Carrot Stick Diplomacy

By: David Christopher M.H.

When I recommend drinking carrot juice on a daily basis, or even just eating carrots, I am still asked “But, David, what about the high sugar content of carrots? Ever since the South Beach Diet emphasized the Glycemic Index, people have developed a phobia for some very beneficial foods, like carrots.  Currently, carrots are classified as “low” on the Glycemic Index, scoring 39 – for cooked and 45 – for juiced (the scale is 0=water to 100=glucose).  Other foods at the same level are polished white rice, macaroni, and a Snickers bar!  In fact table sugar is only 20 points higher at 65.  Needless to say, the Glycemic Index can be confusing. The Glycemic Index can be a useful tool, but only if we keep in mind the true nature of food.

Glucose is not a nasty word and we should not shun it.  Glucose is the fuel that runs every cell of our bodies.  Whole, fresh foods that are high in glucose are foods we should use for immediate energy needs.  Highly processed foods with high or added glucose should be avoided (these are classified as High Glycemic Load foods).  These highly processed foods are digested far too quickly and trigger an insulin release from the pancreas; which is just doing its job by protecting the body from high blood sugar levels.  This quick response, for many people, creates an overshoot in the production of insulin and the body is left with a deficiency of glucose.  When glucose levels crash, hunger is stimulated especially for starchy or sugary foods.  If the person satisfies this crash with the same processed foods that caused the problem, a vicious cycle of feast or famine is created and this leads to stress on the beta cells of the pancreas, resulting in insulin resistance and eventually Type II diabetes.  There is no evidence that the naturally occurring sugars, in fresh whole fruits and vegetables, have any adverse effects on the body.

Another related question that I often respond to is “Which is worse, glucose or fructose?”  Again, in their whole, fresh, natural states, as fresh fruits and vegetables, neither is a problem.  They are both beneficial, glucose for immediate use and fructose for later use.  Fructose cannot be used by the cells until converted to glucose by the liver.  Fructose is used by diabetics because it doesn’t raise blood sugar.  However, if enough is consumed, as with the highly processed (manufactured) high fructose corn syrup, it overwhelms the liver and the excess is converted to fat.

Artificial Sweeteners should never be used.  These substances trick the body into responding to an energy source with no energy available.  So in response to a perceived intake of glucose the pancreas secretes insulin.  High insulin levels stimulate the production of fat cells.  High insulin levels also stimulate the liver to convert glycogen (stored, chained glucose) to glucose, again raising blood sugar, and again overworking the pancreas.  The only safe and usable sugars are in fresh, whole and live foods.

©2011 Re-posted with permission from Herbal Legacy. This article can be found at http://articles.herballegacy.com/carrot-stick-diplomacy/.

It’s not Fat That Makes You Fat

Guest Article by Mark Hyman, MD

from Organic Connections

If you’re feeling completely confused about whether you should cut fat from your diet, you are not alone. But here’s the bottom line: fat does not make you fat or sick. So, why do so many people believe that fat is bad for you and causes heart attacks?

This all started in the Dr. Key’s “Seven Countries Study” decades ago that examined heart risk based on lifestyle and dietary habits. He found that in the countries where people ate more fat–especially saturated fat–there were more cases of heart disease, and he concluded that the fat caused the disease. But here’s the problem with this study: correlation is not causation. Just because both fat intake and heart disease were higher among the same population doesn’t mean the heart disease was caused by the fat consumption. Here’s another way to look at it: Every day, you wake up and the sun comes up, but although these events happen at the same time, you waking up doesn’t cause the sun to come up.

A study that observed this would show a 100% correlation between these two events, but it would be wrong to conclude that you caused the sun to rise. Because of studies like this, we became sidetracked into believing that saturated fat causes heart disease. But in fact, we are now learning that sugar is the true culprit, not fat. A review of all the research on saturated fat published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found there was no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease. And a recent editorial in the British Journal of Medicine hammers home the same point and shatters the myth that fat causes obesity and heart disease. Researchers have found that, while it’s true that lowering saturated fat in the diet may lower total cholesterol, it’s actually lowering the good kind of cholesterol, the light, fluffy, buoyant LDL that’s not a problem.

When people eat less fat, they tend to eat more starch or sugar instead, and this actually increases their levels of dangerous cholesterol, the small, dense cholesterol that causes heart attacks. In fact, studies show that 75% of people who end up in the emergency room with a heart attack have normal overall cholesterol levels. What they do have is pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

So, what’s the conclusion here? Eating a diet with good quality fat and protein prevents and even reverses diabetes and pre-diabetes (diabesity). And eating sugar and refined carbs cause diabesity.

So, I encourage you to look at the issue of fat and sugar in a totally different way. Don’t cut out the fat; enjoy it! Eat good fats. Here are my favorite sources of fat:

• Avocados
• Nuts—walnuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, but not peanuts (one recent study showed a handful of nuts a day reduced death from all causes by 20 percent)

• Seeds—pumpkin, sesame, chia, hemp

• Fatty fish, including sardines, mackerel, herring, and wild salmon that are rich in omega-3 fats

• Extra virgin olive oil (a large study showed that those who consumed 1 liter a week reduced heart attacks by 30 percent)

• Enjoy grass-fed or sustainably raised animal products (I recommend the Environmental Working Group’s Meat Eater’s Guide to eating good quality animal products that are good for you and good for the planet).

• You can even eat saturated fat like extra virgin coconut butter, which is a great plant-based source of saturated fat that has many benefits. It fuels your mitochondria, is anti-inflammatory, and it doesn’t cause problems with your cholesterol. In fact, it may help resolve them. I have many diabetic patients whose health improves when I get them on diet that’s higher in fat.

I was just talking to researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center who told me that the low-fat recommendations for diabetics promoted by the American Diabetic Association has in fact been harmful, bad advice making diabetes worse! Their new research shows that diabetics should be switching to a diet that’s about 30% fat, 30% protein, and about 40% low starch vegetables and fruits (carbohydrates). That turns their previous advice on its head.

So here’s the take-home message: Fat doesn’t make you fat. Sugar makes you fat. Eating good fats can actually help you stay healthy. So, eat good quality fats and real, whole, fresh food, and don’t worry about it.

Mark Hyman, MD

Dr. Hyman is dedicated to identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illness through a groundbreaking whole-systems medicine approach called Functional Medicine. He is a family physician, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in his field.

©2014 Reposted with permission from Organic Connections.
This article can be found at: http://organicconnectmag.com/fat-makes-fat/.

Do You Need an Oil Change?

Guest Post by Mark Hyman, MD
from Organic Connections

It’s time to change the way you think about fat. For 30 years well-meaning diet gurus have preached that eating fat makes you fat.

I’m here to tell you that fat, in and of itself, is not what is making you fat. Instead, it’s eating too much of the wrong kinds of fat. After all, all fats are not created equal. But, if you are like 90 percent of Americans, you are eating the wrong kind of fat most of the time. Time for an oil change!

What is Fat?
Fat is one of the body’s most basic building blocks. The average person is between 15 and 30 percent fat! Of all of the types of fats in our diets, the body only REALLY needs two—omega-3 and omega-6.

What is an omega fat? The omega numbers (in this case 3 and 6) refer to where the hydrogen atom joins the fat molecule. Remember, the name is just basic chemistry lingo. What is important is to understand the impact of different fats on the body.

The higher-quality the fat, the better your body will function. That’s because the body uses the fat you eat to build cell walls. You have more than 100 trillion cells in your body, and every single one of them needs high-quality fat.

How do you know if your cells are getting the fats they need? Your body sends signals when it’s not getting enough good fats. It’s up to you to recognize the warning signs:

• Dry, itchy, scaling, or flaking skin
• Soft, cracked, or brittle nails
• Hard earwax
• Tiny bumps on the backs of your arms or torso
• Achy, stiff joints

Why does the type of fat matter? Building your body from the inside out is just like building a house. You can frame the house with the cheapest stuff you can find or you can invest in quality materials that are going to be energy-efficient and last a long time.

Which Fats to Eat and Which to Avoid
If you want to settle for cheap and easy, stick with a diet of processed foods. Most processed foods are made with poor-quality omega-6 fats because they are abundant and cheap. Plus, fat makes food taste good and improves its texture.

Take a look at the ingredients of your favorite packaged food. If the list includes oils made from corn, soy, or safflower you are getting a sub-par fat. When the body puts these cheap fats to work, the cell walls are also sub-par. That means instead of flexible and responsive, cell walls are stiff and rigid. The more rigid the wall, the slower the cell functions and the more vulnerable it is to inflammation.

To ensure your body has the fats it needs to construct high-quality cell walls, you need to eat more omega-3 fats. For starters, cell walls made from omega-3 fats are flexible, allowing cells to respond more quickly to messages. Secondly, these “good” fats help the body churn out prostaglandins, hormones that put the kibosh on inflammation. The best places to find omega-3 fats include cold-water fish, organic canola oil, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and sea vegetables.

Your body is designed to run on high-quality fats. Scientists suspect that early humans ate almost equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fats (back then most people got their omega-6 fats from seeds and nuts). But, as people began to refine oils from plants, the ratio became skewed more toward omega-6.

As a result of fats being out of balance in the modern diet, our bodies are more vulnerable to diseases such as cancer and heart disease. After all, when the human diet contained a balanced number of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, heart disease was almost nonexistent. Now cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the developed world.

Body Boon
The more omega-3 fats you eat, the easier your body cools itself. A cool body is a less inflamed body. And inflammation is at the root of nearly every chronic disease, especially those impacting the brain and the heart.(1)

Of all the body parts dependent on high-quality fat, the brain is uniquely vulnerable. That’s because the brain is made up of 60 percent fat, the biggest portion of which is an omega-3 fat called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA for short).(2) Your brain needs DHA to spark communication between cells. Easy access to high-quality fat boosts cognition, happiness, learning, and memory. In contrast,
studies link a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids to depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.(3)

After the brain, it’s the heart that will thank you for eating more omega-3s .(4)

The heart is a direct beneficiary of omega-3 fats. They tamp down cholesterol by reducing levels of bad fats (triglycerides). Meanwhile, they raise levels of good fats (HDL) in the blood. Part of their magic is that omega-3 fats make blood more slippery, which reduces the likelihood of artery disease.(5)

Beyond the heart and brain, eating the right fat also helps you shed fat. Healthy cell walls made from high-quality fats are better able to metabolize insulin, which keeps blood sugar better regulated. Without proper blood sugar control, the body socks away fat for a rainy day. Ironically, it’s not eating fat that makes you gain weight it’s eating the WRONG types of fat.

3 Ways to Change Your Oil
The process of rebuilding all the walls of your cells can take up to a year, so there’s no time to lose. Here are three ways to change your body’s oil:

1. Eat more wild or sustainably raised cold-water fish. Aim for two servings a week. The best sources of omega-3s are wild salmon, sardines, herring, or small halibut. Of course, everyone is concerned about the sustainability and safety of fish. It’s important to know where your catch comes from.

2. Buy omega-3 rich eggs. These are one of the few animal products that are low in toxins and high in quality fats that balance blood sugar. These eggs supply the body with DHA and don’t raise your cholesterol; just the opposite. Enjoy up to eight of these eggs a week.

3. For good measure, take an omega-3 supplement twice a day with breakfast and dinner. Look for a reputable supplement maker that certifies its products are free of mercury and other contaminants. Choose a supplement with 500 to 1,000 milligrams of omega-3 fats (a ratio of roughly 300 EPA and 200 DHA is ideal).

Of course, it is understandable that people who try to lose weight do so by eliminating fat from their diets. But remember there is no such thing as a healthy fat-free diet. Fat is essential for good health. The key is knowing how to maximize good fats and reduce bad fats to keep your body protected and to rebuild itself every day from the inside out!

©2014 Reposted with permission from Organic Connections.  This article can be found at:  http://organicconnectmag.com/does-your-body-need-an-oil-change/.

Coconut Oil

By Mishelle Knuteson, M.H.

October 3, 2013

Coconut oil, once shunned as being unhealthy because it is high in saturated fats, is now considered by many as a magical health food. The difference between coconut oil and other saturated fats is in the size of the fat molecules. Long chain fats are hard to digest, and pass directly into the lymphatic system. The fats in coconut oil are medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s). These MCFA’s are quickly digested, even without the aid of pancreatic enzymes, and are transported via the hepatic portal vein to the liver. MCFA’s never enter the lymphatic system or bloodstream, so they don’t clog arteries like their longer chained relatives. Instead, they are light, easy to digest, and quickly converted to energy. Coconut oil actually lowers cholesterol and improves fat metabolism.

Most commercial grade coconut oils are made from dried copra (meat of the coconut) and go through an extensive refining process to extract the oil. Virgin coconut oil is made from the fresh meat and the oil is extracted either through a quick drying method, using minimal heat and then mechanically pressed or it goes through a process called wet-milling where the meat is not dried. Instead the “coconut milk” is expressed first, and then the oil is further expressed from the water either through the method of boiling, fermentation, refrigeration or a mechanical centrifuge. Some retailers and manufacturers will call their oil “Extra Virgin Coconut Oil” but there is no other processing method then what is listed, so there is no official classification or difference between “virgin” and “extra virgin” like there is in the olive oil industry.
There are false claims of coconut oil being raw and full of enzymes, all coconut oil has “seen heat.” For one thing coconuts are native to the tropics where temperatures are very hot, so shipping alone will expose the oil to higher temperatures and some heat needs to be applied in the processing to ensure that no moisture is present in the oil that may cause deterioration. Virgin oil uses minimal heat in the processing methods.

The good thing about coconut oil is that it isn’t damaged by heat. That’s why it is so good for cooking. It’s the saturation that makes it stable. If coconut oil contained enzymes, it would become very perishable-just like all raw foods containing enzymes ~ Lita Lee Ph.D.

Cooking with coconut oil does not introduce hydrogen into the oil or hydrogenate it. Hydrogenation is an industrial process to make an oil turn solid at room temperatures which creates harmful Trans fatty acids. Coconut oil is naturally [a] very stable oil.

To purchase a healthy coconut oil, one must determine between “virgin” and “refined” oil. Virgin oil, healthier oil, is made from the fresh meat therefore it will have a distinct aroma and the taste of coconut will be present. Tasteless coconut oil is more than likely refined and made from copra (dried meat). Buying organic virgin coconut oil may help to insure that there has been no pesticides or fertilization used on the crop. Buying “expeller-pressed” oil usually means that the oil was extracted by “physical refining” rather than a chemical extraction using a solvent.

The health benefits from using coconut oil claim to be many and come mainly from the MCFAs. Coconut is a food so therefore the oil is very safe for consumption in adults, pregnant women, children and pets. An adult should consume about 3.5 tablespoons of coconut oil throughout a day to receive the best benefit and taken with foods high in fiber and protein.

Mishelle Knuteson is certified in Rapid Eye Technology (RET) an emotional release therapy, teaches classes in The Art of Feminine Presence and a Master Herbalist–graduate of The School of Natural Healing. Mishelle currently works as an Educative Master Herbalist (MH) for The School of Natural Healing and as Office Manager of Christopher Publications.

© 2013. Used by permission of Herbal Legacy. This article can
be found at http://articles.herballegacy.com/coconut-oil/.

February 2014

“Good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest blessings.” – Publilius Syrus