by Loraine Holden • March 8, 2010
A March 1 article by Lauran Neergaard in Netscape News said it was a mystery why some obese people have heart disease and diabetes and others don’t. It’s a common belief that obesity is a CAUSE of diabetes and heart disease not that it is another RESULT of consuming too many SUGARS.
A fat person who eats lots of protein or fat can be healthy like Sumo wrestlers or Eskimos. But when Eskimos use alcohol, soft drinks or starchy junk foods, they get diabetes and heart disease.
Sugar causes the pancreas to release insulin into the blood. High blood glucose causes type II diabetes as cells get resistant to more insulin.
We now know that high blood sugar can damage all body cells by combining with proteins in their membranes in a process called glycation that can make these cell walls stiff and prone to injury.
Inflammation, a collection of white cells, occurs to patch injuries. It is measured by C-ReactiveProtein. This correlates with the likelihood of heart disease. Where high blood pressure meets stiff cell walls, the resultant micro-injuries cause inflammaation then plaque. Aspirin can prevent bigger clots here. Salsalate, an older anti-inflammatory drug mentioned in the article could help in any collection of white cells.
But the hypothesis that fatty acids leak out of overfull fat cells may not be why they’re high in diabetics. The liver makes blood fats from high-fructose corn syrup. Couldn’t this source of fatty acids set off the chain reaction in the macrophages that produce PAI-1 that causes blood clots and diabetes?
by Loraine Holden • February 4, 2010
More researchers are coming to the conclusion that inflammation of blood vessels as measured by c-reactive protein correlates much better with the risk of heart disease than the level of cholesterol in the blood. As mentioned in my book, cholesterol collects at the site of micro-injuries. Stiff blood vessel walls can be damaged by high blood pressure, nicotine and insulin. They are prone to injury. Then white blood cells and cholesterol collect at the site.
A recent article by Jonny Bowden,PhD,CNS says that blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming the St.Bernard for the avalanche. The article in Better Nutrition, Feb, 2010 says that this cholesterol isn’t a problem unless oxidized by free radicles. Half of the people with heart attacks have normal cholesterol, and half the people with high cholesterol don’t get heart attasks.
Dr. Fank Wu at Harvard Medical School says a heart healthy diet is high in omega-3 fatty acids from fish or flax, has lots of vegetables, nuts, fruits and whole grains. It is low in sugars and starches and avoids processed foods and trans-fats.
A natural diet with plenty of plant-based antioxidants prevents inflammation and doesn’t let insulin get too high.
by Loraine Holden • January 15, 2010
A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Asociation says that two-thirds of adults are overweight and 34% obese. One third of children are overweight with 17% obese. Obese children often become obese adults. Lack of exercise and a faulty diet are blamed.
Was the wrong diet given to young children? Many mothers seem to think that the fat you consume becomes body fat. They thought they could prevent fat children by giving them low-fat milk. Kids didn’t like it . They preferred sweet liquids like orange and apple juice to milk Mothers then gave them chocolate milk so they would get enough calcium and protein. They didn’t realize that fat is also an important ingredient in milk. Every young mammal needs the fat in milk to grow properly. You can prevent your child from preferring sweet beverages by making sure they get whole milk in all those years from infancy through adolescence. Remember most body fat is made from sugars and dietary fat is used for energy and growth.
In the past thirty years when people thought they chould shun fat is when more and more Americans have become obese.
by Loraine Holden • December 31, 2009
A recent article on Netscape says 34% of Americans are now obese as compared to 15% in 2000. High blood pressure has increased slightly during the past 10 years from 28% to 29%. These increases are blamed on eating more fat and more salt.
There are no statistics in the article. Other sources say that eating fat has been decreasing while consumption of sugars, expecially high fructose corn syrup, keeps increaseing from the 150 pounds per person noted in 2005.
Eating fat doesn’t make you fat. It helps you feel satisfied so you don’t consume too many carbohydrates, especially sweet liquids. It keeps the cellular enzymes that burn fat, the most efficient dietary fuel. Without enough dietary fat the enzymes that make fat out of carbohydrates increase dramatically and you get fatter.
Dietary salt does not cause high blood pressure. Your healthy kidneys can excrete it if you get more than you need. Historically most high blood pressure has been caused by smoking since nicotine makes your heart beat faster but meanwhile causes your blood vessels to get clamp down and get narrower. High insulin and high stress hormones can also raise your blood pressure.
by Loraine Holden • September 16, 2009
My book mentions the separate research by Dr. Bantle, Minne.U. and Dr. Reiser of the USDA. They found that high-frucatose corn syrup produced a lot of LDL-cholesterol and blood fats in both diabetics and normals.
Dr. Dana Flavia in the October 2008 issue of Life Extension cites later research that shows many harmful effect of high-fructose corn syruup. Its use over the past thirty years parallels the increase in obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver, high uric acid and more aging of all cells.
AGE stands for advanced glycation end products. These are formed when excess sugars bind with proteins in cell walls. This makes them prone to injury, causing inflammation and deposts of cholesterol in blood vessels. These glycation end products can also damage cells in kidneys, nerves and the retina. This type of damage from high blood glucose has been seen for years in diabetics. However, fructose has ten times the cross-linkage rate with proteins as glucose so does much more damage.
Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose. It goes to the liver and is often changed into LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides (fats). Some gets into the blood stream to clog your arteries. Some fats stay in your liver cells, causing cirrhosis just like excess alcohol
High-fructose corn syrup can also raise uric acid, a cause of gout. This was shown in a study of 15,000 Americans and a 2008 Canadian study. A Harvard study showed an increase of kidney stones from this high uric acid.
If you’re told you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol or blood fats, don’t blindly take pills to get these values down. Think what might be causing them. Too many people think that fat or cholesterol in their blood vessels must be from animal foods, despite the fact that humans have eaten fat and cholesterol for eons of time. But in the last hundred years, food manufacturers have given you many artificial products. They want you to think that anything derived from a plant must be good and it it’s from an animal it must be bad. Recently doctors realized that trans-fats in Crisco and margarines are not used by the body as are natural saturated fats, lard and butter. How long will it take to get medical and public acceptance of the fact that high-fructose corn syrup causes more damage to your body?
Table sugar has one molecule of fructose to each molecule of glucose. It’s use has increased from 20 pounds a person per year in the 19th Century to 100 pounds by 1970 and now with the addition of high-fructose corn syrup, 150 pounds of sweeteners a year. Our bodies over the centuries have not been programmed to cope with so much sugar, especially the huge amounts of high-fructose corn syrup added to most manufactured foods and beverages. It is ruining our health and might be the main cause of the ever increasing cost of health care as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other metabolic diseases keep going up.
Just say no to sweet soft drinks. Diet drinks with Aspartame cause other problems.
Read labels and use table sugar for your rare dessert or Stevia (from a tropical leaf) to sweeten your coffee or tea.
Take control of your health by using natural foods and beverages.