High Cholesterol – 2HealthyHabits

The 9 Best Ketogenic Diet Ingredients

The ingredients are based on two things: one is low carb and nutrient-dense.

The Best Foods:

Shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels) for trace minerals (zinc, selenium, iodine, chromium) and DHA the key mega 3 fatty acid.
Salmon (wild caught) has one of the highest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA), great for the retina of the eye your brain and the heart and high-quality protein.
Leafy greens like salads for the minerals potassium, magnesium and vitamin C.
Sardines are high in DHA and EPA and they have really good protein.
Eggs (organic pasture-raised) have pretty much every single vitamin except they don’t have a lot of vitamin C. They will not increase your cholesterol if you’ve heard that eggs will worsen your cholesterol watch the links at the end of this post where Dr. Berg gives the true data.
Cruciferous vegetables, most cruciferous, especially brussel sprouts, Dr. recommends that you steam them because that will enhance the phytonutrients. The big benefit of cruciferous go beyond just their vitamins and minerals because they’re loaded with phytonutrients that can decrease the complications from diabetes from, Alzheimer’s. It can minimize the damage that some of these diseases are creating and also protect you against cancer.
Avocados are low carb and have healthy fats. But some people can get bloated if they do too many.
Olives and olive oil extra virgin and organic really good on a ketogenic diet.
Beef, Grass-fed, grass-finished, very important because they will sometimes finish the cattle off with grains, which could be GMO to fatten them up for a period of even ten months. You want 100% certified grass-fed grass-finished. Dr. Berg recommends having a fatty of burger or hotdog because that extra fat can even lower the effect on insulin and it’s easier to digest.

Worst Foods May Be Consumed On Dirty Keto Rather Than Healthy Keto.

Corn,the problem is that 95% is GMO and highly glycemic.
Yogurt. Look at the label, for example, you will be surprised how much sugar is in Greek yogurt. Make sure it is organic and grass-fed.
Commercial chicken is badly processed, factory farmed, fed grains, overall it is not the ideal protein you want to do on a healthy keto plan.
Processed meat, cold cuts, for example, although considered keto, avoid them because of the nitrates and added sugar and sometimes they add monosodium glutamate and definitely it is not grass-fed.
Processed cheese or not from grass-fed cows. Consume grass-fed or organic cheese only. Cheese is from milk, which can influence someone with a prostate issue also it can influence women who have problems with fibroids and cysts in the breasts or the ovaries. If there’s anything going on with estrogen dominance I don’t recommend it If you’re going to consume it. I don’t recommend consuming a lot of it just a little bit here.
Spinach is it’s loaded with oxalates. Oxalates can cause kidney stones you might be okay if you’re not having a problem with kidney stones and you consumed spinach occasionally. If you consume some high-quality cheese with the spinach the calcium in the cheese will bind with the oxalates in your digestive system. The oxalates won’t get absorbed into the blood and into the kidney so the calcium of the cheese can protect you against the stones.
Nuts, almonds have the highest amount of oxalates avoid them if you have a tendency to get kidney stones. Some people that are arthritic should stay away. Many people that have arthritis really just consume too many foods high in oxalates, which can irritate the joints. If consume seeds, nuts or nut butters, have a small amount, too many nuts can irritate the gall bladder and the liver and the digestive tract.
Vegetables oils sounds healthy. Vegetable oils are actually grain oils they’re usually GMO, highly inflammatory but they’re low carb and higher fat.
Sugar and grain are the worst is sugar and grains.

Fish: If you are worried about the mercury in fish, please watch this video,What Fish Should I Eat to Avoid Mercury? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ89N4xRDDU

Eggs: Concerned about the cholesterol in Eggs, watch this videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH8RsqjlS2o

Are eggs bad for cholesterol? If you’re afraid of eggs increasing your cholesterol, keep in mind that there’s no evidence to support the idea that eggs raise your bad cholesterol. They can raise your good cholesterol, which isn’t bad for your heart. I recommend that you always go with pasture-raised organic eggs.

Dr. Berg, DC, is a chiropractor, who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg’s Nutritionals. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.

This post has been condensed from: 9 Best Ketogenic Diet Ingredientsby Dr. Berg, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LOZIry2-7k

Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.

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Lydia Polstra

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High Insulin Causes Insulin Resistance.

Metabolic syndrome (Metabolic Syndrome X) is when your cholesterol is too high, you have insulin resistance, you have high blood sugar, high blood pressure, central obesity.

Metabolic syndrome should really be called hyperinsulinemia syndrome. The conventional view point is that insulin resistance leads to increased insulin. Is that actually true? Is it the insulin resistance that causes high insulin or is it the high insulin that causes insulin resistance?

To figure this out observe what happens after gastric bypass wherethey are bypassing part of the small intestine, which is one part of the body that affects insulin. The other part is the pancreas but there’s something in the small intestine that activates insulin. So when you do gastric bypass you correct part of the high insulin problem, you reduce insulin. They find after this procedure that it reverses type-2 diabetes by 83 %. It also reverses high blood pressure by 63 % as well as reversing high cholesterol by 61 %.

Diabetes type 2, (high blood sugar), hypertension and cholesterol is Syndrome X. Reducing insulin also improves sleep apnea,polycystic ovarian syndrome, fatty liver, GERD (like acid reflux) and even joint pain. This study that I’m basing this on is this very interesting because they looked at 423 other studies but focused on 58 of the ones that actually measured insulin. The direct finding was if you reduce insulin you produced changes with so many different conditions. Metabolic syndrome (Syndrome X) includes several diseases or shall we say symptoms of this high insulin.

When you have high insulin over a period of time the body is going to start to resist it, the insulin receptors are going to start to resist that high-level. It is high insulin that causes the insulin resistance. Once you have insulin resistance, the bio-feedback loops will further raise insulin but only if you keepconsuming the things that trigger insulin carbohydrates, frequent eating.

In type 2 diabetes you have insulin resistance and you also have high insulin for a period of time until the cells that make insulin get weaker and weaker and weaker and your blood sugar’s go higher and higher and higher. So you initially have high insulin and it goes lower.

In obesity you have high insulin as well but you could also have diabetes type 2 and not be overweight you can be skinny and still have insulin. Why is this so important? Well if it is true that high insulin leads to insulin resistance that leads to pre-diabetes and then diabetes thenit would be very important to actually measure insulin early on and not only focus on blood sugars. Identifying through a blood test what your insulin is doing would be the best indicator to predict and even prevent insulin resistance as well as pre-diabetes and diabetes.

But unfortunately there are certain doctors are focused primarily on the blood sugars and the bigger problem of that not understanding this concept is to eventually start prescribing insulin to a diabetic type 2.

Think about this, if you have hyperthyroidism, you have too much thyroid hormones would you give that patient more thyroid hormones. Or you have a hyper cortisol problem it’s called Cushing’s would you give that patient high cortisol? Of course not but you would only know if they had high cortisol or high thyroid hormone or high insulin if you tested it unfortunately that’s rarely tested.

In summary, it’s high insulin that occurs way before the pre-diabetes and diabetes. A person will not have high blood sugars for many years but they may have a lot of other problems that will then be treated separately like they do with the lipids and high blood pressure and a lot of these other things.

The things that trigger insulin are primarily the over consumption of carbohydrates and the frequent eating and the snacking that people are involved with to prevent their blood sugars from dropping.

This post has been condensed from Dr. Berg’s Post Metabolic Syndrome Should Really Be Called Hyperinsulinemia Syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1gB0RTqi-I

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

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May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/

How Body Fat Weakens Your Immune System

How Fat Weakens Your Immune System

Obesity weakens the immune system but why and how?

These are the highlights from Dr. Berg’s video How Fat Weakens Your Immune System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-bgyDgWOHM

There are two main types of fat:

You have the superficial fat around your body which is the stuff right beneath your skin and then
You have visceral fat in your midsection. It is spilling off from your liver because there’s no place to go. The fat goes around the organs and sometimes inside the organs.

Please see the image of the two types of fat.

With superficial fat you have more accumulation of B cells, which make antibodies and T cells. These are two different immune cells.

But with the visceral fat you have more natural killer cells and killer T cells. That means you’re going to have a lot of cytokines, which cause a lot of inflammation. People that have visceral fat have more inflammation because they have an overly active immune system.

The buffer for this over-reactive immune system is called T regulatory cells. Those are going to be deficient when you have too much visceral fat. What’s making the inflammation is your actual immune system.

Also when you have too much visceral fat the antibodies that you create against viruses and even bacteria tend to lose their memory a lot quicker and they don’t remember the infection so you have less fighting force when you have more visceral fat.

This really applies to the COVID-19 situation, as one of the big predisposing factors is being overweight.

The conditions that go with being overweight are:

Metabolic syndrome, which is a clustering of at least three of the five following – abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Other conditions are hypertension, cancer, PCOS, heart disease, dementia, fatty liver, insulin resistance, lipid problems, and type-2 diabetes, etc.

As a result, we have very specific types of immune cells that are being generated by having visceral fat around your midsection. We have deficiency of the cells that are supposed to suppress the inflammation so thereby increasing inflammation. Inflammation itself weakens the immune system.

Being overweight weakens the immune system and also the cascade of inflammation that’s generated from these cytokines immune cells can create insulin resistance. Also, consuming sugar and refined carbs increase insulin resistance, and consuming frequent meals increase insulin resistance.

Please see the image of insulin resistance cycle.

Inflammation causes insulin resistance. If someone’s a pre-diabetic, this inflammation could be enough to push them over the edge into diabetes because the difference between a pre-diabetic situation and diabetes is that insulin resistance suddenly fails to compensate for insulin and then the shift takes place.

The pancreas sends the insulin hormone to the cell but the insulin receptor won’t allow the connection and let it into the cell. Because we don’t get a connection we don’t get the feedback loop to turn off this insulin so it pumps more and more and moreto the point where you have five to seven times the amount of insulin then you should. All that excess insulin is camouflaging the problem because it’s pushing the blood sugars down because usually the person is consuming a lot of carbs.

Inflammation can almost act like a carbohydrate and push us to the extent where your cells and the pancreas gets so exhausted that they can’t pump out any more insulin. So the insulin starts going down, down, down. Now you have a situation the pancreas cells are burnt out plus you have cell receptor blocking the insulin at the same time. There’s nothing there to push the blood sugars down. So then we go from pre-diabetes to diabetes.

So what do you have to do?

Get on the Ketogenic diet, do intermittent fasting and as this visceral fat goes away the inflammation is going to go away, insulin resistance is going to improve over time to reverse insulin resistance.

It’s not just the carbs and the frequency of eating, it’s the fat and the inflammation that can cause the immune deficiency as well. Inflammation could also come from other sources as well as injuries, and infections like virus chronic infections.

If you have a weakened immune system, what happens when you are infected by COVID-19? Dr. Berg explains what happens in the video

It’s Not The Virus that Kills You, It’s Your Immune System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NooTKyjlo6s

The virus is not even alive, how can something not alive actually kill you?

Please see the image of a virus.

The virus is an inactive shell with some DNA material in there with very specific instructions to replicate. COVID-19 connects to the ACE 2 receptor of your cells to get into the cell. Their goal is to get into the cell and hijack your metabolism to replicate. But that is not what kills you.

What kills you is your immune system. There two parts of your immune system. The innate which is the system that doesn’t need to be trained it’s the first line of defence and then we have the adapted part of the immune system. In the worst-case scenario you’re in intensive care, inflammation in your lungs is creating massive destruction where you eventually just stop breathing.

You may think this as an overreacting immune system but it’s not because innate part of the immune system is only overreacting because part of the adaptive system is not working. In the adaptive immune system there are T suppressor cells regulate the over reaction, they prevent too much inflammation.

What is killing us is the severe imbalance where we lose the adaptive immune system and then we have too much of the innate immune system.

The virus is a trigger but it only kills people with a weak immune system. There is usually a metabolic conditions that are causing a weakness.

Not having enough vitamin D can create a weak adaptive immune system.

If your immune system is strong this virus does not play a big threat especially if you understand how to strengthen it. In this post Dr. Berg told us how to strengthen your immune system.

How To Bulletproof Your Immune System?https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/how-to-bulletproof-your-immune-system/

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

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May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

Saturated Fat Part Two: Gauging Your Heart Disease Risk

You are at risk of a heart disease if you have 3 out of the following 5 indications of metabolic syndrome:

A fasting insulin level above 3

A triglyceride to HDL ratio above 2

Low HDL

A waist circumference indicating overweight or obesity

High blood pressure

Another major risk factor for heart disease that receives virtually no attention is high iron levels. In menstruating women, this is not an issue since they lose blood on a monthly basis. This is actually part of why premenopausal women have a decreased risk of heart disease.

In men, iron levels can rise to dangerously high levels. In my experience, the majority of adult males and postmenopausal women have elevated levels that put their health at risk. Checking your iron levels is easy and can be done with a simple blood test called a serum ferritin test. If your levels are high, all you have to do is donate blood a few times a year.

The Connection Between Saturated Fats and Diabetes

Malhotra cites a 2014 Lancet study looking at the association between dietary saturated fat, plasma saturated fat and type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, while dietary saturated fats found in dairy products were strongly inversely associated with the development of type 2 diabetes (meaning it was protective), endogenously-synthesized plasma-saturated fat was strongly associated with an increased risk.

Endogenously-synthesized plasma-saturated fats are fatty acids produced by your liver in response to net carbohydrates, sugar and alcohol.These findings suggest eating full-fat dairy products may protect you against type 2 diabetes,whereas consuming too many net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) will increase your risk of type 2 diabetes –in part by raising the saturated fat levels in your bloodstream.

Healthy Fat Tips

Here are a few tips to help ensure you’re eating the right fats for your health:

Use organic butter made from raw grass-fed milk instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads.
Use coconut oil for cooking. It is primarily a saturated fat and more resistant to heat damage than other cooking oils. It will also help improve your ability to burn fat and serve as a great source of energy to help you make the transition to burning fat for fuel.
Sardines and anchovies are an excellent source of beneficial omega-3 fats and are also very low in toxins that are present in most other fish.
To round out your healthy fat intake, be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, and olive oil, and also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

Why Statins Are a Bad Idea for Most People

In addition to the recommendation to follow a low-fat diet, many doctors are still avid prescribers of statins, which help lower your cholesterol.

“This is a drug that was marketed over the last three decades as being a wonder drug. We’re only now realizing that the benefits of statins have been grossly exaggerated and the side effects underplayed. One of the reasons for that is that most if not all of the studies that drove the guidelines were industry-sponsored studies.

One of the things we have neglected in medicine is this issue around absolute risk and relative risk. The reality is if you look at the published data … if you have heart disease and you’ve had a heart attack, then taking a statin every day for five years, there’s a 1 in 83 chance that [statin] will save your life.

That means in 82 of 83 cases, it’s not going to save your life.

People with low risk should know that if they haven’t had a heart attack, according to the published literature, they’re going to live one day longer from taking statins.”

Statins Are Associated With Serious Side Effects

Then there’s the issue of side effects. According to Malhotra, between 1 in 3 and 1 in 5 patients suffer unacceptable side effects (that interfere with or diminish the quality of your life). Muscle pain is the most significant side effect reported followed by fatigue (mostly in women) because statins are essentially a metabolic blocker and mitochondrial poison.

They inhibit an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. This is how they lower cholesterol. But that same enzyme is also responsible for a number of other things like making coenzyme Q10, which is why muscle pain and fatigue are so common. This is in fact a sign that your CoQ10 is being depleted, and you don’t have enough cellular energy.

Statins also block the formation of ketones, which are an essential part of mitochondrial nutrition and overall health. If you can’t make ketones, you impair the metabolism in your entire body, including your heart, thereby raising your risk for heart problems and a variety of other diseases. It’s also recently been established that within a few years of taking statins, the drug causes type 2 diabetes in one out of 100 patients.

That too can be a significant tradeoff that needs to be taken into account, as diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic diseases. Dr. Michel De Lorgeril, a well-respected French cardiologist at Grenoble University recently reopened the debate about statins after publishing a review in which he questions whether statins actually have any benefit at all.

“He pointed out several discrepancies in the original trials … statistical manipulation, conflict of interest … ” Malhotra says. ”He’s actually suggested that maybe nobody benefits from statins; even people on statins for prevention.

He says that unless we get access to the raw data, independent analysis, the actual claims about the benefits of statins are not evidence-based.”

In case you missed it, please read

Saturated Fat Part One: Great Britain’s Most Outspoken Cardiologist Sets the Record Straight

Is saturated fat dangerous to your health?

Hospitals and Medical Personnel Are Far From Paragons of Health

For Past 60 Years, the Wrong Fats Have Been Vilified

What Are the Real Risk Factors for Heart Disease?

Here is the link https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/saturated-fats-part-one-great-britains-most-outspoken-cardiologist-sets-the-record-straight/

Part One and Two have been condensed from Dr. Mercola’s post: Great Britain’s Most Outspoken Cardiologist Sets the Record Straight on Saturated Fats

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/06/05/saturated-fat-heart-disease-risk.aspx

Please see the original for the Footnotes and Citations for the scientific studies.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

Email: lpolstra@sympatico.ca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2healthyhabits/

Blog: https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.

I thrive on feedback. Please let me know you are interested in the content by clicking Like, Commenting or sending me a message or email about the Post.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.

Saturated Fats Part One: Great Britain’s Most Outspoken Cardiologist Sets the Record Straight.

Saturated fat and cholesterol have little to do with the development of heart disease. Data shows two-thirds of people admitted to hospitals with acute myocardial infarction have completely normal cholesterol levels.
Fats that contribute to heart disease are primarily trans fats and highly refined and/or heated polyunsaturated vegetable oils (PUFAs), which are high in damaged omega-6.
For optimal health, seek to get 75 to 85 percent of your total calories as healthy fat, primarily monosaturated and saturated. Limit PUFAs to 10 percent and omega-6 fats to 5 percent.

Is saturated fat dangerous to your health? Dr. Aseem Malhotra an interventional cardiologist consultant in London, U.K. seriously challenges the conventional view on saturated fats, and reviews how recent studies have failed to find any significant association between saturated fat and cardiovascular risk.

Malhotra reports that two-thirds of people admitted to hospitals with acute myocardial infarction have completely normal cholesterol levels.

“As an interventional cardiologist, we can do life-saving procedures with people who have heart attacks through heart surgery. What we can do in medicine is really quite limited at the treatment end and actually the whole ‘prevention is better than cure’ phrase is very true.”

Hospitals and Medical Personnel Are Far From Paragons of Health

Malhotra’s epiphany that something was wrong with the system came rather early. While working as a resident in cardiology, he performed an emergency stenting procedure on a man in his 50s who’d recently suffered a heart attack.

“Just when I was telling about healthy diet, how important that was, he was actually served burger and fries by the hospital. He said to me, ‘Doctor, how do you expect me to change my lifestyle when you’re serving me the same crap that brought me in here in the first place?’”

Looking around, he realized that a lot of healthcare professionals are overweight or obese, and hospitals serve sick patients junk food.

“The hospital environment should be one that promotes good health, not exacerbates bad health,” he says.

Diet and lifestyle changes are particularly important in light of the fact that medical errors and properly prescribed medications are the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Overmedication is a particularly serious problem among the elderly, who tend to suffer more side effects.

“Part of that is because there are very powerful vested interests that push drugs,” Malhotra says. “They even coax academic institutions and guideline bodies. People aren’t getting all the information to make decisions, whether or not they should take medications…

For Past 60 Years, the Wrong Fats Have Been Vilified

For the past 60 years, the conventional wisdom has dictated that saturated fat is dangerous and should be avoided. This flawed notion was originally promoted by Dr. Ancel Keys, whose Seven Countries Study laid the groundwork for the myth that saturated fat caused heart disease.

It’s true that heart disease rates began spiking in the beginning of the 20th century, and for the last 50 years, heart disease has been progressively increasing. It really wasn’t an issue prior to the 20th century. Saturated fat wasn’t the problem. It was all the other harmful fats people were eating.

In the 20th century, the average person probably had less than 1 pound a year of refined, processed omega-6 vegetable oils. By the 1950s, probably about 50 pounds a year, and by year 2000, it increased at about 75 pounds a year. It seems “fat” in itself isn’t the issue; it’s the type of fat that’s crucial.

This massive amount of highly refined polyunsaturated fat is far in excess of what we were designed to eat for optimal health.

In the United States, between 1961 and 2011, 90 percent of the calorie intake has been carbohydrates and refined industrial vegetable oils.

The heart disease epidemic peaked between 1960 and 1970. When we look at our data, it’s quite clear that the so-called fats responsible for that are trans fats and very likely polyunsaturated vegetable oils high in omega-6 fatty acids. We know now that they oxidize LDL and are pro-inflammatory.

What Are the Real Risk Factors for Heart Disease?

By failing to differentiate between trans fats and saturated fats, massive confusion has arisen. There’s also confusion about the relationship between saturated fat and cholesterol. Adding to the complexity, there are also different types of saturated fats, which may have different biological effects.

Many saturated fats will raise LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol. But LDLs come in various sizes. Large type A particles arelessatherogenic (form fatty plaques in the arteries) and are influenced by saturated fat. Saturated fat also increases HDL, the “good” cholesterol.

“What’s interesting is the saturated fat, even though it may raise LDL, your lipid profile may actually improve [when you eat more saturated fat], especially when you cut the carbs. On top of that, LDL has been grossly exaggerated as a risk factor for heart disease, with the exception of people who have a genetic abnormality (familial hypercholesterolemia),” Malhotra says.

So what is the major issue when you look at heart disease and heart attacks? Insulin resistance. The reason it’s being neglected is partly this flawed science on cholesterol. But, also because there’s never been any effective drugs that target insulin resistance.

Therefore, because [there isn’t a] big market around something to sell, there aren’t many people that know about it. As you and I know, if you target insulin resistance through the right kind of diet and lifestyle changes, stress reduction, right kind of exercise, that’s going to have the biggest impacts on your health.”

Check back next week for –

Saturated Fat Part Two: Gauging Your Heart Disease Risk:

Gauging Your Heart Disease Risk
The Connection Between Saturated Fats and Diabetes
Healthy Fat Tips
Why Statins Are a Bad Idea for Most People
Statins Are Associated With Serious Side Effects

Today’s Post has been condensed from: Great Britain’s Most Outspoken Cardiologist Sets the Record Straight on Saturated Fats

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/06/05/saturated-fat-heart-disease-risk.aspx

Please see the original for the Footnotes and Citations for the scientific studies.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

Email: lpolstra@bell.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2healthyhabits/

Blog: https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.

I thrive on feedback. Please let me know you are interested in the content by clicking Like, Commenting or sending me a message or email about the Post.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net

Worst Artificial Sweeteners, Plus Healthy Alternatives.

If you haven’t stopped using artificial sweeteners, please do so immediately!

Blog Feb 21. Health - Aspartame is toxic. Blog Feb on Sweetener

The side effects simply aren’t worth it. They cause symptoms that range from headaches and migraines to weight gain and even more serious conditions like cardiovascular disease.

Artificial sweeteners retrain the taste buds to need more and more, sweeter and sweeter foods. This leads to even greater incidences of obesity, type 2 diabetes, kidney damage and so much more.

Holly Strawbridge, former editor of Harvard Health, points out that while FDA studies have “ruled out cancer risk” for non-nutritive sweeteners, all of the studies conducted were based on significantly smaller doses than the 24 to 50 ounces a day of diet soda commonly consumed. These portions have not been evaluated for their safety.

In addition, another study on the effects of artificial sweeteners on atherosclerosis found that daily consumption of drinks with artificial sweeteners creates a 35 percent greater risk of metabolic syndrome (conditions that occur together: increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels), and a 67 percent increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Atherosclerosis is when plaque builds up inside the arteries leading to strokes, heart attacks and even death.

There is additional evidence that links artificial sweeteners to the development of glucose intolerance and other metabolic conditions that result in higher than normal blood glucose levels.

A 2018 study published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases also revealed that the artificial sugar, sucralose (otherwise known as Splenda) and maltodextrin, intensifies gut inflammation in mice that carry Crohn’s-like diseases. Specifically, the artificial sweetener increases the number of Proteobacteria – a microbe bacteria associated with E. coli, Salmonella and Legionellales – in the mice who carried a Chrohn’s-like disease.

Additionally, the ingestion of artificial sugar intensified myeloperoxidase (an enzyme in white blood cells) activity in individuals that have a form of inflammatory bowel disease. This study indicates that it may be practical to track Proteobacteria and myeloperoxidase in patients to adjust their diet and monitor the disease and gut health.

Common Artificial Sweeteners:

Aspartame, Acesulfame potassium, Alitame, Cyclamate, Dulcin, Equal, Glucin, Kaltame, Mogrosides, Neotame, NutraSweet, Nutrinova, Phenlalanine, Saccharin, Splenda, Sorbitol, Sucralose, Twinsweet, Sweet ‘N Low, Xylitol.

Partial List Of Where Dangerous Artificial Sweeteners Hide:

Toothpaste and mouthwash

Children’s chewable vitamins

Cough syrup and liquid medicines

Chewing gum

No-calorie waters and drinks

Alcoholic beverages

Salad dressings

Frozen yogurt and other frozen deserts

Candies

Baked goods

Yogurt

Breakfast cereals

Processed snack foods

“Lite” or diet fruit juices and beverages

Prepared meats

Nicotine gum

Please avoid these artificial sweeteners:

Aspartame – also marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Sugar Twin and AminoSweet, Calcium cyclamate, Cyclamates, Saccharin, Sodium cyclamate, Sweetening agent.

It is currently used in more than 6,000 consumer food and beverage products, including Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, sugar-free gum, candy, condiments and vitamins, and over 500 prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications.

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine aspartame has carcinogenic effects.

A recent study points to alarming news for women who consume artificial sweeteners during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. It appears that aspartame can predispose babies to metabolic syndrome disorders, and obesity, later in life.

Common side effects of aspartame include headaches, migraines, mood disorders, dizziness and episodes of mania. Comprising phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol, these substances can stay in the liver, kidneys and brain for quite some time.

Dozens of studies have linked aspartame to serious health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, seizures, stroke and dementia, as well as negative effects such as intestinal dysbiosis, mood disorders, headaches and migraines.

Sucralose (Splenda)

Sucralose, derived from sugar, was originally introduced as a natural sugar substitute. But it’s a chlorinated sucrose derivative. Chlorine is one of the most toxic chemicals.

At 600 times sweeter than sugar, it can contribute to an addiction for overly sweet foods and drinks. A medical study that found it could be linked to leukemia in mice.

A study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health found that cooking with sucralose at high temperatures can generate dangerous chloropropanols – a toxic class of compounds. Human and rodent studies demonstrate that it can be metabolized and have a toxic effect on the body.

Acesulfame K (ACE, ACE K, Sunette, Sweet One, Sweet ‘N Safe)

Composed of a potassium salt that contains methylene chloride, Acesulfame K is routinely found in sugar-free chewing gum, alcoholic beverages, candies and even sweetened yogurts. It’s often used in combination with aspartame and other noncaloric sweeteners. It found in highly processed foods and baked goods.

Long-term exposure to methylene chloride has been shown to cause nausea, mood problems, possibly some types of cancer, impaired liver and kidney function, problems with eyesight, and perhaps even autism.

Saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low)

Many studies link saccharin to serious health conditions. Sadly, it’s the primary sweetener for children’s medications, including chewable aspirin, cough syrup, and other over-the-counter and prescription medications. It’s believed that saccharin contributes to photosensitivity, nausea, digestive upset, tachycardia and some types of cancer.

Xylitol (Erythritol, Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol and other sugar alcohols that end in –itol)

Sugar alcohols aren’t absorbed well by the body and cause an allergic reaction for those who have a sensitivity to it. In addition, it has gastrointestinal side effects that include bloating, gas, cramping and diarrhea. Its laxative effect is so pronounced that it’s actually part of the chemical makeup for many over-the-counter laxatives.

WebMD states: “Not enough is known about the use of xylitol during pregnancy and breast feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use.”

Special note to dog owners:

Sugar alcohol-based artificial sweeteners are a life-threatening toxin to dogs. Be mindful of breath mints, candies, sugar-free gum, frozen desserts and other foods when your pets are around.

Healthy Alternatives to Artificial Sweeteners:

Maple syrup, coconut sugar, stevia (safe as a fresh herb), fruit purees and raw honey are great, healthy substitutions. Start working to retrain your palette to enjoy the natural sweetness of foods.

Try adding other flavors like tangy, tart, warm and savory to please your palette. For example, vanilla, cocoa, licorice, nutmeg and cinnamon enhance the flavor of foods, so you need less sweetness.

When you crave a sweet drink, try homemade infused waters. Start sweetening your iced tea with honey, coconut sugar or even maple syrup for a twist.

America’s obesity epidemic continues to grow, and it coincides with an increase in the widespread use of non-nutritive artificial sweeteners including aspartame, sucralose, saccharin and sugar alcohols.

Research shows that artificial sweeteners don’t satiate you the way real foods do. Instead, you end up feeling less satisfied and more prone to eating and drinking more, resulting in weight gain, in addition to potentially suffering dangerous side effects associated with artificial sweeteners.

Everyone should avoid artificial sweeteners, but it’s particularly important for children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The risk is simply too great.

Today’s Post has been condensed from: The 5 Worst Artificial Sweeteners, Plus Healthy Alternatives By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS https://draxe.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners/

Please see the original for the Footnotes and Citations for the scientific studies.

There are plenty of natural, healthy sweeteners available that provide essential nutrients and taste great. To learn more visit:

11 Best Sugar Substitutes (the Healthiest Natural Sweeteners)

11 Best Sugar Substitutes (the Healthiest Natural Sweeteners)

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World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease.

Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie.

Dr. Lundell says, as a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact. I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol. The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease.

Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

What follows are the highlights from the video:

World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease.

Dr. Lundell observed while doing heart operations that the cornonary artery had a lot of redness and swelling around the plaque area. These are two of the cardinal signs of inflammation.

He began wondering if inflammation was part of the problem. Russell Ross and others published and articles about vascular biology, that proved inflammation was the mechanism behind plaque build up in the arteries.

The cause is not cholesterol. 70% of heart attack patients have normal cholesterol.

Scientific studies after 2006 had more stringent guides and showed that statins do not reduce the risk of heart attack.

Here is a video of one person’s experience with statins World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease

Dr. Lundell says that cholesterol is not a marker for heart disease. It is a marker for eating too many carbohydrates because carbohydrate gets turned into triglycerides, which raises your LDL cholesterol. To lower your cholesterol, eat a lot of saturated fats and lower your carbohydrate intake.

Cholesterol is not important. What is important is sugar, that’s carbohydrate.

The 1977 US food guide recommended 60 to 70% of the food intake should be carbohydrates and eliminated saturated fats.

Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol. If LDL cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, eliminating saturated that makes no sense.

What is the real cause of heart disease? It is inflammation. Inflammation follows injury. What is causing the injury? It is sugar.

Dr. Michael Brownlee published an article detailing the mechanisms by which sugar damages. The cells in the eyes and the kidneys are different from the rest of the body. They cannot stop sugar or glucose going into their cells so they were damaged more quickly than other cells. Dr. Brownlee wanted to know how these cells were so injured as to cause blindness and kidney disease. He found that injury causes inflammation, and inflammation is the mechanism for heart disease as well as other diseases. But what’s causing the injury?

Sugar is causing it. Sugar molecules combined with protein or fat in a process called glycation. A1c is glycated hemoglobin. The main pathway to inflammation is when the sugar (glucose) gets presented to the mitochondria inside endothelial cell and since it can’t stop sugar coming in it gets damaged. (Endothelial cells normally line blood vessels to maintain vascular integrity and permeability).

When sugar is introduced to the mitochondria it overloads it and produces a whole bunch of extra free radicals, which then caused damages to the cell, which then trigger the inflammation. Plaque as produced as a bandage over the inflammation.

The standard American diet injures the cells every day. It is the main cause of heart disease. Not cholesterol, not salt. It’s sugar.

Other cells can stop glucose sugar from coming in that is the essence of insulin resistance causing diabetes.

If you want to be healthy and control blood sugar, stop eating a standard American diet. Get yourself on a reduced low carbohydrate diet with extra healthy saturated fat and a moderate amount of protein.

Low carbohydrate nutrition is the key to health.

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

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Cholesterol: The Standard Measure Of Blood LDL Cholesterol Is Inaccurate

For the last 5 decades, most medical and nutrition scientists have focused on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”) as a primary cause of coronary heart disease. While cholesterol lowering therapy has become the standard of care for some individuals with well-defined heart disease risk, this focus on cholesterol in general – and LDL cholesterol in particular – remains very controversial.

Unfortunately the standard measure of blood LDL cholesterol is inaccurate, and when the various components of the blood LDL are measured they represent only a fraction of the lipid (fatty acids) and other biomarkers of heart disease risk.

A turning point in understanding the limitations of LDL and heart disease came with the publication of the Lyon Diet Heart Study. This randomized trial pitted a standard low fat diet against a Mediterranean diet for people with a prior heart attack. There was no difference in LDL cholesterol changes between the Mediterranean and low fat diet groups. The standard calculated LDL value did not seem to matter that much indicating that some very important drivers of coronary disease risk were going unmeasured.

In the recently published 1-year results from the IUH/Virta diabetes reversal study, they reported a small but significant rise in the average blood LDL cholesterol level in patients on a well-formulated ketogenic diet (WFKD). At the same time, however, they noted major reductions in a number of coronary disease risk factors including weight, blood pressure, and HbA1c.

The pattern of how these other risk factors change is independent of the changes in LDL.

In Figure 1, (please see the original post) the number of patients whose LDL went up was somewhat greater than the number whose LDL went down.

In the Figure 2, the 14 other risk factors with improved risk far outweigh those indicating a negative response. The heart disease risk factors indicate that a WFKD is much healthier than one might conclude by focusing on the single LDL risk factor.

Novel results from the IUH Diabetes Reversal Study:

Figure 2

Blog - July 26 actual numbers for each of the risk factors -3.png

Here is a table (figure 2) with the actual numbers for each of the risk factors shown in figure 1, plus HbA1c and weight. For each factor, there is a change between baseline and 1-year as a percent, the P-value indicating the chance this change might occur at random (i.e., the smaller the better), and then arrows up or down indicating how this change might influence overall heart disease and mortality risk.

These results are interesting for two reasons. First, none of the short term studies of ketogenic diets given to patients with type 2 diabetes lasting a few week to a few months have sustained these benefits without weight regain and/or rising HbA1c values after 1 year.

Second, no prior prospective outpatient low carbohydrate diet study has documented anything near this degree (0.6 mM at 10 weeks and 0.3 to 0.4 mM at one year) of sustained nutritional ketosis in such a large group past the first few months of treatment.

Note that only the arrow for calculated LDL cholesterol points up, whereas all of the other 16 point down. Also note that of these 16, only two have associated P-values that are non-significant or borderline. All of the others indicate a chance of random error of less than 1-in-ten-thousand. This means in turn is that these observations of reduced risk are statistically very strong.

This sustained nutritional ketosis may be a pivotal factor in risk reductions. The resultant beta-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB) is now understood to be a potent epigenetic signal controlling the body’s defenses against oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance.

What Blood Lipids Actually Do:

We have known for a long time that blood levels of both cholesterol and saturated fat tend to be independent of how much of these nutrients we eat.

But a completely different set of factors come into play when we eat less energy than we burn, which forces the body to dip into its energy stores and thus mobilize body fat. Similarly, when we restrict dietary carbohydrates, either body fat or dietary fat has to become the body’s principle source of energy. This is most profound in the keto-adapted state, where circulating lipids and blood ketones (made from fat in the liver) together provide 75-85% of the body’s energy. Lipoproteins play a critical role in the transport of lipid in the bloodstream, so changes in delivery needs in turn will impact lipoprotein lab results.

In response to the state of nutritional ketosis, humans can more than double their rates of fat oxidation (i.e., use for fuel) at rest and during exercise. So when you combine a doubling of fat intake with a doubling of fat use, clearly a lot more fat has to pass through the bloodstream.

We have spent a few decades studying how the body adapts to a WFKD, and have come to recognize a pretty consistent pattern for the changes in most blood lipids, but a quite inconsistent pattern for the calculated LDL cholesterol level in particular. The consistent changes are:

A dramatic reduction in serum triglycerides
A rise in HDL cholesterol and
The same or lower levels of saturated fats in serum triglycerides

The one inconsistent variable in this otherwise predictable pattern of change is the calculated serum LDL cholesterol level. For some people, following a ketogenic diet makes their LDL cholesterol go down and for some it does not change. But for a fair number of people the calculated LDL cholesterol value rises, in some cases quite a lot. Thus the key question is: How important is the calculated LDL cholesterol relative to the other risk factors that have been recently characterized?

Why LDL Cholesterol is Not a Single Number:

There are two important limitations of the commonly reported serum LDL cholesterol level.

First, the usual test procedure does not actually measure LDL – it reports a calculated value based upon measurements of serum total and HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, along with a number of assumptions. And in particular, when the triglyceride value undergoes a big change, it can skew the calculated LDL value considerably.

Second, the circulating lipoprotein particles classed as LDL are actually quite diverse in size, and it is now recognized that the smaller, more dense particles (which carry proportionately less triglyceride) are the sub-fraction that is associated with vascular damage and heart disease.

In Figure 2, only the calculated LDL cholesterol value went in the ‘wrong direction.’ But in this case, it appears that this was due to a shift to a greater proportion of the larger particles because the total particle number did not change, the average particle size increased, while the small dense particle number was significantly decreased.

Inflammation as an Independent Risk Factor for Coronary Vascular Disease:

Three decades ago, a number of mainstream investigators noted that the total white blood cell count and then c-reactive protein levels appear to predict coronary disease and mortality independent of cholesterol.

The key question as to whether this was a mere association or causal. This question was resolved with the recent CANTOS Trial, which reduced coronary risk by 15% without any effect on LDL cholesterol levels.

Unfortunately a side effect of the antibody used in this study (an increase in fatal infections) cancelled out the coronary disease risk reduction, so the CANTOS Trial answered an important question but did not offer a therapeutic solution. However this does offer an interesting insight into the mystery of why the Lyon Diet Heart Study reduced coronary disease risk AND mortality. In that study, blood anti-oxidant levels increased and granulocytes (aka white blood cells) decreased, suggesting that a dietary anti-inflammatory intervention can have potent benefits absent the dangerous side-effects of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Blood Saturated Fats and CVD Risk:

The key fact to keep in mind is that while a primary source of saturated fat in the blood is de novo lipogenesis (i.e., the production of fat from excess dietary carbohydrate), there is little if any relationship between dietary saturated fat intake and blood saturated fat content. And most importantly, because the keto-adapted state doubles the body’s ability to burn saturated fat for fuel while at the same time shutting down de novo lipogenesis, blood levels of saturated fats are reduced independent of dietary saturated fat intake.

There is a review of this topic in the blog, The Sad Saga of Saturated Fat. https://wordpress.com/post/2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/698

Getting Beyond Single Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Risk:

There is a wide range of processes that contribute to atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease risk. American College of Cardiology offers a 10-year heart disease risk predictor that includes the following inputs: age, sex, race, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and medication use (statin, hypertension, aspirin).

Based upon this equation, the 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score in the recent Virta study decreased -11.9% (P = 5×10-5). This is a large beneficial effect experienced by the participants in the Virta study despite the observed changes in calculated LDL values.

Continuous doctor’s care treatment including nutritional ketosis in patients with type 2 diabetes improved most biomarkers of CVD risk after the Virta one-year study. The increase in LDL-cholesterol appeared limited to the large LDL sub-fraction; whereas LDL particle size increased, total LDL-P and ApoB were unchanged, and inflammation and blood pressure decreased.

There so many different factors are associated with coronary risk we need to avoid focusing on just LDL.

This Post has been condensed from the Virta blog: Blood Lipid Changes With A Well-Formulated Ketogenic Diet In Context by Rich Wood, PhD, Amy McKenzie, PhD, Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD on May 2, 2018. Please see the original for the Footnotes and Citations for the scientific studies. Here is the link https://blog.virtahealth.com/blood-lipid-changes-with-ketogenic-diet/

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What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Too Much Sugar?

You add sugar to your morning cup of coffee or tea. You bake it into pastries, cakes and cookies. You even sprinkle it all over your breakfast cereal or your oatmeal for added flavor. It’s also hidden in some beloved “treats” that people consume on a daily basis, such as sodas, fruit juices, candies, ice cream and in almost all processed foods, including breads, meats, and even your favorite condiments like Worcestershire sauce and ketchup.

Sugar is toxic, addictive and deadly – This intense addiction to sugar is becoming rampant, not just among adults, but in children as well.

Why Is Excessive Sugar Bad for Your Health?

Today, an average American consumes about 32 teaspoons of sugar per day, which is 26 pounds per year.

People are consuming excessive sugar in the form of fructose or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It is found in almost all types of processed foods and drinks today. HFCS is metabolized directly into fat.

Effects of Consuming Too Much Sugar – Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology in the University of California and a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, says that your body can safely metabolize at least six teaspoons of added sugar from natural and manufactured sources per day.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth video. Here is a full version has been viewed almost times 7.8 million times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

This short version speaks about high-fructose corn syrup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjatB98vw0

Here are some of the effects that excessive sugar intake has on your health:

It causes weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL and increased LDL cholesterol levels, elevated blood sugar, elevated triglycerides, and high blood pressure.
One of the most severe effects of eating too much sugar is its potential to damage your liver, leading to a condition known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
- Your liver metabolizes alcohol the same way as sugar — as both serve as substrates for converting dietary carbohydrate into fat. This promotes insulin resistance, fatty liver and dyslipidemia (abnormal fat levels in your blood).
- Fructose causes superoxide free radicals to form, resulting in inflammation.
- Fructose can directly and indirectly stimulate the brain’s “hedonic pathway” — creating habituation and dependence, the same way that alcohol does.
- Sugar is a primary dietary factor that drives obesity and chronic disease development.
- It “feeds” the cancer cells, promoting cell division and speeding their growth, allowing the cancer to spread faster.
- There is a powerful connection between a high-fructose diet and your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, through the same pathway that causes Type 2 diabetes.
- According to some experts, Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders may be caused by the constant burning of glucose for fuel by your brain. Other diseases that may potentially arise because of too much sugar consumption include: Hypertension, Lipid problems, Heart disease, Polycystic ovarian syndrome.

How to Manage or Limit Your Sugar Consumption – Avoid processed foods and beverages like soda. According to SugarScience.org, 74 % of processed foods contain added sugar stealthily hidden under different names.

Here is a link to 56 names of sugar https://blog.virtahealth.com/names-for-sugar/

Severely limit your consumption of refined carbohydrates (waffles, cereals, bagels, bread, etc.) and grains, as they actually break down to sugar in your body, resulting in insulin resistance.

As a general recommendation, keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, including that from whole fruit. Keep in mind that although fruits are rich in nutrients and antioxidants, they also naturally contain fructose.

Avoid artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose.

Here are some additional dietary tips to remember:

Increase your consumption of healthy fats, such as omega-3, saturated and monounsaturated fats such as organic butter from raw milk, (unheated) virgin olive oil, coconut oil, raw nuts like pecans and macadamia, free-range eggs, avocado and wild Alaskan salmon.

Drink pure, clean water – The best way to gauge your water needs is to observe the color of your urine (it should be light pale yellow) and the frequency of your bathroom visits (ideally, this is around seven to eight times per day).

Add fermented foods to your meals, they provide detoxification support, which helps lessen the fructose burden on your liver. Some of the best choices include kimchi, natto, organic yogurt and kefir made from grass fed milk, and fermented vegetables.

This has been condensed from Dr. Mercola’s Post https://articles.mercola.com/sugar-side-effects.aspx

Please see his Post for the References to the supporting studies.

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