Archive for Nutrition
Food Is More Than Food when it turns Your Genetic code on or off
Posted by: | CommentsAt the recent Integrative Health Symposium in New York City, many talks were centered around how we live and how this influences our body and our health. The thought that our genetic code is going to control our health is modulated by how our diet and lifestyle allows this expression of genetic code to occur or not occur.
What am I talking about?
An example would be diabetes. Lets say your family has several members with diabetes, so you assume you will be diabetic no matter what you eat. Not so! If you consume a diet high in sugar, high fructose corn syrup or any form of corn syrup; or a diet high in refined processed carbohydrates then the constant barrage of sugar will trigger your genetic predisposition to insulin resistance and then diabetes. If, on the other hand, you eat a diet high in raw food such as fresh fruits and vegetables, high fiber grains; the lower glucose will not trigger as much insulin release and the insulin resistance that you are genetically predisposed to.
So food is more than what we eat when hungry or in need of satisfaction.
Food is medicine. Food is information for your genes to act on.
You can influence your genetic code, your health and your future.
It takes knowledge and information regarding what you are at risk for. It takes desire and motivation to avoid the negatives of your “genetic destiny”, as well as desire and motivation to be thinner, healthier and on no or less medication. It takes the ability to trigger changes and ability to avoid unhealthy triggers. It takes placing triggers to help you change, in your pathway on a daily basis. These triggers can be a list on your refrigerator or on your bedroom mirror. It can be an app on your smart phone where you remind yourself prior to a meal to make healthy choices.
Some of the nutritional websites I use for recipes and information on nutritional content of foods are:
The last entry is not so much a nutritional blog but more of a challenge on eating local food. I feel this is important for health for several reasons. I feel eating locally produced food sends a message to large food manufacturers that highly processed foods with additives to help with long shelf life are not healthy and not desirable. Eating locally produced foods also utilizes less oil and gas to transport. Locally produced food is fresher and often lasts longer, has more nutritional value due to its freshness, and tastes better.
Food can produce an array of emotional responses, I challenge you to make those responses less about guilt and more about pride.
6 Tips for improved Nutrition and better Epigenetics during Menopause
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Double Helix of DNA
Menopause is usually an age related change in a woman’s established hormone cycle that results in the stopping of the menstrual period. This of course signals the end of fertility. Along with these changes comes an age related risk of degenerative diseases. These are generally viewed as inevitable and we joke about memory loss (old-timers disease), weight gain (middle-aged spread) and vision changes (our arms become too short).
We don’t joke about the really scary stuff like cancer. Most women can tell you there is a 1 in 8 risk of breast cancer during their life. They can’t tell you that there is a 1 in 3 risk of heart disease. We also know about elevated blood pressure, the increase in diabetes and that the stresses of modern life contribute to this somehow.
There is a science emerging that is trying to explain how our genetic material – DNA – might be controlling some of these changes by decreases in the expression of some essential genes and the over-expression of others by a process called methylation. Initially, I thought that all methylation was bad. I thought that compounds like methylmercury were attaching themselves to genetic material and causing the “good” genes to not be expressed. Sounds great and gives us a villain – modern industry polluting the environment. We need to regulate these industries and protect ourselves and our families. No so simple I am afraid. It is never that simple.
We in America have a cultural tendency to look outside ourselves for the source of our problems. Heaven forbid that they might actually be the result of our own behavior. We like to live in a paternalistic society that provides for and protects us. We want to punish those who take advantage of our lack of vigilance by suing them or prosecuting them. But, what if it is more like what the character Pogo, of Sunday comics fame, said, “We have met the enemy and they are us!”
How DNA is affected by enough or not enough methyl groups is being discovered. This process won’t yield enough information to affect medical treatment in my lifetime – probably. I don’t intend to wait on science to save me. Pure science is great, but the politics of science is not. I don’t trust common sense either. Einstein said that common sense was the group of prejudices we acquired by age 18. He had something there.
What I want you to know is that scientists know that our diet makes a huge difference. They know that what a mother eats during pregnancy influences her children for the rest of their lives. She can set them up for great health success or failure, but by the time we reach menopause (age 50 or so) we have to have been in control and take even greater control of our “wellness destiny”.
Here are some tips that will improve your health during menopause:
- If it has more than 3 ingredients on the label don’t eat it
- Eat foods that have been fermented like sauerkraut, hard cheeses and Nato if you can stomach it. The vitamin K 2 is essential for you.
- Eat 14 ounces of fresh or fresh frozen vegetables daily and 5-7 ounces of whole fruits.
- Be afraid of processed fats and fats from animals from agri-biz farms (try to eat locally grown), fat, even saturated fats, are good for you in the right amounts. We tend to eat too much and especially when we combine it with sugar (ice cream, icing on cakes and pastries, etc…) Vegetable oils are dangerous for you unless they are in the vegetables when you consume them.
- Stay away from sugar – think of it as fuel for cancer because it is.
- Regularly eat less than you want. Keep your calories to just what you need 85-90% of the time
Do you think this is crazy? What has been your experience? Do you use any of these tips already? What do you know that I left out? We really need you to tell us what you think or want to know in the comments section. If you want to form some new healthy habits, you might want to talk to Bruce, use the contact page to let him know privately. If you liked this, hit one of the buttons to share this on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere! Thanks!
If you downloaded the booklet 30 Tips to control your midlife weight, you can login and get the audio file I posted.
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Do You make these 3 Nutritional Mistakes?
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Eat a wholesome diet.
Nutrition is a term that is supposed to mean something good for you.
It can also just mean what ever it is that you eat.
Mistakes in nutrition are more common than they should be because,
Good nutrition information is very hard to find.
Here are my list of common nutritional mistakes.
1. You eat a diet with LOTS of whole grains
Wrong! Labeling is a legal issue not a health issue.
Whole grains can be good for you in small amounts
but unless you mill them yourself, or they are milled
and used locally, chances are they aren’t whole grain,
they just meet the labeling requirements for whole grains.
There is another more serious problem with a grain based diet.
Seeds, the DNA package of grasses like wheat and corn, contain
small amounts of ANTI-nutrients or ANTI-metabolites.
These chemicals are produced by the plant to keep grazing
animals from eating too much. They prevent the animal from
using protein effectively and make it less likely to
reproduce. It is natures way of protecting the seeds!
If your diet is based on grain products, you are
consuming lots of those chemicals for years,
Not good for you!
2. You eat lots of raw vegetables but you avoid any fat with them
For your intestinal tract to extract the maximum nutrition from
raw vegetables, it is very helpful if there is some fat in the meal.
Some olive oil – extra virgin of course – is great. It helps you
to extract the vitamins and minerals. Some of us have reflux
for various reasons. We take acid inhibiting medicine like
the Purple Pill to reduce our symptoms. We need acid to extract
the nutrients. To help your self with this, chew slowly and thoroughly.
Eat small amounts and snack on the exact amount you need for
that day through out the day.
3. You are proud that you only eat fat in the form of vegetable oil.
We have been told to not eat fat. That is will clog our arteries like pouring
melted bacon grease down the drain can clog the drain lines in your home.
Wrong! First, the bad thing about fat is that it contains 9 calories per gram.
Protein and Carbohydrate are both 4 calories per gram. If you eat too much you
will just store it. But that is true of food period.
Vegetable fats are highly processed. If you click on the blue highlighted
words you will see an article of how soybeans are processed into soy oil. This is common
with most vegetable oils. Notice that hexane, A colorless, flammable liquid,
derived from the distillation of petroleum and used as a solvent(Online Medical Dictionary)
is used to extract the oil and then come Alkali Washing and filtration and decolorizing.
This stuff is highly processed.
Key points: eat fat with raw veges, only eat the total calories
you need and only eat unprocessed fats like extra-virgin olive oil and virgin coconut oil.
Part two of this post coming soon. The recording of this post with annotations is below.
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Why should current Nutrition Facts scare you more than Osama Bin Laden?
Posted by: | CommentsBecause, just like Bin Laden, if you can’t find the facts you might get hurt.
It is like the joke that goes:
What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a Philosopher?
Answer:
An offer you can’t understand.
Why is information hidden and when found hard to understand? 
Economics!
The purpose of a “Food” companies’ Executives
(I use the word food very loosely)
is to see that the company makes a profit.
Advertising research has found, it is less costly to persuade
a current CONSUMER to buy more than to get a new consumer to buy
for the first time.
If you produce broccoli, that is great!
If you are a soda company, great for the company
but not the consumer.
Remember when McDonalds was sued by two young girls that said they were obese
from eating McDonalds’ food.
Do you remember the defense that won the case for McDonalds?
“They should have known better!” Hmmm!
Here is what you should know – the “Company” has the Financial Health of the “Company”
as its NUMBER ONE PRIORITY!
Les Giblin said it best in his book Skill With People:
“People are more interested in themselves than they are in you.”
Never forget it!
Now, either tell me what you think in the comments section or
use the contact page and tell me how I can help you.
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