The toxic effects of ... sugar

UCSF Lecture on Sugar & Obesity Goes Viral as Experts Confront Health Crisis

March 10, 2010 UCSF news release (University of California San Francisco)

Background

Metabolic syndrome (from National Library of Medicine) – a group of conditions that put you at risk for heart disease and diabetes. These conditions are

• High blood pressure
• High blood sugar levels
• High levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in your blood
• Low levels of HDL, the good cholesterol, in your blood
• Too much fat around your waist

See also Metabolic Syndrome from the Nemours Foundation.

Connection between sugar and the metabolic syndrome

The news release includes a presentation by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, UCSF, on “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” (approx. 1h, 30min.)

Dr. Lustig explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009].  (In case you don’t have an hour and a half to spare, I found a basic version of Lustig’s presentation on the NIEHS website.  Also includes a QuickTime version of the presentation Lustig gave at that workshop.)

I’m still convinced that environmental chemicals could be contributing to occurrence of metabolic syndrome, but Dr. Lustig’s presentation was eye-opening.  I don’t understand all the biochemistry, but he makes what I think is a convincing argument that fructose, whether from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or from refined sugar (sugar = fructose + glucose), is responsible for the development of metabolic syndrome.

The basic reason is not because we’re taking in too many calories, but that fructose is metabolized differently than glucose is.

Lustig goes through the history of sugar in drinks and food and the production of HFCS before diving into biochemistry.  He compares the metabolism of glucose, ethanol, and fructose, covering all the metabolic pathways for each.

All of the cells in the body can metabolize glucose, some ethanol is absorbed bv the gastrointestinal tract, then metabolized by the brain and liver.

Fructose is primarily metabolized by the liver.  I won’t go into the details here, but fructose increases the level of triglycerides, messes with the insulin and leptin processes, makes the pancreas work harder, and has other negative effects on your body.

Dr. Lustig makes a very convincing argument that overconsumption of fructose has causes metabolic syndrome and had led to the obesity epidemic.

Some people argue that it’s Americans’ eating habits and lack of exercise that have caused the obesity epidemic.  Lustig asks, if that’s true, how do you explain the epidemic of obese six-month-olds? (Lustig looks at the amount of sugar contained in many formulas.)

Lustig also notes that the role of exercise isn’t really to burn calories, but to keep our bodies’ metabolic processes running smoothly and discusses the important role of fiber in fructose metabolism.)

From the NIEHS website (a basic version of Lustig’s presentation)

(presented at a workshop on “Children’s Environmental Health Research: Past, Present & Future,” Jan. 2007) – this workshop had sessions focusing on lead and neurotoxicity, asthma, metabolic disorders, and ADHD)

Summary

Fructose (sucrose or HFCS) consumption has increased in the past 30 years, coinciding with the obesity epidemic

• Fructose is everywhere
• Fructose is not glucose

• Hepatic fructose metabolism leads to all the manifestations of the Metabolic Syndrome:

• • • hypertension
    • de novo lipogenesis, dyslipidemia, and hepatic steatosis
    • inflammation
    • hepatic insulin resistance
    • obesity
    • CNS leptin resistance, promoting continuous consumption

• Fructose ingestion interferes with obesity intervention

• Fructose is a chronic toxin (it’s metabolized like ethanol)

Links (from UCSF)

UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study & Treatment (COAST)

WATCH Clinic

UCSF Children’s Hospital

Adult Weight Management Program

UCSF Medical Center

New Center to Focus on Effects of Stress, Socioeconomic Status on Obesity

UCSF Today, August 11, 2009

Sugar is a Poison, Says UCSF Obesity Expert

Science Café, June 25, 2009

The Biology of Fat (or Why Literally Running Away from Stress Is a Good Idea)

Science Café, July 6, 2007

Note: A much briefer (and less rigorous) discussion on this topic can be found at High-Fructose Corn Syrup Truth, Still Not Sexy, HFCS.

[Via http://amidthemaddingcrowd.wordpress.com]

Jobs, Illness, Heart Disease & a Flooded Desert

Jobs have come and gone.  Other jobs have proved elusive.  Another job was not what it appeared to be on first presentation to me.  Having expressed interest in one job I arranged to have an informal chat.  Which then became a more formal-sounding interview.  I appeared on time only to discover that they’d given that job to another. And somehow they’d forgotten to telephone or email me to let me know…

A close friend in town is very ill and we’re awaiting news due next week of his test results.  He’s way too young to be this ill.

I had hoped to make it to age 50 before having heart disease shoved up close and personal by way of a prescription for cholesterol lowering medication.  I have always had high cholesterol and it’s presumed to be genetic. The lowest reading I’ve had was 5.5 mmol/l and it’s been around 6.5 over the past five years.  But over a period of 3 months it skyrocketed to a more worrying 7.5.   Diet had not been changed so it’s time to try medication.

My blood pressure over the past year has also crept up very high (but with occasional large dips back to safer levels) & my doctor advised purchasing an automatic blood pressure monitoring kit.  Which I did.  And it looks like my BP is a lot lower when taken upon getting up in the morning.  This is good for it should mean I won’t need blood pressure medication yet.

Just the cholesterol-lowering medication.

I will be curious to see the results of the stress ECG & other heart tests later this year.  My father’s side of the family (including my generation) all have heart disease to some degree, many also have a history of minor heart attacks.  Dad died suddenly at age 65 from a massive heart attack.  In fact, most of the men on that side of the family died suddenly in their early 60s.

With all the rain that has fallen over outback Queensland over the past weeks & flooding the channel country, we’re hoping to do a flight over the desert to see the water flowing for ourselves.  Given good weather we should take off tomorrow morning for Birdsville, Boulia and maybe Innamincka.  I’ve charged up my camera battery in readiness.

[Via http://desertgirl2.wordpress.com]

It’s the Sign of the Times

Throughout the history of planet earth, mankind has looked for signs to help them understand God, the universe, their environment, and events happening around them. Man is naturally religious and superstitious, and in ancient times they would try to connect a misfortune with something they had done or a god that they had angered. This creating of a false god to interpret the universe, events and circumstances around them is not changed in modern man, they are simply different false idols with new, intelligent modern sounding names. We still try to appease the gods, just don’t call them “gods”, call them scientists!

Up until the late 19th century, modern civilizations understood what food was, how to prepare it, and what was indeed truly healthy based on two pieces of information. Observations over time learned and handed down from generation to generation, and the words of the only true God, found in the Bible. These observations, which could also be called common sense, may have taken hundreds of years to develop, but were remarkably accurate as people had no reason not to believe their parents when they instructed them about food, or the very obvious self-evident effect of eating the food itself.

Not too surprisingly, the Bible also has a lot to say about food, and much of the information is in complete harmony with the traditional diets of the vast majority of mankind throughout history. So whether you leaned on the Bible to help you understand what healthy eating was or “common sense” you were not too far from truth.

In order for the industrial food giants, the pharmaceutical industry and government usurpers of the human right to eat like a human being to be effective, they have to displace the two center pillars of truth about food, common sense and the Bible.

This started with the creation of fake food in the late 1800’s, as marketing began to attack real food, and indirectly common sense and the Bible. The Bible, which in those days was still considered true and trustworthy was beginning to become undermined by the “theory of evolution” an absolute fantasy which ultimately displaces the true god with man as the creator. As this fake religion is promoted, it promotes the scientist as the ultimate authority of truth. As more and more scientific discoveries were being made in the early 20th century, more and more trust in all things scientific begins to take hold in society. If the Bible is not true in one part, then it is not to be trusted at all, so all the information related to food in the Bible, as well as ancient common sense, is just the foolishness of man before the enlightenment of science “falsely so called”.

Today, when their is a conversation about food the authority is “well their is a study that shows…”, in other words, science is now the new authority, and anything else is not trustworthy.

Years ago when I was early in my personal trainer career I knew I was not getting results with the nutrition protocols I was using, and I had a strong suspicion they were WRONG ON PURPOSE!

Using common sense and observation, I was able to implement the OPPOSITE of the protocols taught to me in school, and my clients soon became consistently thin and healthy! My number one challenge to help my clients become thin and healthy was to convince them my program was safe and effective to try, in spite of the enormous psychological pressure from every other source of information they heard from , media, medical, government, friends and family.

The “false god of science” that reigns in our modern world is powerful, and loved and worshipped to such a high degree, that people will keep on living in pain and suffering, drain their life savings, and faithfully make trip after trip to the doctors office in order to keep their god on the throne! This god is never appeased, as he needs his subjects to be sick, fat, and confused! Healthy humans are just in between sickness events and need to have constant medical testing to hurry up and find something wrong!

The God of the Bible has given all mankind directions on what foods are good and how to eat them, instructions in total alignment with old-fashioned common sense.

Who ever you ascribe this truth to, when you begin to eat like a human, you begin to feel like a human. The person who awakes from his or her fake-food zombie state and says “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”, soon finds true long lasting relief in the absence of science worship. It is the new Sign of the Times!

Give thanks when you eat, eat raw butter, raw milk and red meat. All clear instructions from the Bible, from common sense, and from ancient traditions! You will be on your way to an epiphany of health, and freedom of mind.

Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.

[Via http://liberationwellnessblog.com]

Know your beans!!

I am trying to follow a health eating plan in an attempt to lower my cholesterol. I have swapped any meat with visible fat for a leaner meat such as chicken or turkey, which hasn’t been at all difficulty really. I have also included more oily fish in my diet, but have avoided mackerel as I find it too strong. I have coupled this with also being careful about how many carbs I eat as bread could be my downfall, especially as it cries out for butter! So my eating plan goes something like this:

Breakfast – either porridge oats with skimmed milk, topped with berries, or granola mixed with low fat yoghurt instead of milk, coffee with skimmed milk and no sugar

Mid morning – handful of almonds and walnuts which are good at lowering cholesterol                                     

Lunch – salad sandwich with no butter or tuna salad, using tuna canned in brine, followed by a low fat yoghurt and a large glass of water

Mid afternoon – apple and a handful of my own dried fruit and nut mixture                    

Dinner – salmon and steamed vegetables, or chicken with a huge salad (no dressing just black pepper and a sqeeze of lemon juice) low fat yoghurt and occasionally a glass of wine.

I am also trying to drink more water than I did previously and I also take a good multivitamin tablet at lunchtime to make sure I am not missing anything. I have also been making a few stews using beans and lentils which are a healthy source of fibre and a rich source of protein.  I was amazed when I started finding out about eating more healthily, just how many beans there are.

There are black beans a favourite in Caribbean food; creamy coloured borlotti beans, used in many Italian stews and soups; cannellini beans lovely in a tuna salad; butter beans flat whitish beans with a great buttery flavour; pinto beans a bit like borlotti beans but darker, they are used a lot in Mexican cooking; flageolet beans pale green beans used a lot in French regional cooking; haricot beans used mainly in slow cooking, one-pot type dishes and are great added to soups -  and I’m sure there are many more that I haven’t come across yet.

[Via http://40again.wordpress.com]

Read this and manage your cholesterol

Visit reduce cholesterol

How to Amuse Yourself If You're Alone in a New City – If you are in a new town or city traveling on business, you may not know many people. Staying in your hotel every day and watching TV will get old after a day or two. Here are some tips for staying occupied and happy while traveling on business!

Make friends with the concierge or front desk

The concierge can help you find out what restaurants in town are good, what bars are lively, and what attractions are simply “tourist traps” versus which ones are actually worth going to while you are in the area. The concierge can also give you access to any hotel amenities, such as the pool or fitness center.

Be social at the bar, fitness center, or elsewhere

Chances are, you will never be in this town again—you can afford to be outgoing and charming to everyone you meet. They all assume you are a highly successful businessperson, or you would not be traveling “on business” in the first place, right? A friendly bartender will make your stay a lot easier—ask him or her where the hotspots are, and what else you should know about the town you are in.

Make as many contacts as possible at seminars or conferences

Your work conference or seminar during the day at the hotel is the ideal place to meet others who may be fun to hang out with—chances are, they know as little about the town as you do, and they are probably dying to party after a long day of listening to speakers and taking notes. Make sure you give them your cell number and room number so they can swing by and get you before going to the club or bar.

See if the town has any casinos

Unless you are a compulsive gambler or have a serious gambling problem, hitting the local casino is a great way to blow off some steam—and possibly even make some money. I only like to gamble when I'm out of town; it feels risky and dangerous, making every business trip a little bit more exhilarating. Play a “social” game like blackjack or craps where you interact with other players—don't simply sit at the slot machines all night, as this is a solitary and somewhat depressing activity. Having a few drinks before placing any serious bets may make you more likely to take risks, for better or worse.

Also, cocktail waitresses and casino employees are often very outgoing—ask them if there are any sights or tourist attractions nearby you should visit while in town.

When you are gambling, try to set in advance a maximum amount you will spend per night. For example, only come to the casino with $300 in your wallet, and leave after that amount has been spent. Similarly, predetermine the amount of winnings it would take for you to leave the casino for the night—say, $500 or so. You want to leave there with money in your pocket if at all possible!

Finally, you can meet new business contacts on your departure flight home. Especially if you fly in “business class”, you are likely to be seated next to another business executive. A long flight is a great opportunity to learn what someone else does for a living, and to see if you have any common interests and can help each other professionally. Polite networking is simply good business!

Visit how to lower cholesterol naturally

[Via http://blogbyryan.wordpress.com]

The REAL Cause of Heart Disease

The biggest myth fueled by mainstream medicine is the cholesterol myth – that cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease.  The good news is many doctors are starting to wise up. The main culprit behind heart disease is inflammation.   Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard University puts it this way: “We have to think of heart disease as an inflammatory disease, just as we think of rheumatoid arthritis as an inflammatory disease.”  If you’d like to get a good idea of your heart health, ask your doctor to do a blood screen of C-reactive protein (CRP).  CRP is released by the liver when your body experiences inflammation.  Normally, your blood contains no CRP.  Elevated levels indicate a problem.

The British Journal of Urology published a study that examined the levels of almost 400 people. They found that once the CRP levels reached twice the normal level, the participants were 150 percent more likely to suffer heart attack! Another study found that risk of heart attack increased by 6- to 7-fold in patients with elevated CRP.

Maintaining healthy levels of good and bad cholesterol is important. But even more important is keeping inflammation and your CRP levels at bay.

Immune system cells collect at the site of the problem in order to guard against infection and speed recovery.  This is perfectly normal and harmless. The problem starts when you experience a chronic state of inflammation. And it’s more common than you may imagine. There are triggers in your environment that get into your body and irritate your blood vessels to the point of injury.

Cigarette smoke, vegetable oils, and the poor nutrient quality of the food we eat all contribute to small tears and injuries to your heart and blood vessels – injuries that cause a tidal wave of inflammation.  In response to the inflammation, your body uses oxidized LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, to “patch” the crack or tear in your blood vessel wall.  Over time, chronic inflammation causes small lesions in the arterial walls leading to the heart and brain. These lesions, or bumps, are formed when plaque and other deposits “stick” to the walls of your blood vessels instead of simply flowing through as is normally the case with smooth, healthy arteries.  This buildup leads to clogging and hardening of the arteries. And that spells big trouble for your health.

Arteries are the main food source for your vital organs. This includes your heart, your brain, your eyes, and kidneys. As the arteries harden, blood can’t get to the organs as easily. The end result is life-threatening disease.  But that’s not all…

Because inflammation affects your entire system, it’s also directly linked to asthma, obesity, and even depression. That’s why it’s become such a hot topic these days.   Successfully reducing inflammation in your body means preventing and, in some cases, even reversing a wide array of diseases.

(excerpt from Al Sears, MD)

[Via http://iridologyhealth.wordpress.com]

F.I.T.T. – Future in Thinning Technology

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For More Information

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To Email Me

daveschultz4life@gmail.com

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