Fat Kills You

Health & Fitness Information to improve your life

Archive for October, 2006

Surviving Glycemic Diets (Ketogenic, Low-Carb or Atkins):

1.The first step to living a Glycemic Diet Lifestyle is knowing what you can have, and have lots of. This includes a large variety of vegetables and fruits. The best you can do is eating 5 vegetable servings of ½ cup per day and 4 ½ cups of fruits (Please be selective) per day.

2.Remember that eating refined white flour, white potatoes, white rice to your body, is like eating sugar, making a diet high in "White Stuff", typically, breads, rolls, bagels, pretzels, and crackers made from white flour ? a high sugar diet. Whole grains mean extra fiber, which aids in weight loss. Not only does the fiber fill you us quickly with fewer calories, but is also eliminate some of the calories you eat. Fiber can go through the digestive system so quickly that some of the calories never have a chance to actually digest.

3.Try to eat 2 or 3 calcium ? rich foods every day. Calcium not only supports your bones and helps prevent osteoporosis, but it also helps prevent colon cancer, high blood pressure, and PMS. Calcium may also lower your body fat.

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Why Many Fat Free Diets Do Not Work

Most people understand that it is wise to limit the amount of fat grams in their daily diet. The dietary reference intake amount for an adult ranges from 20% to 35%[i] of daily calories; or about 44 to 55 grams per day[1]. Since a single slice of pecan pie carries with it 27 grams of fat, and a mere tablespoon of thousand island salad dressing contains 8 grams of fat[ii], it is not surprising to see more and more people checking food labels and "passing over" an order of onion rings[2] as they try to lose, or maintain, inches and pounds.

However, the relentless avoidance of fat ? even of healthy unsaturated fat ? is creating a troubling scenario for many individuals. Instead of losing weight when they go "fat free", they are actually gaining weight.

Many people on the road to weight loss forget ? or simply do not know ? that the words "fat free" do not also mean "calorie free". As a result, many people ingest far too much "fat free" food, believing that it will not add weight, since, alas, it is dubbed "fat free". Yet it is the calories in these fat-free foods that cause the weight gain; not the fat grams themselves[iii].

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Diets May Have Long Term Side Effects…Do You Know What They Are?

To see the "low carb" diets on the way out is a somewhat reflective process, not that I was an advocate of ketogenic diets at all unless you have Adolescent Epilepsy, but bringing the "low carb or ketogenic diet" into the forefront of our American Society meant that more people were being educated about obesity, food and eating. This acknowledgment about food was astounding and became overwhelming , causing restaurant chains and some farmers to really suffer from these trendy diets, people have lost farms that have been in their families for years , businesses that lend job and economic stability to an area, have gone out of business or lost business, all on a dietary whim, with no research done on the side-effects of "not eating" what these diets restrict.

"What side effects?" you ask. Okay, so you’ve lost a bunch of weight by eating tons of meat and fat, maybe your cholesterol numbers aren’t out of reach, but, have you had your bowels checked lately? You know, eating that much meat and fat can only do one thing to your intestines and colon, and that’s putrefying products in the bowels. Pretty disgusting, huh?

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An Aspirin A Day Can Give You Cancer

I want to share a health alert with you. So many people today are taking an aspirin a day - many upon the recommendation of their doctors and many simply because they think it is the “healthy” thing to do. However, a recent study involving 88,000 nurses revealed a 58% increase in the risk of pancreatic cancer among those who took 2 or more aspirins per week for 20 years or more. (”Daily aspirin use linked with pancreatic cancer,” Reuters Health News, 10/27/03)

I expect the standard disclaimers from the medical profession - something about balancing the risks with the rewards. However, pancreatic cancer is a doctor’s nightmare. It is very hard to diagnose and there is no cure. And, there are natural, safe alternatives to reduce the risk of inflammation and clot formation.

If you are taking an aspirin daily to prevent the formation of blood clots, I recommend a daily dose of vitamin E, high potency bromelain and gamma linolenic acid (found in evening primrose oil, black currant seed oil and borage oil). Some authorities also recommend a daily dose of fish oil. If you want to know more about how much you should take (since the dose is individualized to body weight), call the office for a brief consultation and I can give you your exact dosage.

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Hybrid Sweeteners in Todays Health

What is the advantage of these new half sugar and half synthetic baking sugars that are on the market? These drink products made with ½ the sugar carbs and ½ synthetic sweeteners and foods marketed and eaten by our kids, does it really give the consumer that much more of an advantage?

There was a national news story on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brocaw (11.08.04)last week on the waters in Colorado not being so "clean". High estrogen was found to be in the waters and streams, and it was changing the biology of the fish. In the report, the last statement was that they did not know what the long term outcome of this contamination would be in humans…let see, why are women who are susceptible to cancer told not to take birth control pills…could it be that high estrogen levels are a known contributer to breast cancer and suspected in other types of cancers as well?

Okay, so if our drinking water has this characteristic, what else has these characteristics? Did you know that Sugar is a know estrogenic? Why… Sugar, which breaks down to glucose, goes into the blood streams, and escorts estrogen to the heart muscle and to the other cells. Glucose is a companion to a lot of chemicals in the body, and to some chemicals that shouldn’t be in the body in high supply.

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2 Exercises to Avoid

If you want a good night, then avoid two of these old school moves.

Good Mornings:

Although I can’t say I’ve seen these moves done in quite some time, I know that growing up I saw plenty of pictures of how the move should be done. If I had more then 3 wishes left in this lamp, I wish that somebody would go find every book and every website with this exercise and cross it out with a Sharpie pen.

I have a very good friend, who will remain nameless, that gave me another tidbit of advice. He’s been instrumental in helping me train legs. I’ve never pushed myself so hard. So when he gives advice, I know it’s coming from a reliable source that’s much better then any scientific study.

He began with some good mornings. At first it was the bar. Then it was 20 lbs. on each side. Pretty soon he was doing 225 lbs. That’s a lot of weight. But having the strength to do it and the youth, he pushed on. Until one day, POP! Forward he went, with 225 lbs. How he didn’t break his neck is somewhat of a miracle.

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What Is an Essential Fat?

You may have heard that essential fats are an important aspect to maintaining the health of your body. But what exactly are they?

Basically, there are two truly essential fatty acids, Linoleic and Linolenic. You may have heard of these referred to as Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids.

So, why are they called essential? The term essential in the life sciences refers to the fact that a nutrient cannot be synthesized by the body. Thus, you must have a dietary or supplemental source to supply your need for these acids.

You probably heard of the 8 essential amino acids. It’s the same idea here but in this case we are referring to fatty acids rather than an amino acid.

These fatty acids exist in and are used in every cell of your body. So they are crucial to a cell’s health and therefore to our health as people. The good news is that in North America, you generally get enough Omega -6 in your diet. Omega-3 has presented a question mark to researchers. Are we getting enough or not?

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To Be or Not To Be: Low Carb…

I get asked all the time, "what do you think about the Atkin’s Diet?". Well, as a Nutritional Bio-Chemist, my opinion and answer to that question would have to be a biochemical response.

First of all, lets start with the foundation of the Atkins Diet. Robert Atkins did not invent the Low Carb diet. It was first administered over 80 years ago by John Hopkins Medical School and Hospital for the treatment of pediatric Epilepsy. It was then modified for the U.S. Air Force long before Robert Atkins picked it up to modify it once again.

Our bodies run on glucose as a fuel. We can not store glucose and have enough for about 24 hours. When we have no food for 24 hours, the body turns to burn fat for energy and this is called Ketosis. By having a diet at 80% fat, and these are the right type of fats, some protein and almost no carbohydrates, the body remains in Ketosis and the pH of the blood can change, which can alleviate seizures, either the severity or the occurrence all together.

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Nutrition Supplementation

Nutrition Supplement ? nutrition.

Nutrition supplement is a term familiar to most of us. So what is nutrition supplement and why is it so important? Nutrition, by dictionary definition, is the sum of the processes by which someone takes in and utilizes food substances. One of the main advantages of utilizing food substances is the intake of vitamins, amino acids, minerals, herbs, etc. These are the things that make our body healthy.

Nutrition Supplement ? what is it?

When people don’t get enough of nutrients through food and when a well-designed diet doesn’t work, people turn to the help of some type of nutrition supplement or supplements. A nutrition supplement is added to the diet to make up for a nutritional deficiency. The supplement increases the intake of vitamins, amino acids, minerals, etc. But you have to careful when purchasing some supplement, since supplements are not required to meet FDA standards.

Nutrition Supplement ? the usage?

Many people nowadays use some type of nutrition supplement. In 1996 alone, consumers spent more than $6.5 billion on dietary supplements, according to Packaged Facts Inc., a market research firm in New York City. Nutrition supplement or supplements can be found in many forms: nutrition bars, tablets, capsules, powders, liquids, etc. A lot of supplements do not require any prescription. You can purchase them in health food stores, grocery stores, drug stores, or through mail or Internet.

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Hypertension, An Alternative Approach

For many years high blood pressure has been defined based upon actuarial tables prepared by life insurance companies. By that definition, blood pressure of 140/90 is borderline hypertension in a person 40 years of age. The suppressed fact is that blood pressure should rise by 5 points for every decade of life. Therefore, 145/95 is borderline hypertension in a person of 50 years old; 150/100, in a person 60 years of age, etc. However, that standard is almost never applied in prescribing high blood pressure medications.

Recently, a new standard is being applied: 120/80 (for years the gold standard in blood pressure) has been redefined as “pre-hypertension,” with the recommendation that medication be prescribed. And, there is no allowance for increasing age. So, we see headlines such as “Hypertension - An Emerging Epidemic” on WebMD.

Another very important fact is that most primary hypertension is diagnosed as “idiopathic,” which basically means the doctors do not know what’s causing it. We’ve had a variety of medical recommendations for years, but the overall impact has been minimal (as evidenced by the statistic in paragraph 1, above). These recommendations include: 1) drug therapy, 2) exercise, 3) dietary restrictions on salt and fat, 4) weight loss, and 5)avoidance of drugs, including tobacco and caffeine. The medical point of view is that lifestyle changes are inadequate.2

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