Rather Be Healthy

One of the many things that truly annoy me..

Is how the food industry along with the so called health industry can constantly and blatantly lie about the dangers of salt….

Salt is essential for life—you cannot live without it. However, regular ‘table salt’ and the salt found in processed foods are NOT identical to the salt your body really needs. In fact, table salt has practically nothing in common with natural salt. One is health damaging, and the other is healing.

• Processed salt is 98 percent sodium chloride, and the remaining two percent comprises man-made chemicals, such as moisture absorbents, and a little added iodine. These are dangerous chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate. Some European countries, where water fluoridation is not practiced, also add fluoride to table salt
• Natural salt is about 84 percent sodium chloride. The remaining 16 percent of natural salt consists of other naturally occurring minerals, including trace minerals like silicon, phosphorous and vanadium

Given that salt is absolutely essential to good health, I recommend switching to a pure, unrefined salt. My favorite is an ancient, all-natural sea salt from the Himalayas. Himalayan salt is completely pure, having spent many thousands of years maturing under extreme tectonic pressure, far away from impurities, so it isn’t polluted with the heavy metals and industrial toxins of today. And it’s hand-mined, hand-washed, and minimally processed. Himalayan salt is only 85 percent sodium chloride, the remaining 15 percent contains 84 trace minerals from our prehistoric seas. Unrefined natural salt is important to many biological processes, including:

• Being a major component of your blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, extracellular fluid, and even amniotic fluid
• Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells
• Maintain and regulate blood pressure
• Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning
• Helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange

While natural unprocessed salt has many health benefits, that does not mean you should use it with impunity. Another important factor is the potassium to sodium ratio of your diet. Imbalance in this ratio can not only lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and other health problems, including heart disease, memory decline, erectile dysfunction and more. The easiest way to avoid this imbalance is by avoiding processed foods, which are notoriously low in potassium while high in sodium. Instead, eat a diet of whole, ideally organically-grown foods to ensure optimal nutrient content. This type of diet will naturally provide much larger amounts of potassium in relation to sodium.

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Ever since I came back to England after eleven years in Colorado my mind has always believed i would get back there. I’d loved the lifestyle, I worked hard and made decent money, I loved what I did and was genuinely able to help people, it was so rewarding to know what I was doing truly changed and improved the lives of many people that had almost given up hope.

I was born in Liverpool and lived in England until my mid 40’s then moved to Colorado and lived in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains until November 2012,

My health had deteriorated quite significantly primarily because of the stress of losing my job, I truly believe I’d be dead if it wasn’t for my mum and sister Suzie who brought me back.

Over the two years since I returned, mum, Suzie and my amazing niece Debbie have been responsible for a 180 degree turnaround.

I spend a lot of time searching for documented research and natural products or ways of beating this disease and in the main I’m happy about what I’m doing.

So yesterday while surfing the web and thinking about my life I came to a significant and happy realisation. I’m happy now, I honestly don’t think I’ve felt like this before, I don’t need to live in America again, I have no worries now, I’m not concerned about how I’ll pay my bills or buy the supplements I need.

Has everything been perfect since I got back? no, but the disappointments are minor in the grand scheme of things, the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

I don’t have much but I have enough, from the outside looking in it might seem to be a very limited life but from my point of view looking out from within, it’s great and I’m happy.

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Over the last couple of years I’ve slowly become slightly frustrated because I have tried my best to remain positive and optimistic about my health and the chances of beating this  degenerative disease. But although I’ve had very small or subtle improvements occasionally I’ve also had a few horrendous days, yes the reason for these have been identified as having certain foods that have had rather large amounts of sugar but still very worrying for me.

In the last couple of months there have been two really bad episodes, both resulting in me unable to move, I’d collapsed and was on the floor in pain, luckily for me my sister Suzie helped and my niece Deb’s was there for the other.

Because of this I saw my GP earlier this week who ran a blood test for me, I received a call a day later asking me to come in again next week. Now some might see this as a bad thing as there was a problem with my thyroid but I’m actually quite pleased because I think it will be an underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism and this can be addressed relatively easily.

If this is the main reason for the extreme fatigue then I can remain positive and optimistic about the methods I’m using for my MS.

I can cope with this, it’s frustrating and depressing as I’ve slowly got worse over the past 14 years but it hasn’t beat me and now knowing there is a very specific problem that can be addressed with natural supplements possibly or medication makes me happy. Its a weight off my shoulders.

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The truth about sugar and how its slowly but surely ruining your life..

Low-fat recommendations have led to a dramatic increase in sugar consumption, and excess sugar is a primary dietary factor in countless chronic disease states, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

By removing fat and adding sugar, the processed food industry has created a smorgasbord of made-to-order disease. The sugar, processed food, and beverage industries have been extremely reluctant to admit the health hazards associated with their sugar-laden products.

On the contrary, large sums of money have been spent, and scientific integrity has been tossed by the wayside, in order to convince you that sugar is fine, and if you have a weight problem, it’s because you’re not active enough.

To counter the propaganda provided by profit-driven industry interests, dozens of scientists at three American universities have created a new educational website called SugarScience.org,¹ aimed at making independent research available to the public.

Sugar by Any Other Name Is Still Sugar…

The researchers point out that many are unaware of just how much sugar they’re consuming, as it’s oftentimes hidden under other less familiar names, such as dextrose, maltose, galactose, and maltodextrin.

According to SugarScience.org, added sugars hide in 74 percent of processed foods under more than 60 different names! For a full list, please see SugarScience.org’s “Hidden in Plain Sight” page.²

Mislead by shrewd advertisers, many are also still unaware of how too much sugar can disrupt your health and well-being. As reported by the New York Times:³

“The scientists who started SugarScience.org say they have reviewed 8,000 independent clinical research articles on sugar and its role in metabolic conditions that are some of the leading killers of Americans, like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease.

The link between sugar and chronic disease has attracted increasing scientific scrutiny in recent years. But many studies have provided conflicting conclusions, and experts say part of the reason is that biased studies have clouded the debate.”

Have You Been Mislead by Biased Science?

A report published in PLOS Medicine in December 2013 looked at how financial interests influence outcomes in trials aimed to determine the relationship between sugar consumption and obesity.⁴

The report concluded that industry-funded studies end up reaching very different conclusions compared to those done by independent researchers… In all, studies that had financial ties to industry were five times more likely to present a conclusion of “no positive association” between sugar and obesity.

One of the researchers involved in the creation of SugarScience.org is Dr. Robert Lustig, a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UC San Francisco.

He’s been on the forefront of the movement to educate people about the health hazards of sugar (and fructose in particular), for a number of years now. He believes the new website will help empower consumers by providing objective data. Dr. Lustig told the New York Times:

“The goal of this is to provide just the unbiased science in a way that the public can come to its own conclusions.”

How Much Sugar Is Too Much?

The American Heart Association and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend limiting your daily added sugar intake to nine teaspoons (38 grams) for men, and six teaspoons (25 grams) for women. The limits for children range from three to six teaspoons (12 – 25 grams) per day, depending on age.

Four grams of sugar is equivalent to about one teaspoon, and I strongly recommend limiting your daily fructose intake to 25 grams or less from all sources, including natural sources such as fruit—regardless of whether you’re male or female. That equates to just over six teaspoons of total sugar a day.

If you’re among the 80 percent who have insulin or leptin resistance (overweight, diabetic, have high blood pressure, or taking a statin drug), you’d be wise to restrict your total fructose consumption to as little as 15 grams per day until you’ve normalized your insulin and leptin levels.

The average American consumes around 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which is more than three times the recommended amount. There’s simply no doubt that this overconsumption of sugar is fueling the obesity and chronic disease epidemics we’re currently struggling with.

We’re now seeing obesity in infants, strokes in eight-year olds, heart attacks in 20-year olds, and some 30-year olds require renal dialysis to stay alive. Teens are now getting gastric bypass surgeries. What used to be called “adult onset diabetes” is now more often called “type 2 diabetes,” as it is no longer reserved for adults. What is wrong with this picture? It’s the food.

Instead of eating whole foods—real foods—the contemporary American diet typically consists mostly of sugar, highly processed grains, and a montage of chemicals that are anything but food. Children are surrounded by these fake foods every day, which have a very different effect on their bodies than real food.

The Processed versus Whole Food Experiment: A Visual Demonstration

The video above features Stefani Bardin, who collaborated on a study to investigate how your body processes different kinds of foods. Stefani and her Harvard University collaborator swallowed an M2A capsule—a pill-sized recording device capable of recording eight hours’ worth of video as it travels through the intestinal tract. Another pill-sized device measured pressure, pH, and body temperature as it moved through the body. Two types of meals were investigated:

• Processed food meal: blue Gatorade, Ramen Chicken Noodle soup, and some Gummi Bears
• Whole food meal: Hibiscus drink, homemade chicken stock with handmade noodles, pomegranate/cherry juice Gummi Bears

The footage offers an interesting view of what really goes on in your gut when you eat processed food. One of the most obvious differences is that the processed fare takes FAR longer to break down. Processed foods are also loaded with sugars, trans fat, sodium, and various concoctions of chemicals that do not exist in nature—all of which can rapidly contribute to high blood pressure and deterioration of cardiovascular health, weight gain, and a slew of other symptoms.

Even ‘Health Foods’ Can Contain Shocking Amounts of Sugar

Getting back to the issue of sugar, exceeding the recommended daily amount is far easier than you might think. For example, justone 12-ounce can of regular soda may contain as much as 11 teaspoons of sugar.⁵ Even foods that are typically considered “healthy” can contain shocking amounts of added sugar, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Fruit flavored yogurt, for example, can contain upwards of 19 grams of sugar; 12 grams of which is added sugar. For someone with insulin/leptin resistance, this alone will put you over your daily recommended limit for total sugar.

One problem with processed food is that when you look at the label, you have no way of knowing how much of the sugar is natural to the food itself, versus the sugar that was added. According to Dr. Lustig, it’s important to distinguish between natural food-based sugars versus added sugar, because clinical trials have shown that consuming HFCS can increase your risk factors for cardiovascular disease within as little as two weeks.

Food-based sugars are far less hazardous. Lactose, for example, which is a natural sugar found in dairy, does not cause any major harm, according to Dr. Lustig. Still, I believe that if you are insulin/leptin resistant, then limiting ALL forms of sugar, including natural food-based sugars, such as lactose, is advisable, until your insulin/leptin resistance has been resolved.

Your Body Can Only Handle a Limited Amount of Sugar

The main problem with sugar, and processed fructose in particular, is the fact that your liver has a very limited capacity to metabolize it. According to Dr. Lustig, you can safely metabolize about six teaspoons of added sugar per day. As mentioned, the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day.⁶ All that excess sugar is metabolized into body fat, and leads to all of the chronic metabolic diseases we struggle with, including but not limited to:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Dementia
• Cancer

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)⁷ earlier this year, 10 percent of Americans consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories in the form of added sugars. Most adults (71.4 percent) consumed got at least 10 percent of their daily calories from added sugar. The ramifications of this are significant. In this study, people who consumed 21 percent or more of their daily calories in the form of sugar were TWICE as likely to die from heart disease compared to those who got seven percent or less or their daily calories from added sugar. The risk was nearly TRIPLED among those who consumed 25 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar. That means at least 10 percent of the US adult population are in this tripled-risk category…

Tips for Reducing Your Added Sugar Intake

The easiest way to dramatically cut down on your sugar and fructose consumption is to switch to a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, as most of the added sugar you end up with comes from processed fare; not from adding a teaspoon of sugar to your tea or coffee. Other ways to cut down on the sugar in your diet includes:

• Cutting back on the amount of sugar you personally add to your food and drink
• Using Stevia or Luo Han instead of sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. You can learn more about the best and worst of sugar substitutes in my previous article, “Sugar Substitutes—What’s Safe and What’s Not”
• Using fresh fruit in lieu of canned fruit or sugar for meals or recipes calling for a bit of sweetness
• Using spices instead of sugar to add flavor to your meal

 

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Dr Hal Huggins…

On Saturday evening I received a message from a good friend of mine that my previous employer Dr Hal Huggins had died on Friday. I know that I’d been very upset by the way he’d “let me go” in April 2011 after 3 ½ years working for him but looking back I can only feel that I was truly blessed to have known him.

Doc was strong minded, stubborn, egotistical but he was also brilliant and when he let you get close you could see the loving considerate side.

He physically improved the lives of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands through his books and seminars and my own life will never be the same because of all he taught me, I am blessed to have known him.

R.I.P. Dr Hal Huggins… Goodbye Doc..