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"Let me make one point about carbohydrates. They are fuels
that the body burns for energy. They are good fuels if you
burn them. They are bad for you if you don’t!" |
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It's not a mystery anymore.
The steps are clear. The science is in.
The way it works
has been
nailed down, all the way to the biochemical and genetic levels.
And most important, the way it works is borne out consistently
in practice.
What we have been told to do (and are
doing) for weight management and for health is wrong. That's why overweight
has increased from 25% to 65% (34% overweight, plus 31% obese)
of the population over the past 20 years. That's why obesity
has more than doubled over the same two decades. That's why
Type II Diabetes is up 70%.
So what are we doing wrong? We were told 20 years ago to
reduce our intake of fats. We were also told that carbohydrates
are the best food and that we should be eating more of them.
We listened. At that time, 42% of our calories came from
fats. Today, our fat intake is down to less than 32% of calories.
The reasons given for recommending that we reduce our fat
intake included:
- Reduce cardiovascular risk
- Reduce cancer risk
- Reduce risk of diabetes
- Reduce body weight
What has been
the outcome of following this advice given by governments and put into practice with the help of advertising
campaigns from the industry? In addition to overweight and
obesity more than doubling, cancer increased. Cardiovascular
disease has not decreased. Diabetes increased. There’s
something wrong with this picture!
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Given
the results of this 20-year experiment on the entire population,
we must conclude that fat has never been the problem in weight
management.
We ate less fat and
got fatter. What, then, has been the problem? What happened?
When we reduced fat intake, we began to eat carbohydrates
instead. Low fat and no fat foods. Convenience foods. Junk
foods in crinkly bags. It's not that we didn't eat them
before. It's just that we ate a whole lot more of them. They
replaced the fats we were not eating.
We also ate more bread, pastries,
pasta, potatoes, fries, potato and corn chips, corn, bananas and other sweet fruit,
breakfast cereals, popcorn, flour, muffins, crackers, pretzels
and refined carbohydrate products of all kinds of different
shapes and sizes, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, sugar,
honey, syrups, rice, grains, oatmeal. You get the idea? This
list includes most of the favorite foods of overweight people.
It is the foods loved by the fat-phobic carbohydrate addicts-the 'obese' people.
What is wrong with eating carbs? Are they not the best fuels
for energy? That's what we've been told, right? |
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The carbohydrate craze is
driven, not by health considerations, but by the fact that
carbohydrates are cheap and easy to preserve.
Sweets and starches have
a long shelf life, which makes manufacturers happy. It gives
them a large market, and little spoilage. In addition, if
health claims can be made for consuming carbohydrates because
they are low in fat, there is the probability that prices
will increase as a result; and that increase will be passed
along to the consumer even if the health claims are overstated.
It does, however, raise profit margins.
More insidious than the profit motive
is the fact that carbohydrates lead to a kind of addiction. Eating carbohydrates leads to
high blood sugar. Then, in turn, the body's desperate self-defense
mechanism (involving insulin) against the toxicity of high
blood sugar (that can lead to a 'diabetic' coma) leads to
low blood sugar accompanied by tiredness, craving, and depression,
which starts the next vicious high blood sugar-low blood
sugar cycle. I'll explain that in more detail below.

For now, it is important
to understand that low blood sugar can be depressing,
and so eating carbohydrates
becomes comforting, and carbohydrates become 'comfort' foods.
Low blood sugar also leads to hunger or food craving,
and that leads to eating more. The craving that comes from low blood sugar is physiological,
not psychological.
The binging that low blood sugar causes cannot be stopped by will power
simply because it is driven by this physiological craving that is driven by low blood sugar
(starvation). Physiology usually wins over psychology. You can't talk yourself out of low
blood sugar. You have to eat yourself out of low blood sugar. A vicious cycle of high/low
blood sugar ensues. Low blood sugar can make people
very tired and sleepy, and probably accounts for far
more road accidents than
we care to admit. Even violence has a strong connection
to low blood sugar, estimated to be about 80% of non-premeditated
violent crimes. |
Overweight has many health consequences, including increased
risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes,
inflammation, gall bladder problems, kidney problems and many more. The upsides of overweight
are few. One is that bones become stronger from carrying
the extra weight around. Dying with strong bones is small
consolation for early death from the degenerative killer
diseases of our time.
Overweight also has many psychological consequences. Self-esteem
is the greatest casualty. People find overweight unpleasant,
and treat 'fat' people badly. And many 'fat' people don't
like themselves much either, because they often begin to
see themselves as gluttonous victims, out of control of their
appetites.
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When a person eats carbohydrate foods
(sweets and starches), digestion turns all these carbohydrates
into glucose.
Glucose is sugar, whose main function
is to act as fuel. The glucose is absorbed rapidly into the blood
stream, for delivery to the cells that need it. All of this
is the normal course of events in the body.
However, if glucose is absorbed faster
than the body burns it, high blood sugar results. Sweet foods are more likely
to lead to high blood sugar than white flour products, which
in turn are more likely to lead to high blood sugar than
whole grains like brown rice. But any source of carbohydrates
will result in high blood sugar if more is absorbed from
the gut than is being burned by the body. How much is burned
depends on the level of physical activity.
High blood sugar is a very toxic
condition. It is the fundamental problem in diabetes. High
blood sugar can lead to coma and death. Because this condition
is so toxic, the body has a protective mechanism for reducing
high blood sugar. Insulin drives glucose into our cells,
where it is supposed to be burned for energy.
But, if the cells already
have enough fuel and don’t
need the extra glucose, then glucose acts like a hormone
and turns on a gene, a copy of which is present in every
one of everyone’s 60 trillion body cells. The gene,
called fatty acid synthase, has only one function. It turns
excess glucose into fat. At the same time, glucose turns
off the genes for fat burning. The result of eating more
carbs than we burn, then, is to make fat production in the
body easier, and fat burning in the body more difficult or
impossible. Carbs speed fat production and slow down fat
burning. I use a slogan for this situation: "When you
eat carbs, either you burn them or you will wear them - as
fat."

Insulin, involved in this
sequence of events, is super-effective in its action and
overshoots its goal of normalizing blood sugar. The result is increased body fat and blood sugar that
is now too low. Starvation from low blood sugar leads to craving
leads to gorging leads to high blood sugar again. Carbohydrate craving leads
to another round of eating, and the cycle repeats itself.
This is the basis of carbohydrate addiction. Let me repeat the process in more detail.
The low, blood sugar-induced craving leads to 'gorging' which lasts until blood sugar is
normal again. That takes about 30 minutes, because digestion of carbs into glucose
and absorption of glucose take time. By the time blood sugar is back to normal, and
the craving and gorging is over, more has been eaten than necessary.
The summary on carbohydrates goes like
this:
- The body turns carbohydrates into glucose.
- While glucose is clean-burning, good fuel, it turns
off fat burning and turns on fat production.
- Glucose not needed for fuel turns into fat.
Our slogan about carbohydrates: "Burn them, or wear
them-as fat". The biochemistry and genetics of carbohydrates
is completely different from what we've been told. 65% of
the population (those who are overweight) are following that inaccurate
advice in practice.
The truth is the opposite from what we have been led
to believe. Now doesn't that make you mad?
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Few people are equipped by nature to be
able to eat as many carbohydrates and do so little physical
activity as we do without getting fat.
Most people were equipped
by nature to turn excess glucose into fat. Our ability to
turn excess glucose into fat served an important survival
function that evolved during a time when rare times of feasting
were followed by long famines. This survival mechanism, however,
is disastrous in affluent cultures where people live in uninterrupted
times of plenty.
Athletes can eat much more carbohydrate
food than sedentary people can because they burn it up
during intense physical activity. The more active a person, the bigger their muscles, and the
more they exercise, the more carbohydrates they can burn.
The less active, the smaller the muscles, and the more sedentary
the lifestyle, the more important it becomes to limit carbohydrate
intake to prevent overweight and its negative health consequences.
How do you know how much carbohydrate is too much? That's
easy. It requires no counting of calories or measuring of
portions. If you are overweight, you are eating more carbohydrates
than you're burning. This means that you need to lower your
carbohydrate intake. You can do a pinch test on your belly or your butt.
If the pinch test comes up empty, you burned all the carbs you ate. If the pinch test comes up full, you're
wearing some of the carbs your ate as fat.
How much do you need to lower your intake of sweet and starchy
foods? That's easy too. Reduce them in you diet until your
weight is normal. Until the pinch test comes up empty.
Note: There are a few other reasons for overweight:
- Drug side effects. Look for natural alternatives.
- Lack of iodine due to low salt diets. Optimize iodine intake.
- Water retention from inflammation that is usually due
to allergic reactions, poor lymph drainage, lack of exercise,
or heart failure. Take enzymes or eat less protein.
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Let me make one more point about
carbohydrates. They are
fuels that the body burns for energy. They are good
fuels if you burn them. They
are bad
for you if you
don't! |
But, and this is the key point
to understand about carbohydrates, there are no nutrients
in carbohydrates that you cannot get elsewhere.
The body can use proteins and fats for fuel, and
sufficient carbohydrates (too little to make you fat)
are also present in green vegetables, which is where most
of us should be getting them.
In other words, carbohydrates are the
least important of all of the food groups. Essential fats are required in the
diet because the body cannot make them, and therefore are
more important than carbohydrates. Proteins provide essential
amino acids that the body cannot make but must have to live
and be healthy, and therefore proteins are also more important
than carbohydrates. Green foods are more important than carbohydrates
because they make and supply us with most of the essential
components of health. Minerals and vitamins are essential and must
therefore be provided from outside by foods or supplements. But
there are no essential carbohydrates. This means that your body
does not need them. You do not have
to eat them. You can live perfectly well without them. Even your
brain does not require sugar. It can breakdown fat products as fuel. You do not need
sugar and starch. They are not essential.
We can live without carbohydrates, because the body can
make them from scratch.
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The first truth about fats is that they
do not make us fat. This is because they suppress appetite,
and because eating fats does not produce the blood sugar
swings, the insulin spiking, the fat production, the inhibition of fat burning,
the craving, and the bingeing
cycles produced by carbohydrates.
The second truth about fats is that certain fats, especially
those too low in 99% of the population(called omega-3, or "omega-3"
essential fats) will help us lose body fat. Did you
read that right? Yes, you did. Good fats help to make and
keep us slim.
How can they do that? After all, all fats, good or bad,
contain 9 calories per gram, whereas carbohydrates contain
only 4 calories per gram. That was the old argument against
eating fats.
As with carbohydrates, the answer lies in our genes, in
the way the human body works. |
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Research has established that omega-3 (greatly) and
omega-6 (slightly) essential fatty acids, but not monounsaturated, saturated,
or trans- fatty acids play a major role in the body's ability
to burn fat. Omega-3 does it better than omega-6. Omega-3 is inadequately
supplied in the diets of 99% of affluent populations worldwide.
In fact, our intake of omega-3 today is only 1/6th of
that found in diets
in 1850, and already at that time, diets did not supply optimum
amounts of omega-3. Our omega-3 intake has declined to unprecedented
lows. Omega-3 deficiency is the single, most widespread essential nutrient deficinecy of our time.
Omega-6 intake, on the other hand, has doubled in the past 100
years for people who eat the diets common in affluent populations.
People on low fat, no fat, fake fat, fat blocker, fat substitute,
and fat remover diets are likely to get too little omega-6 as
well as too little omega-3.
The ratio between omega-3 and omega-6 is far out of line with what
it ought to be for good health and normal weight, and this
has implications, both for health in general and for body
fat and fat burning in particular. How do essential fats
help burn body fat and make us slim? The answer has several
parts.
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- All fats including essential fats suppress appetite.
- Unlike carbohydrates, fats keep blood sugar and insulin
levels stable, and prevent the high/low blood sugar
cycle.
- Essential fats improve thyroid function, and normalize
metabolic rate and energy levels provided enough iodine
is present in the diet.
- Omega-3 essential fats decrease inflammation and water
retention in tissues, (which is a large part of some people's
overweight), and cause the release of water held in
inflamed tissues by means of the kidneys.
- Omega-3 essential fats improve kidney function, making
removal of excess water more efficient.
- Omega-3 essential fats increase energy production, making
it more likely that a person will be physically active.
This, in turn, leads to more calories being burned,
and increased muscle mass as a result of increased
physical activity.
- Omega-3 essential fats elevate mood and lift depression.
Depressed people often experience loss of interest
in life, and then sit around being inactive. The better
the mood, the less likely people are to eat more calories
than they burn, and the more active they tend to be.
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Most important, omega-3 essential fats affect
the function of genes1,2. They turn up several genes
that increase fat burning, turn down the gene that leads
to fat production, and turn on a gene that increases heat
production in the body. Specifically, omega-3 essential fats:
- Decrease fat production, by turning down the gene responsible
for fat production (fatty acid synthase)
- Increase fat burning, by turning up at least 9 genes
required for burning fats in the body
- Shift the body from using carbohydrates as fuel to
using fats as fuel instead (fuel partitioning)
- Turn on a gene (uncoupling protein) that is responsible
for thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process by
which fats are burned off as heat, without work being
done.
So you can see that omega-3 fats, which are especially lacking
in the fat-phobic, carbohydrate junkie diets eaten by overweight
people, are a major key for reducing body fat, and many different
weight normalization mechanisms in the body are turned up
by omega-3 fats.
Remember, however, that omega-6 essential fats are also essential
for building health and that the ratio between omega-3 and omega-6
must be right. Too much omega-3 can lead to many health problems
due to omega-6 deficiency. Too much omega-6 can lead to many health
problems due to omega-3 deficiency. Over the years, I have found
that a ratio of 2: 1 of omega-3 to omega-6 in the diet gives optimum
benefits in weight management without producing deficiency
of either of the essential fats. |
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Some people want to sue governments for
telling us that carbohydrates are the base of the food pyramid,
mis-educating us to believe that carbohydrates are the most
important food, and encouraging industries to make and falsely
advertise foods high in carbohydrates with health claims that they cannot deliver.
Others want to sue industry for listening to government,
for not doing their own research, falsely advertising high
carb foods as better for health, and profiting by making
consumers sick or even killing them. Recent US estimates
put the figure of overweight-related deaths at 300,000 per
year.
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Wrong carbohydrate advice, based on scant research,
has misled hundreds of millions of people for 20 years,
and probably has caused the deaths of millions from
the consequences of overweight on health-increased
cancer, increased cardiovascular disease, increased
diabetes and increased inflammation. These are in addition to the addiction and
depression caused by high carbohydrate diets. Even
highway deaths due to sleepiness induced by low blood
sugar should be a cause for concern. That possibility has
not been adequately explored. |
Weight gain from eating more
carbohydrates than we burn also has serious social consequences. Overweight is unpopular.
If a person wants to avoid social contacts, getting fat is
one of the easiest ways to ensure one's isolation.
To be fair, there are people
who choose overweight as a way to avoid life, and this
psychological possibility must also be
addressed by those who work with overweight and obese people
claiming to want to normalize body weight and get healthy.
Anger, depression, and protection are common psychological reasons for over eating.
Behind those is usually pain. Behind that is the courage, joy, love and contentment
that make our lives beautiful and turn our challenges into adventures. But for most
overweight people, the problem is just a matter
of having been led to believe by industry and government
something that simply is not true for the human body or for
health.
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Assuming that a person really does want
to get to normal weight and health, and most do, how should
we eat to fix the problems of overweight, obesity, and their
degenerative consequences?
First, we must establish that the recent
epidemic of 65% of the population being overweight is nutritional in origin,
and is not a genetic problem. We know that
because 20 years ago only 25% of us were overweight. One
hundred years ago, less than 10% were overweight.
Genes take much longer than that to
take over a population, and they do so by improving survival (longer life), greater
reproductive success (more children), and greater child survival.
It takes at least 7 to 10 generations for a very strong and
positive gene to take over a population. With regard to overweight,
the epidemic started only 20 years, less than one generation
ago.
They do not have more children, but fewer children. And the
health of the children of overweight parents is not better
but worse than the children of healthy parents. In other
words, this is not survival of the fittest. It is exactly
the opposite. It is shortened survival of the fattest.
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A new food pyramid supporting good health
must be developed.
This
new food pyramid must have greens as
its base as the most important food for health and normal
weight. Why green foods, you ask? The answer is that Earth
is the green planet. Imagine a world without greens. There'd
be no air, no water, no animals, no people, no life. Why?
. They make our oxygen.
Researchers have calculated that green plants took 2.5 billion
years to fill our atmosphere with the oxygen we need to breathe.
Only after green plants had done this important job could
air-breathing creatures like us begin to live here.
- Greens absorb water and hold water in the
soil. Without them, our planet would turn into a desert.
- Green plants absorb light energy from the sun,
store it in bonds between atoms to make food molecules
which, when we eat them, release that energy for us
to live on.
- Greens draw minerals from the soil, and make
them available to us in a form that our body can use-we
can't suck rocks to get our minerals, but plants do
exactly that for us.
- Greens also manufacture the other components of health-molecules
that we need to build and maintain a healthy body but
cannot make ourselves. Greens make the vitamins, essential
amino acids (proteins), and essential fatty
acids (good fats) that we need.
- Greens make fiber (important for bowel regularity,
detoxification, and blood sugar stabilization), anti-oxidants (that
slow down the processes that lead to aging), phytonutrients (potent
healing molecules which are the basis of herbal medicine),
and fuel (to burn for energy).
- Raw, greens also provide enzymes (for digestion
and against viral infection), and probiotics (friendly
microorganisms/flora that protect our digestive tract
from being ravaged by nasty, toxic bacteria like Salmonella,
E. coli, fungus, and yeasts like Candida). Cooking
destroys enzymes and probiotics.
In short, greens provide all of the building blocks that
our genetic program-our built-in program for building a healthy
body-needs to build maintain, repair, and replace cells,
tissues, glands, and organs.
In addition, greens inhibit infections and cancer. Greens
provide magnesium, which improves cardiovascular and insulin
function and has anti-cancer benefits.
Further, greens are great tonics for our digestive system.
Their alkalinity protects us from diseases due to acidity.
Chlorophyll cleanses and detoxifies. Phytonutrients and anti-oxidants
in greens help us in many ways-some inhibit tumors; some
regulate hormones; some are anti-inflammatory; and some prevent
damage caused by free radicals.
Greens are nature's
basis of primary health care and primary medicine.
They maintain healthy cardiovascular, immune, and digestive
systems; strong bones; and optimally functioning glands
and organs.
Since cows are made from grass, greens even make
our steaks! |
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In addition
to greens, good fats are the second most important food
group. The good fats are essential for health, but the body
cannot make them. They must therefore be provided by
foods. Too little leads to deterioration of the health
of every cell, tissue, gland, and organ, accompanied
by many symptoms of degeneration that resemble the degenerative
diseases that we suffer and die from. Complete absence
will kill anyone who avoids fats long enough.
Good fats, made up of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fats, are the
most neglected, confusing, misrepresented part of the nutritional
advice being dispensed by health experts "untrained in nutrition".
Good fats are easily damaged by the
destructive influences of light, air (oxygen), and heat, and must therefore be made,
stored, and used with care. Most commercial food fats are
made with shelf life rather than health in mind, and the
processes used to improve shelf life of good fats damages
them, producing toxic molecules that increase cancer, cardiovascular
disease, insulin resistance, inflammation, and other diseases.
Of the good fats, omega-3 is inadequately
present in the diets of almost the entire population. Lack of adequate omega-3 is
the greatest single nutrient deficiency in modern diet.
In fact, research shows that by increasing omega-3 in the diet,
we can improve the symptoms of most of the major degenerative
conditions of our time as well as improving skin, increasing
energy, and elevating mood.
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To do
so, however, omega-3 must be made with great care, taken
in adequate amounts, taken in the right ratio with the
other (omega-6) essential fat, accompanied by adequate antioxidants
and phytosterols, and used as part of a total program
for good health. |
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The third,
equally important food group, is protein. Protein
is adequately supplied in the diets of most affluent people.
We are protein-conscious, and too much rather than too little
protein is more prevalent in industrialized nations. Our sources
of protein include red meat (pork, beef, lamb), eggs, fish,
white meat (chicken, turkey), and dairy (milk, cheese). Protein
powders have also become quite the rage.
Protein is also present in all whole foods, including greens,
grains, beans, seeds, and nuts. If one eats whole foods in
the form in which God/Nature provides them, protein malnutrition
is inconceivable unless one does not have enough of them
to eat.
Protein under-nutrition (kwashiorkor) is a problem during
famines in underdeveloped countries, especially during times
of war. In developed nations, protein deficiency is found
only among very poor, aged, and infirm people incapable of
looking after themselves.
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Fourth
are the carbohydrates. It bears repeating that carbohydrates do not supply any nutrients
that one cannot get from other foods. Contrary to food pyramid
advice, they are therefore the least important of all the
major foods.
Whole grains cause fewer blood sugar and weight problems
than polished grains such as white rice and flour, which
in turn are better than white sugar, syrup, and honey. The
difference is the rate of absorption. The faster the absorption,
the quicker blood sugar goes high. The more digestion is
required, the more time it takes to turn starch into glucose.
Slower digestion slows down the absorption of glucose into
the body. Slower absorption makes it less likely for blood
sugar to get so high that insulin spikes and drives the sugar
into our cells as self-protection against the damage that
high sugar does to cells, tissues, and organs.
- Leaches minerals from bone
- Cross-links proteins, leading to wrinkles and
aging
- Leads to blood sugar fluctuations, which lead
to:
- Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar)
- Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
- Insulin resistance
- Depression
- Food cravings (addiction)
- Tiredness and the inability to stay awake
(accidents; poor classroom behavior in children;
violence)
- Promotes weight gain, accompanied by:
- Increased cancer risk
- Increased cardiovascular risk
- Increased risk for diabetes (Type II)
- Increased inflammation
- Liver (fat deposits) and kidney problems (stones)
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We can speak of good carbohydrates and
bad carbohydrates. Good ones are all the carbohydrates we
burn. Bad ones are all the ones we don't burn. The ones we
don't burn are bad because they cause all of the problems
listed above. Remember: "Burn 'em, or wear 'em."
As stated before, athletes' bodies can burn far more carbohydrates
than sedentary people's bodies. Muscles burn more glucose
than any other tissue. The bigger the muscles, the more carbohydrates
the body can eat and burn without problems.
An athlete may be able to eat 70% of his foods in the form
of starchy carbohydrates and burn them all (produce no body
fat). A sedentary person may be unable to burn even 40% of
foods in carbohydrate form, and must restrict carbohydrate
intake in order to prevent body fat gain. |
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Sugar absorption can be slowed down with
certain kinds of fiber. The best kind of fiber to do this
is water-soluble mucilage fiber. Such fiber is found in flax,
slippery elm, dulse and kelp seaweed, and okra.
The way these kinds of fiber slow down sugar absorption
is that glucose in the gut is caught up in the mucilage.
As the mucilage churns its way down the digestive tract,
the glucose is released slowly to be absorbed into the body
slowly, at about the same rate at which it is burned. When
that happens, blood sugar remains stable.
In other words, mucilage fiber can turn bad carbohydrates
into good carbohydrates, because if they are burned at the
same rate at which they are absorbed, no excess carbohydrates
will be flooding the blood stream to cause the usual carbohydrate
problems. |
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The effect of omega-3 essential fats on fat
burning and heat production in weight management has been
established by research on the most basic genetic and biochemical
levels.
The key question to be answered is: Do the research findings
prove out in practice? The answer is: Yes, they do.
My son, Tai, is an outstanding fitness coach who
works with a wide range of clients, from movie stars to elite
athletes
to overweight businessmen, civilians, and professionals.
He proves the research in practice every day. Here is his
approach:
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Anyone on the continuum of wanting to get rid
of body fat to wanting to get in shape for a body-building
competition is encouraged to take the following
steps:
- Increase intake of essential fats in a 2: 1 ratio,
sometimes up to 10 tablespoons per day, but usually
between 3 and 6 tablespoons/day.
- Reduce intake of carbohydrates, sometimes way
down, to almost zero.
- Increase green vegetable intake, as sources of
slowly released carbohydrates and essential nutrients.
- Get into a serious exercise program.
- Increase protein intake, because they are going
to be put on a muscle-building, fat-burning exercise
program.
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Tai tailor-designs both a personal meal plan and an individual
exercise program for each client. The program is based on
where the client is starting and what the goals are.
Tai finds that 'the fat just melts off' those who follows
his program. He has coached many clients using these personalized
programs based on certain specific measurements he takes.
He has worked with people remote via the Internet as well
as working with them up close and personal. He has coached
some people from overweight to winning body-building competitions
within as little as 3 months. He can be reached at tai@taierasmus.com.
(Check out his website at www.taierasmus.com)
What research has shown to be true about essential fats
and body fat reduction lines up perfectly with what happens
in practice. What research has shown about carbohydrates
is also confirmed in practical application. Theory and practice
are in agreement.
A shift to increasing good fats and greens and limiting
carbohydrates results in stable blood sugar also. This prevents
diabetes and the increase in cardiovascular and cancer risks.
Limitation on carbohydrate intake also helps to prevent
inflammatory problems in tissues, organs, and joints, such
as arthritis, lupus, and fibromyalgia. And, limitation of
carbs decreases water retention in tissues.
Carb diets increase tissue water retention, probably due to inflammation.
The excess carbohydrate diet (eating more than one burns)
is not good for health. Our bodies were simply not designed
to flourish on such a diet. 60% of overweight is testament
to that fact. If the other 40% of the population ate such
a diet, most of them too, would develop overweight, high/low
sugar swings, and diabetes. That's just how human biology
works. |
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Carbohydrates were much less abundant
in our past than they are in our present. Grains were smaller
and therefore contained less starch.
The agricultural revolution began
only 20,000 years ago. Before that, far fewer grains
and far
more greens were eaten. Seeds and nuts provided fats
and protein. The hunt provided more protein and fat.
White
flour and white sugar (refined, processed carbohydrates)
are inventions less than 200 years old. Before that,
white flour could not be mass-produced, which meant
that it had to be made by hand and only the very rich
could
afford to eat products made with 'refined' white flour.
Therefore, during that period, only the very rich got
the degenerative diseases that now plague everyone-dropsy,
obesity, sugar disease, and others. These were the "kings' ailments" brought
on by the 'refined' "kings' foods".
With the industrial revolution came mass production,
and thereafter we could all enjoy the 'foods of kings',
and within one generation, we could all enjoy the kings' ailments. |
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The emphasis on carbohydrates that has led to the present
epidemic of overweight began only 20 years ago, and was promoted
through advertising. |
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Traditional food fare has always been
the same as the above recommendation for lifelong healthy
eating. Let me repeat what the program looks like. Healthy
eating emphasizes
- Green foods
- Good fats
- Proteins
and limits carbohydrate intake to the amount the body can
burn. One more time, the slogan about carbohydrate consumption: 'Burn 'em
(during physical activity) or wear 'em-as fat.' |
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Clarke SD. Polyunsaturated fatty acid regulation of gene
transcription: a mechanism to improve energy balance and
insulin resistance. Br J Nutr. 2000 Mar;83 Suppl
1:S59-66. Graduate Program of Nutritional Sciences, University
of Texas at Austin 78712, USA. stevedclarke@mail.utexas.edu
This review addresses the hypothesis that polyunsaturated
fatty acids (PUFA), particularly those of the omega-3 family,
play essential roles in the maintenance of energy balance
and glucose metabolism. The data discussed indicate that
dietary PUFA function as fuel partitioners in that they direct
glucose toward glycogen storage, and direct fatty acids away
from triglyceride synthesis and assimilation and toward fatty
acid oxidation.
In addition, the omega-3 family of PUFA appears
to have the unique ability to enhance thermogenesis and
thereby reduce the efficiency of body fat deposition. PUFA
exert
their effects on lipid metabolism and thermogenesis by
upregulating the transcription of the mitochondrial uncoupling
protein-3 (UCP 3),
and inducing genes encoding proteins involved in fatty
acid oxidation (e.g. carnitine palmitoyltransferase and acyl-CoA
oxidase) while simultaneously down-regulating the transcription
of genes encoding proteins involved in lipid synthesis
(e.g.
fatty acid synthase). The potential transcriptional mechanism
and the transcription factors affected by PUFA are discussed.
Moreover, the data are interpreted in the context of the
role that PUFA may play as dietary factors in the development
of obesity and insulin resistance.
Collectively the results
of these studies suggest that the metabolic functions
governed by PUFA should be considered as part of the criteria
utilized
in defining the dietary needs for omega-6 and omega-3 PUFA, and
in establishing the optimum dietary ratio for omega-6: omega-3
fatty acids.
Clarke SD Polyunsaturated
fatty acid regulation of gene transcription: a molecular
mechanism to improve the metabolic syndrome. Nutr 2001
Apr;131(4):1129-32 Graduate Program of Nutrition and
the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, The University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. stevedclarke@mail.utexas.edu
This review addresses the hypothesis
that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), particularly those
of the (omega-3) family, play pivotal roles as "fuel partitioners" in
that they direct fatty acids away from triglyceride storage
and toward oxidation, and that they enhance glucose flux
to glycogen.
In doing this, PUFA may protect against the
adverse symptoms of the metabolic syndrome and reduce the
risk of heart disease. PUFA exert their beneficial effects
by up-regulating the expression of genes encoding proteins
involved in fatty acid oxidation while simultaneously down-regulating
genes encoding proteins of lipid synthesis. PUFA govern
oxidative gene expression by activating the transcription
factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha.
PUFA suppress lipogenic gene expression by reducing the
nuclear abundance and DNA-binding affinity of transcription
factors responsible for imparting insulin and carbohydrate
control to lipogenic and glycolytic genes.
In particular,
PUFA suppress the nuclear abundance and expression of sterol
regulatory element binding protein-1 and reduce the DNA-binding
activities of nuclear factor Y, Sp1 and possibly hepatic
nuclear factor-4. Collectively, the studies discussed suggest
that the fuel "repartitioning" and gene expression actions
of PUFA should be considered among criteria used in defining
the dietary needs of (omega-6) and (omega-3) and in establishing
the dietary ratio of (omega-6) to (omega-3) needed for optimum
health benefit.
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