The Best Diet to Avoid Diabetes

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Diabetes, Diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Below is another one of my comments on a post at Jimmy Moore’s about diabetes 

 

Jimmy Moore wrote:

The Best Diet to Avoid Diabetes: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.p…om_content ~ People say to just ignore media comparisons of the best diets for this and that. But THIS is precisely why the annual U.S. News & World Report diet rankings are so detrimental. The echo effect that takes place because of diets like DASH (cutting most salt from your diet) is enormous. The problem is those rankings are predicated on the low-fat, high-carb dogma that has gotten us MORE obesity, diabetes and heart disease than we’ve ever had before. Don’t fall for the foolish information that is repeated ad nauseam by the willing accomplices in the health media.

 

My opinion:

I’m not diabetic but I think I probably would be if I follow this diet. To my mind it seems that this diet is far more likely to cause diabetes than it is to help someone suffering with diabetes to bring their condition under control.

Mark

Gut Bacteria & Obesity – A Hidden Connection?

by | Jan 23, 2013 | Carbs, Obesity | 0 comments

Here is another of my comments on a post at Jimmy Moore’s about gut bacteria

 

Jimmy Moore’s post:

Gut Bacteria & Obesity – A Hidden Connection?: You’ve gotta read this outstanding column from a registered dietitian I’d never heard of before named Peter Curcio who says “the universal fear of dietary fat” is very likely “what’s behind the current obesity epidemic.” He notes our high-carb diet has caused our healthy gut flora to become “imbalanced” and that we should be looking at these “gut buddies” (as Dr. Steven Gundry describes them) as “an organ” in our bodies with specific functions. Cut the grains, flour, sugar and omega-6-rich vegetable oils from your diet to reduce inflammation and “keep our bacteria microflora happy and thriving.” It’s the way our bodies were meant to run optimally for controlling weight and health and it has nothing at all to do with calories.

 

My comment:

In part I would agree with Peter Curcio, the average carbohydrate rich diet surely has caused not just our stomach bacteria to become imbalanced but also the enzymes that our digestive system uses to further break down food. If it were just an imbalance between good bacteria that probably wouldn’t be that bad but unfortunately the high carbohydrate diet that most people consume in the west actually promotes the growth of harmful bacteria whose presence and toxins that they generate go on to poison the body in a whole host of ways giving rise to numerous symptoms that are unfortunately blamed on other things so the cause of the problem is never really tackled.

Another big problem that is very much a hangover from the high carbohydrate camp is the assumption that we must have lots of fiber in our diet in order for our digestive system to work properly. Various scientific writings have gradually trickling through that showed that we don’t actually need as much fiber as has been previously though and in fact the high consumption of fiber which I should add passes through the body and digested actually acts as a nice medium for those same bad bacteria to grow in and multiply as they pass through our digestive system. You can find more about this by visiting doctor-natasha.com.

All in all it’s not difficult to see that there is a definite connection between the quality of the bacteria we have in our digestive tract and not just obesity but many other health problems that beset a population whose diet is just far to high in carbohydrates and not rich enough in good quality proteins, fat, vitamins and minerals that can be easily obtained though a sensible low carbohydrate diet.

Cheers,

Mark

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Link to the article

 

What should I be aiming for?

by | Jan 22, 2013 | High Protein Diet, Low carb diet | 0 comments

Another post at forum.lowcarber.org that I have replied on about protein

 

Catherine wrote:

I put my average day’s diet into Fitday.com and found that I am eating 79% fat, 9% carbs and 12% protein.

What should I be aiming for?

 

I answered:

Hi Catherine,

As Liz53 has already said, this is an interesting question and I don’t think we will be the last people who are surprised how little protein there is in the protein foods that we eat. Most meats seem to be around about 20 to 25 grms of protein per 100 grms of food eaten or, if you’re old school, that will be 1 oz in 4 is protein. I find this is quite a useful rule of thumb as it provides a quick ready reckoner to make sure I eat enough protein each day.

Eggs by the way gives us around about 12 grams of protein each so they are ever useful for topping up your protein count if you think you’re a bit low and whilst many of us may take cheese for fat, it too has about 12% protein.

All these little things add up and just clarify for Whofan, yes your 4-oz steak will only be about 1 oz of protein in total as more than half of it is actually water and the rest is mainly fat.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Dieting Does Not Seem to Matter in Health of Obese Seniors Age 75 and Older

by | Jan 18, 2013 | Diet, Obesity | 0 comments

Another one of the post at forum.lowcarber.org that I have commented on regarding obesity and diet 

 

IdahoSpud said:

Reports even suggest there may be survival benefits associated with overweight, mild obesity among the elderly

Jan. 15, 2013 – Putting senior citizens age 75 and up – described as of “advanced age” – on an overly restrictive diet to treat their excess weight and other conditions appears to have little benefit, according to researchers at Penn State and Geisinger Healthcare System. 

Eating diets high in sugar and fat may not affect the health outcomes of such elderly people, the researchers say.

“Historically people thought of older persons as tiny and frail,” said Gordon Jensen, head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State, “but that paradigm has changed for many older persons. 

“Currently, 30 percent or more may be overweight, and by 2030, almost 30 percent are projected to be obese, not just overweight. Recent reports even suggest that there may be survival benefits associated with overweight and mild obesity status among the elderly.” 

“We all know that adverse dietary patterns, such as a Western diet containing high amounts of fat or a diet containing high amounts of refined sugar, both of which may contribute to obesity, are associated with adverse medical conditions and health outcomes for many people, but until now, the health effects of these types of poor diets have not been characterized for people who live to 75 years of age and older,” said Pao Ying Hsao, postdoctoral fellow at Penn State. 

The team’s research is part of a decades-long collaborative study between Penn State and the Geisinger Healthcare System on the effects of nutritional status and diet on the health of more than 20,000 older people living in Pennsylvania. In the current study, the team followed 449 individuals for five years who were on average 76.5 years old at the beginning of the study. 

“This is one of the first studies to examine obesity-related health outcomes and dietary patterns in such aged persons,” Jensen said. 

At study baseline, the team assessed the participants’ dietary patterns by calling each of them by telephone four or five times during a 10-month period and asking them about their diets over the previous 24 hours. 

The participants were categorized as adhering to one of three different dietary patterns. 

● The “sweets and dairy” pattern was characterized by the largest proportions of energy from baked goods, milk, sweetened coffee and tea and dairy-based desserts, and the lowest intakes of poultry. 

● The “health-conscious” pattern was characterized by relatively higher intakes of pasta, noodles, rice, whole fruit, poultry, nuts, fish and vegetables, and lower intakes of fried vegetables, processed meats and soft drinks. 

● The “Western” pattern was characterized by higher intakes of bread, eggs, fats, fried vegetables, alcohol and soft drinks, and the lowest intakes of milk and whole fruit. 

Using outpatient electronic medical records, the researchers identified whether the participants developed cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension (high blood pressure) and metabolic syndrome during the five-year period. 

They found no relationship between dietary pattern and prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome or mortality in the participants; however, they did find an increased risk of hypertension in people who followed the “sweets and dairy” pattern. 

The results appeared in this month’s issue of the Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging. 

“We don’t know if the participants had been following these dietary patterns their entire adult lives, but we suspect they had been because people don’t usually change dietary practices all that much,” Jensen said. 

“The results suggest that if you live to be this old, then there may be little to support the use of overly restrictive dietary prescriptions, especially where food intake may already be inadequate. However, people who live on prudent diets all their lives are likely to have better health outcomes.” 

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service funded this work. 

Other authors on the paper include Diane Mitchell, researcher in nutritional sciences at Penn State; Donna Coffman, research assistant professor of health and human development at Penn State; Terryl Hartman, professor of nutrition at Penn State; and G. Craig Wood and Christopher Still of Geisinger Healthcare System.

 

My comment:

Concluding my first read-through this article was another pointless study. However I thought I might have missed something so I read it again. This time I reached a different conclusion: Another totally pointless study.

As anglgrl pointed out, all of the categories that they used were carb-loaded one way or another. I just wonder exactly what the United States Department of Agriculture Research Service were trying to find out, as in which cheap ingredients are they planning to promote next?

jr4bbit has summed it up very nicely when he says, what is the point of studies like this?

Cheers,

Mark

gaining weight on low carb

by | Jan 16, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight gain | 0 comments

Another copy of a post I have commented to at forums.about.com about low carb

 

From Brooke63:

Hi there – I’ve been following fairly strict low carb routine for about 2 weeks, and I’ve gained 3 pounds.  I didn’t have this issue when I low carbed about 6 months ago.  The weigh came off like normal.  I’ve been exercising about 3 times a week also.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Brooke

 

My advice:

Hi Brooke63,

Well, if you have been following a fairly strict low carb routine for two weeks yet still gained weight, ‘nette’s comments are obviously very valid and some of the reasons she gives are to be taken notice of quite seriously.

However, I’m not a great advocate of measuring the change that a low carb diet does to our bodies just by looking at weight alone. Particularly, as like you, a reasonable amount of exercise is also included in the fitness scheme,

One thing that you really must do is take your body measurements which would typically be, starting from the top: your neck, your chest or bust, your waist and your thighs. Mark those down on a sheet of paper and then a week later do the same. That’s simply because while you might be losing fat, any increase in exercise will also mean that you’re building up muscle which of course, is slightly heavier than fat. So yes, you may have gained 3 lbs but without having your physical measurements to reference against, you don’t know if that’s really a net gain or a net loss in fat.

Quite simply, you might be putting on more muscle weight than you are losing in fat weight. So take those measurements and let us know how you get on in about a week’s time.

Hope that helps,

Mark

ME and low carb, high fat

by | Jan 15, 2013 | Carbs, Fat Loss, How Your Body Works, Low carb diet | 0 comments

Here is a copy of the  post I have commented on over at forums.about.com about chronic fatigue syndrome

 

Olive24 Posted:

Hello, I have been on the low carb high fat diet for two months now. I have ME and was hoping the diet would help the condition. I read that you are supposed to have more energy . My symptoms have improved alot but i still have the fatigue.

Does anyone have any experience with having ME and going low carb? I would be grateful to hear your experiences, if you recovered or about any improvements in health, thankyou.

 

My Comment:

Hi Olive24,

ME can also be called CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) but it’s also known as CFIDS or Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome that showed quite a wide spread problem.  There are upwards of about a million people in North America who suffer from it, but probably more that that one now. There is quite a lot of research gone on for this which may be of interest to you. One of the conclusions that many of these researches have come to is that there is quite a connection to diet as a cause, or a certainly an aggravator of CFS. One of those is a yeast sensitivity that can also be a linked to wheat sensitivity as well as sensitivity to milk. There are a number of things you can do to help with CFS. You’ve already discovered one of the biggest things and that’s “start eating a proper diet” but it doesn’t actually end there as far as diet goes. There were some excellent studies done back in 2007 and again in 2010 which you can get the abstract for on PubMed. Basically they showed there is definitely a link between acute infection of the gastrointestinal tract that can lead to a manifestation at the time or even years later of chronic fatigue syndrome.

From my own experience  of having a number of, I used the term digestive problems, I found that one of the things that totally alleviated a lot of the problems I had and as a side effect gave me more energy, was sorting out, firstly, my stomach bacteria, which I did through the use of probiotics. Then also sorting out my intestinal enzymes which I did very simply by using enzyme supplements. The advantage of doing that, of course, is that it more or less resets your digestive tract and helps it to work at full efficiency, firstly by building up the level of good bacteria in your stomach and the level of enzymes in the rest of your digestive tract. At the same time, because of the good bacteria will then outnumber the bad bacteria; the bad bacterial will get pushed out.

Going back to the reports I mentioned earlier, as I have said, they are quite worthy and technical; fortunately, Dr. Mercola has produced a much more readable article.

So if you are looking for ways to improve not just your energy levels but your health in general, firstly, do consider, neatly taking probiotics and again I would encourage you to use good quality ones not just the generic types you can find in the drugstore and enzymes, again, quality is the name of the game there. They are a little bit expensive but think of the benefits you’re going to get from them and do please, take time to read those articles from Dr. Mercola and the reports on PubMed.

Hope that helps,

Mark