Good Gut Bugs

When you really look closely, we are really only just the transport mechanism for water and bacteria. Seriously. The only time we are 100% human cells and DNA is when we are in utero. As soon as we make our way down the birth canal we start to accumulate foreign critters who take up residence in and on our bodies for the rest of our lives, and beyond. Kids are supposed to play in the dirt and taste their world. This is how the gut gets populated with a healthy balance of good bugs to battle the bad ones. New studies have shown that it's actually really beneficial for parents to "clean" off a dropped binky by sucking on it and then popping back into the baby's mouth. This helps transfer some of the parent's good bugs to the child.

If you count up the numbers of cells with “not self” DNA and compare that number to the number of cells that contain actual self DNA you’ll be astounded to discover that we are outnumbered by nearly a factor of ten. We are actually only about 10% human compared to 90% microbial. Now this is NOT a treatise on how to go out and eradicate the 90% “non-human” part of us! Quite the contrary. I want to expand your thinking to include these hitch-hikers as part of what it means to be a healthy human.

Just like a healthy forest, biodiversity is the key. We have seen clearly what happens when we clear-cut a forest and then come back to plant a mono-culture of a single tree species in neat rows ready to harvest at a later date. This mono-culture system hobbles along, never very healthy, always in danger of being over run by a single disease or single pest outbreak, and always in danger of a devastating fire. By contrast, a healthy dynamic, bio-diverse forest is resilient and capable of fending off pests, disease and complete annihilation by fire exactly because it has a wide range of inhabitants that all help maintain the system in their large and small ways.

Western lifestyles, food supplies, medications, toxins and recent obsession with antibacterial soaps has essentially performed a massive clear-cutting of our internal environment. We SHOULD play host to trillions of various microorganisms in as delicate a balance as the exterior environment with similar predator/prey relationships, similar herbivore/omnivore players, and similar toxin removal/recycling systems. When we mess with these internal environments as we have our external ones, we find similar problems of mono-culture and systems out of balance. We need a healthy balance of microbes to help us process foods, maintain a healthy pH (of skin, teeth, mucus membranes, and GI tract), detoxify certain substances, make certain nutrients bioavailable that we can’t liberate from foods, and keep our insides and outsides free from dangerous invaders. Without this symbiosis we become more vulnerable to disease, nutrient deficiency, and toxic overload.

Interestingly enough, these critters that we carry around actually exert a certain amount of mind control over their human hosts. This happens in both balanced and imbalanced systems. That sugar craving you might be having is very possibly the whispers of a virulent bacteria or fungus that thrives on sugar and has patched into the body’s communication systems to tell the brain to find more sugary foods! Because the gut has more neurotransmitter receptor sites than the brain does, our hitch-hikers have direct access to systemic communication.

When the gut flora is out of balance you can experience a panoply of symptoms including anxiety, depression, addictive behavior, ADD/ADHD, IBS/IBD, Crohn’s disease, arthritis flares, food allergies, migraines, and much more. If you have ever been treated with antibiotics and you eat a standard American diet full of easy sugar and low dose antibiotics, it is highly likely that your gut microbes need to be attended to in order to reclaim and maintain your health. Consider a stool test to determine what populations you harbor and work with a qualified healthcare professional to restore a happy belly environment. It’s not as simple as eating yogurt or taking L. acidophilus capsules.




Get populated! Get balanced! Get REAL.

GMOs: Genetically Modified Organisms in Our Food Supply

It is unnerving that three of the top five crops grown in the US are now mostly genetically modified. The number one crop, corn, is now 86% GM. Although only 12% of the yields are considered to be consumed directly by humans, over 80% is consumed by livestock and we consume them or their products. The number two crop, soy, is now 93% GM and 79% of all the edible oil consumed by Americans is soy oil. In addition, the following crops are also GM: cottonseed (93%), canola (90%), sugar beets (95%), as well as nearly all Hawaiian papaya, some zucchini and crookneck squash.(1,2)

Traits of GM crops
There are basically two main ways that GMOs are designed: 1) to create a plant that is herbicide tolerant (63% of GMOs); and 2) to create a plant that generates its own pesticides internally (16% of GMOs). About 21% of crops are designed to do both.

Industry Claims
Claims by the companies responsible for this technology, and the creation of the pesticides and herbicides that are used on these crops, assert that GMOs are perfectly safe for human consumption based on the use of some of these pesticides topically on crops over the past decades. As an example, Bt toxin (Bacillus thuringiensis) has been used as a spray on non-GM crops without research into long term effects on human health. Yet, the industry claims that by creating a plant that produces its own Bt toxin, it is essentially the same thing. However, the problem is one of both toxin concentration which is much higher in GM crops, and the alteration of other parts of the organism in ways that have not been studied for long term effects.

Other places you might not think to look for GMO ingredients:
Medications
Supplements

Possible application of biotechnology (3)
The application of genetic engineering is possible in the following ingredients of food supplements. It is however not possible to make general statements whether or not biotechnology was used in a specific product and to which extent.
Vitamins and provitamins: vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12, biotin
Amino acids: cysteine, lysine, tryptophan, methionine, threonine, phenylalanine, glutaminic acid
Secondary plant metabolites: Plant sterols (phytosterines)
Soy protein
Brewing yeast
Enzymes (like amylase, lipase, lactase as digestive agents)
Flavours
Papaya
Emulsifiers: soya lecithin, soybean polyose (E426)
Filling agents: cellulose, ethylcellulose (E 462), dextrin
Acidity regulators: citric acid

Ingredients and additives that contain or likely contain GMOs:
Acetylated starch
Amino acid
Annatto
Ascorbic acid
Aspartame
Beta-carotene
Biotin
Bread Crumbs
Caramel
Caramel colouring
Caramel sugar
Carotinoids
Cellulose
Citric acid
Cobalamin
Corn flour
Cottonseed oil
Cysteine
Cystine
Dextrin
Dextrose
Diacetyl
Egg white solid
Egg yolk solid
Erythrit
Ethyl maltol
Ethylcellulose
Fatty acids
Flavours
Flaxseed
Flour
Fondant
Fructose
Fructose syrup
Glaze
Gluconic acid
Glucono-delta-lactone
Glucose
Glucose syrup
Glutamate
Glutamic acid
Glycerin
Guanylate
Guanylic acid
Hydroxypropylstarch
Inosinate
Inosinic acid
Invert sugar syrup
Invertase
Isomalt
Lactic acid
Lactoflavin
Lactose
Lecithin
Leucine
Linseed oil
Lysine
Lysozyme
Maize germ oil
Malt sugar
Maltitol syrup
Maltodextrins
Maltol
Maltose
Maltose syrup
Mannitol
Methionine
Methylcellulose
Milk protein
Modified Starch
Mono and Diglycerides
Natamycin
Nisin
Oxidised Starch
Persipan
Phenylalanine
Plant Fat
Plant oil
Plant protein product
Plant Sterols
Polenta
Polydextrose
Rapeseed oil
Riboflavin
Sorbitol
Soy Flour
Soy isolate
Soy Oil
Soy protein
Soya lecithin
Soybean polyose
Starch
Starch hydrolysate
Starch phosphate
Starch Sodium octenyl succinate
Sugar
Sunflower Oil
Sweeteners
Tapioca
Textured Soy Protein
Thaumatin
Threonin
Tocopherol
Trehalose
Trockeneiklar
Tryptophan
Vanilla aroma
Vanillin
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Vitamins
Whey products
Xanthan
Xylitol
Yeast
Yeast extract
Yeast flakes
(from http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/ingredients/)

Enzymes that are derived from or likely derived from GMOs:
Acetolactate decarboxylase
Aminopeptidase
Amylase
Asparaginase
Catalase
Cellulase
CGTase
Chymosin
Galactosidase
Glucanase
Glucose isomerase
Glucose oxidase
Hemicellulase
Hexose oxidase
Laccase
Lactase
Lipase
Lipoxygenase
Mannanase
Pectinase
Pectinesterase
Phytase
Protease
Pullulanase
Transglutaminase
Xylanase

(from http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/enzymes/)


(1) http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/cropmajor.html
(2) “Seeds of Deception” by Jeffery Smith
(3) http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/database/food/360.food_supplements.html


Get Informed. Get Clear. Get REAL.

Man Parts

Why is it that the topic of “men’s health” always seems to be a synonym for prostate health or erectile dysfunction? Yes, the prostate gland is important, but there is a whole MAN attached to it and his overall health is vital to the health of all his parts. Let’s look at a few things that are important to consider in whole-body health trajectories that don’t get much attention.

Building blocks: We all played with them as kids. You learned about how a wobbly foundation meant that your castle would fall over more easily than a well built one. You learned about how certain blocks fit together better than others. And you learned that using the bigger blocks on the bottom gave your castle more stability.

Translation: There are a few big pieces to focus on for overall health at the foundation level that will make all the difference in the stability and maintainability of health in the long run. The really cool thing is that all of these are under personal control, not the purview of the pharmaceutical companies or the medical community. In most cases, the biggest contributor to health or dis-ease is what we do (or don’t do) every day.

What to Eat? Start with less... Over-consumption of food and the development of obesity is one of the leading causes of all chronic dis-eases in the US and is directly implicated in the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction (ED), heart dis-ease, diabetes and more.

One of the greatest disservices perpetuated on the American public has been the idea that a low- or no-fat diet is somehow healthy. The key is the type of fat and where it comes from. You actually need some saturated fats along with essential fatty acids, but fake, damaged or contaminated fats are deadly. Low/non-fat conventional dairy products have been linked to prostate cancer, and high intakes of unprotected omega 3 fatty acids (i.e. not enough antioxidants) are linked to the development of BPH.

The same holds true for proteins, especially animal derived proteins. There are vast differences in health consequences between consuming organic, grass-fed, “happy” beef/dairy and commercial, feed-lot, grain (and “other”) fed beef/dairy. Our biggest problem, however, is likely to be highly processed carbohydrates including products made with refined sugars and flours, refined white rice, and starchy veggies that have been subjected to high heat. High-glycemic index carbohydrates (highly processed carbs and sugars) have been linked to prostate cancer and BPH. If I could make a one sentence recommendation for your overall health it would be this: Eat foods that were grown the way they were meant to live (organically) with the least amount of processing possible and prepared with care. If we all did this I would be willing to bet that 80% of our chronic health issues would magically disappear.

What to Drink: Simple, water. Those studies claiming that red wine is beneficial for heart dis-ease? Yeah, those have been found to be mostly false. Sorry. And beer is one of the worst things to indulge in daily, even more so than sodas which are looking worse and worse as the studies roll in. Coffee? Good news! One coffee drink per day is good for the liver and helps to prevent diabetes. The trick is to eliminate the sugar and only use organic grass-fed hormone-free whole milk or half and half. Soy milk? Let’s just say “don’t go there” and leave that for another discussion. Water. Clean, pure, non-distilled water.

What to Do: Another simple answer, move. If there were a medication that could provide all the benefits of exercise, MDs would be sued for malpractice if they didn’t prescribe it for everyone! Basically there are only benefits, even the side effects are beneficial! It’s no wonder because moving is what we were built to do. This modern age has seen a new ill health syndrome develop called SED or sedentary death syndrome. The less you move the greater your chances of early death or a long, drawn out, dis-ease riddled old age. And is it related to BPH, prostate cancer and ED? You bet. No surprise there. The research all shows that the better shape you’re in, the better ALL your man parts work! (And yes, the sex is better too...)

Get the gunk out. Get moving. Get serious about your health. Get REAL.

Re - Solutions

OK. You made it though the holidaze. Congratulations. Now what? Now comes that nagging feeling that you've overindulged and have to repent. This usually centers on creating some sort of austere diet and exercise plan that your "Super Self" will coerce your "Evil Twin" into following for "your own good".  Aahh... and here is where it all goes down the drain before you even get started.

DIET is a Four Letter Word. Back when I was a kid, a "four letter word" was a "bad word". The word "diet" has all the negative connotations that are associated with punishment and deprivation. It is based on willpower and internal motivational strength. It is a period of time that is book-ended and taken out of a person's "normal" life during which they force themselves into a very tight small box of behaviors and usually without any internal or external support. Put simply: IF YOU DIET YOU ARE DESTINED TO FAIL unless you happen to have the will of an automaton, the emotional range of a barbell, and live in a bunker with no temptations to stray from the tight-rope thin path to your goal weight.

The reality is that we humans are complicated, have stressful lives that overlap and interact with other complicated and stressful lives. We are continuously bombarded with advertisements for weight loss miracle pills/shakes/frozen meals/supplements/medications/surgeries at the same time we are assaulted with advertising for the "return of the McRib", "I-dare-you-to-eat-just-one" chips, 2-for-1 large so-there's-no-need-to-share pizzas, and super-sized fries for the same price as regular. Mixed messages? Yup. One set appeals to your inner parent and the other to the inner child. You are being set up. Who benefits? The pharmaceutical industry, the food industry and the diet industry. You read that right. The Diet Industry. There are huge amounts of money to be made on you. This industry is there to help your wallet lose weight, not you.

Don't count calories. Count blessings. Get REAL. Take back your power and live your life with the passion, verve and vitality you were meant to have! How, you ask? Simple really. Focus on these five things with gentleness towards yourself and gratitude:
1 - Eat REAL foods. Give up processed foods, anything that you only have to microwave and serve, excess sugars (not all sugars!), damaged fats and poisoned proteins. Eat a rainbow of veggies, fruits, healthy meats/fish/poultry (if you aren't vegetarian of course), organic whole dairy products, whole grains and healthy fats. YES FATS. Fats are what triggers the sense of satiety and tells your body you can stop eating. Without fat in your meal you will be hungry again very quickly. And yes, the occasional dessert! But eat it right up next to your meal. And by the way, occasional means just that, not after (or instead of) every meal as we've been told by the marketing agencies we can do...
2 - Move. It's what you were built to do. You weren't built to run marathons weekly or to swim the English Channel. You were built to trudge. You were built to move all day every day. You were not built to sit. Move your body through space under your own power for at least 60 minutes per day at a pace that suggests you might have just been hung up on AGAIN by AT&T after being on hold for 45 minutes. Grrr!
3 - Drink water. Just water. Clean water. Cool, not iced, water. Drink one ounce for every half-pound of you. If you weigh 200 pounds, your daily intake should be 100 ounces. If you must, have herbal tea or a squeeze of lemon in your water. If you have caffeine or alcohol, remember it sets you back and you have to drink that much more to get back to square one.
4 - Eliminate as much added sugar as possible. Naturally occurring sweetness in fruits and veggies are fine. Artificial sweeteners offer you nothing but health problems and a continuing addiction to extreme sweetness. Cut it back. Use sugar if you must but do so knowing that's what you're using and be sensible. No agave is not the answer. This is another case of "natural" does not equal "healthy".
5 - Breathe. Yup, you read that right. Breathe. We forget that one of THE most important things we can do is change the air. Clear your head. Oxygenate your brain. Wake up your muscles. Crank up your metabolism. Expel toxins that are released in the breath. Consciously taking a few breaths reduces your stress levels instantly. Try it. It's something you can literally do any time. Important times to implement taking a few conscious breaths are: before beginning a meal, before a potentially stressful meeting, while sitting in traffic, before going to bed at night, and before engaging in your day in the morning.

You can do these things! If you focus on these 5 things rather than trying to make unsustainable and doomed resolutions, you can change the course of your history from this day forward. I dare you to try it. Take pictures, take measurements, then put the scale in the garage, keep a journal and let me know how you feel this time next year. Thumb your nose at the expensive diet plans and gym memberships. Laugh at the ridiculous advertising that makes no rational sense. Take your power and money back from Big Pharma and Big Agra. Get Sensible. Get Healthy. Get REAL.

Overweight, Obesity and Diabetes: the other rising tide

Global warming has been in the news a lot lately and yes, the potential of the rising oceans is a major concern for our generation and beyond. However, the bigger threat to our immediate health and that of our healthcare system is the dramatic increase in health issues related to overweight and obesity in developed and developing countries alike. At current rates, the healthcare costs associated with the sequelae related to dysfunctional metabolism will stress to bursting our current systems of heath insurance and health care.

Pharmaceutical companies are already finding their supplies of insulin in demand at a greater rate than they can supply it and, of course, costs are increasing (to the thrill of shareholders, but not those who are insulin dependent). Drugs used to treat diabetes, including insulin and metformin, have become a $34 billion annual business (up 12% since only last year). Huge companies such as Novo Nordisk are making half of their profits on insulin alone. For Novo Nordisk that amounts to half of their $11.1 billion in sales. There are 366 million diabetes sufferers worldwide of which 1 dies every 7 seconds from issues that develop from the disease. The total health care costs related to diabetes is $465 billing according to the International Diabetes Federation.*

The maddening thing is that nearly all of these cases could have been avoided, and those that got started could have been reversed if people had only been given adequate information on how to take care of themselves. Probably THE most damaging information perpetuated in the last 40 years has been the nearly ubiquitous advice to ditch dietary fats in favor of high-glycemic carbohydrates. By dramatically increasing highly processed grains and sugars and taking out the traditional healthy fats that the body needs to maintain the endocrine system, brain, nervous system, and immunity, we have stomped on the accelerator driving our collective pancreases to the brink of destruction by forcing our bodies to process far more sugars than ever before in the history of the human food supply. Time and time again I have seen people struggle with weight, blood lipids, and blood sugar who are trying valiantly to follow low-fat diets and still seeing no positive change in their health or weight.

Finally, we are beginning to hear the voices of reason from scientists and biochemists and even journalists like Gary Taubes (see his new book "Why We Get Fat") and Nina Planck (check out her book "Real Food") who point out that we have been on the wrong track for decades. We MUST turn this ship around before our healthcare system is flooded. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing dramatically in younger and younger patients. What used to be considered "adult-onset" diabetes, is now showing up in children as young as 8 and 10 years old. To me this is even more ominous and immediately threatening than the polar ice caps melting...

Wake Up. Take Charge. Get Healthy. Get REAL.



(*as referenced in Bloomburg Business Week Oct 3-9/11 p. 30-31)

Sugar: the rational approach (Part 2 on the sugar topic)

Some of you may have seen the recent article I was interviewed for here in Marin County, CA. It was quite timely as it was about the Halloween sugar issue that got me going to write the first part of this missive. As promised, I've got some more info for you on our sweet friend/foe.

Keep in mind one of the things I say over and over: you can take any item we ingest and make it into a poison if you take in enough of it. Even excessive consumption of water can cause huge issues such as hyponatremia which is an electrolyte imbalance that produces symptoms that look like drunkenness. When it comes to sugar, the body doesn't actually need the refined stuff. It needs the unrefined versions that come with a complete package of nutrients. As I mentioned last time, there is a big difference between the amount of fructose in an apple and the amount in a 12 ounce soda. Add in the fact that the apple also brings with it fiber, vitamins A, C, K, folate, choline, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and even a few omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. That soda? Nothing but sugar, artificial flavors and colors, and probably caffeine.

When you look at sugar itself as we think of it, the white granulated kind, there is a good website that has translated sugar content equivalents into stacked sugar cubes so you get a clear visual on the amount of sugar in various foods. Check out Sugar Stacks with your kids sometime. It's an eye opener for sure. They also use the visual of the equivalent amount of carrots which is a fun alternative when you consider that a 20 ounce bottle of Coke has the same amount of sugar as about 3 pounds of carrots...

I'll say it again: Sugar that comes in the form of food isn't bad in and of itself. It's the amounts of the refined stuff that we have become accustomed to consuming that are the problem. One of the things that often confuses my clients is that the whole food group called carbohydrate is partially defined by the fact that these foods all end up being at least partially converted into blood sugar. Carbohydrates include table sugar and bread, but also spinach and peaches, broccoli and strawberries. It is all the veggies, fruits and grains and everything made from them. This is a HUGE food group. The key is that each unrefined carbohydrate also contains other vital nutrients, as in the example of the apple above. To eliminate this entire food group is a big mistake in the long run. The Atkins people learned this the hard way and have now modified their approach to include the foods that turn into blood sugar more slowly.

This brings me to the Glycemic Index. This is a way to look at the speed at which sugar enters the system. Each carbohydrate you can eat "clocks in" on a speedometer that goes from 0-100. A simple rule of thumb is that your speed limit should be 55 or lower. You can look up any carbohydrate to find it's Glycemic Index here. An easy way of thinking about the speed is by thinking about how refined or processed a food is. The more it's been broken down outside the body (by mechanical processing, heat, pressure, etc.) the less time it takes your body to absorb it and so the higher it is on the Glycemic Index. That said, it is important to also consider the serving size and what other foods you are eating at the same time. For example, watermelon clocks in at about 75 on the Glycemic Index, but when you take into consideration that the amount water and fiber in watermelon is pretty high, the actual load of a 120g serving is only about 5. This is an extreme individual food example, but you will see some of the same sorts of interesting numbers when you combine foods. If you look at a plain corn tortilla, it's Glycemic Index is about 52. If you add refried beans and salsa, then that tortilla clocks in at about 39 on the same scale. However, if you fry that tortilla (corn chips) you end up at around 74! Same base material, but processing and food combining have dramatically different effects on the blood glucose outcome.

So the trick here becomes HOW to eat carbohydrates, yes, including sweets. It is important to make a mess for your body to sort through to find the sugars. As I sometimes say in sessions with clients, think of your stomach as a teenager's bedroom. You want it to be really messy. You want to have to search hard to find a clean pair of socks (the sugar). So if you want that dessert? The best way to do it is to have it immediately following your meal, not 2 hours later. And, as you learn more about real foods, make lower glycemic choices more often.

Get smart. Get healthy. Get REAL.

Post Halloween Sugar Crash

Hi All - sorry for the radio silence of late. Loads going on in my world and I'm happy to say "it's all good!" I just got interviewed here in Marin for an article on the post-Halloween sugar overload nightmare. I find it so interesting how as a culture we continually set ourselves up for disaster and then bemoan it's arrival. That pathology is the root of so many of our culturally based ills... and the subject of a dissertation at another time. Today I want to dive shallowly into sugar.

Myth: Sugar is bad.
Fact: Sugar is essential to life, just not anywhere near the quantities in which it is currently consumed. Overconsumption of sugar-laden foods and high-glycemic index carbohydrates is one of the root causes of many chronic diseases we see in the US.

Myth: Artificial sweeteners are a healthy substitute for sugar.
Fact: Long-term use of ANY artificial sweeteners leads to weight GAIN. The metabolic breakdown products of aspartame includes formaldehyde -- yes, the same stuff those pickled rats from high school biology lab were stored in, AKA embalming fluid. Sucralose is a chlorinated hydrocarbon in the same chemical family as agent orange. 'Nuff said.

Myth: Agave syrup is a healthy alternative to table sugar.
Fact: High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is about 65% fructose/35% glucose. Agave syrup is about 95% fructose. Concentrated fructose ingestion is far more damaging than an equivalent amount of table sugar. Even moderately high doses of fructose lead to fatty streaks in the liver, increases the production of triglycerides, and an increased risk of heart disease to name only a few problems. Another thing those HFCS commercials aren't telling you is that the levels of mercury found in HFCS is dangerously high.

Industry Supported Myth: Sugar consumption has no effect on children's behavior.
Fact: Just ask any parent or school teacher... I beg to differ from the industry sponsored "studies" that show there is no change in children's activity levels pre/post sugar consumption! Empirical evidence overrides this "finding" repeatedly...

Fact: Evaporated Cane Juice is sugar. The least amount of processing you can find the better as the nutrients that accompany the sweetness are still largely intact. Try unrefined sugars that still have their natural molasses brown color. (Standard "brown sugar" is actually refined white sugar with some of the molasses added back in, or food colorings and flavorings...) The refining process uses chemicals like formic acid, phosphoric acid and sulfur dioxide.

Fact: Unrefined cane sugar is about 50% glucose/50% fructose. The fructose and glucose actually act synergistically to help the body use the sugars appropriately when found in that ratio. Surprise, the body actually knows what to do with it.

Fact: The 13 grams of fructose you would find in an apple is not dangerous. The 30 grams of fructose found in a 12oz soda is a problem.

I will post more on this topic very soon, so watch this space. If you have any specific questions you'd like to see addressed, please email me or comment here. Get educated about your food. Get REAL.

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 4

OK - here goes: SWEETENERS

I have to take a deeeeeep breath here because this is a huge topic of interest and concern for my clients. This is one of those places where politics, money, marketing, health, science, habits, and the force of denial come crashing into each other. In my experience, artificial sweeteners are in the top 3 of the most controversial and heatedly debated food topics today, the other two being dairy and soy (followed closely by GMOs and pesticides).

For starters, people don't want to believe that food is political. We KNOW this on one level, but we don't want to know it at another. If you've worked with me for even a short amount of time you've likely heard me say that denial is a force stronger than gravity. Our denial is like burying our heads in the sand or refusing to see what is actually right in front of us. Denial allows marketing agents to play on our fears and our habits that keep us from making changes that will cost their clients money. Denial allows back room dealings between politicians and the industrial food industry to remain relatively hush hush because we really don't want to know that Donald Rumsfeld was instrumental in getting the drug aspartame pushed into our food supply; or that huge industry efforts were made to silence scientist Dr Mary Enig when she started to speak out about the health dangers of trans-fats; or that the beef industry waged a terrifyingly large law suit against Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat conventional beef on national TV. Denial allows us to walk into our average grocery store and assume that whatever is being sold on the shelves must be safe to consume. So first off I'm going to ask my readers to put denial aside for a few minutes and read on.

Here in the industrialized world we have been operating for decades on the belief that we can have better lives through scientific manipulation of our environment, our foods, our cleaning products, our water... actually nearly everything. At the sustenance level, we have gotten it into our heads that we are smarter than Mother Nature and we can create better foods than the ones our bodies developed utilizing over eons. With an exceptionally limited understanding of how the human body and all of it's systems work, we think we can create substances that will provide our bodies with exactly what they need as well as feed the habits of desire without consequences. So, we end up with things like "no calorie sweeteners" in the form of aspartame or sucralose, and "fat substitutes" like olestra. The trouble begins when you start looking a bit more closely at how the body utilizes these "Frankenfoods". For this post, I'm going to limit this glimpse to artificial sweeteners. Here are just a few simple verifiable facts:

Fact: Aspartame (aka NutraSweet, Equal, AminoSweet, and Candarel) breaks down in the human body into 2 amino acids, and methanol. Methanol, also known as "wood alcohol", is broken down in the body to formaldehyde. Yup, you read that right. Formaldehyde, the same stuff that those frogs were floating in before you dissected them in high school biology class.

Fact: Formaldehyde is a carcinogen and neurotoxin. There is no safe level of human exposure to formaldehyde (which is why those frogs are no longer preserved in it for biology classes).

Fact: Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of Searle Laboratories before taking office in the Reagan administration. After his appointment, he vowed to get aspartame approved for use in the American food supply. It had been denied for the previous 16 years due to significant health concerns.

Fact: Sucralose is a laboratory-made chlorinated hydrocarbon with the same base as DDT made by using phosgene which is a neurotoxin used in World War I as a choking gas. Phosgene is also used to make plastics and pesticides.

Fact: Chlorine is a highly reactive substance in the body and one of the most active pro-oxidants in the human system. Chlorine gas was used against troops extensively in World War II.

Fact: The company that makes sucralose (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) is in the midst of a lawsuit for false advertising and misleading the public into believing it's actually just sugar that has had its calories magically removed.

Fact: The long term use of no-calorie artificial sweeteners will actually cause weight gain and worsen diabetes.

Fact: Sucralose can cause shrinkage of the thymus gland, enlargement of the liver and kidneys, decreased red blood cell count, blood sugar disregulation, reduced fetal and placental weights, and miscarriage.

Fact: There are over 92 significant side effects of aspartame ingestion including: migraine, seizures, blindness, tinnitus, dizziness, confusion, severe depression, anxiety, aggression, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, bloody diarrhea, birth defects and brain damage.

Heard enough yet? I could go on and on, but it gets me really riled up so I'm stopping here. Your body knows what to do with sugar. It's 10 calories per teaspoon.

Get smart. Get healthy. Get REAL.

Medicinal Effects of Foods - Part 3

I have many clients who come to see me worried about weight gain and what has become known in our culture as "emotional eating". These clients want to stop using eating as a way to medicate themselves. The thing is, everything we put in our systems has biochemical effects. Keep in mind that thoughts and emotions are "things" from a biological standpoint. They are real biochemical processes with ingredients and metabolic outcomes that can be tracked. The simplest form of medication that we've learned over the millennia is the use of food and drink to change the way neurotransmitters in the gut and brain behave. Because eating is something we must do, changing the way we relate to food as medicine is important. You can easily see why it would be important to quit smoking and you can make efforts to do so. But a person can't just quit eating. This is why it's so difficult to tease apart.

Let's start here: You can't take food and emotions apart. Because emotions and thoughts are built from the basic ingredients we take in. When looking at "emotional eating" it is important to really understand this statement. The foods (and other substances) you ingest become you. There are whole supermarkets full of "food products" that have little or no connection with what could be conceived of as Real Food. Just as real food becomes the biochemical building blocks of your muscles, your organs, your immune system, your thoughts and your emotions, so too do all the new-fangled chemicals that have entered our food supply in the last 100 years. It is vital that you start asking yourself "Is this what I want to build myself out of today?"

For most of us, sugar is our biggest weakness and the thing that has the biggest negative impact. Sugar is pro-inflammatory, depresses the immune system, contributes to mood instability, creates an acidic internal environment, worsens PMS symptoms, and hastens aging, just to name a few. But we love the stuff! Why? It makes perfect sense from a biochemical standpoint. The same bank of lights in the brain that gets turned on by serotonin (the neurotransmitter that makes us feel happy) also gets amped up by sugar. When we feel down, depressed, stressed, unhappy or need an escape, flooding the system with sugar can help to temporarily change our internal environment. The trouble is that sugar is like jet fuel: it burns hot and fast. Once the body has overcome the flood of sugar, the natural levels in the bloodstream are even lower than where they were before the sugar rush. A signal from the brain says "hey, running out of juice up here, need more of that feel good stuff!" and off we go to find another fix. The trick here is to short circuit the response and reach for foods that increase natural serotonin rather than settle for the quick fix that only temporarily bandaids the situation. In this case, reach for protein. The best choices would be eggs, turkey, elk, pork, crab, shrimp, and salmon (vegetarian options include 200 kcal portions of spirulina, spinach, and watercress) because they are high in tryptophan which is what the body uses to create serotonin.

There are whole manifestos available on the detrimental effects of food additives and toxic residues out there so I won't go into a dissertation here. (If you are interested in a few good references check out "Aspartame Disease" by H. J. Roberts; "Excitotoxins: the taste that kills" by Russell Blaylock; "Diet for a Poisoned Planet" by David Steinman; and "Sweet Deception" by Joseph Mercola). Suffice it to say, each of these toxins has an impact. If you are susceptible, the way they are incorporated into your system will have worse effects. For example, there are case studies showing that you can actually fool your doctor into believing you have multiple sclerosis by ingesting just the right amount of aspartame (aka Nutrasweet). Aspartame is actually a drug, not a food, and we are misusing it in America. Artificial sweeteners are the worst offenders largely because they have become so common in foods. I urge you to get these toxins out of your diet, and especially out of the food supply for children. We are already seeing dire consequences of long term use, and I hate to see what's in store for our teens who are gulping down gallons of diet sodas.

Take control of the sweet portion of your food supply and you will solve big groups of issues including the craving for the sweet taste itself. It takes about 2-4 weeks. That's all. But you have to be vigilant. If you need help, enlist a good nutritionist to walk you through the process. Making changes to the way you look at, think about, shop for, prepare, and eat food is extremely difficult. It's not as easy as "just do it". There are so many reasons WHY we eat and in order to get a handle on some of the biggies, it's ok to ask for help. Sugar and sweet cravings are biggies. It's not just about willpower so stop beating yourself up. It's about biochemistry and learning to create the internal environment you want.

Get Smart. Get Fresh. Get Real.

Road Food

So I've been on a destination-free road trip through some of the southwest with a dear friend who proposed we "get outa Dodge" for about 10 days. We piled sleeping bags, pads, pillows and bags into her vehicle and set out from the foothills of California for points south along highway 395 and beyond. This posed a few challenges not the least of which was considering food both for the road and on the road. Eating while traveling in unfamiliar territory can be a daunting prospect and is a concern for many of my clients. Our journey offers the additional challenges of l-o-n-g distances between towns and cross-roads that pose as towns, sometimes with many miles between stops to even get ice for the cooler. So what's a foodie-nutritionist to do? Here are a few tips and tricks that have made our adventure work well so far, and a few additional ones that have worked for previous solo trips:

1 - Bring that cooler, yes, the big one. Get block ice and wrap it in a brown paper bag tightly this will help a little with slowing down the rate of melt. Have freezer strength zip-lock bags for storing things in the cooler that you don't want to get wet as the ice melts.

2 - Bring enough water for at least two days. How much is that? The rule of thumb is to take your body weight and divide that in half. That's the number of ounces you should be shooting for each day just for drinking. If you're going to be cooking, washing up, or doing a sponge-bath or two, be sure to add another two gallons per day.

3 - Don't just nosh your way through the day! Have set amounts of your snacks or food available and eat at intervals, not just because you're bored or need something to do with your hands. Good ways to regulate snacking is to pre-package your noshing items into serving sizes using half-size ziplock baggies. For a nut mix, that would be about 1/4-1/3 cup. For fruit, about 1/2-3/4 cup cut up or a medium apple or banana, or 1 cup veggies such as carrots, celery, jicama, or green beans.

4 - Have a thick dip or spread available for veggies. If it's too thin, I promise you'll end up wearing it as you drive... Humus or other bean dips work well for this purpose.

5 - Minimize the chips and pretzels, they won't do you any favors. They will actually make you hungry in the long run as well as increase the likelihood of creating edema (water retention) in your feet and ankles.

6 - When you need to stop for food, seek out a grocery store rather than a fast food place. You will save money and have a much higher quality meal, even if it's only an apple and cheese!

7 - The meal that seems to be the least likely to be made poorly is breakfast out. Go ahead and order the eggs, skip the potatoes in favor of a side of veggies or fruit. If you can get some salsa on those eggs you will get a little more vegetable matter in as well. Skip the juice and have water. If you have coffee, use real half-n-half, not the fake stuff. Same with sugar, use the real stuff, not the artificial sweeteners (your poor body doesn't know what to do with those chemicals - more on this topic soon). Skip the bready stuff and the cereal stuff. You'll be amazed at how much longer the meal lasts you!

8 - For dinners and lunches, split an entree and order an extra side of the vegetable or salad. Most places serve enough for a small army anyway! This has proven absolutely true on my current trip. We have saved a bunch of money at each meal this way and have never left a restaurant hungry.

9 - If you are in a new area and don't know the selections, put "best dinner Reno" into google (of course you'll put in the town where you are) and you can get some good ideas and reviews. Other ways to get good beta is to use cell phone applications like Yelp, Bing!, and Around Me to help locate restaurants nearby.

10 - Splurge! You're traveling afterall which means you are either away from home for business and need some comfort, or you are on vacation and celebrating. Allow yourself a couple of splurges on desserts or a meal or two that stray from your normal healthy eating habits (if you don't have healthy normal eating habits we need to talk). The catch? Be really picky! Don't settle for mediocre, get the best of whatever it is you are craving. Don't settle for M&Ms, stop by a local chocolate shop and get an amazing deep dark truffle. Don't grab a Dunkin Doughnut when you can find a fabulous french bakery and have a chocolate croissant. Go for the gusto!

Happy travels! Let me know what wonders you discover on the road!

The Disconnect

Something I see on a daily basis that still confounds me is the radical disconnect between health and the things we do (or don't do) every day. It still amazes me that the vast majority of those in conventional health care don't understand that what their patients eat and drink makes a difference in health trajectories and disease outcomes.

One of the most startling examples is in the field of oncology. There is a scan that is performed using radioactive sugar injected into the bloodstream so that areas of high metabolic activity "light up" on the screen. The reason these areas show up is because highly metabolic tissues suck up sugar at a much more rapid rate than surrounding cells and tissues in order to keep up their activity or growth. This is one way to find tumors which are rapidly growing self-cells that have lost their brakes. Sugar can therefore be clearly seen as cancer's favorite food, right? So why then do so many of my cancer patients come to me with instructions from their oncologists to "have milkshakes and any high calorie foods to be sure to keep weight on"? It boggles, really. Let's throw gasoline on the flame and then sit back scratching our heads as to why the cancer cells happily step up production!

Another brain bender is the recommendation for diabetics to eat a high-carb, low-fat diet. The pancreas is already stressed out and can't keep up production of insulin to deal with the carbohydrate that is already coming in! And yet, the idea is to reduce caloric intake rather than look at what those calories actually represent to the system as a whole. To control blood sugar, one needs dietary fats and proteins and fiber and minerals and vitamins and enzymes and MOVEMENT... It's basic biochemistry.

As consumers without degrees in biochem, we are bombarded at the grocery store checkout with magazine covers that exhort us to lose those pesky 15 pounds plastered over the top of a background picture of a 4 layer death-by-chocolate cake. We are told by food product manufacturers that we can have their "non-fat, sugar-free, low-carb, no cholesterol" food product and it will be just as good as the real thing. But our bodies know the difference even if the marketing agents can fool our brains. Bodies don't understand artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, artificial fats, gums, and fake proteins. Our bodies understand real food. The fake stuff has far more health consequences than the real stuff. Don't kid yourself into believing that we are smart enough to fool Mother Nature quite yet...