Fruit flies fed organic diets live longer, study finds

by | Mar 29, 2013 | Diabetes, Diet, Digestive system, Food Choices, General Health, Natural food, Nutrition, Research, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

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It seems everywhere we turn  we’re encouraged to eat organic yet many people who I have spoken to wonder if eating organic is actually any good, whether it makes any difference to our overall general health.

Here is an interesting study from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas where biologist Johannes H. Bauer ran a study on fruit flies and he found that the fruit flies that were raised on organic diets performed better on several tests for general health than those that were raised on non-organic diets.

The study itself is quite interesting and if you are a little bit technical, well worth viewing.

Simply follow the link below.

[jwplayer mediaid=”1554″]

Link to the article

Alzheimer’s disease and meat

by | Mar 22, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

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It’s a shame the good doctor wasn’t a little bit more specific. It’s actually heavy metals such as mercury, lead and other more exotic types and also the lighter metals such as aluminum that are the real cause of the problem.

Iron as you may well know is something that the body uses in fact you can become quite ill if your body doesn’t have enough iron and as for red meat having more iron though we need it – that in itself is a very foggy statement as the amount of iron each person needs varies not just from person to person but from day to day too and there are many in the natural health industry who will tell you that the official daily recommended amount for iron is possibly anything up to 500 times too low particularly for some people.

Fish and dairy may indeed be a problem if you’re not getting them from certified organic sources. That is simply because certain fish such as red snapper have been found to contain high levels of heavy metals particularly mercury.

Dairy of course can also have a very similar problem but that is only if it is from commercially produced herds. One of the reasons they have  very high or higher levels of mercury is the fact that they’re given so many antibiotics and growth hormones and one of the preservatives that are used in both those products is, well you might have guesses it – mercury!

But frankly the amount of mercury contained in even the meat of commercially produced beef is nowhere near as worrying as the amount of hormones and other drugs that are passed through to us as we eat the meat.

That’s one of the reasons why I firmly believe it’s far better to make sure that you choose your meat and your fish from certified organic sources. In fact from a point of view of general health and well being, it’s best to try and get as much food as possible from certified organic sources. That way you won’t have any problems at all about eating any diet and particularly low carb

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is actually a response to a low carb foum post about Alzheimer’s disease

Here is the link to interview of Dr. Neal Barnard on The Dr. Oz show

Navigating social events

by | Feb 21, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Whenever I’m invited out I always let my host and hostess know about what I can eat well ahead of time. It saves embarrassment and many do pick it up as a challenge. It certainly provides something to talk about during the meal as many a host will actually look out for something that they’ve never cooked before and  we eating low carb gives them just the excuse they need to try something new often getting out of their comfort zone.

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If I’m going to the restaurant I’ve not been to before I found the best way of dealing with that is to either get hold of the menu to make sure there is something tasty and low carbly nutritious or following that ring up the restaurant and tell them that you will be coming and you have a low carb preference, can they do anything to help you.

I have yet to have a refusal for that as again there are very few restaurants who wish to turn down business. As far as going to something that revolves around the buffet, if the host or the hostess does not seem to be fruitful then I found the easiest way is to take a Tupperware box with food that I can eat and I eat it with everybody else I have to say. Again it does provide an exceptionally good topic of conversation as people not only ask what you’re eating but why are you eating it as well.

The bottom line is to take charge of any situation where you are eating with others. By taking charge of the situation you know you’re going to enjoy the food that you eat, you know that your host or hostess is not going to be embarrassed in front of others because they’ve had time to plan ahead and the net result is everybody feels good and enjoys their time together which is after all why we do come together to eat in the first place.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Here is a copy of the comment I made on a forum post about food preferences on social events

New study

by | Feb 5, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Sensible Eating, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another comment  I made on a forum post about a study on how a vegetarian diet can cut the risk of a heart disease

 

Hi Helena,

Thank you for the super post!

It does bring out one of the most glaring admission by people who do studies like this.

The simple fact is that vegetarians have made a conscious decision to control what they eat which often goes hand in hand with deciding to look after their health. For them that obviously involves not eating meat to a greater or lesser extent. But because they’re doing it to look after their health, they are probably taking other measures as well.

Most of the vegetarians that I know have given up smoking, drink in moderation, many of them though not all take vitamin and mineral supplements but an even larger number try and eat organic which means they’re not getting the whole raft of poisons in the form of hormones, drugs, pest control chemicals and so on that people who don’t make the decision to do something with their health will continue to get.

I genuinely think this is one of those cases where the unmeasured factors that I have just mentioned probably play a far greater role in the improved health of the ones who decided to look after their health than many people think.

Cheers,

Mark

 

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Link to the Oxford Study

 

Breakfast shakes WITHOUT protein powders

by | Jan 31, 2013 | Food Choices, Low carb diet, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Below is a copy of the recent comment I made on a post at lowcarber about breakfast choices

 

Hi Thump,

When I was in the Middle East we often used to have cottage cheese for breakfast. That and a  very tasty avocado and onion salad  that was finely chopped and went  down a treat especially with a good dash of lemon juice over the top and salt and pepper to taste.

Another thing you can have is fresh yogurt made with some raw milk. That will act as a nice base for all sorts of different things that you could put in it which if it’s a nice fresh one made with unpasteurized milk will charge up the bacteria for when you start eating solids later in the day.

Hope that helps,

Mark

3 weeks in and have a few questions

by | Jan 21, 2013 | Low carb diet, Sensible Eating, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Here is a copy of a post at forum.lowcarber.org about weight loss that I have commented on just recently

 

greenbaby’s post:

So I hit the end of my third week on Atkins today and I have to say that I am beginning to feel a little bit freaked out. So most of the posts I have been reading worry because they are losing weight too slowly, I am having quite the opposite issue. I weighed this morning and am down to 287, I started at 311 so that is a 24 pound loss in 3 weeks. About 18-19 of that was in induction, but that I have lost 4 pounds in the week after induction when most peoples bodies are starting to stall a little to lose a few inches (from what I understand). I am all for losing the weight but I do want to do it safely and I want to keep it off forever. Also losing my security blanket this quickly is making me very very nervous. I am very happy with the way my menu looks and the diversity of foods I have been eating. I struggle to get to 20 carbs a day, which is probably why I am losing so quickly. I have been working on experimenting with different veggies so I can find what is a trigger for me if any in the veggie area…I am just not sure I can raise my carbs with only veggies as I wind up so contented (stomach wise) that the idea of eating makes me a bit ill. So in short can I safely lose weight this quickly or do I need to work harder to up my carb intake to slow the weight loss? 

Now the second question I have. How long would you advise staying on each rung of OWL? I have been diversifying veggies for around a week now. While I did have some residual cravings those seem to have disappeared even though I am eating the same foods most days. I am not a huge fan of nuts, but I would like to at least see if they have any effect on me, and berries are a serious interest at this point. Neither are necessary, but I am enjoying learning more about my body as I progress through my new WOE. 

I know I had more questions but my brain is still fuzzy from just waking up 1.5 hours ago so I will post more here as I remember them. Thank you all in advance for being so helpful and amazingly supportive.

 

My reply:

Hi greenbaby,

This idea that we should lose weight slowly has a very interesting background that stems mainly from the calorie constriction camp and the reason that they always said that you should lose weight slowly was, quite simply, because that’s all that type of diet could produce for most people under normal circumstances.

Yes you could manufacture a huge short term weight loss but that was not sustainable for most people as the amount that they were allowed to eat was ridiculously small and therefore became totally unsustainable. For those of us on a low carb diet, losing a pound a day is not uncommon and as I’m sure you will have heard in other places, the more you have to lose, the longer this can go on for and you really are to be congratulated for your 24-lb loss. I personally wouldn’t do anything to slow that down simply because your body will start to encourage you towards the changes it wants to see in terms of what foods you feel you want to eat, carbohydrates excluded obviously, in order to make sure that your body’s needs are met. 

Constipation by the way isn’t uncommon. There are a lot of changes going on in your digestive tract at the moment. One of the major ones is that your stomach bacteria population will be changing. Drinking more is good, making sure you have adequate salt is also good and to a certain extent, magnesium will be something you want to consider. I would also add in taking a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement as something of a must.

Perhaps the two things I would suggest you most certainly take are good quality probiotics and also good quality stomach enzymes. These will repopulate your digestive tract with exactly what your body needs in order to adjust more quickly to the new way of eating that’s giving you an increase in health.

Lastly, I’m assuming that you know why you want to lose weight and get fit and healthy and that you have a nice big reason to help carry you through and overcome obstacles such as those around you. I’m sure that your fiance will eventually put your health and well-being above his own wants and desires and if he really loves you, well eventually love the person that you will be as much as he does the person that you are now.

Fermented food I recommend

Fermented raw milk such as kefir or yogurt, but NEVER commercial versions, as these typically do not contain live cultures and are loaded with sugars that feed pathogenic bacteria

Lassi (an Indian yogurt drink that is traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Various pickled fermentations of cabbage sauerkraut,, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash, and carrots

Natto (fermented soy)

Kim chee or gimchi, (Is a traditional condiment made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. It is Korea’s national dish, and there are hundreds of varieties made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber)

Tempeh is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty. Tempeh is unique among major traditional soy foods in that it is the only one that did not originate from the Sinosphere cuisine).

Hope that helps,

Mark