The 'French paradox' rears its ugly head again. The reasoning goes something like this: French people eat more saturated animal fat than any other affluent nation, and have the second-lowest rate of coronary heart disease (only after Japan, which has a much higher stroke rate than France). French people drink red wine. Therefore, red wine must be protecting them against the artery-clogging yogurt, beef and butter.
The latest study to fall into this myth was published in the AJCN recently (1). Investigators showed that 1/3 bottle of red wine per day for 21 days increased blood flow in forearm vessels of healthy volunteers, which they interpreted as "enhanced vascular endothelial function"*. The novel finding in this paper is that red wine consumption increases the migration of certain cells into blood vessels that are thought to maintain and repair the vessels. There were no control groups for comparison, neither abstainers nor a group drinking a different type of alcohol.
The investigators then went on to speculate that the various antioxidant polyphenols in red wine, such as the trendy molecule resveratrol, could be involved. Even though you have to give animals 500 bottles' worth of resveratrol per day to see any effect. But there's another little problem with this hypothesis...
Ethanol-- plain old alcohol. You could drink a 40 oz bottle of malt liquor every night and it would probably do the exact same thing.
No matter what the source, alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease out to about 3-4 drinks per day, after which the risk goes back up (2, 3)**. The association is not trivial-- up to a 62% lower risk associated with alcohol use. Controlled trials have shown that alcohol, regardless of the source, increases HDL cholesterol and reduces the tendency to clot (4).
Should we all start downing three drinks a day? Not so fast. Although alcohol does probably decrease heart attack risk, the effect on total mortality is equivocal. That's because it increases the risk of cancers and accidents. Alcohol is a drug, and my opinion is that like all drugs, overall it will not benefit the health of a person with an otherwise good diet and lifestyle. That being said, it's enjoyable, so I have no problem with drinking it in moderation. Just don't think you're doing it for your health.
So does red wine decrease the risk of having a heart attack? Yes, just as effectively as malt liquor. It's not the antioxidants and resveratrol, it's the ethanol. The reason the French avoid heart attacks is not because of some fancy compound in their wine that protects them from a high saturated fat intake. It's because they have preserved their diet traditions to a greater degree than most industrialized nations.
I do think it's interesting to speculate about why alcohol (probably) reduces heart attack risk. As far as I know, the mechanism is unknown. Could it be because it relaxes us? I'm going to ponder that over a glass of whiskey...
* It may well represent an improvement of endothelial function, but that's an assumption on the part of the investigators. It belongs in the discussion section, if anywhere, and not in the results section.
** The first study is really interesting. For once, I see no evidence of "healthy user bias". Rates of healthy behaviors were virtually identical across quintiles of alcohol intake. This gives me a much higher degree of confidence in the results.
Were you like me when you were a young girl? Did you gaze at the glossy magazine covers at the end of the check-out stands when you went grocery shopping with your mom? Didn’t we all learn from this that women HAD to be pretty with perfectly contoured bodies, chiseled knees, and China-white teeth? Do you remember studying the latest fashions which were draped ever-so-teasingly on these luscious role models of ours? Do you remember thinking, “I want to look like THAT and have killer abs like that bikini model. That’s what I remember.Back then I figured that THIS is what I needed to look like to be considered BE-autiful and DE-sirable. My hair had to be perfect with shimmering highlights. My thighs had to be firm and svelte--without dimples of any sort. I had to have thick eyelashes which beckoned “Come Hither!” Looking at these magazine covers each week steeped a huge, self-inflicted homework assignment within my youthful, girlish psyche--making sure I felt the pressure of attaining an AWEsome Appearance!
Regardless of age, the pressures which are placed on women in our society do affect our belief systems about what we need to do to be attractive and successful in life. This pressure not only can motivate us to strive for that Cover Girl look, but it can also instill feelings of inadequacy, not quite measuring up, or even giving up before we start! Goals which seem so unreachable can defeat us before we ever enlist to become our best selves. From my experience, I would have to say that appearance is the best way to make a good first impression. And let’s remember one of my favorite sayings:
“You never have a second chance to make a first impression”.
I live by this motto. I really do! When people meet you for the very first time, they have split-second judgments regarding how you come across. Do you look vibrant, rested, healthy, athletic, studious, intelligent, or well groomed? Or do you exude lackluster energy, depression, fatigue, negativity, stress, or worse yet—profound self-neglect? People will make their initial impressions within the first three minutes of meeting you. What do you want them to know about you from your appearance? Do you feel you have the proper tools and skill sets to become the most radiant you, or are you somewhat resigned to the limited look and feel of your genetic predispositions. Other things like your vocabulary and general communication skills also have a bearing on how you are received by others.But truly, your appearance, like the cover of a book, will give people their first clues about the rest of you--what’s inside you.
I want to share with you some treasures of truth which I’ve collected along the way. To be at our very best, we need to understand our physiology—our internal chemistry of our bodies. The truth of the matter is that your physiology affects your health, and your health affects your appearance and energies. This being so, it stands to reason that we should all seek the best way—the most conducive way to healing and regeneration. Onlythen can we live the most abundantly blessed life with true JOY, healthy self-interest, and self-esteem.
As BraveHeart women, we can truly affect our appearance and our ultimate states of health and well being by making lifestyle choices that contribute to the pH balance of our blood and tissues. I know you’ve probably heard of the pH factor when it comes to shampoos or skin toners. You might remember that the pH of your Jacuzzi, swimming pool, or fish tank is something that has to be correctly balanced. We all know that our body temperature is set at 98.6. We don’t vary from that number very much unless we get sick with a fever, or get too cold and go into hypothermia. To remain healthy and comfortable, we must keep our body temperature around 98.6.
Our body pH (pH stands for the power of hydrogen) is also engineered with a specific setting.It is balanced at 7.365, which is alkaline.The pH scale goes from 1 to 14 with 7 being neutral. Anything below 7 is acidic, and anything above 7 is called base or alkaline. The fact that we can make conscious, health-minded choices which will keep our bodies in a more perfect state of pH balance is an exciting discovery, especially when we consider how this also affects our appearance, health, and energy levels. I want to tell you my story so you can appreciate the journey I went on to find “my Cover Girl” look, and optimum health.
Like I said earlier, I wanted to achieve my best womanly appearance. I wanted to remainslim and athletic because I liked how clothing hung on the mannequins in the mall--not to mention the lacy lingerie in Victoria’s Secret. I truly wanted to discover the easiest and healthiest way to achieve my optimum health, weight, and appearance. I had experimented a bit back in high school with high-protein diets (which left me constipated, congested, and with bad breath). I didn’t want to battle the yo-yo effect of fluctuating pounds. I knew what size I wanted to be. I just wanted to figure out how to maintain that size while feeding myself well without the starvation techniques that had left me weakened in the past.
Once I understood the pH scale and which foods and drinks were more alkaline, like the human body, it became easy! Unwanted pounds melted off almost magically and I rarely or never got sick. Not even when everyone else was sniffling and sneezing during the holidays. I noticed an energy level which was boundless, and to me-- that was priceless. To look how I wanted and feel vibrantly healthy was such an exciting prospect. Once I grooved into this way of pH balanced living, eating, and thinking, it became second nature to me, and it has remained so--even today. Now I automatically make good alkaline, dietary choices because they always guarantee my desirable weight and best energy reserves. I also keep a regular exercise program as a compliment to alkalizing. I run three miles every other day and then do Kundalini Yoga on the alternate days to keep myself limber and flexible. I am 56 years young, the mother of 4, the grandmother of 3, and I’ve never felt better than I do now! To me, this is miraculous, and it’s part of why our book publications are called The pH Miracle.
How did I first become interested in this pH phenomenon? It all started when I decided to marry a University of Utah tennis player named Rob Young. We both started to pay attention to ideas about health and wellness so we could keep Rob at his peak tennis performance. We noticed he played better when we removed dense proteins like meats, eggs, and cheeses from his diet. We noticed he had less recovery time and less lactic acid build-up in his muscles. We experimented with the idea of becoming vegetarians, thinking that would give Rob the best energy edge to win his tennis matches. We did, however run into some problems with this idea. Once we took out those animal protein sources, we increased the carbohydrate loads with pasta, rice and potatoes. We also surmised that carrot cake was an excellent choice, just because it contained carrots! Consequently,Rob felt sluggish, and fatigued. The fact was we were now carbo-loading up our diets and the switch to diet soft drinks wasn’t helping the situation either. The artificial sweeteners were not helping us stay fit. Weight gain became a problem as well as other allergic conditions. We caught more flues and colds. We knew we had to make other changes, but weren’t sure where to head with it.
After Rob finished his college tennis days, our lives got wrapped up in raising 4 kids. Eventually, he decided to study more about the blood and tissues, becoming a microbiologist, a Naturopathic MD, and a nutritionist. He perfected a way to view live blood cells (from German research) and started to develop ideas and theories about what diet would be best to maintain pH homeostasis.We also learned during this period that the body has an alkalinizing buffering system to assure the pH of the blood and tissues remains alkaline. As a self-preservation mode, the body will go to great lengths to maintain its slightly alkaline fluid environment. If the body or tissues becomes too acidic through diet or stress, it will tap into alkalizing buffering reserves-- like calcium from the bones and magnesium from the muscles to neutralize acidity and maintain its delicate balance of 7.365. Our body is so intelligent that it will do this in an effort to keep us alive and well. You may know people who have been able to eat and drink anything they wanted with no ill effect. This would most probably be due to their strong constitutions, including a strong alkalinizing buffering system, a good lymphatic system, and good genetics.
Once we learned the significance of pH balancing for the blood and tissues, we had to discover and research which foods and drinks were acidic and which were alkaline. We could then create a new food pyramid which would contribute to health and vitality instead of sickness and degeneration. Everything we eat or drink metabolizes down into an ash residue which can be neutral, acidic, or alkaline. Acidic diets high in animal proteins, dairy products, carbohydrates, and fermented foods like alcohol, vinegar, and soy sauce can cause the body to manifest with symptoms of sickness and disease. Other foods which create an acid residue ash are coffee, black teas, soft drinks, baked goods, and even high sugar fruits, like bananas, apples, and oranges. As the blood becomes saturated by these types of food and drink, excess fermentation takes place, giving rise to acidic residues in the blood which need to be neutralized. Weight gain is a sure sign of being over acidic, as is water retention. As a protective mechanism, our bodies create fat to bind and hold acid residues away from our vital organs. This is why we pack on pounds just under the skin on our hips, thighs and stomachs. An acidic person can actually look puffy as the body retains water to dilute acids in the system. Edema and puffy bags under the eyes are typical acidic traits.Skin conditions like acne, ruddiness, and blotchiness are also signs that over acidification in the body, causes acids to come to the surface. Even more serious conditions like eczema and psoriasis are manifestations of acids that take a strong hold and erupt through the skin which is sometimes called the “third kidney”, because of its filtering ability. The body can also rob the skin of precious moistures leaving a person looking parched or dehydrated. Premature wrinkling and aging are more prevalent in people who choose an over acidic lifestyle. Many other serious symptoms can appear in the internal environment of our body’s rivers and streams. Eventually they can become sluggish and polluted. If a person doesn’t make changes in their diet and lifestyle and they continue to bombard their systems with acidic foods and drinks, organs and tissues become affected.Diagnoses such as diabetes, cancer, fibro myalgia, and CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) are common. Acidic diets and lifestyles are so hard on the body that it’s like making an energy withdrawal from our body bank accounts instead of an energy deposit. We always come up with a deficit!
Otto Warburg, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine in 1932, stated the following:
When the pH is wrong, oxygen falls, cells respire in an anaerobic environment by fermentation giving rise to increased acidity - cancer is a result of an ACID environment. - Otto Warburg, Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1932
The main thing to consider here is that everything we eat and drink affects the way we look, think, act, and feel. If a person chooses a highly acidic diet and lifestyle they set themselves up for proliferation of certain types of microbes which thrive in an acidic terrain. These are referred to as endotoxins and mycotoxins which have yeast and fungal base forms that can wreak havoc in our systems. Many of you have experienced or heard of yeast infections. Sometimes they are re-occurring. Headaches can also be a signal that the brain is somehow connected to a toxic bowel. Just like our earth’s environmental pollution, this needs to be cleaned up in order to bring relief from inflammation and pain. General aches and pains such as in arthritis, bursitis, and even carpal tunnel syndrome involve acidic saturations of the blood, lymph, and affected tissues.
I want to introduce an analogy here so you can think about your cells and how they are suspended in an alkaline fluid. Think of a fish bowl and the fish swimming around in the water. If the fish were to get sick what would be your first inclination? Would you treat the fish, or change the water? Most people would choose to change the fish’s water--the environment he functions in. We realize that the fish needs a properly balanced environment to remain healthy. All of us have witnessed what happens when toxic calamities occur in the ocean. The fish are immediately affected by the change to their alkaline, pH-balanced ocean. Scientists claim that even small changes in the pH of the ocean will affect all life found in it. Think of your own cells as the fish in the fishbowl. Your cells are suspended in an aqueous solution which needs to be maintained as an alkaline environment. The cells can remain healthy as long as this pH factor is maintained. Once that inner terrain is compromised by unhealthy choices or extreme stressors, the cells can morph into unhealthy forms. Then we get sick and tired.
Another great discovery we made was that our bodies are alkaline by design, but acidic by function. This means that while our blood and tissues need to be kept in a delicate balance of 7.365, every function of our bodies, such as running, thinking, eating, and breathing produces acidic, metabolic waste products. There is also a scientific ratio which exists concerning how our body neutralizes these acid by- products. It takes 20 parts alkalinity to neutralize 1 part acidity in our systems. More specifically for you chemistry buffs; it takes 20 parts sodium bicarbonate to neutralize 1 part carbonic acid in the body.With this guiding information at our disposal, we then set out to create an “alkalinizing” lifestyle program that anyone with the desire for optimum health and radiance can follow.You simply eat and drink 80/20: 80% high-water-content, high-fiber, chlorophyll-rich, alkalinizing foods and drinks (like fresh vegetables from the garden), and 20% more grounding or mildly acidic foods such as sprouted wheat tortillas, cooked legumes/grains, or some oily fish or tofu. When you start changing your diet and lifestyle to this 80/20 ratio, you can achieve the ideal weight and radiant energy you’ve always desired. Before you commit to this healthy regimen, however, it’s good to know more reasons why it would be so beneficial.
1. Our bodies break down to:
70% water
20% fat (give or take depending on your body type)
7% protein
1-2% vitamins and minerals
½-1% sugar. (ONLY ½-1% sugar)
To simplify, we could state that our bodies are 70% water and 30% matter. This is similar to our earth’s composition, and also a good way to visualize each plate of food we eat. The majority of the food and drinks we ingest should replace our internal rivers and streams (our blood and lymph fluids) with fresh, alkalinizing hydration. This means food predominantly from the garden and the more chlorophyll-rich, the better. Try to think of your blood as a living streaming organ in your body that feeds and brings nutrients and oxygen to every other organ and system. Then realize that chlorophyll-- the “blood” of green plants, is molecularly structured almost identically to our own hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen around the body. This would mean that chlorophyll might be considered one of the best blood transfusions we could ever get. Some even tout chlorophyll as a blood purifier. Even recently in the new Iron Man 2 movie, you see him was swigging on chlorophyll to slow down the toxicity in his degenerating blood.
In the chlorophyll molecule there is a center atom of magnesium which is an electromagnetic sync, or more simply put, the sun-sensitive element in the process of photosynthesis.
Dr. Klinik Bircher-Benner has said:
“Absorption and organization of sunlight, the very essence of life, is almost exclusively derived from plants. Plants are therefore a biological accumulation of light. Since light is the driving force of every cell in our bodies, that is why we need plants.”
With this understanding, we found that the best way to alkalize was to first drink 3-4 liters a day of alkaline water with a pH of 9 or above. Our choices of the most alkalizing foods was the next step. Moving towards an alkalinizing lifestyle was a process, not an event. I started to implement more alkaline choices while phasing out acidic options. Some of those decisions were as simple as substituting fresh lemon or lime juice for something as highly acidic as vinegar. At this point you may be thinking, “Well, isn’t lemon juice acidic too?” It’s actually true that if you took some pH paper and tested lemon juice it would test acid, but once the lemon juice is metabolized in the body, the inherent alkalizing mineral salts contained in the lemon juice leaves a residue of alkaline ash in the bloodstream. Also because of their low sugar content, lemons and limes do not ferment in the blood.
Other substitutions took place. I started using avocado and healthy oils like flax seed, hemp seed oil, and coconut oil in place of butter and margarine.A huge mixed green salad became our main entrée and we doctored it up with goodies like sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, pine nuts, and garbanzo beans. I started to use many more dark green leafy vegetables in our diet: kale, spinach, and collard greens. Onions, garlic, and ginger became our natural antibiotics. Our morning smoothies went from sugary fruit and yogurts to english cucumbers, spinach, avocado, red ruby grapefruit, fresh coconut meat, some ice, and a little raw green stevia, (an herbal sweetener that is 100 times more sweet than sugar!) It’s “delish”, and so easy! We still could have sides of pasta, fish, or cooked grains, but we found that steamed buckwheat and quinoa were better than white rice, baked potatoes, or yeasty breads. We also added the benefits of good mineral salts. The proper salt is vital for your health, and helps keep you alkalized. Once we got rid of most of the acidic foods and drinks from our diet, we noticed improvement in our health and appearance. Those last 10 vanity pounds disappeared almost immediately. My son’s sinusitis which he’d been struggling with for years cleared up. Headaches became more of a rare occurrence. Clarity of thought, better sleeping patterns, and much more energy were also noticed. We still splurged on a dessert once in a while, but not every week like we used to. Hay fever and other allergies disappeared completely. Like Benjamin Button, we felt like we were “youthing”, instead of aging.
It’s been absolutely one of the richest blessings in our lives to find this treasure of truth. And it makes so much sense. Just eat and drink those foods which are best suited to your body’s pH chemistry and watch the dividends appear! What a pay out! We hardly ever get sick. We have energy levels that match what we had back in high school, and we’re the same size we were back then, too! As Brian Regan states: “Can life get any better?... I submit that it cannot!”
You can even learn to do this out in your busy working world. The menus in most restaurants can be navigated to create a beautiful alkaline meal. Here are some examples:
If you eat at an Italian restaurant:
Order minestrone vegetable soup as an appetizer
A big green salad with avocado, tomato, lemon juice and olive oil
A side of pasta with marinara or pesto sauce, or some fish.
Also, if you’re still hungry, order a side of steamed veggies like broccoli or spinach
If you’re eating at a Mexican restaurant:
Order a large Taco Salad without the meat and cheese.
Use fresh salsa stirred up with guacamole, lemon juice and some salt for your dressing.
Order a side of beans (preferably black beans and some rice for your 20%) or a tortilla
If you’re eating in an Asian/Chinese or Thai restaurant:
Order a vegetable-based soup if available. Some Thai restaurants have a good veggie soup with coconut milk broth.
Order a large stir fry or steam fry (with water, if possible) of a mixed veggie medley,
(leaving out the mushrooms and corn if possible.)
Add tofu to the entrée as part of your 20%.
Use a good salt like Real Salt or Liquid pHlavor Salt instead of Soy Sauce
Order a couple of side veggies like spicy green beans and broccoli or asparagus.
You can eveneat at a place like The Cheesecake Factory!:
Order avocado and tomato egg rolls with cilantro sauce for an appetizer
Order a roasted artichoke and use lemon and oil as a dipping sauce.
Get a large mixed veggie salad and use oil, lemon, herbs, and spices for the dressing.
Order beautiful sides of steamed broccoli and other available veggies of choice.
Bonappetit!
If you’re flying on an airplane, try to pre-order a special vegan meal if it’s available. This will ensure you don’t get an acidic meal like an egg omelet with mushrooms.
When you’re willing to make some simple changes in the way you feed your body, and realize that everything you eat or drink affects your body’s delicate chemistry, appearance, and energy levels, then alkalinizing makes perfect sense. It’s not a program of deprivation, but rather freedom to choose and eat (as much as you want) the kinds of foods and drinks that will be best assimilated in the 9 yards of your intestinal tract.You also need to think of that intestinal tract as your literal root system--similar to how plants have roots to absorb their nutrients from the soil. You wouldn’t think of pouring chocolate milk into the soil of your favorite house plant, right? You’d kill it! It’s a fact that everything you eat or drink finds it place into your millions of intestinal villiand micro villi which are tiny, hair-like structures with the total surface area of a tennis court! Within each of these intestinal villi there exists a vein, an artery, and a lymphatic vessel. It is of utmost importance that you always provide the best possible nutrition so that your root system can absorb the minerals and vitamins that build your blood and tissues, and keep you fit and healthy.
In our minds, food is no longer just a choice about fat grams or calorie. It’s about the life force of the food and how it energizes us with electrons. Acidic food choices do just the opposite. They introduce more protons into our systems which take our energy levels down. The pH Miracle is an invitation to change. Change the way you look, feel, and set out to be the best you!Think about the way you take car of your car. You probably try to put the best fuel in it to keep it running for the longest season you can. Your body is the same! And depending on how many miles you already have on you, alkalinizing just might be your best bet for a long, healthy road ahead! Try it, and don’t be surprised if you get a few miracles of your own! Who knows! You may hit the cover of Cosmopolitan!
Bio:
Shelley Redford Young, LMT (licensed massage therapist) is the co-author, along with her husband, Robert O. Young, of The pH Miracle trilogy of books: The pH Miracle, The pH Miracle for Diabetes, and ThepH Miracle for Weight Loss. (Time Warner publications.)
She has also published two cookbooks entitled Back to the House of Health 1 and 2, and along with her son, Adam Young has published a children’s book on alkalizing,
The DocBrocStoneHingeCave Adventure
She has appeared on The Early Show with Dr. Young and other TV appearances where she shares the alkalarian lifestyle and recipes with the public. She has been a keynote speaker at Life Mastery with Tony Robbins and has produced many DVD’s such as Shopping with Shelley, Hot Rox Lymphatic Massage, and several cooking DVD’s. (available at the Young’s website: www.pHmiracleliving.com)
Please go to their website to order any books, tapes, DVD’s, or products that will aid you in starting your own pH Miracle program.The Youngs also hold pH Miracle Retreats and microscopy courses at their Rancho Del Sol in Valley CenterCalifornia. They also have extended stay retreats where you can make a reservation to go on the pH Miracle program under Dr. Young’s direction.
The pH MiracleRetreatCenter: 16390 Dia Del Sol, ValleyCenter, CA. 92082
We can measure the nutrient and toxin content of a food, and debate the health effects of each of its constituents until we're out of breath. But in the end, we still won't have a very accurate prediction of the health effects of that food. The question we need to answer is this one: has this food sustained healthy traditional cultures?
I'm currently reading a great book edited by Drs. Hugh Trowell and Denis Burkitt, titled Western Diseases: Their Emergence and Prevention. It's a compilation of chapters describing the diet and health of traditional populations around the world as they modernize.
The book contains a chapter on Papua New Guinea highlanders. Here's a description of their diet:
A diet survey was undertaken involving 90 subjects, in which all food consumed by each individual was weighed over a period of seven consecutive days. Sweet potato supplied over 90 percent of their total food intake, while non-tuberous vegetables accounted for less than 5 percent of the food consumed and the intake of meat was negligible... Extensive herds of pigs are maintained and, during exchange ceremonies, large amounts of pork are consumed.
They ate no salt. Their calories were almost entirely supplied by sweet potatoes, with occasional feasts on pork.
How was their health? Like many non-industrial societies, they had a high infant/child mortality rate, such that 43 percent of children died before growing old enough to marry. Surprisingly, protein deficiency was rare. No obvious malnutrition was observed in this population, although iodine-deficiency cretinism occurs in some highlands populations:
Young adults were well built and physically fit and had normal levels of haemoglobin and serum albumin. Further, adult females showed no evidence of malnutrition in spite of the demands by repeated cycles of pregnancy and lactation. On the basis of American standards (Society of Actuaries, 1959), both sexes were close to 100 percent standard weight in their twenties.
The Harvard Pack Test carried out on 152 consecutive subjects demonstrated a high level of physical fitness which was maintained well into middle-age. Use of a bicycle ergometer gave an estimated maximum oxygen uptake of 45.2 ml per kilogram per minute and thus confirmed the high level of cardiopulmonary fitness in this group.
Body weight decreased with age, which is typical of many non-industrial cultures and reflects declining muscle mass but continued leanness.
There was no evidence of coronary heart disease or diabetes. Average blood pressure was on the high side, but did not increase with age. Investigators administered 100 gram glucose tolerance tests and only 3.8 percent of the population had glucose readings above 160 mg/dL, compared to 21 percent of Americans. A study of 7,512 Papuans from several regions with minimal European contact indicated a diabetes prevalence of 0.1 percent, a strikingly low rate. For comparison, in 2007, 10.7 percent of American adults had diabetes (1).
I'm not claiming it's optimal to eat nothing but sweet potatoes. But this is the strongest evidence we're going to come by that sweet potatoes can be eaten in quantity as part of a healthy diet. However, I wish I knew more about the varieties this group ate. Sweet potatoes aren't necessarily sweet. Caribbean 'boniato' sweet potatoes are dry, starchy and off-white. In the US, I prefer the yellow sweet potatoes to the orange variety of sweet potato labeled 'yams', because the former are starchier and less sweet. If I could get my hands on locally grown boniatos here, I'd eat those, but boniatos are decidedly tropical.
Instead, I eat potatoes, but I'm reluctant to recommend them whole-heartedly because I don't know enough about the traditional cultures that consumed them. I believe there are some low-CHD, low-obesity African populations that eat potatoes as part of a starch-based diet, but I haven't looked into it closely enough to make any broad statements. Potatoes have some nutritional advantages over sweet potatoes (higher protein content, better amino acid profile), but also some disadvantages (lower fiber, lower in most micronutrients, toxic glycoalkaloids).
Not all dairy is created equal. Dairy from grain-fed and pasture-fed cows differs in a number of ways. Pastured dairy contains more fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamin K2, vitamin A, vitamin E, carotenes and omega-3 fatty acids. It also contains more conjugated linoleic acid, a fat-soluble molecule that has been under intense study due to its ability to inhibit obesity and cancer in animals. The findings in human supplementation trials have been mixed, some confirming the animal studies and others not. In feeding experiments in cows, Dr. T. R. Dhiman and colleagues found the following (1):
Cows grazing pasture and receiving no supplemental feed had 500% more conjugated linoleic acid in milk fat than cows fed typical dairy diets.
Fat from ruminants such as cows, sheep and goats is the main source of CLA in the human diet. CLA is fat-soluble. Therefore, skim milk doesn't contain any. It's also present in human body fat in proportion to dietary intake. This can come from dairy or flesh.
In a recent article from the AJCN, Dr. Liesbeth Smit and colleagues examined the level of CLA in the body fat of Costa Rican adults who had suffered a heart attack, and compared it to another group who had not (a case-control study, for the aficionados). People with the highest level of CLA in their body fat were 49% less likely to have had a heart attack, compared to those with the lowest level (2).
Since dairy was the main source of CLA in this population, the association between CLA and heart attack risk is inextricable from the other components in pastured dairy fat. In other words, CLA is simply a marker of pastured dairy fat intake in this population, and the (possible) benefit could just as easily have come from vitamin K2 or something else in the fat.
This study isn't the first one to suggest that pastured dairy fat may be uniquely protective. The Rotterdam and EPIC studies found that a higher vitamin K2 intake is associated with a lower risk of heart attack, cancer and overall mortality (3, 4, 5). In the 1940s, Dr. Weston Price estimated that pastured dairy contains up to 50 times more vitamin K2 than grain-fed dairy. He summarized his findings in the classic book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. This finding has not been repeated in recent times, but I have a little hunch that may change soon...
A natural way to lower cholesterol level and get a healthy body weight is through the establishment of an exercise regimen. Exercise is an effective way to achieve healthy cholesterol levels. It sets off a series of enzymatic reactions in the body that increase HDL and lower triglycerides. Exercise - especially aerobic exercise done over a sustained period of 20 to 30 minutes or so at least 3 days per week - can raise the level of "good' HDL cholesterol by 5-10%. Another fact that has been known for a while is that exercise can lower levels of blood triglycerides. Therefore regular aerobic exercise, walking, jogging, biking, say 3 times per week for 30 minutes even at only 50% of aerobic maximum will burn up triglycerides while stimulating more HDL. BlogCatalog
It's nice to see on my website statistics program that Whole Health Source has a solid international following. As commonly as English is spoken throughout the world however, there are many people who do not have access to this blog due to a language barrier.
A gentleman by the name of Bertram has translated/summarized my series on the causes and prevention of malocclusion (misaligned teeth) into German. His site is OriginalHealth.net, and you can find the first post here, with links to the subsequent 8. It looks like an interesting site-- I wish I could read German. Thanks Bertram!
Last week, I did an audio interview with Chris Kresser of The Healthy Skeptic, on the topic of obesity. We put some preparation into it, and I think it's my best interview yet. Chris was a gracious host. We covered some interesting ground, including (list copied from Chris's post):
The little known causes of the obesity epidemic
Why the common weight loss advice to “eat less and exercise more” isn’t effective
The long-term results of various weight loss diets (low-carb, low-fat, etc.)
The body-fat setpoint and its relevance to weight regulation
The importance of gut flora in weight regulation
The role of industrial seed oils in the obesity epidemic
Obesity as immunological and inflammatory disease
Strategies for preventing weight gain and promoting weight loss
Some of the information we discussed is not yet available on my blog. You can listen to the interview through Chris's post here.
Several scientific research studies have been done showing alkaline lifestyle and diets, like that researched and developed by Dr. Robert O. Young, are beneficial. Examples include in vitro, animal and human studies. The first study of many studies that I will be sharing with you indicates that the external pH of solid tumors are acidic as a consequence of increased metabolism of glucose (a me...tabolic acid) and poor perfusion. The second study shows that acid-mediated tumor invasion is plausible through mathematical modeling.
References:
(1) Ian F. Robey, Brenda K. Baggett, Nathaniel D. Kirkpatrick, Denise J. Roe, Julie Dosescu, Bonnie F. Sloane, Arig Ibrahim Hashim, David L. Morse, Natarajan Raghunand, Robert A. Gatenby and Robert J. Gillies (2009). "Bicarbonate Increases Tumor pH and Inhibits Spontaneous Metastases". American Association for Cancer Research 69: 2260. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/69/6/2260.
(2) Robert A. Gatenby, Edward T. Gawlinski, Arthur F. Gmitro1, Brant Kaylor, and Robert J. Gillies (2006). "Acid-Mediated Tumor Invasion: a Multidisciplinary Study ". American Association for Cancer Research 66: 5216-5223. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/66/10/5216.
Seasonal flu vaccinations have been suspended in Australia for all children under the age of five. The suspension comes after 23 children in Western Australia were admitted to hospitals with convulsions after receiving flu injections. More than 250 children may have had adverse reactions to the vaccine, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and convulsions.
Today reports that:
“Another 40 convulsion cases had been detected in the past month in children at other metropolitan hospitals ... Doctors are now working to determine how many of those children received the flu vaccine.”
"When will this madness stop of trying to provide immunity by poisoning the blood and tissues with a highly acidic vaccine. True immunity comes from maintaining the alkaline design of the body fluids with an alkaline lifestyle and diet," states Dr. Robert O. Young, Director of Reserach at the pH Miracle Living Center.
Another scientific research study that validates Dr. Robert O. Young's research and foundational theory that the human body is alkaline by design.
A blood test to assess the risk of brain damage in vulnerable newborn babies could save lives and prevent disability, scientists say. The test, carried out on blood taken from the umbilical cord immediately after birth, measures its acidity (the pH level).
Blood with a low pH (more acid) indicates a lack of oxygen at birth, which is the commonest cause of brain damage, cerebral palsy and death. Current guidelines suggest that measuring the pH level of umbilical cord blood is worthless as a predictor of how the baby will fare, because the association is inconsistent.
But doctors based in Birmingham reviewed 51 studies involving almost 500,000 babies and found a low pH in the cord blood was strongly linked with serious outcomes. Based on their findings, published in the British Medical Journal, they call for increased surveillance of babies born with low cord blood pH and for further research to explore the cost effectivenees of doing the test on all babies.
In an accompanying editorial, James Neilson, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Liverpool, said: "We should aim to reduce the number of babies born with a low cord pH, without increasing unnecessary obstetric intervention."Andy Shennan, professor of obstetrics at St Thomas' Hospital in London welcomed the study into the relationship between low pH and future health. "Lack of oxygen to the baby during labour will result in a low pH in the umbilical cord," he said. "If it is prolonged, irreversible neurological damage can occur, although this is rare."
My name is Rachel M. Smith and I became acquainted with the pH Miracle Lifestyle and Diet through my mother, Nancy McKowen, back in 2001. Since my mother's finding of your first book, The pH Miracle, she immediately extended her ecstatic insight to all of our family members, including me, her only daughter. She became a distributor and was immediately consumed. She became extremely passionate and committed to the mission of extending this information to everyone she met. She was at times a bit fanatical and even obsessive, but upon hindsight, I recognize that this was her pure undoubted belief in your mission.
By my mother's persuasion, I attended an Innerlight seminar in New Jersey, at a hotel I cannot recall, and listened to testimony from two particularly rememberable accounts. The ailments were severe, including an insulin dependent diabetic that no longer required drug management and a morbidly obese woman that had lost close to 600 pounds in a year.
I specifically remember you Shelley dicussing the voyage, commitment, and safe haven offered, that would literally engorge an individual in this world of pH balanced lifestyle and food. I thought it was all too Utopian. I still get chills. I listened diligently to the testimonies and was convinced and enthused to give this revolutionary product a try, with the financing and encouragement of my mother. Upon hindsight, it seemed so obvious, but I wasn't an easy sell. I came to the seminar skeptical, afraid, and laden with social conventionalism. After the testimony's and the passion of both of your speeches, data analysis and reflection, I felt empowered and eagar to transform my life. I did exactly that.
At 20 years old and 6'1, 230 pounds, with a cholesterol evaluation at 230 as well, I submitted. My first dose left me feeling a sensation that the super greens literally were scrubbing my insides. I lost about 25 pounds in three months. However, what this particular weight loss did for me, forever changed my perceptions about health, well-being, disease, and living. I drank my "Supergreens" everywhere. Despite controversy and suggestive discouragement from my peers, because of it's strange appearance, I confidently persisted because of how it made me feel (consistent with the cleansing of a fish tank). It was undeniable that this notion about cleaning your body from the inside out was truth! It wasn't easy and I felt ostracized and alienated more often than not, especially by my father's side. But in this way, I developed a deep seeded connection with my mother and our solidity toward the Innerlight brand defined so much of our young adult daughter/mother dynamic. The benefits translated into an undeniable bond and strength in our relationship.
Every conversation involved a reference or reminder to take my Supergreens. And through this she nurtured me. So, here we are almost ten years later and I have terribly troublesome news. My mother, one of your diligent and incredibly loyal supporters found herself caught in the crossfire of what seemed to be endometrial cysts (a lifelong condition). Her last breakout of cysts was actually stage three ovarian cancer, which developed blindly. She has since passed as of last May, 2009, at 48 years old. But, you must know that despite this catastrophic demise, she maintained the conviction to continue her Innerlight regiment. She took the fiber and the Supergreen tablets, not the drops so much, just because they were hard to get beyond the radar of the hospital staff, which was always monitoring.
She was afraid they would be regarded as contraband, which is unbelievably ridiculous. I must say, that my mother died with her identity fully in action. In some ways, I feel that I've absorbed her convictions. The truth is, I've always been an extension of her, and in this loss, I've become my own mother. Many of her investigations and proclamations may have been too extreme for me. And this may be due to my collegiate, evidence based, practical, academic pursuits (I've been going to school to be an elementary and special education teacher for about 8 years. It's taken a long time to decide that this was my calling). Which makes me so different from her.
I need to exclaim that you both have served our growth as individuals and as mother and daughter. You are part of our story, and even though I can't find the box with the Supergreens in it, amongst all of her things that I need to go through, I desperately want to take my Supergreens to restart another, stronger chapter of healing. I have been caught in disarray, but I crave the security that came from the regiment, order, and benefit of the Supergreens that so definitively changed my identity. I haven't been consistent with my personal regiment, but I've always gone back to it, when I've needed cleansing and a new lease on life. Your product has single handedly prevented me from any debilitating sickness over the last ten years. Whenever I got down, I drank em'. My mother was not so fortunate. Cancer is another story. Had it come along sooner, who knows what could have come of it. But, you both must know her conviction, passion, and devotion to this research.
Shelley, I have to say, you actually look a bit like her and I doubt that you remember her, but she admired your grace and disposition. Like you Shelley, she was the epitome of beauty. I apologize for the candid nature of this letter. It is so crucial to your work that you both know the impact that you've made. You have affected our family with such a wealth of health and knowledge, despite my mother's passing. I will forever hold the memory of that seminar and the time I shared with my mother, disputing and being skeptical, in the presence of, forgive me, what at the time seemed like a cult. Now I am a believer. Ultimately, I have leaned on the undeniable healing power that the Supergreens and Innerlight products you created have provided. And for that safe guard, I'm forever grateful.
Thank you Dr. Young for your life's work, Shelley for your wisdom, sacrifice, devotion, loyalty, conviction, passion, and to both of you for your equal effort of promise to change this world for the better.
You certainly have affected me.
I hope this letter reaches the both of you well.
Please feel free to contact me in return, either through email or phone. Thank you for your time.
A new study was recently published exploring the effect of diet composition on insulin sensitivity and other factors in humans (1). 29 men with metabolic syndrome-- including abdominal obesity, low HDL, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and high fasting glucose-- were fed one of four diets for 12 weeks:
A diet containing 38% fat: 16% saturated (SFA), 12% monounsaturated (MUFA) and 6% polyunsaturated (PUFA)
A diet containing 38% fat: 8% SFA, 20% MUFA and 6% PUFA
A diet high in unrefined carbohydrate, containing 28% fat (8% SFA, 11% MUFA and 6% PUFA)
A diet high in unrefined carbohydrate, containing 28% fat (8% SFA, 11% MUFA and 6% PUFA) and an omega-3 supplement (1.24 g/day EPA and DHA)
After 12 weeks, insulin sensitivity, fasting glucose, glucose tolerance, and blood pressure did not change significantly in any of the four groups. This is consistent with the majority of the studies that have examined this question, although somehow the idea persists that saturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity. I discussed this in more detail in a recent post (2).
The paper that's typically cited by people who wish to defend the idea that saturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity is the KANWU study (3). In this study, investigators found no significant difference in insulin sensitivity between volunteers fed primarily SFA or MUFA for 12 weeks. You wouldn't realize this from the abstract however; you have to look very closely at the p-values in table 4.
One of the questions one could legitimately ask, however, is whether SFA have a different effect on people with metabolic syndrome. Maybe the inflammation and metabolic problems they already have make them more sensitive to the hypothetical damaging effects of SFA? That's the question the first study addressed, and it appears that SFA are not uniquely harmful to insulin signaling in those with metabolic syndrome on the timescale tested.
It also showed that the different diets did not alter the proportion of blood fats being burned in muscle, as opposed to being stored in fat tissue. The human body is a remarkably adaptable biological machine that can make the best of a variety of nutrient inputs, at least over the course of 12 weeks. Metabolic damage takes decades to accumulate, and in my opinion is more dependent on food quality than macronutrient composition. Once metabolic dysfunction is established, some people may benefit from carbohydrate restriction, however.
The need to stay healthy the natural way is more and more important in todays world. Here are ten tips that should improve your health.
1.) Make room for mini meditations through out your day, close the door at your office, hold your calls, and just relax for five minutes. Hubert Benson, the co-founder of Harvard’s Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine, recommends doing this a few times throughout the day. It allows you to turn everything off and recharge. 2.) With states increasing cigarette taxes and cities banning smoking in bars and restaurants there has never been a better time to quit smoking. Many employers, faith groups, and even some local governments offer resources to help you stop smoking for good. 3.) Make an effort to have a social life. Getting bogged down in the stresses of daily life is easy to do. Make a promise to yourself to hang out with your friends at least once a week. 4.) Be aware of your health. Get a physical this year, even if you had one last year you need to make it an annual event. Being proactive is the best way to maintain a healthy life. 5.) Stay positive. It sounds simple, but if you try and keep a positive outlook on life you will find that you enjoy your work, family, and life in general a lot more. 6.) Cut the calories back. This year instead of trying the next fad diet resolve to simply cut back your calorie intake. 7.) Exercise daily. That doesn’t mean become a gym rat it means incorporate some kind of physical activity into your daily routine. It could be something as simple as going for a walk through the park every day, or going for daily bike rides. 8.) Make “wellness” a verb. Don’t think of health and wellness as something to reach for, or something to achieve. Think of as the way you live your life. 9.) Cut back the caffeine. Instead of drinking a pot of regular coffee every morning switch to a 50/50 coffee or caffeine free soft drinks. 10.) Add a little “green” to your life. Mom really was right growing up, be sure to add fruits and vegetables to your meals every day. These changes, for the most part, are easy to work into your daily life and maintain all year long. Natural pain reliefAlternative therapyNew natural treatment
The most basic method of preparing grains is prolonged soaking in water, followed by cooking. This combination reduces the level of water-soluble and heat-sensitive toxins and anti-nutrients such as tannins, saponins, digestive enzyme inhibitors and lectins, as well as flatulence factors. It also partially degrades phytic acid, which is a potent inhibitor of mineral absorption, an inhibitor of the digestive enzyme trypsin and an enemy of dental health (1). This improves the digestibility and nutritional value of grains as well as legumes.
I prefer to soak all grains and legumes for at least 12 hours in a warm location, preferably 24. This includes foods that most people don't soak, such as lentils. Soaking does not reduce phytic acid at all in grains that have been heat-treated, such as oats and kasha (technically not a grain), because they no longer contain the phytic acid-degrading enzyme phytase. Cooking without soaking first also does not have much effect on phytic acid.
The next level of grain preparation is germination. After soaking, rinse the grains twice per day for an additional day or two. This activates the grains' sprouting program and further increases their digestibility and vitamin content. When combined with cooking, it reduces phytic acid, although modestly. Therefore, most of the minerals in sprouted whole grains will continue to be inaccessible. Many raw sprouted grains and legumes are edible, but I wouldn't use them as a staple food because they retain most of their phytic acid as well as some heat-sensitive anti-nutrients (2).
Grinding and Fermenting Grains
Many cultures around the world have independently discovered fermentation as a way to greatly improve the digestibility and nutritive value of grains (3). Typically, grains are soaked, ground, and allowed to sour ferment for times ranging from 12 hours to several days. In some cases, a portion of the bran is removed before or after grinding.
In addition to the reduction in toxins and anti-nutrients afforded by soaking and cooking, grinding and fermentation goes much further. Grinding greatly increases the surface area of the grains and breaks up their cellular structure, releasing enzymes which are important for the transformation to come. Under the right conditions, which are easy to achieve, lactic acid bacteria rapidly acidify the batter. These bacteria are naturally present on grains, but adding a starter makes the process more efficient and reliable.
Due to some quirk of nature, grain phytase is maximally active at a pH of between 4.5 and 5.5, which is mildly acidic. This is why the Weston Price foundation recommends soaking grains in an acidic medium before cooking. The combination of grinding and sour fermentation causes grains to efficiently degrade their own phytic acid (as long as they haven't been heat treated first), making minerals much more available for absorption (4, 5, 6, 7). This transforms whole grains from a poor source of minerals into a good source.
The degree of phytic acid degradation depends on the starting amount of phytase in the grain. Corn, rice, oats and millet don't contain much phytase activity, so they require either a longer fermentation time, or the addition of high-phytase grains to the batter (8). Whole raw buckwheat, wheat, and particularly rye contain a large amount of phytase (9), although I feel wheat is problematic for other reasons.
As fermentation proceeds, bacteria secrete enzymes that begin digesting the protein, starch and other substances in the batter. Fermentation reduces lectin levels substantially, which are reduced further by cooking (10). Lectins are toxins that can interfere with digestion and may be involved in autoimmune disease, an idea championed by Dr. Loren Cordain. Grain lectins are generally heat-sensitive, but one notable exception is the nasty lectin wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). As its name suggests, WGA is found in wheat germ, and thus is mostly absent in white flour. WGA may have been another reason why DART participants who increased their wheat fiber intake had significantly more heart attacks than those who didn't. I don't know if fermentation degrades WGA.
One of the problems with grains is their poor protein quality. Besides containing a fairly low concentration of protein to begin with, they also don't contain a good balance of essential amino acids. This prevents their efficient use by the body, unless a separate source of certain amino acids is eaten along with them. The main limiting amino acid in grains is lysine. Legumes are rich in lysine, which is why cultures around the world pair them with grains. Bacterial fermentation produces lysine, often increasing its concentration by many fold and making grains nearly a "complete protein", i.e. one that contains the ideal balance of essential amino acids as do animal proteins (11, scroll down to see graph). Not very many plant foods can make that claim. Fermentation also increases the concentration of the amino acid methionine and certain vitamins.
Another problem with grain protein is it's poorly digested relative to animal protein. This means that a portion of it escapes digestion, leading to a lower nutritive value and a higher risk of allergy due to undigested protein hanging around in the digestive tract. Fermentation followed by cooking increases the digestibility of grain protein, bringing it nearly to the same level as meat (12, 13, 14, 15). This may relate to the destruction of protease inhibitors (trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid) and the partial pre-digestion of grain proteins by bacteria.
Once you delve into the research on traditional grain preparation methods, you begin to see why grain-eating cultures throughout the world have favored certain techniques. Proper grain processing transforms them from toxic to nutritious, from health-degrading to health-giving. Modern industrial grain processing has largely eschewed these time-honored techniques, replacing them with low-extraction milling, extrusion and quick-rise yeast strains.
Many people will not be willing to go through the trouble of grinding and fermentation to prepare grains. I can sympathize, although if you have the right tools, once you establish a routine it really isn't that much work. It just requires a bit of organization. In fact, it can even be downright convenient. I often keep a bowl of fermented dosa or buckwheat batter in the fridge, ready to make a tasty "pancake" at a moment's notice. In the next post, I'll describe a few recipes from different parts of the world.
Heart disease is one of the commonest causes of death in the western society. Natural ways your health can be improved is by using the herb Alpinia Galangal. This herb, which was brought to Europe in 1098 was used for a wide range of heart complaints, including angina. Modern followers of this herbal remedy suggest that Galangal tincture can be used to avert angina attacks.
Traditionally the herb is used as a warming digestive remedy and for travel sickness and is very similar to ginger.
