All posts filed under: Weight Loss

10 Days, 10 Ways to Lower Carbs: Day 2

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Watch out for fructose and sugar in disguise. Fructose is in many natural foods.  But where we get into trouble is the HIDDEN addition of sugar into processed foods. If you stick to a low carb diet, you’ll lose weight in part because you’ll ingest less fructose.  Fructose can be converted by our bodies into body fat very quickly.  The bottom line is that if your only source of fructose came from eating an apple or orange a day, keeping your total grams of fructose to below 25 per day, then eating it would not be an issue. Here’s the problem:  the typical person is consuming 75 grams of fructose each and every day. Because fructose is so cheap it is used in virtually all processed foods. The average person is consuming one-third of a pound of sugar every day, which is five ounces or 150 grams, half of which is fructose. This is 300 percent more than the amount that will trigger biochemical havoc, and this is the average — many consume more than …

10 Days, 10 Ways to lower carbs: Day 1

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The secret to staying healthy is lowering your carbohydrate intake. And I don’t just mean losing weight, I’m talking about lowering your cholesterol, triglycerides and inflammation.  The stuff that makes us chronically sick. I’m going to post 10 days/10 ways you can lower your carbohydrate intake. DAY ONE: Ditch Dairy, specifically Milk MILK is nutritious, but it’s also fairly high in carbs because it contains a type of sugar called lactose. (Remember, its purpose in life was to GROW baby cows!). An 8-ounce (240 ml) glass of full-fat or low-fat milk contains 12–13 grams of carbs. This is especially important if you drink milk by the glassful or in lattes or shakes. SWITCH TO: coconut, almond milk, hemp milk. (Again, this isn’t about dairy, it’s about CARBS:  case in point?  Rice milk is a dairy alternative, but is FULL of carbs, and isn’t any better than milk, in fact it is the highest in carbs.). Look for unsweetened varieties that have less than 2 carbs per serving (carbs minus fiber = total carbs).  Look at …

Boost Your Metabolism

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Mark Hyman posted this great list on his blog this week.  If you follow these 7 simple rules, losing weight and/or having more energy is much easier!  I especially like #4.  Read it, and avoid putting your body into starvation mode, where it “hangs on” to fat.  You have to EAT to get THIN! Eat plenty of healthy fats. Healthy fats like avocados, nuts and seeds, along with wild, fatty fish are your mitochondria’s preferred fuel. My favorite “gasoline” for your mitochondria is medium-chain triglycerides or MCT oil, which is found in coconut oil. Go for color. While nutritionists often disagree, one thing nearly everyone concurs with is that we need to eat plenty of fresh vegetables and other plant foods. Colorful, antioxidant-rich plant foods become essential for healthy mitochondria and reducing oxidative stress. (I’ll add eat organic as much as possible…) Avoid sugar and flour. High-glycemic, high-carb foods put tremendous stress on your mitochondria. In fact, quick absorbed carbs are the biggest driver that damages your entire system.  This is what drives triglycerides and …

Fasting 101

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Okay, there’s been a lot in the media lately about fasting.  Here’s my take on it based on research and what I learned at Food As Medicine. There are amazing immune and cardiac benefits to fasting, in addition to weight loss.  But, you must do it correctly. The benefits are so startling it is worth considering incorporating fasting into your lifestyle as a routine practice.  The type of fasting I will talk about here is INTERMITTENT fasting, and specifically, the kind that only goes for 15-18 hours.  According to the latest research, you get most of the benefits of a fast without the torture of not eating for long periods without eating. Intermittent fasting is: A 15-18 hour period of not eating (eg;  eat dinner, then eat your next meal 15-18 hours later) done 1-2/week on average You can drink water, tea and coffee while you are fasting (non-calorie beverages – NO SODA) People who intermittently fast get benefits in 14-18 hours.  Here’s why:  increased Autophagy.  Autophagy is a normal physiological process in the body …

Research confirms the opposite of what we were taught.

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Recently, there are two studies I’d like to talk about that confirm what I’ve been saying on this blog for almost two years: 1.  Fats are NOT the enemy, they are your friend. 2.  Carbs are NOT your friend, they are the enemy! Recent studies just published back up what many functional medicine practitioners and “Wheat Belly” Author Dr. William Davis have been saying:  CARBS are the enemy.  Carbs are what cause your insulin levels to go up, your blood sugars to rise, your hunger to increase, your triglycerides and cholesterol to rise and they put all of us at risk for Type 2 Diabetes, they make Type 1 Diabetics worse, and they contribute to AGING, BRAIN FOG and cardiac disease. Here’s two examples of what I mean by the opposite: 1.  Multi-grain toast – good?  NO, BAD! Nutritionists established DECADES ago that wheat increases blood sugar more profoundly THAN TABLE SUGAR.  Glycemic Index, the index that measures how our bodies respond to a food item (and this is more important than you realize:  it …

Yes Virginia, it’s the sugar….

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There’s a new movie out by a team of people trying to educate people about the way we eat.  YOU MUST SEE IT.  It is called FED UP, and it’s the movie the food industry doesn’t want us to see.  EVERYTHING we’ve been told about food and exercise for the last 30 years is wrong.  This move is from Katie Couric, Laurie David (Oscar winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth) and Director Stephanie Soechtig.  FED UP will change the way you eat forever, if this blog hasn’t yet! Do you know what to look for when you read a label in the grocery store?  Do you realize that the food industry is trying to lull us into thinking certain foods are diet foods when they contain 40+ grams of carbs (which turns into sugar in your body once you digest it!) Do you know that sugar goes by over 200 names on food labels? Do you know that school children injest more sugar than adults? Empower yourself.  Get this movie, call your local theatre and …

Why wheat can destroy you.

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Do you have migraines?  Try to lose weight and can’t? Have you been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis?  Chronic Fatigue?  Do you or someone in your family have ADHD or Aspergers?  Wheat may be your worst enemy — and it may be the reason some of us die young.  Yes, it is that bad.  And you still need to watch this if you’ve been told you don’t have Celiac Disease, that is only part of the puzzle. There are a few topics that are best left to the people doing the research. This is one. This interview is concise and based on the most current research.  Tom O’Bryan is a chiropractor who became interested in this when he saw a Florida neurologist’s work with migraines.  He hosted the Gluten Free Summit last week, an online course with experts from across the world, including the physician who discovered celiac disease in the 1950s. This is 25 minutes long, and worth every second of your time.  If this doesn’t ring a bell with you, it will with someone …

Are you “on fire” and don’t know it?

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I can’t tell you how under-diagnosed inflammation is.  And it is one of the main keys to staying healthy.  If your body has chronic inflammation going on, you can not function at your peak and you’re at risk for cancer, heart disease and stroke.  And getting older doesn’t mean you have to deal with this or “put up with it”.  You can reverse it!  The common myth is that as we age, we are certain to ache and be stiff in the morning.  NO!   One of my favorite authors Kris Carr put it succinctly: …There’s a silent (yet violent) kind of inflammation that can take place without you even knowing it. What you eat, drink, and think (stress!), environmental toxins, smokin’, booz- in’, and even a couch-potato lifestyle can create a fiery cascade of inflammation in your body. When your body hits an inflammatory overload, your defense system gets so overwhelmed and confused that it literally doesn’t know the difference between the invader and you. As a result, your well-meaning immune system turns on …

No Pop. No Soda. Ever.

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So, I went to the dentist this week, and there was a great display on their waiting room coffee table!  It showed various common sodas and in front of it in a beaker was the actual amount of sugar in the drink.  They had soda, vitamin water, gatorade, etc.  Great visual.  And so I’m taking that a step further and explaining why YOU SHOULDN’T DRINK DIET SODA EITHER. The WI Dental Association has a pamphlet, and here are some interesting facts: a bottle of soda pop in the 50’s was 6.5 oz.  Today 12 oz and 20 oz are common. a 64 oz. “Big Cup” has more than FIVE CANS of soda in it. there are NO nutritional value in soft drinks soda = cavities 20% of all 1 and 2 year old children drink soda! (yikes) teens drink 300% more soda than they did 20 years ago soft drink companies PAY high schools big bucks to offer their products sealants only protect tooth chewing surfaces, pop decay tends to occur where sealants can’t reach …

A calorie is not just a calorie…

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Scientific research concludes there are real health benefits to low Glycemic Index/Load (GI/GL) diets.  After reviewing all the latest research on glycemic index, glycemic load and glycemic response, an international committee of leading nutrition scientists have released a Scientific Consensus Statement that concludes that carbohydrate quality (Glycemic Index = GI) matters and that the carbohydrates present in different foods affect post-meal blood glucose (sugar) differently, with important health implications.  A calorie isn’t just a calorie.  They also confirmed that there is convincing evidence from a large body of research that low GI/GL diets reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, help control blood glucose in people with diabetes, and may also help with weight management. They recommend including GI and GL in national dietary guidelines and food composition tables, and that packaging labels and symbols on low-GI foods should be considered. They also confirmed low GI measurements complement other ways of characterising carbohydrate foods (such as fiber and whole grain content), and should be considered in the context of an overall …

Label Lessons…learned the hard way!

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Last week I was on vacation.  I wrote this on the plane.  Heading to Nashville, I was already planning how to sample but not succumb to the southern cuisine of fried chicken, grits and mashed potatoes, but it turns out I had to worry closer to home! Here’s my entry: So, today I’m traveling.  Not my favorite day as far as staying on my food plan, but usually the Minneapolis airport has some great selections.  French Meadow Bakery, sushi, salads.  But Nooooooooo…… Today, the security lines were long, so we went to the Skyway security checkpoint, which basically cost me my healthy lunch, as it bypassed said healthy options. Near the gate, we were confronted with three choices:  hummus with pretzels (really?  you can’t put a veggie in it?), veggies, with dip (dip?  yes, I’d like to eat healthy and serve it with a side of chemicals and fat), un-appetizing ham and cheese on bread, or the “Fresh Attractions”  turkey pesto, roasted peppers and cheese on a brioche.  Ok, I’ll take the turkey and remove …

HFCS a.k.a. The Devil

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What is the worst thing the food industry has come up with in the last 30 years?  Well, that list is long, but topping the list is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Why is it so bad?  Let’s see… High Fructose Corn Syrup is made from starches like corn, wheat, and rice. High fructose syrup contains nearly equal amounts of glucose and fructose, a composition nearly identical to good ‘ol table sugar (sucrose).   The reason high fructose corn syrup is so abundant in our processed food is simple-it’s cheaper than sugar. Because we highly subsidize corn and place tariffs on sugar imports, high fructose corn syrup is much less expensive.  BINGO.  It saves the food giants MONEY, which they trade for YOUR HEALTH. Most of the corn in this country is genetically modified.  HFCS is no different.  The corn industry doesn’t want the food giants to stop using HFCS.  There have even been extremely misleading commercials about how “good and natural” it is.  Puhleeaze.  What boat do they think we just got off of?  You …