Diabetes – Three Reasons It Is Harder For People With Type 2 Diabetes To Lose Weight

Approximately 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

While obesity often contributes to the development of diabetes, the bigger driver of weight gain is the high insulin levels that are found well before the diagnosis of diabetes.

There are some good reasons why the standard advice of “eat less, exercise more” doesn’t deliver results for people living with type 2 diabetes.

Reason #1: With type 2 diabetes, insulin is high, and insulin is a fat-storage hormone

Everyone has glucose, a type of sugar, in their blood at all times. Glucose is a source of energy that largely comes from eating carbohydrates. Simply put, when you eat carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises.

Insulin is produced by your pancreas, and insulin has many functions in the body. One of insulin’s functions is to help get glucose out of the blood and into cells where it can be used.  In order to do this, insulin rises along with glucose. So when you eat carbohydrates and glucose rises, the insulin is rising as well.

Once in the cells, glucose is mostly used for energy. If you have type 2 diabetes, this process doesn’t work well anymore: your body has become resistant to the signal of insulin, so the insulin isn’t as effective at moving the glucose out of your blood. That’s how you end up with high blood sugar levels after eating carbohydrates. Having chronically elevated blood sugar levels is dangerous, so your body needs to do something about it.

Your body responds by making more and more insulin to try to get the job done. Recall now that insulin has many functions, not just to facilitate the removal of glucose from the blood. Insulin also works to promote the storage of fat and to block the release of fat from fat storage. So instead of losing weight, you just keep gaining, thanks to all that insulin.

Reason #2: Typically recommended eating patterns often backfire by keeping you hungry and keeping your blood sugar high

If you’re like most people with type 2 diabetes, you’ve been told to eat carbohydrates but eat fewer overall calories, and to eat small meals throughout the day to keep your blood sugar steady; you’ve probably been advised to count your carbs and eat enough of them to keep your blood sugar up after taking medication to lower it—confusing, right?

What many find as a result is that they’re always hungry, always thinking about food and facing cravings. What’s at work is a survival instinct that even the strongest-willed person can’t withstand for long. This is a situation where your physiology is fighting against you. Even worse, those frequent small meals with carbohydrates create spikes in your blood sugar followed by drops in your blood sugar—a blood sugar roller-coaster that stimulates frequent hunger.

Reason #3: Type 2 diabetes medications can drive weight gain

Remember how your body’s own insulin is a fat-storage hormone? That’s also true for insulin that has been prescribed to you, whether delivered by injection or by pump. That’s why a common side effect of prescribed insulin is weight gain. Another class of medicine for type 2 diabetes, Sulfonylureas, work by stimulating the pancreas to produce more insulin. And once again, more insulin in your body means more fat storage and more weight gain.

The Accord Trial chart below shows that intensive insulin therapy caused significant weight gain.

What’s the solution?

People living with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant, meaning their tissues are not responding as they should to insulin. Insulin moves sugar from your blood into your cells. If your body does not respond to its own insulin, then your blood sugar will remain chronically elevated, and your body will produce more insulin. The most direct solution is to decrease the source of high blood sugar itself – carbohydrate consumption.

In fact, insulin resistance can be fundamentally referred to as “carbohydrate intolerance” because when carbohydrates are consumed by someone who is insulin resistant, blood glucose is not lowered as effectively. So, by eating fewer carbohydrates, we both reduce the glucose load in the blood, and decrease the release of insulin.

Nutritional ketosis is a natural metabolic state in which your body adapts to burning fat over carbohydrates as its primary fuel. While carbohydrate consumption triggers spikes in blood sugar, fat consumption does not, making it a better source of fuel for people with insulin resistance.

The graph below shows how carbs, protein and fat affect blood insulin levels.

In a clinical trial, patients lost an average of 12% of their starting body weight within six months by using a medically supervised treatment that included the employment of nutritional ketosis.In addition, 56% of patients with type 2 diabetes reduced their HbA1c to below diabetic levels.

Read more about nutritional ketosis and how it can be an effective diabetes reversal method when paired with physician supervision here, Reversing Type 2 Diabetes  https://www.virtahealth.com/reversediabetes

To learn more about how food affects blood sugar, watch Sarah Hallberg, DO, MS on Carbohydrate Intolerance, Insulin Resistance and Reversing Diabetes. Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldzaLP8oAHw&t=3s

The source of the Blog Post is found at the Virta website.  Please look for:3 Reasons It’s Harder For People With Type 2 Diabetes To Lose Weight. Please copy this link and paste in your address bar.

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The citations show the supporting studies.

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Keto: The Best Fatty Liver Diet

The ketogenic diet is a good diet for reversing nonalcoholic liver disease. It is improved by following these guidelines:

1. Restrict Carbohydrates to 5% of Your Daily Calories
2. Eat High-Fiber Foods With Every Meal
3. Eat Liver Healing Foods such as oily fish, nuts avocado and olive oil.
4. Use Liver Healing Supplements such as spirulina, betaine, milk thistle and probiotics.
5. Limit Alcohol Consumption
6. Exercise Everyday – brisk walks, resistance training.

There are two main types of fatty liver disease:

• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NFLD)
• Alcoholic fatty liver disease (alcoholic steatohepatitis)

There are five conditions that are commonly associated with NFLD: type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, dyslipidemia (abnormally elevated cholesterol levels), and metabolic syndrome. Scientists believe that they are intimately linked because they can all be caused by a combination of lifestyle, genetics, and gut health issues.

In epidemiological studies including people with type 2 diabetes, 62 to 69% of them also had NFLD. Another study found that 50% of patients with dyslipidemia (abnormally elevated cholesterol levels) had NFLD.

NFLD usually causes no signs and symptoms. When it does, they may include:

• Enlarged liver
• Fatigue
• Pain in the upper right abdomen

Possible signs and symptoms of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and cirrhosis (advanced scarring) include:

• Abdominal swelling (ascites)
• Enlarged blood vessels just beneath the skin’s surface
• Enlarged breasts in men
• Enlarged spleen
• Red palms
• Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)

What Causes Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease?

1. Lifestyle – Eating Too Much and Exercising Too Little

• Insulin resistance is a common side effect of eating too much and exercising too little, and it is one of the main reasons why fat builds up in the liver.Many researchers agree that improving insulin sensitivity is a key strategy in the treatment of NFLD.
• The quickest way to increase fat build up in the liver is by overfeeding on carbohydrates.Fructose, especially, will lead to the most fat accumulation in the liver.

2. Genetics — Gene Variants, Gender, and Ethnicity

• Genetics can play a role in the development of NFLD. It is important to develop healthy lifestyle habits if your parents and grandparents struggled with NFLD.

3. Gut Health Issues — Your Microbiome and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

• Studies done on the microbiome of obese patients have increased abundance of the bacteria called Firmicutes. This increase leads to an increase in lipopolysaccharide absorption that triggers a potent inflammatory response in the body.

Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis – When The Bad Gets Worse

The increase in lipopolysaccharides absorption caused by a poor diet and an obesity-causing microbiome can disrupt the liver so much that NFLD progresses to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

This form of NFLD affects 20-30% of patients with NFLD, and it occurs when the build up of fat in the liver leads to inflammation that can result in liver cell damage.

The fat cells eventually become overloaded and begin to secrete inflammatory cytokines. These inflammatory cytokines increase inflammation levels and cause reactive oxygen species to accumulate (oxidative stress). As poor lifestyle choices continue, so much fat builds up in the liver that it leads to lipotoxicity (accumulation of fat in non-fat cells). The combination of lipotoxicity and oxidative stress can cause hormonal disturbances and liver damage.

In the gut NFLD promoting lifestyle changes the microbiome. This increases inflammation, oxidative stress, and lipopolysaccharide absorption, which causes more liver damage.

You are not doomed to get nonalcoholic steatohepatitis because like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, NFLD is reversible with the same lifestyle changes.

How To Reverse Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

The key to disrupting the vicious cycle of NFLD before it damages the liver is exercise and diet.

Many scientific papers agree that the treatment of NFLD should be focused on controlling diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia. We should only focus on treating the liver in those with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

This means that the best way to reverse NFLD and prevent liver damage is with a diet that has been proven to control diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia.

The Ketogenic Diet May Be The Best Fatty Liver Diet

Weight loss is essential when reversing NFLD. The best way to achieve this weight loss, however, is not with caloric restriction.

The ketogenic diet has been proven to be more effective than a calorie-restricted diet at reversing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hyperlipidemia and NFLD.

A recent pilot study put five patients on the ketogenic diet (less than 20 grams per day of carbohydrate). Each patient underwent a liver biopsy, and four of the five patients showed a reduction in liver fat, inflammation, and fibrosis. This provides preliminary evidence that the ketogenic diet can reverse NFLD and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

NFLD is so intimately associated with type 2 diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease that it is believed to be caused by the same factors. These factors are an unhealthy lifestyle, genetics, and gut health issues (an obesity and inflammation causing microbiome).

The combination of the ketogenic diet and exercise makes a great treatment for NFLD.

This Post has been condensed from the Keto: The best Fatty Liver Diet https://www.ruled.me/keto-best-fatty-liver-diet/

To learn more please read, How Do I Do the Ketogenic Diet? https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/how-do-i-do-the-ketogenic-diet/

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

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Drs. Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek on the Basic Science of Ketosis and Keto-Adaptation

What follows is a condensed form of the Transcript of their presentation.

First, Drs. Phinney and Volek discuss the history of the Ketogenic diet.

Dr. Volek introduced the terms used in the diet. Understanding ketone concentration is fundamental.  If you’re eating a normal mixed diet, your ketones are suppressed. So your concentration of ketones in your circulating blood is for most people under 0.2 millimolar.

When you restrict carbohydrates to under fifty grams a day, you normalize ketones into the range of nutritional ketosis, which is between 0.5 to 4.  So that’s an entire order of magnitude higher than you would have on a normal mixed diet but an entire order of magnitude lower than what you see in ketoacidosis.

When we’re eating a well-formulated Ketogenic diet you’re normalizing ketones into this range. When you do that over a sustained period of time that is keto-adaptation. You double your rate of fat oxidation when you’re in ketosis.

Obese people following a well-formulated Ketogenic diet don’t need to count calories, they will naturally restrict fat intake.

There’s nothing more potent than a Ketogenic diet to lower triglycerides and it also consistently raises HDL cholesterol.

We consistently see decreases in the small LDL particles. There’s increasing evidence that they are the most atherogenic particles circulating. We see improvements in glucose and insulin and measures of insulin sensitivity as well as improvements in hormone sensitivity so we see improvements in greater decreases in leptin.

We’ve also measured saturated fat levels, we find that despite consuming two to four times as much saturated fat on a Ketogenic diet that levels in the blood actually go down or stay the same.

When you’re eating saturated fat on a Ketogenic diet you’re promptly oxidizing that incoming saturated fat and converting it to co2 and water it. Saturated fat is a preferred fuel when you’re in ketosis. This is very important because elevated levels of saturated fat in the circulation and in membranes is consistently associated with higher risk for heart disease, diabetes even some types of cancer. Half the inflammatory markers we measured in human trials were significantly decreased and the group fed a Ketogenic diet compared to a low-fat diet.  We’re seeing this a potent inflammatory mechanism in some of patients with type 2 diabetes.

A Ketogenic diet essentially reverses all the signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. The more carbs you eat the more you have a higher likelihood of developing the insulin resistant phenotype and if that progresses, type-2 diabetes.The more you restrict carbohydrates especially down to levels that induce ketosis, the less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. It’s driven by carbs in the diet. Everybody has a slightly different carb tolerance and it changes over the lifespan but this relationship between carbs and manifestation of insulin resistant phenotype versus keto-adapted phenotype holds true.

Dr. Phinney will talk to you about some of the characteristics of a well-formulated Ketogenic diet.

This is best visual representation we’ve come up with to differentiate the Ketogenic diet from a the standard American diet, the Mediterranean diet and the Paleo diet.

To achieve nutritional ketosis you have to get under 10% of a 2000-calorie diet, or about 50 grams of carbs. If you take your protein intake too high that protein intake begins to suppress ketogenesis. Your intake should be 20% or less protein. The energy your body burns comes from the 80% of fat.

What Goes into a Well Formulated Ketogenic Diet?    In terms of about a 2,000-calorie per day intake, the fat is eaten to satiety rather than counting calories. When you take the carbs down and get that insulin signalling down,natural instincts drive fat intake.If we restrict carbs, what can you have?

Eating a moderate proteinintake the protein-based carbs might be 5 to 10 grams per day. If you eat 3 to 5 servings of non-starchy vegetablesper day that is in the 10 to 15 to gram range. If you eat 1 to 2 ounces of nuts and seedsper day that’s 5 to 10 grams.

There is a wide range of luscious foods and still stay in the 30 to 50 gram range.. The vast majority of the calories here are coming from fat, but only till they are satisfied.  Dr. Phinney put up a screen that displays a typical menu.

People experience improvement. People with type 2 diabetes, taking a 100 units of insulin a day, have been taken off insulin. We (doctors) can do that when we get the diet composition right for the metabolic needs of each person. The key here is keepingprotein moderate and carbohydraterestricted.

 The best way todetermine your individual carbohydrate tolerance is you get a finger stickglucometer with a ketone testing and measure your ketones.

Then what should I be eating?     90 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbohydrate that would be 120 calories of carb and 360 calories of protein and then eat fat to satiety. Most people were under eating total calories. The difference between their expenditure and their intake was basically unseen dietary fat but the dietary fat was coming from internal fat reserves.

The weight loss continues over several months and until people reach a new steady state. We don’t count calories. From day one and in maintenance our dietary instruction are: restrict carbs to 20-50 grams depending on tolerance and proteins to 90 grams and eat fats till satisfied.

There are ten characteristics of WFKD, they are posted at https://blog.virtahealth.com/well-formulated-ketogenic-diet/

First characteristic, sustained nutritional ketosis appears to have better clinical response than the intermittent ketosis in terms of degree of weight loss and improvement in insulin resistance.

Next, it needs to maintain lean body mass and function. A well-formulated Ketogenic diet, when not overeating protein maintains or increases lean body mass.

Next, electrolyte and mineral management, when someone enters the state of nutritional ketosis sodium excretion increases. When you combine a Ketogenic diet where the sodium restricted diet in somebody who doesn’t have obvious need for sodium restriction, (hypertension or congestive heart failure), you’ll cause a decrease circulating volume and that leads to a symptoms and side effects that are oftentimes called the keto flu.It is actually an inadequacy of an essential nutrient called sodium to meet physiological needs. The solution is to add sodium to your daily intake.

We have data from five published studies. The yellow, the purple one and the green one are all studies that used formula weight loss diets under a thousand calories per day for the roughly the first three to five months and then were followed up from anywhere to a year to two years.

In all of these cases by the end of the first year weight regain is beginning.  The blue line shows a case for type 2 diabetes, where when people are eating fat to satiety from day one. The weight loss is slower but it’s more progressive and that at the end of year one we don’t see what rebound and weight regain.

Because a chronic condition such as type 2 diabetes isn’t going to be cured in one year, why use something, which is only going to provide transient benefit and then begin to lose control and gain that weight back. A well-formulated Ketogenic diet will have a lasting benefit.

People who are on medications for hypertension or type 2 diabetes have to have real-time medication management through the physician and pharmacist or nurse to avoid the side-effects of too much medication in the context of too little carbohydrate coming in and dramatically improving insulin sensitivity.  

Lastly, a well-formulated Ketogenic diet does not necessarily here to traditional dietary guidelines.

In the next to last slide the first point is the need to provide adequate sodium. With the exception of hypertension or congestive heart failure or conditions where people have to restrict sodium our experience clinically is we need to provide them with 5 grams of sodium intake per day.(I understand that to be natural salt not processed salt.)

For different cultures the low point in terms of mortality for measured sodium excretion, the optimum intake is about 4 grams per day without people being in nutrition of ketosis?  Add nutritional ketosis 5 is a modest number.

When somebody is in weight maintenance, the average person burning 2,000 calories a day needs to eat about 150 grams of fat per day. Whenyou’re in nutritional ketosis and you’vedoubled your rate of fat oxidation. Itappears that some of the first fats thatget into the pathway for oxidation arethe saturated fats and in spite of higher intake, they don’t build up in theblood and if anything are reduced.  

 Worrying about saturated fats is only associated when you’re combining them with a significant proportion of carbohydrates in your diet. Gettingadequate potassium and magnesium asminerals as those are important, thosecome from leafy greenvegetables and to some degree berryfruits or homemade bone broth.

In the last slide, ketones are fuel for the brain, heart function, and multiple organ systems and for gut function.

 If you eat dietary fiber and your microbiome makes it into butyrate, an optimal fuel for the gut that’s easily replaced with beta-hydroxybutyrate, a by-product of a Ketogenic diet.

Beta-hydroxybutyrate is a beneficial regulatory hormone that regulates the body’s defence against oxidative stress and inflammation, which has an impact on longevity and lifespan impact on inflammatory diseases and cell signalling and mitochondrial function.

Source: Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek on the Basic Science of Ketosis and Keto-Adaptation

Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek co-authored several books, including The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living and The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

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

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The Sad Saga of Saturated Fat

In the US and Canada dietary guidelines do not take into consideration the recent extensive scientific research into role of saturated fats.

Two generations of researchers have tried to prove that eating saturated fat (such as beef, pork, dairy, eggs, chocolate, and tropical oils) causes heart disease. This hypothesis is false.For proof look to multiple recent meta-analyses of large populations followed carefully for decades, examining what they eat and what they die of.  All show no consistent association between dietary saturated fat intake and risk for heart disease or death from all causes.In fact some of these studies show just the opposite – they suggest that one’s risk for a coronary event increases when dietary saturated fat is reduced and replaced by carbohydrate.

By continuing to provoke fear about the harmful effects of saturated fat, the likely response is that people will seek out foods low in fat and higher in carbohydrate. In fact, according to a government-funded survey, Americans have decreased their consumption of saturated fat and replaced those calories with an even greater amount of carbohydrate. In the same time interval rates of obesity and diabetes have rocketed skywards.

Much of what we’ve been taught about dietary fat is wrong. How could this be – a good place to start would be to read Good Calories, Bad Caloriesby Gary Taubes andThe Big Fat Surpriseby Nina Teicholz, both highly regarded investigative journalists.

In short, 50 years ago diseased coronary arteries were found to contain buildups of cholesterol and saturated fat. Professor Ancel Keyes of the University of Minnesota hypothesizedthat too much of these two nutrients in the diet were the cause – i.e., his hypothesis was built on the flawed concept that you are what you eat. Then came well-done studies showing that blood levels of saturated fats predict future cases of heart disease and diabetes, thus appearing to support Keyes’ hypothesis. But this works only if you believe “you are what you eat”,a concept that doesn’t pass the common sense test.

Obviously, the key question here is, “what’s the precise relationship between dietary saturated fat and blood levels of saturated fat?”The scientific evidence clearly shows that dietary saturated fat intake has little to do with saturated levels in our blood, then what does? There is, in fact, sound evidence that dietary carbohydrate is a major determinant of serum saturated fat levels.

 We know this because two respected research groups fed humans carefully measured, weight-maintaining diets either high in carbohydrate or moderate in carbohydrate. In both studies, blood levels of saturated fats went up dramatically on the high carb diets, even though they were very low in fat.

We (Virta) performed a weight loss study during which we fed diets varying from 32 up to 84 grams of saturated fat per day, with “healthy carbohydrate” making up the energy difference when dietary fat was reduced. In blood triglycerides and cholesteryl esters, saturated fat levels trended upwards when the high carbohydrate, very low fat diet was consumed, despite the diet being energy restricted, causing on-going body fat loss.

A high carbohydrate intake has two effects in the body that promote higher levels of saturated fat.

First, carbohydrates stimulate the body to make more insulin, which inhibits the oxidation of saturated fat. Thus, when insulin levels are high, saturated fat tends to be stored rather than burned as fuel.

Second, a high carbohydrate intake promotes the synthesis of saturated fat in the liver.

This is particularly problematic for individuals with insulin resistance, characterized as “carbohydrate intolerance” in our recent book, (Volek J, Phinney SD. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living. Beyond Obesity, May 2011.) Available through Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Living/dp/0983490708

Insulin resistance makes it harder for muscles to take up and use blood sugar, thus causing a higher propensity for the liver to convert dietary carbohydrate into body fat.

This combination of decreased oxidation and increased synthesis of saturated fat therefore results in accumulation of saturated fats in the blood and tissues.The culprit then is clearly not dietary saturated fat, but rather consumption of more carbohydrate than an individual’s body can efficiently manage.This threshold of carbohydrate tolerance varies from person to person, and it can also change over a lifetime.

In addition to the studies mentioned above in which high carbohydrate feeding increased blood levels of saturated fats, we conducted a pair of studies allowing 6-12 weeks for adaptation to moderate carbohydrate or very low carbohydrate diets. Because these were not very low-calorie diets, the low-carb diets were naturally pretty high in fat, containing 2-3 fold greater intakes of saturated fat than the moderate carbohydrate diets used as controls.

The results were pretty striking: compared to low-fat diets, blood levels of saturated fat were markedly decreased in response to the low carbohydrate, high fat diets.Our data indicates that this occurred because the low insulin levels accelerated the oxidation of all fats (and particularly saturated fat); plus the relative few dietary carbohydrates meant there wasn’t much of it to be converted into saturated fats. Thus, from the body’s perspective, a low-carbohydrate diet reduces blood saturated fat levels irrespective of dietary saturated fat intake.

There is convincing evidence that dietary carbohydrate exerts an important influence on how the body processes saturated fat. Thus, saturated fat, whether made in the body or eaten in the diet, is more likely to accumulate when aided and abetted by high levels of dietary carbohydrate, particularly in insulin-resistant individuals (as in type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome*).

* Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the five following medical conditions: central obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein. Metabolic syndrome is associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome

A one-size-fits-all recommendation to aggressively lower saturated fat intake with the expectation of lowering blood saturated fat levels is intellectually invalid and likely to backfire.

SOURCE: The Sad Saga of Saturated Fat by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD and Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD https://blog.virtahealth.com/the-sad-saga-of-saturated-fat/?fbclid=IwAR28z406CUcbrwZ-kdEWAoko7-gOMgPNJ4fgxy0HSeLkdLfZW1co244xP3cIn Categories: Science & Research. Please see the extensive list of studies under References.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

 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.

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My mission is to help people like you get well and stay well. – Dr. Raymond Francis

Raymond Francis, D.Sc., M.Sc., RNC has been called a “brilliant advanced thinker” and has been cited as “one of the few scientists who has achieved a breakthrough understanding of health and disease.”

This Post is Transcript from Dr. Raymond Francis’s 4.47 minute video Processed Foods.

My mission is to help people like you get well and stay well.

Most nutrition experts agree, don’t eat processed foodsand here’s a problem. There is a lot of confusion about what is a processed food, so let me try and add some clarity.

Virtually ALL the packaged goods you buy in a supermarket are processed foods. They’re unhealthy. Processing is anything you do to a raw agricultural commodity after it’s been harvested.Now some processing is benign you know chopping up an apple cutting an apple or chopping some onions.  This is this is minor stuff it’s processing but it’s minimally processed. Minimally processed foods have been used safely since antiquity. They fermented foods, they sun-dried foods.

It’s the modern highly processed foods that are killing us.For example, processing whole wheat into white flour looses the fiber, the essential fatty acids and about 80 percent of the vitamins and minerals.

The average American is eating well over a hundred pounds of this junk every year. Bad enough by itself white flour is then used to create baked goods. These baked goods contain toxins like azodicarbonamide, which is a dough conditioner, caramel coloring, monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are emulsifiers, salt, potassium bromate, which is a carcinogen but it helps the dough to rise higher and gives the bread a nice white color, sugar, processed fats and oils, artificial colors flavors, preservatives. It kind of be nuts to eat this stuff and we’re consuming it by the ton.

Remember, there are only two causes of diseases – deficiency and toxicity.

Modern processing loses nutrients and adds toxins and this is why processed foods cause disease. Beware of foods that come in cans and jars and packages. These include all your baked goods and your pasteurized milk and your breakfast cereals and canned goods and frozen foods and prepared meals. We’ve been taught that frozen food is as good as fresh food. That isn’t true. Frozen foods are not as good as fresh foods. Vegetables are blanched prior to freezing. This results in losing folate, B vitamins, about 25% of vitamin C.

However it’s about choices and in the absence of fresh foods, frozen vegetables may be your best choice. So read labels carefully. The key is to minimize and avoid the worst choices. Especially stay away from those with a LONG list of ingredients. Stay away from these prepackaged things: prepackaged meals and canned foods and baked goods and deli meats and breakfast cereals and supermarket oils and anything that contains flavor enhancers and salt and emulsifiers and stabilizers from sweeteners and thickeners and added fats and oils and processing aids. Wow!

Choose food items with the least amount of stuff in it, no artificial colors, no artificial preservatives, no added sugars, no sodium, no added fats and oils. That’s the best you can do.

But the healthiest choice of all is always freshly harvested, organically produced plant-based foods.  So as much as possible eat vegetables raw. Eat lots of fresh salads dressed with high-quality olive oil or flaxseed oil. In addition high-quality supplements are essential. To learn more about how to get well and stay well read my book The Great American Health Hoax.

My personal journey to improved health was heavily influenced by Dr. Raymond Francis’s book, Never be Sick Again. The rest of his books, Never Be Fat Again, Never Feel Old Again, Never Fear Cancer Again,  also have tips on how to improve your health.  I highly recommend his books.

Amazon sells his books https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=raymond+francis&sprefix=raymond%2Cstripbooks%2C173&crid=30D6JYORI5SVY

Please more about Raymond Francis at https://www.facebook.com/RaymondFrancisAuthor/

 I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

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 or sending me a message or email.

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

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May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

416-428-5285

Email: lpolstra@bell.net

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

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

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.

Reversing Diabetes 101 with Dr. Sarah Hallberg: The Truth About Carbs, Blood Sugar and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Dr. Sarah Hallberg is the Medical Director of the Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program at IU Health Arnett, a program she created.

Her program has consistently exceeded national benchmarks for weight loss, and has been highly successful in reversing diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

In this video series, we’ll explore the causes of type 2 diabetes and how to reverse it. Please copy and paste this link into your address bar.

https://blog.virtahealth.com/reversing-diabetes-101-truth-about-carbs-and-blood-sugar/

The series:

1. How food affects blood sugar
2. Carbohydrate intolerance and insulin resistance
3. How type 2 diabetes became an epidemic
4. Treating type 2 diabetes—and why ‘eat less, exercise more’ doesn’t work
5. The history and safety of Ketogenic diets
6. Research on Ketogenic interventions for type 2 diabetes
7. Ketogenic meals and food options

1: How food affects blood sugar

Fat does not impact blood insulin levels. Carbs have a high impact on blood sugar, protein impacts them moderately, but fat? No impact!

2: Carbohydrate intolerance and insulin resistance

When someone with type 2 diabetes eats carbohydrates, it causes their blood sugar to rise above what is healthy.

In a person with carbohydrate intolerance, type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, the body loses its insulin sensitivity and more and more insulin is required to remove the excess blood sugar. As a result, blood sugar levels remain high and insulin levels are high as well, and these high insulin levels can make your body even less sensitive to insulin.

3: How type 2 diabetes became an epidemic

Soon after the U.S. government recommended new dietary guidelines with a low-fat, high-carb diet were recommended in 1977, type 2 diabetes prevalence increased dramatically. Fifty-two percent of adults in the United States had type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes as of the end of 2017.

4: Treating type 2 diabetes—and why ‘eat less, exercise more’ doesn’t work

There has been an explosion of drugs have been brought to market, and there are hundreds of lifestyle interventions to choose from.

The medication approach focuses on management of diabetes, not reversal. Taking medications for type 2 diabetes combats the end result, which is rising blood sugar, but does not address the root causes—insulin resistance and carbohydrate intolerance.

Most lifestyle interventions focus on eating less and exercising more. The problem with these programs is that they tend to be high in carbs, even if they are cutting back on calories. When you eat a high-carb diet, the resulting increase in your blood sugar triggers an insulin response in your body, and insulin blocks your body’s ability to burn fat. Insulin actively blocks the breakdown of stored body fat, meaning that as long as insulin is high, it will be very difficult to lose weight—even if you are eating very little.

The solution?Switch to a low-carb, high fat diet that won’t cause blood sugar spikes. By keeping your blood sugar down, you’ll keep your insulin levels down, and unlock your body’s natural ability to burn its stored fat. One type of low-carb, high-fat diet is called a Ketogenic diet.

*I (Dr. Hallberg) do not recommend making significant dietary changes without physician supervision, especially if you are on any medications.

5: The history and safety of Ketogenic diets

There are cultures who have thrived for centuries on high-fat, low-carb diets, such as the Masai warriors and Inuits. In the past 20 years, elite athletes, especially endurance athletes looking for an edge, have started adopting low carb and Ketogenic diets for improved performance.

6: Research on Ketogenic interventions for type 2 diabetes

Clinical trials have proven a low-carb, high fat diet to be significantly more effective than programs that encourage you to eat less and exercise.

In our clinical trial, Virta patients lost almost 12% of their starting body weight in 6 months—that’s nearly 3x the weight loss of commercially available weight loss programs.

And contrary to what you might have been told, low-carb, high fat lifestyles have not demonstrated an increased risk in cardiovascular disease. In fact, patients in our clinical trial also had a significant reduction (22%) in triglycerides, which are associated with risk for cardiovascular disease, in just 10 weeks.

56% of patients were able to lower their HbA1c to below the diagnostic threshold for type 2 diabetes, and 47.7% were able to reverse their diabetes—lower their HbA1c while eliminating their medications (excluding Metformin).

7: Ketogenic meals and food options

Breakfast samples: Scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage, bacon and fried eggs cooked in butter, cream cheese pancakes, full-fat yogurt with raspberries and almonds.

Lunch samples: Salads loaded up with meat or cheese, avocado, veggies and olive oil. Or a lettuce-wrapped burger or bread-less sandwich from any fast food outlet.

Snacks samples: Salted nuts and olives, salami and cheese, celery and almond butter or full-fat yogurt.

Dinner samples:  Prefer to dine out? Try a lettuce wrapped burger from a fast food restaurant, a salad from Chipotle or surf and turf with broccoli from Applebee’s.

BONUS: Dr. Hallberg presented Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts with ignoring the guidelines to the medical community. It gives you more information on how to reverse diabetes 2.

Dr. Sarah Hallberg provides compelling evidence that diabetes 2 can be “cured”, and the solution is simpler than you might think.

Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ

Please consider visiting Lydia’s Blog https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com

It will be the same posting that I email, but you can search the Blog using key words. In the Blog I discuss the Ketogenic and GAPS (for gut health) diets, supplements and Super-slow High Resistance Training.

If you are interested in following my postings, 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.

As always, I am interested in your thoughts on these topics. Please contact me if there is another topic you would like me to research for you.

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

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May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

lpolstra@bell.net

BODY BY SCIENCE: A research-based program for strength training bodybuilding and complete fitness in 12 minutes a week.

Doug McGuff, MD is co-author with John Little of the book “Body By Science”.

Body By Science

In this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ufSYBcZa0 Dr. McGuff speaks about common errors we all make with regards to exercise.

This is condensed from the transcript.

Here are some of the common errors we may have made:

1. Quitting an exercise program because of the time commitment involved.

2. Quit an exercise program because you became worn out or injured.

3. You purchased exercise equipment and now it is used to hang clothes.

The premise of the book is: A research-based program for strength training bodybuilding and complete fitness in 12 minutes a week.

Everything put forth in the book is supported by scientific peer-reviewed literature and this wasn’t really possible until 2004.

The second part of the title says strength training, bodybuilding and complete fitness. Those three things are the same thing.

The only way that you can do any of those three things is by performing mechanical work with muscle.

The higher the quality of the mechanical work with muscle the more you can get at your cardiac system, your vascular system, respiratory system and your metabolic subsystems to produce beneficial adaptations.

The last part (of the title) is in 12 minutes a week.

What we try to do in the book is to demonstrate with the scientific literature is that it is actually a requirement for the production of best results.

The book, Body by Science, explains the how and why of high intensity training, balancing enough scientific background to convey key principles and concepts without overwhelming the lay reader, and practical in-the-gym how-to. It is well organized, well researched, and well written, and an enjoyable and informative read.

My promotion of this book does not result in my making any monies. If you wish to buy the book, here is the link https://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-Training/dp/0071597174

Disclaimer: The content of this email 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.

How Do I Do the Ketogenic Diet?

Today, we will learn how to do the Ketogenic Diet.

I attached a few overviews of the diet from well respected sources.

1. Josh Ellis Ketosis overview snapshot.
2. Dr. Volek snapshot of a meal plan. His scientific research on the Ketogenic Diet has inspired many other authors. He has been on the diet for over 15 years.
3. KetoDiet Book with all the dos and don’ts. A 14-day meal plan and several recipes. The Ketodoetapp will have more recipes.
4. Dr. Pompa’s Keto-roadmap.  A second source of what the diet is all about.
5. Supplements instructions
6. Restore a multivitamin and mineral powder.

Ready to go?  Start with a tracking App. I look for ones that give the grams as well as percentages of calories. The Carbohydrate Manager App is one of the good ones.

Here is the link https://www.carbmanager.com

Ketogenic Diet – Dr. Jong Rho, MD – How Ketones Affect Whole Body Metabolism and Inflammation.

The connection between the Ketogenic Diet and the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) has fascinated me.  Dr. Rho supports that connection in this very informative interview. Sit back and relax while Dr. Rho tells you how you can improve your health by diet.

Dr. Rho’s Elevator Pitch: The primary lesson from the ketogenic diet is that a simple alteration in the type of foods we eat is the basis for preventing disease, treating disease and is something that can be done pragmatically without billions of dollars and the decades needed for drug development. Fats are not bad. Through the unfounded philosophy that fats are bad, we have created a health problem throughout the world.

Wheat Makes You Fat In Three Ways

Wheat Makes You Fat In Three Ways

SOURCE: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/wheat-gluten_b_1274872.html

 

I know we love our bread, but did you know….

There are three major hidden reasons that wheat products, not just gluten is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern ills.

Today’s wheat products is made from a scientifically engineered food product developed in the last 50 years. It is different in three important ways that all drive obesity and more.

1. It contains a Super Starch — amylopectin A that is super fattening. (It fluffs up Bread and Cinnabons).
2. It contains a form of Super Gluten that is super-inflammatory. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt and oats.
3. It contains forms of a Super Drug that is super-addictive and makes you crave and eat more.
   • Bottom line: wheat is an addictive appetite stimulant.

A major study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that hidden gluten sensitivity (elevated antibodies without full-blown celiac disease) was shown to increase risk of death by 35 to 75 percent, mostly by causing heart disease and cancer. 

Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21392369

 

How Eating gluten causes inflammation, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer.

• Most of the increased risk occurs when gluten triggers inflammation that damages the gut lining.
• Then all the bugs and partially-digested food particles inside your intestine get across the gut barrier and are exposed your immune system.
• Your immune system starts attacking these foreign proteins, leading to systemic inflammation that then causes heart disease, dementia, cancer, diabetes and more.

As always, I am interested in your thoughts on the topics I blog.  Please send me your comments to lpolstra@bell.net. Is there any topic that I can research for you? Please let me know. 

 

May you Live Long Healthy,

Yours Truly,

Lydia Polstra