Sugar Addicts

A fairly high percentage of Americans are now sugar addicts. “Addicts” is not hyperbole as the mechanism of their addiction is the same for more classic addictions — the pleasant release of dopamine. A major culprit in this widespread addiction is the food industry turning out process foods with incredible amounts of added sugar. This is an industry providing the “hit” to their addicts.

What is the fallout to this sugar addiction? One significant ramification is that the palate of these sugar addicts becomes extremely narrow. What they seek out, generally speaking, from their food are sugar, fat, and salt — the calling cards of process foods. Those are the acceptable tastes, and what doesn’t fit into that scheme, like sour or bitter tastes, is avoided. Unfortunately, sour and bitter foods are some of the most healthy and nutritious, and for a palate with a healthier range of acceptable tastes, even some of the most delicious.

But a more sinister implication is that cancer loves sugar. Massive and regular injections of pure sugar into one’s system is a breeding ground for tumor growth. And they wonder why there is so much cancer. Look no further than the now common sugar addiction.

Premeal “Cocktail”

Oil Issues

There are a lot of issues with having much oil in one’s diet.

First and foremost is that oils, even the so called “better” oils, don’t have the nutritional punch to justify the calorie impact. So it is much better to eat actual olives than to use olive oil because the olives have all the nutritional profile of the olive, including significant fiber. Much of that nutritional profile gets stripped away when they create the oil.

It has been discovered that all oils have a deleterious effect on the body’s production of nitric oxide, which is key in protecting the elasticity and health of one’s arteries and blood vessels. So oils may undermine one’s heart health.

Consumption of oil makes the blood flow in one’s body much more viscous. The higher the viscosity of one’s blood, the weaker the flow. Why is that important? It is important because blood flow is the key mechanism for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Therefore, oils can undermine the health of your cells.

For these and perhaps many other reasons, don’t believe the hype that there are specific good oils that promote your health. They don’t — none of them do. You should minimize and/or eliminate oils in your diet, including cooking with oil.

Challenge

Premeal “Cocktail”

I put 2 tablespoons of chia seeds into a 12-ounce, cold-pressed greens juice that I get from Whole Foods, and let the chia seeds expand and soak in the liquid. I add a large dollop of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, which is fermented. I grate fresh ginger and add a tablespoon. I add 2 tablespoons of Psyllium Husk fiber. I shake the bottle frequently so that all the ingredients meld together.

I take 3 or 4 large gulps of this solution 20 minutes before my main meal of the day. The expanded Chia seeds as well as the fiber slow down the absorption of any carbohydrates in the main meal, so that you get a much reduced insulin spike. The vinegar in Braggs as well as the fresh ginger improve digestion and so your actual absorption of the food that you subsequently eat. It’s not what you eat, but what you actually absorb from your food that matters.

Fructose

Fructose

Evolution has played you relative to fructose.

Primordial man –this is, the human condition for much of the million years we have been around — was faced with frequent periods of starvation. So the body learned to store fat as a natural defense against this likely occurrence. Fructose was a major piece of this mechanism, as it is not metabolized by the body but instead is turned into fat by the liver. For much of human history, that mechanism with fructose in fruit was a good thing — as it protected us from the frequent periods of starvation, i.e., the body would have a reserve of stored fat in order to survive those periods.

Fast forward to today, when in the developed world food is so abundant and easily available, and the obesity rate is through the roof. Now, the fact that fructose isn’t metabolized but turned into fat becomes a significant liability. Here evolution has been stood on its head — what was once a benefit with fructose has become a serious shortcoming.

Sarcopenia

Suntan Lotion

Not a big fan of suntan lotion for 2 reasons. The first is that you want to have UV light impact your skin to convert the cholesterol in the skin cells to vitamin D3. A large percentage of population is deficient in Vitamin D, which means, overall, weaker support for your immune system (Vitamin D is critical for the immune system) as well as poor absorption of calcium and therefore weaker bones.

The second reason is that whatever you put on your skin gets absorbed through the skin. Your skin is basically highly porous. In effect, whatever you lather on your skin, you will ultimately be ingesting through the skin. And this happens without the protection provided by the intestines with regard to the food that you actually eat, i.e., the protective barrier incasing the small intestines because when you lather a substance on the skin, it penetrates right into the blood vessels — no protective barrier. All those crazy chemicals in the suntan lotion — no doubt many of them toxic — are going right into your blood vessels, through the porous skin.

So the issue with sunshine is how much is the right amount, and how much turns into a risk for skin cancer? There’s a healthy amount and an unhealthy amount. Figure that out, and skip the toxic suntan lotion.

Edible

Sarcopenia

Muscle loss in your 60s and 70s can really accelerate. The appropriate response to that appears to be upping one’s protein intake somewhat (because your digestion of protein in old age is not as efficient), and increasing strength training so that you keep restoring muscle as a counterbalance.

But doing nothing about it leads inevitably to frailty in old age.

Deficiencies