of course, you know helps to control blood sugar and can aid in fat loss.Nuts also help to maintain good levels of fat burning hormones in your body (adequate healthy fat intake is vitally important to hormone balance) as well as helping to control appetite and cravings so that you essentially eat less calories overall, even though you're consuming a high-fat food. My favorite healthy nuts are pecans, pistachios, almonds, macadamias, and walnuts, and by eating them in variety, you help to broaden the types of vitamins and minerals and also the balance of polyunsaturated to monounsaturated fats you obtain.
Try to find raw nuts instead of roasted nuts if you can, as it helps to maintain the quality and nutritional content of the healthy fats that you will eat.
Also, try to broaden your horizons beyond the typical peanut butter that most people eat, and try almond butter, cashew butter, pecan butter, or macadamia butter to add variety to your diet.
One of the little "tricks" that I've used with clients when trying to cut down body fat is to have them eat a handful of nuts such as almonds or pecans about 20 minutes before lunch and dinner. This ends up being a perfect time to control your appetite before lunch or dinner and helps you to eat less overall calories on that meal.
I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the healthiest "fatty" fat-burning foods you can possibly eat. I could list a ton more, but wanted to give you a few of my favorites for now. Enjoy!
5 Quick And Easy Breakfast Ideas
Most people complain that breakfast is one the hardest meals to eat in a day. However, your mother was right: it is one of the most important meals.
Not only does a balanced breakfast give you energy for the rest of the day, but it helps you eat less and feel less hungry as the day goes on. It’ll prevent you from digging into the cookie jar when you get home from work, and will allow you to have a great workout at noon.
But, since time is usually an issue for most people, here are 5 of our favorite quick breakfast meals that you can make in a snap:
1) High-Fiber Protein Pancake: Most people think of butter and syrup when they picture a pancake, but this is different. Instead, mix up the following ingredients and cook them the night before so you have this healthy pancake in the morning. Just warm quickly on the stove or toaster oven and top with your favorite nut butter:
Ingredients:
• 1/2 Cup Egg Whites
• 1 scoop Vanilla Prograde Protein powder
• 1/3 Cup dry Old-fashioned Oatmeal
• 1 tsp Ground Flax Seeds
• 1/8 tsp. Baking Powder
• Sprinkle of Cinnamon
• Olive Oil cooking spray
Directions: Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and place on medium heat to preheat pan. Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and protein powder in a mixing bowl, stirring with a fork or whisk until well-blended. Add oatmeal, flax, baking powder and cinnamon and mix vigorously for about a minute. Check pan’s temperature by dropping a tiny amount of water on it. If the water bubbles/sizzles immediately, the pan is ready. Using a large spoon or small ladle, spoon a small amount of the batter into the pan, gently spreading it to a pancake shape if it’s too thick to do this on its own. Cook on one side until bubbles begin to appear and burst on the top of the batter. Using a spatula, carefully flip over and cook for roughly the same amount of time. Repeat until batter is gone. Serves 1.
2) Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Salsa: Scrambled eggs really aren’t that hard or time-consuming to make. People think you have to mix the eggs ahead of time, but you can just quickly stir them a few times while cooking and they’ll become scrambled - Amazing! We like mixing two Omega-3 Eggs with ½ cup Egg Whites and adding Spinach. Then, top with slices of avocado and fresh salsa. It’s a quick breakfast fit for a king (or queen).
3) Whey Protein Smoothie: When you’re in a rush you can make this smoothie the night before, or quickly in the morning. The key thing is to use a single-serve blender unit, like a Magic Bullet, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning a huge, messy blender when you’re done. We like to combine the following: 1 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 scoop Prograde Vanilla Protein, 1 Tbsp Ground Flax, 1/3 Cup frozen unsweetened Mixed Berries, ½ Cup raw Spinach (the spinach adds a neat green color to the smoothie, but it still tastes awesome! Try it!), and 1 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter.
4) High-Protein Cereal: Face it, people love cereal because it’s easy to eat and can be healthy. But, most brands are covered with sugar and full of junk. Also, with just milk, it doesn’t really pack much metabolism-boosting protein. So, instead, try this with your normal breakfast bowl: Mix one scoop of Vanilla Prograde Protein with water or milk and pour that over a bowl of your favorite low-sugar breakfast cereal; some of our favorite are Uncle Sam, Bran Flakes (add your own raisins to make it Raisin Bran), Cheerios, Puffed Rice, and Shredded Wheat.
5) Nutty, Berry, Greek Yogurt: Most people think of yogurt as just a snack item, but it can be a great breakfast food too. However, like cereal, some yogurt is really like dessert, instead of a health food. So, skip all that sugar found in most yogurts and try this: Mix 6 ounces of 2% plain organic Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of slivered almonds, 1 tsp ground flax seeds and 1/3 cup frozen, thawed, unsweetened berries.
Friday 22 July 2011
- Quick, healthy snack ideas to keep your body lean:
- Apple or other fruit with almond butter
- Hummus with carrot sticks or sliced red/yellow/orange peppers
- Guacamole with carrot sticks or sliced red/yellow/orange peppers
- Ricotta cheese (grass-fed if possible) mixed with cocoa powder, stevia, and vanilla extract (delicious high protein, low carb snack!)
- Cottage cheese mixed with yogurt, berries, and walnuts or pecans
- A couple hard boiled eggs with carrot and celery sticks and hummus (roasted red pepper hummus is my favorite)
- Celery sticks with organic peanut butter or almond butter (a classic quick health)
- Avocado slices wrapped in nitrate-free deli turkey breast (one of my favorite quick snacks)
- A piece of sprouted grain toast (sprouted-grain preferred nutritionally over "whole grain") with almond butter or pecan butter and berries
- Fresh sliced pineapple with a handful of macadamia nuts
- a bowl of blueberries mixed with raw almond
- Cottage cheese with cinnamon, apple slices, and walnuts (mmm, mmm good)
Monday 18 July 2011
Is Your Microwave Cooking Making You Sick?
A look at how microwaved food can negatively affect your health
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen
Do you know what (besides a television) is in almost every home in America? It’s a microwave oven. Because microwave ovens are quick and easy and don't take up much space, they are used for meal preparation in the home, at the office, and even restaurants. Even your favorite healthy restaurant may depend on these electrical devices to quickly heat up or cook foods. So, the question here is —
Are microwave ovens safe, and is it ok to eat the food cooked in them?
Before we look at the science of how microwaved food can affect your blood chemistry and negatively affect your health, let's look at a bigger picture, common-sense thought process about this...
If you think about it from this perspective, the human digestive system evolved over tens of thousands of years to digest food that was either raw or cooked in water or by heat. However, food cooked via microwaves is a totally alien and unknown cooking method to the human digestive system.
It's just common sense that such a radically different cooking method will alter the chemistry of the food to negatively impact our health.
Now onto a little more science...
Let’s take a look at how microwaves ovens work
Microwaves are a part of the whole electromagnetic spectrum of energy that includes light waves and radio waves. They travel at the speed of light--which is about 186,282 miles per second. So how does that oven heat up the food so fast?
Inside the microwave oven, there is a “magnetron” which is a tube full of electrons. The electrons in the microwave oven react with magnetic and electronic energy and become micro wavelengths. This is the radiation that interacts with the molecules in food.
Food molecules have a positive and negative end, kind of like the way a magnet has a north and a south polarity. The electrons from the magnetron produce wavelengths that react with the positive and negative parts of the food molecules. The food molecules then start vibrating, up to several million times a second. This molecular “vibration” is what creates the heat in the food.
This agitiation deforms the molecules in food and creates new unnatural radiolytic compounds previously unknown to nature. These strange foreign compounds in microwaved food have been shown to damage the blood, the digestive system, and our immune systems.
Microwave ovens have been actually been around for about 40 or so years, but so far, only a couple of in-depth scientific studies have been done on them.
Research showing negative health impacts of eating microwaved food
Extensive research, though, was conducted in both Switzerland and Russia on microwaved foods and their effects on the human body. Both studies concluded that microwaving foods significantly deteriorated the nutrient value of the food, distorted protein molecules in the food, and created new, radically unnatural compounds. Most alarming, however, was that the subjects' health deteriorated from eating the microwaved foods.
Their findings included:
When food is cooked in a microwave oven, it has:
The grain watered with microwaved (and cooled) water would not not even germinate or grow! It’s pretty obvious that microwaving changed the water chemically and destroyed its ability to nourish a plant.
Ok, so maybe it’s ok to just heat leftovers in the microwave oven once in a while?
NO! Actually, food heated in a microwave is heated unevenly creating super-heated spots and cool spots. Those cool spots may actually harbor bacterial growth such as salmonella, and you end up with food poisoning.
In addition, when you use plastic containers or plastic wrap in contact with your food, you end up getting all sorts of nasty chemicals like di(ethylhexyl)adepate, or DEHA, (a carcinogen), Bisphenol-A or BPA (a cancer-causing agent in plastics) and xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens) in your food!
In one recent study, it was found that carcinogenic ingredients in plastic wrap were 10,000 times the FDA limit for safety!
Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to cause reproductive problems and erectile dysfunction, and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.
Xenoestrogens are really nasty synthetic estrogens that seem to show up everywhere. In men, xenoestrogens can cause low sperm counts and feminization (like the dreaded “man boobs”) and breast cancer and reproductive problems in women. Xenoestrogens promote weight gain around the belly and chest in men, and in women, it shows up as fat in the butt, hips, thighs and the back of arms.
So, in addition to being really unhealthy, microwaved foods can make you fat!
Parents should never warm breast milk or formula in the microwave oven—not only can it superheat the milk and burn the baby, but microwaving destroys the very valuable nutrients, enzymes and protein vital to babies' growth!
And here is something really scary: in 1991, a patient received blood that had been warmed in a microwave oven. That patient died of a severe anaphylactic reaction to the blood. The microwaving created something totally unrecognizable by the body!
If you want to be safe, healthy and LEAN, avoid your microwave—totally. Personally, I threw out my microwave about 6 years ago and haven't even missed it!
There are far healthier and better alternatives:
You can actually cook a frozen 15-oz. ribeye is in 20 minutes, and it is delicious; browned, tender and juicy. These little convection ovens will broil, bake, fry, roast, grill or steam your favorite foods, including meat, chicken, and vegetable. It takes 20-30% less time than a regular oven, and uses about 75% less energy.
This is a far healthier option than a cancer-causing, nutrient-robbing, microwave oven!
A look at how microwaved food can negatively affect your health
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen
Do you know what (besides a television) is in almost every home in America? It’s a microwave oven. Because microwave ovens are quick and easy and don't take up much space, they are used for meal preparation in the home, at the office, and even restaurants. Even your favorite healthy restaurant may depend on these electrical devices to quickly heat up or cook foods. So, the question here is —Are microwave ovens safe, and is it ok to eat the food cooked in them?
Before we look at the science of how microwaved food can affect your blood chemistry and negatively affect your health, let's look at a bigger picture, common-sense thought process about this...
If you think about it from this perspective, the human digestive system evolved over tens of thousands of years to digest food that was either raw or cooked in water or by heat. However, food cooked via microwaves is a totally alien and unknown cooking method to the human digestive system.
It's just common sense that such a radically different cooking method will alter the chemistry of the food to negatively impact our health.
Now onto a little more science...
Let’s take a look at how microwaves ovens work
Microwaves are a part of the whole electromagnetic spectrum of energy that includes light waves and radio waves. They travel at the speed of light--which is about 186,282 miles per second. So how does that oven heat up the food so fast?
Inside the microwave oven, there is a “magnetron” which is a tube full of electrons. The electrons in the microwave oven react with magnetic and electronic energy and become micro wavelengths. This is the radiation that interacts with the molecules in food.
Food molecules have a positive and negative end, kind of like the way a magnet has a north and a south polarity. The electrons from the magnetron produce wavelengths that react with the positive and negative parts of the food molecules. The food molecules then start vibrating, up to several million times a second. This molecular “vibration” is what creates the heat in the food.
This agitiation deforms the molecules in food and creates new unnatural radiolytic compounds previously unknown to nature. These strange foreign compounds in microwaved food have been shown to damage the blood, the digestive system, and our immune systems.
Microwave ovens have been actually been around for about 40 or so years, but so far, only a couple of in-depth scientific studies have been done on them.
Research showing negative health impacts of eating microwaved food
Extensive research, though, was conducted in both Switzerland and Russia on microwaved foods and their effects on the human body. Both studies concluded that microwaving foods significantly deteriorated the nutrient value of the food, distorted protein molecules in the food, and created new, radically unnatural compounds. Most alarming, however, was that the subjects' health deteriorated from eating the microwaved foods.
Their findings included:
- Blood hemoglobin (the extremely important oxygen-carrying component of the blood) decreased significantly after eating microwaved foods.
- White blood cell count rose, (as it does in response to an infection).
- LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) increased, and HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) decreased.
- Carcinogenic (cancer-causing) agents in foods increased.
- Higher incidence of digestive system cancers.
When food is cooked in a microwave oven, it has:
- Significantly less B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and fats.
- Broken down and de-natured proteins.
- Loss of vital enzymes and phytochemicals.
The grain watered with microwaved (and cooled) water would not not even germinate or grow! It’s pretty obvious that microwaving changed the water chemically and destroyed its ability to nourish a plant.
Ok, so maybe it’s ok to just heat leftovers in the microwave oven once in a while?
NO! Actually, food heated in a microwave is heated unevenly creating super-heated spots and cool spots. Those cool spots may actually harbor bacterial growth such as salmonella, and you end up with food poisoning.
In addition, when you use plastic containers or plastic wrap in contact with your food, you end up getting all sorts of nasty chemicals like di(ethylhexyl)adepate, or DEHA, (a carcinogen), Bisphenol-A or BPA (a cancer-causing agent in plastics) and xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens) in your food!
In one recent study, it was found that carcinogenic ingredients in plastic wrap were 10,000 times the FDA limit for safety!
Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to cause reproductive problems and erectile dysfunction, and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.
Xenoestrogens are really nasty synthetic estrogens that seem to show up everywhere. In men, xenoestrogens can cause low sperm counts and feminization (like the dreaded “man boobs”) and breast cancer and reproductive problems in women. Xenoestrogens promote weight gain around the belly and chest in men, and in women, it shows up as fat in the butt, hips, thighs and the back of arms.
So, in addition to being really unhealthy, microwaved foods can make you fat!
Parents should never warm breast milk or formula in the microwave oven—not only can it superheat the milk and burn the baby, but microwaving destroys the very valuable nutrients, enzymes and protein vital to babies' growth!
And here is something really scary: in 1991, a patient received blood that had been warmed in a microwave oven. That patient died of a severe anaphylactic reaction to the blood. The microwaving created something totally unrecognizable by the body!
If you want to be safe, healthy and LEAN, avoid your microwave—totally. Personally, I threw out my microwave about 6 years ago and haven't even missed it!
There are far healthier and better alternatives:
- Eat vegetables and fruit raw preferably, or if cooked, sauté lightly (with a little water and some grass-fed butter) or steam until tender crisp in a pan on the stove.
- Heat water for tea, etc in a pan or tea-kettle instead of the microwave—or, better yet-- is to get a steaming hot water tap—I love these things!
- Plan ahead and defrost frozen foods in the refrigerator.
- Heat up ALL leftovers over low heat in a pan or in a toaster oven in aluminum foil (it still only takes 4-5 minutes to heat leftovers)
- If you must use a microwave (and I don’t know why you would!), use only glass containers instead of plastic.
You can actually cook a frozen 15-oz. ribeye is in 20 minutes, and it is delicious; browned, tender and juicy. These little convection ovens will broil, bake, fry, roast, grill or steam your favorite foods, including meat, chicken, and vegetable. It takes 20-30% less time than a regular oven, and uses about 75% less energy.
This is a far healthier option than a cancer-causing, nutrient-robbing, microwave oven!
4 Facts On How To Lose Weight Fast
By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RD
1 - It's harder to lose weight when you're over 45 than when you are younger TRUE
Yes, as the clock ticks ahead each day, your ability to lose fat and build muscle becomes more difficult (if only we could stay 17 our whole lives…).
With advanced age, comes hormonal alterations that cause increased fat storage and decreased muscle growth.
We also have to battle elevated free radical damage, due to both environmental and chemical stress, that promotes depressed metabolic activity in addition to joint pain and excess muscle soreness, making exercise harder and less enjoyable.
Finally, as we age, our lifestyles become much more sedentary and full of roadblocks to healthy eating and consistent exercise.
But, with all this said, you can lose fat and weight as long as you stay committed and find ways to exercise and eat well all the time no matter what barrier comes in your way. As the popular saying goes: When the going gets tough, you must get tougher! Don’t give up and the positive results will come.
2- Sugar-free foods are best for weight loss FALSE
Hopefully in this day and age, people have figured out that sugar-free labeled foods are not helpful for weight loss. In fact, recent studies show that people who consistently consume some artificial sweeteners have higher body fat levels and more problems with their body weight than people who do not use these chemicals.
Artificial sweeteners may still be registered by the brain as a sweet food, which elicits a sweet response in the body; this may lead to greater hunger later in the day and more fat storage for certain people.
If your goal is to lose fat and curb your sweet tooth, then your best bet is to eliminate all foods with a sweet taste (other than natural fruit), and your body will look and feel better, while eliminating sweet cravings that cause you to crave bad foods.
3 - Counting calories will help you lose weight and keep it off FALSE
Although caloric balance is important for weight loss, physically counting calories puts a stress on us that eventually leads to greater weight problems down the road.
Known as cognitive dietary restraint, people that put their body through this stress of counting every calorie, weighing every food portion, and analyzing every meal, cause damage to their metabolisms and normal hormonal balance, which lands them with more body fat than less.
The smarter way to lose weight and body fat long term is to learn what healthy foods to eat all the time and allow yourself to eat some foods you know are bad, but not go overboard.
4 - You can't gain muscle and lose fat while dieting FALSE
It is actually very possible to gain muscle while losing fat in a weight loss situation. Scientists from University of Connecticut conducted a 12-week weight loss study where men either consumed a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet while they weight trained 3 days per week. During this time, several of the men following the low-carbohydrate diet gained muscle and lost fat while decreasing their body weight, as seen by DEXA evaluations (the gold standard of body composition evaluation).
The key thing to losing fat and increasing body muscle while losing weight, is that you must add resistance-training exercise to maintain and build muscle.
Then you have to eat a diet rich in complete proteins, healthy essential fats, and fibrous carbohydrates, so that you’re providing your body with the building blocks for muscle and the energy to burn fat.
You can still look good and look even better while losing weight, but your diet and type of training must be right for your body.
Bad News About Omega Fatty Acids
By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RD, CSCS
To many people, “fat” is one of those three-letter words that instills fear of heart disease, obesity, and a lifetime of bad hair days (I’m kidding about that last one… sort of). But one type of fat that has joined the popular crowd of nutrients such as amino acids and dietary fiber, is essential fatty acids.
Essential fatty acids (EFAs), have steadily become the new buzz word in nutrition for several important reasons. The biggest reason is it’s prefix, “essential”. Yes, fats in this category are something your body can not make, but need for survival and to prevent deficiencies. This is in contrast to many other nutrients that your body can actually synthesize, like carbohydrates and some proteins. As such, EFAs must be obtained by eating certain foods and taking dietary supplements regularly. You can think of them like water or calories; without either of these, your body will not function properly and will eventually suffer ill fates.
But what is it about EFAs that makes them so, well, essential? And, what happens without them? Finally, how can we get them in our diets and what are their benefits? Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about this special class of nutrients.
All About Essential Fatty Acids
EFAs fall within the category of dietary fat. In foods, fat is actually a structure made up of several different types of fatty acids attached to a compound called glycerol. This whole unit together is known as a triglyceride, pictured below:
A triglyceride basically looks like the capital letter “E”, and each arm of the “E” is a fatty acid. These fatty acid “arms” are chains of carbon molecules linked together in varying lengths, and with different amount of attachments (or bonds) between each carbon. Chains with only single attachments are known as saturated fatty acids (SFAs), those with one double attachment are known as monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and those with two to six double attachments are called polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).
EFAs are a type of PUFA; they have one or more double bonds, and they‘re further categorized into one of two classes: Omega-6 or Omega-3. The omega-6s are named because their first double bond is six carbons from one end, where omega-3s have their first double attachment three carbons away.
The essentiality of two of these omega fats, linoleic acid (LA, an omega-6), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, an omega-3) is because humans, and all vertebrates for that matter, do not have the enzymes to make them from other fats in the diet. Plants, however, do have these special enzymes and are one of the main dietary sources for us. Humans can also get them from eating animals that have consumed these plants and have now accumulated them in their body fat stores.
As you can see from the table above, there are many ways to get omega-6 EFAs into your diet. However, obtaining omega-3s is a bit more difficult. To make matters worse, consuming too few omega-3s compared to omega-6s has been associated with higher rates of inflammatory diseases like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis , cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. It has been suggested by some experts that humans should ideally consume no more than a 6:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, with lower levels recommended for certain conditions.
Finding The Right Omega Balance
Starting in the 1900s, the North American dietary fat consumption drastically changed. With new industrial processes and a greater demand for food to feed a rapidly growing population, we shifted from eating fats in their natural state to those in packages and pre-prepared forms. We also became highly scared of saturated fats, like those in butter and tropical oils, and so turned to margarines and refined vegetable oils.
Fatty fish also became less popular because we thought fat was deadly, so we choose less-nutritious white fishes and low-fat versions of poultry and meat (and, of course, we had to cover them in breading and high-sugar sauces). Finally, because we were eating so much beef and chicken, these animals had to be fed grain-based diets instead of naturally grazing on grass - there was not just enough pasture to keep up.
All of these food changes has lead our current population to have a diet heavily-based on omega-6 fats, with very few omega-3s. The margarines, fish, beef, pork and poultry we eat now are all dominant in omega-6 linoleic acid (LA). In turn our dietary ratio of omega-6 to 3s is much different than our healthier ancestors: it’s been estimated that we currently eat an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 15-20:1, compared to 1:1 many years ago (when heart disease was not the #1 killer at such young ages).
During evolution, omega-3 fatty acids were found in most all foods consumed: meat, wild plants, eggs, fish, nuts and berries. But now the picture has changed and our health has suffered. True, other factors come into play, like lack of physical activity and excessive sugar intake, but dietary fat imbalance plays an important role.
The problem with excessive omega-6 fats is that in the body are many:
• Omega-6 LA competes with the normal metabolism of omega-3 ALA to EPA and DHA, so that much less can be made in the body through the normal omega-3 pathway.
• Omega-6s drastically reduce incorporation of omega-3 EPA and DHA into cell membranes when they are consumed in the diet (normally, EPA and DHA would be placed into membranes).
• Omega-6 fats in the body are highly susceptible to free-radical attack and produce compounds such as oxidized LDL cholesterol which contribute to atherosclerosis.
• When consumed as part of a normal diet, omega-6 (LA) is converted to pro-inflammatory products (prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes) which contribute to plaque formation on arteries, allergic responses, increased blood pressure, and tumor growth. Omega-3s have the opposite effect:
Basically, many current common diseases can be linked back to excess omega-6s in our food supply, which leads to chronic inflammation. The solution then is to reduce our intake of these fats and increase our intake of omega-3s. But remember: a balance is important and some omega-6s are still essential.
What Is The Ideal Omega-6 To Omega-3 Ratio?
In today’s society, it’s practically impossible to get a 1:1 ratio of omega-6s to 3s as we did in the past. Also, EFA experts do not recommend we strive for this since we have more of a requirement for omega-6s than we do 3s, and not all omega-6s are bad. Thus, for disease prevention and optimal body processes, a 6:1 ratio, or somewhat less, is ideal. Therefore, in a typical diet containing about 60 grams of total fat and 20 grams of PUFA, you’d aim for at least 4 grams of omega-3s, which you can easily get from food and supplements.
Making Omega-3 Fatty Acids
When people consume LA or ALA these fatty acids can be converted to other important omega-6 and omega-3s in the body, but this doesn’t always occur effectively. Omega-6 LA is often easily transformed to omega-6s known as gamma-linoleic acid (GLA) and arachidonic acid (AA). GLA is considered a good fat to have in our bodies, but AA is mostly not – it depends on the situation you’re looking at though.
The most important conversion process for our health and well-being is the creation of special omega-3 fats known as EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid) from ALA. High levels of EPA and DHA in our cells is very beneficial for lowering our risk of diseases, preventing cancer, avoiding depression and correcting attention deficit disorders. Also, DHA is very important for visual acuity and development of the brain. Unfortunately, for most humans, the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is not an efficient process. It has been estimated that only 5-10% of ALA is converted to EPA and 2-5% is converted to DHA; considering how little ALA is in the diet to begin with, this is barely anything at all. Part of the reason minimal ALA is converted to EPA and DHA is that the body prefers to burn it as a fuel – studies with humans have shown that as much as 34% ALA is breathed off as CO2 (via metabolism). Thus, for optimal intake of EPA and DHA we should aim to eat these food sources regularly instead on relying on our body to make them for us:
Significant Sources of EPA and DHA
• Cold water fatty fish (salmon, trout, sardine, mackerel, herring)
• Shellfish (shrimp, mussels)
• Marine algae
• Krill
How Do We Know EFAs Are So Essential?
If either LA or ALA are missing in the diet because a person chooses to eat a fat-free diet or they select fats that are low in one or the other, the health of body cells deteriorates, and deficiency symptoms develop. Historically, rats that were fed fat-free diets failed to reproduce, grow normally, or remain healthy. At first, these issues were thought to be due to Vitamin E deficiency (a fat-soluble vitamin), but where then discovered to be due to lack of omega-6 fat. In humans, signs of omega-6 LA deficiency include dermatitis, poor wound healing, loss of hair, and infertility. Thankfully, all of these outcomes are reversible.
No distinct disease occurs in humans when omega-3 ALA is missing in the diet, but, as mentioned, these fatty acids are required for proper vision and central nervous system development and functioning. They also compete with pro-inflammatory products of omega-6 mediators in the body and produce an anti-inflammatory state in the body. Finally, people who consume plentiful omega-3s from seafood and flax have been observed to have reductions in body fat and increases in the ability to use carbohydrate as a fuel (improved insulin sensitivity); we’ll explore more of these benefits in Part II.
Overall, omega-3s are fats that everyone should include in their diets right now; they’re one fat you shouldn’t be afraid of, but rather, should seek out for optimal health.
Monday 11 July 2011
6 Tips To Control Hunger
By Mike T Nelson PhD(c)Let's face it, trying to lose fat can be hard at times. The biggest thing that comes up time and time again is hunger. In a perfect world, you would find a way to not be hungry and still watch your waistline shrink. Can that really be done? Below are 6 tips to help guide your waistline to a new low.
1) Eat more protein
I like to tell my clients to eat more when they are looking to get leaner. Most of the time they look at me like I'm a 2 headed purple space alien. Eat more? Really? Their whole lives they have heard you need to eat less and less, but can we eat more of something and still lose weight?
It turns out that protein has some very cool effects. First off, protein helps with satiety and keeps you full longer. I could site a bunch of studies here (2, 11, 15, 24), but try this experiment out on your own. Eat 2 whole chicken breasts and the same amount of calories from Twinkies, then see how soon you are hungry again.
Two 6 oz chicken breasts have about 420 calories. This may leave some of you doing your own episode of "Man vs Food" just to finish them. Yet 3 Twinkies have about the same number of calories, and it would be easy to polish them off in no time (not that I know anything about that).
In the end, eat more protein to watch your waistline go down.
2) Drink more water
Not a new one, but the cool thing about water is 1) it is required, and 2) no calories. Basic stuff, I know, but the key question is: "Are you doing it?" Test out drinking more water and I bet you will drop fat without trying harder (8, 12, 22, 23).
Does water temperature matter?
Research on this area is pretty split (5), so if you like cold water, go for it. If you can't stand cold water, just go with room temperature water. Don't use the temperature of the water as an excuse to avoid it. Hmmm, the water is not cold, so I am going to skip it. Drink more first; then worry about the temperature.
3) Get more essential fats
Essential fats are something many, many people are lacking in today's world. Plus they are involved in virtually every process and cell in the body! Your body NEEDS them (hence that "essential" part). Hunger is the main way the body signals you to get more nutrients (both macronutrients and micronutrients).
The downside is that the world we live in today has non-essential fats readily accessible. You can eat all the non-essential trans fats you want, but they will do nothing to increase the essential ones and only screw things up more!
A good source?
One of the best sources of essential fats is krill oil. Krill or Fish oil also may help with body composition too (17), and increase muscle mass (21).
4) Exercise
Despite what you read in the popular media, exercise is a good thing. While it may be very hard to out exercise the doughnut, that doesn't mean exercise is worthless. Exercise is the main way to burn calories, build metabolically active muscle tissue, and sensitize the body to nutrients.
Most people nowadays spend most of their time seated. Even when they exercise, it is for a small portion of their day; so we need to maximize that time by prioritizing full body exercises. Not only will this burn a ton of calories, it will work to add more muscle. More muscle literally pulls fats and carbs out of the blood to be burned. Your resting metabolic rate is your primarily caloric burn, so you want to have a fast, high horsepower motor.
Another benefit from exercise is related to upregulation of the GLUT-4 receptor which allows glucose to enter into a cell (4). GLUT-4 is an insulin-regulated glucose transporter located in fat and muscle tissue. This protein is expressed only in muscle and fat cells - the major tissues in the body that respond to insulin. This leads us into point 5.....
5) Control insulin
The body employs a myriad of different feedback loops and regulation techniques. I'm sure you have read about these many times and scratched your head or fallen asleep. Everything from mTOR and AMPK to all the hormones like GH, testosterone, estrogen, leptin, Neuropeptide Y, ad nauseam (9, 16, 19, 20, 25).
While these are very important, we need to ask 2 key questions.
1) Do we have any direct control over them?
2) What are the main effects?
Out of these key questions we find that insulin is a major regulator hormone, and we do maintain some control over it.
Think of insulin as the "fuel selector switch" in the body.
High levels of insulin = storage mode.
This can be storing carbs in muscle and live tissue as glycogen, or storing more fat around those love handles you hate.
The opposite works to our favor, though, as low levels of insulin = fat burning (enhanced fat metabolism). Everything that you eat will result in some release of insulin, but we want to keep the overall response as low as possible by sticking with more proteins like meat, fish, egg, lots of non-starchy vegetables, and essential fats.
6) Spike insulin
Perhaps I lost my mind here, but the point above talked about controlling insulin and this is still true. We want to keep insulin at a low level during the day overall.
One time we will want to increase insulin temporarily, though, is before training since it may help enhance carbohydrate metabolism. When you are lifting weights, your body is fueled primarily by carbohydrates. Remember that when insulin is high, it pushes the fuel selector switch towards carbohydrate metabolism which is great right before a strength training session.
Insulin is also a potent vasodilator, so you can dump those crazy NO (nitric oxide) products that don't work in the trash can (or give them to your neighbor). Insulin has been used in research for the sole purpose to exploit its vasodilator effects on vessels (3, 6, 10, 13, 14). Instead of some NO (nitric oxide) products, have a protein and carb drink about 30-60 minutes pre-training. In addition to temporarily increasing insulin, it also helps increase muscle protein synthesis where you are literally adding proteins to muscle tissue so they are bigger and stronger (1, 7, 18). Remember, we want to build a huge engine to burn more calories even at rest.
Conclusion
Hunger can be a vicious enemy and you are now armed with these 6 tips to beat it into submission. Go forth and conquer!
What They NEVER Told You About Eggs
By Cassandra Forsythe-Pribanic, PhD, RDThe Egg: this three letter word invokes almost as much fear into the hearts of Americans as our other favorite “deadly” three-letter word: F-A-T.
It’s unfortunate, but many people still think that you cannot eat more than one egg per day, or even more than 3 eggs per week because if you do, you’ll develop high blood cholesterol levels and fatty arteries. But, this could not be farther from the truth.
So, why do we think this way?
In the 1960’s consumers were first “warned” about eggs as being a major player in the development of heart disease… without any conclusive evidence to back up this claim. News articles overwhelmingly focused on the egg- cholesterol - heart disease link when there was no real proof for this message.
Eggs were so demonized that egg substitute products became all the rage for cooking and baking, but they were no better, and sometimes far worse, than the whole egg itself.
Today, consumers need to understand that eggs are not evil, but in fact are healthy and important components of our diets.
High Protein Quality
First and foremost, eggs an inexpensive source of high quality protein that almost everyone can enjoy in various ways – from scrambled eggs to deviled eggs to green eggs and ham, eggs are a versatile way to quickly and easily get more protein in your diet. And, they’re not just for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner too!
In terms of protein quality, most foods rich in protein are measured in terms of the availability of that protein to effectively promote growth (cell growth), and this term is known as biological value.
Based on the amino acids contained in an egg and its ability to stimulate growth, egg protein is only second to mother’s milk for human nutrition.
On a scale, with 100 representing top efficiency, these are the biological values of proteins in several foods:
| Whole Egg | 94 |
| Milk | 85 |
| Fish | 76 |
| Beef | 74 |
| Soybeans | 73 |
| Beans, dry | 58 |
Biological Value of Protein Foods
Nutrition PowerhousesSecondly, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition:
• Eggs are among the few sources of naturally occurring vitamin D and K, which are known for cancer protection and longevity.
• Eggs contain the highest source of dietary choline (125mg/egg), which is a nutrient necessary for proper nervous system development and structural integrity of cell membranes; particularly, choline is necessary for brain development in infants to impart lifelong enhancement of memory and attention.
• They supply 6.3grams of high quality protein, 5 grams of fat primarily consisting of an even balance of saturates and monounsaturates, with less polyunsaturates, and barely no carbohydrates at all; they’re the perfect low carbohydrate food.
• Some designer eggs contain up to 200 mg of DHA, the essential omega-3 fatty acid needed by all humans for normal development and functioning, and prevention of depression and memory loss.
• The whole egg contains 166 mcg of lutein and zeaxanthin, two super antioxidants that contribute to eye health and prevent common causes of age-related blindness; research shows that the bioavailability of these nutrients from eggs is higher than other foods with higher contents.
Eggs Do NOT Cause Heart Disease
In November 2010, a paper was published by Canadian medical researchers entitled, “Dietary cholesterol and egg yolks: not for patients at risk of vascular disease”.
The authors stated that: “Patients at risk of cardiovascular disease should limit their intake of cholesterol. Stopping the consumption of egg yolks after a stroke or myocardial infarction would be like quitting smoking after a diagnosis of lung cancer: a necessary action, but late.”
However, prior to this paper, over the past 10 years, numerous studies, both clinical and observational, were published with the findings that there is no connection between egg consumption and heart disease risk, especially in healthy individuals.
For example, Dr Maria-Luz Fernandez and colleagues have been investigating egg nutritional health for more than a decade and have published findings such as:
• “Revisiting Dietary Cholesterol Recommendations: Does the Evidence Support a Limit of 300 mg/d?”. Overall, no study has yet shown an association between egg intake and risk for heart disease and there is no compelling epidemiological or clinical trial results that show compelling evidence for limiting cholesterol intake to 300 mg/day or restricting egg consumption.
• “Dietary Cholesterol from Eggs Increases Plasma HDL Cholesterol in Overweight Men Consuming a Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet”. Raising HDL cholesterol is often called impossible, but is necessary to protect against plaque build-up in your arteries (HDL carries it away). This study shows that it can be easily increased in overweight men (a population very susceptible to heart disease) by reducing carb intake and using eggs in the diet regularly.
• ‘Pre-menopausal women, classified as hypo- or hyper-responders, do not alter their LDL/HDL ratio following a high dietary cholesterol challenge”. When 50 pre-menopausal women (another very susceptible heart disease population) were given either an egg a day plus cholesterol from other foods, or a cholesterol-free egg substitute for 30 days, did not experience the development of an ‘atherogenic lipoprotein profile” regardless if they were hyper or hypo-responders to dietary cholesterol.
Overall, dietary cholesterol from eggs does NOT cause heart disease, rather a lifestyle and a diet high in foods that elicit increased inflammation, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress induces increased atherosclerotic build-up and increased risk for heart attack or stroke (among other diseases).
As such, it is wise to follow a diet low in sugar, void of processed foods, artificial chemicals (flavors and colors), preservatives and pesticides and avoid smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, and replace it with a whole foods, natural, plant-rich diet balanced in protein, carbohydrates and fat to minimize heart disease risk.
Avoiding eggs is not the answer – in fact, including eggs in your wholesome diet will actually benefit you more . Two eggs provide 13 grams of protein, ~10 grams of fat, and plenty of nutrients you barely find in any other foods. This will keep you satisfied, healthy and energized for hours after any meal and will help you choose other healthy foods at the right times.
However, If you choose not to live a healthy lifestyle with whole foods, adequate sleep, plenty of exercise and minimal toxins, and/or you already have heart disease, you may be advised to limit your intake of egg yolks because it may acerbate your current situation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)