Sunday, July 28, 2013

Burn Away Fat Cells With This Simple Eating Trick

Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

In part 1, Mark Sisson discusses the merits of using fasting—in whatever form—to achieve weight loss. Overall, the research is very favorable for this goal. He lists three studies from recent years into fasting for weight loss, all of which showed positive results:
  1. Non-obese patients lost an average of four percent of their total fat with alternate-day fasting for 22 days. Their fasting insulin also decreased.
  2. Alternate-day fasting was also effective for obese patients in a 2009 study. On fasting days, participants consumed 25 percent of their daily calorie needs. On average, they lost just over 5.5 pounds in eight weeks, and about three percent of their total body fat. Total cholesterol and LDL ("bad") cholesterol decreased, while HDL ("good") cholesterol remained unchanged. Systolic blood pressure also decreased.
  3. In young, overweight women, alternate-day fasting was just as effective as calorie restriction for promoting weight loss and improving metabolic markers.
One of the mechanisms that makes fasting so effective for weight loss is the fact that it provokes the secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), which is a fat-burning hormone. It also plays an important role in muscle building. Fasting also increases catecholamines, which increases resting energy expenditure, while decreasing insulin levels, which allows stored fat to be burned for fuel. Together, these and other factors will turn you into an effective fat-burning machine.
Hence, if like many tens of millions of people, your goal is to shed excess fat, fasting can be both effective and beneficial for improving many disease markers. The type of fast you choose appears to be less important, so pick whichever one fits your lifestyle, schedule, and temperament the best.
I'll summarize the four different types of intermittent fasting programs that are covered very well in Mark Sisson's excellent series on this subject (see Sources below for links to his blog). Mark is particularly well qualified to report on this topic as he's a leading blogger in the Paleo community, and a former elite Olympic Trials athlete.

Intermittent Fasting for Athletes

One 2008 study that evaluated the effect of fasting during the Muslim observance of Ramadan found it had a positive effect on body mass and other health markers in trained athletes.
While athletes are certainly concerned with shedding excess fat, another overriding concern is the optimization of muscle growth. For this, you need protein. As a general guideline, you'll want to consume a high quality protein 30-60 minutes after finishing your workout—whey being one of the most ideal for this purpose, as it helps your body build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. Research has also shown that high quality protein from meat and whey has a positive effect on blood sugar, muscle building, changing body composition, and sparing muscle while losing fat.
Many find it works out well to break their fast after working out, which would allow you to get the best of both worlds: the benefits of working out in a fasted state, and protein-loading about half-an-hour to an hour afterward. This is my new strategy. I will typically delay my breakfast until 11 or 12 and workout around 9 AM. Since my last meal is typically around 7 PM, I will fast for about 14-17 hours before I eat my first meal. The fact that you are sleeping during most of this time makes it relatively painless and easy to do.
Avoid grain carbs, however. Although popular with many, "carb loading" is a mistake, particularly for people engaged in intense strength training, as you will burn carb fuel very quickly and then "hit the wall." The same goes for most people who start their day with muffins, bagels, or pancakes for example. This type of breakfast typically ignites a vicious cycle of hunger and snacking on even more carbs. And the more you continue eating these carb snacks, the more insulin resistant you become.
Part of what makes working out in a fasted state so effective is that your body actually has a preservation mechanism that protects your active muscle from wasting itself. So if you don't have sufficient fuel in your system when you exercise, you're going to break down other tissues but not the active muscle, i.e. the muscle being exercised. According to Ori Hofmekler, author ofThe Warrior Diet, you can quite literally re-design your physique using a combination of under-eating and exercise. However this really only works well once your metabolism has become proficient at burning fat. Mark discusses this in his series.
What about competitive sports athletes who may be exerting themselves in competitions several times a week—should they fast, and if so, when? Mark Sisson offers the following advice.
"Personally, I would eat on game days. It might be fun to try out a few fasted games, just to see how you perform, but the likely optimal way to integrate fasting into competition is to save the fasting days for your training days. By doing this, you'll be "training low, playing high," which should result in some beneficial adaptations after training and improved performance in the game (when you're "high" or fully replete with nutrients and calories)."
If you're an athlete, keep in mind that fasting can be contraindicated with overtraining, so be cautious if you're more or less in constant training.

Intermittent Fasting for General Health and Longevity

Fasting is historically common-place as it has been a part of spiritual practice for millennia. But modern science has confirmed there are many good reasons for fasting, including:
  • Normalizing your insulin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health as insulin resistance (which is what you get when your insulin sensitivity plummets) is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, from diabetes to heart disease and even cancer
  • Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
  • Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process
  • Lowering triglyceride levels
  • Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
There's also plenty of research showing that fasting has a beneficial impact on longevity in animals. There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process. The fact that it improves a number of potent disease markers also contributes to fasting's overall beneficial effects on general health.
Interestingly, one recent study that included more than 200 individuals, found that fasting increased the participants' low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or "bad" cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL, the "good" cholesterol) by 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Why would fasting raise total cholesterol? Dr. Benjamin D. Horne, PhD, MPH, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, and the study's lead author, offers the following explanation:
"Fasting causes hunger or stress. In response, the body releases more cholesterol, allowing it to utilize fat as a source of fuel, instead of glucose. This decreases the number of fat cells in the body... This is important because the fewer fat cells a body has, the less likely it will experience insulin resistance, or diabetes."
Even more remarkable, the study also found that fasting triggered a dramatic rise in HGH—1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men!
HGH, commonly referred to as "the fitness hormone" plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don't overtrain and are careful about their nutrition).
The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. If you're over the age of 30, especially if you lead an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, you've likely entered a phase known as somatopause (age-related growth hormone deficiency). As your HGH levels decrease, your levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) also decrease, and this is yet another important part of what drives your body's aging process.

Variations of Fasting

In his blog on marksdailyapple.com, Mark Sisson delves into four different variations of fasting, and how to implement them. The variations he includes are:
  1. LeanGains (a fasting protocol by Martin Berkhan)—A daily 14-16 hour fast, during which time you consume nothing, with the exception of non-caloric fluids. Sleeping time is included in this time-frame, leaving an 8-10 hour window during the day when you're allowed to eat.
  2. This protocol is designed with regular exercise in mind, with specific nutrient ratios for workout days and rest days, and is geared for those who want to shed excess fat and gain muscle mass. Hence, it's best suited for those who are actually exercising and lifting weights each week and can tolerate working out in a fasted state.
  3. Eat Stop Eat (created by Brad Pilon)—In this protocol, you fast for a full 24 hours once or twice a week. Your fast should be broken with a regular-sized meal (i.e. avoid gorging when coming off your fast), and you can maintain a regular exercise program without any special diet recommendations for workout days.
  4. Fasting for 24 hours can be tough for some people, but I would agree with Mark's advice that eating a high-fat, low-carb diet can make 24-hour fasting easier, as a higher fat diet will tend to normalize your hunger hormones and provide improved satiety for longer periods of time.
  5. The Warrior Diet—This is another protocol designed to improve your fitness by exercising in a fasted state. His plan calls for 20 hours of fasting, and four hours of "feasting." You exercise during the day in a fasted state. Raw vegetables are allowed during your fast, but no protein, which is reserved for "feasting" or post-exercise recovery meals.
  6. Alternate Day Fasting—This fasting protocol is exactly as it sounds: one day off, one day on. When you include sleeping time, the fast can end up being as long as 32-36 hours.
    As Mark notes, this may be the most difficult of all types of fasting, as it will require you to go to bed with an empty stomach a few times a week. It's definitely not for everyone.
Mark rounds off his list with one last suggestion: to simply let your hunger guide you and skip meals if you're not hungry. While this should work really well for those who are otherwise healthy and are not struggling with food cravings, it may not work if you're constantly craving food. Food cravings is a sign that you're not providing your body with proper nutrients in the appropriate ratios, so following your hunger in this case could be staggeringly counterproductive.

Who Should Use Extra Caution when Fasting, or Avoid it Altogether?

As I mentioned earlier, if you're hypoglycemic, diabetic, or pregnant (and/or breastfeeding), you need to be extra cautious with fasting, and may be best served to avoid it entirely, until you've normalized your blood glucose and insulin levels, or weaned the baby.
Hypoglycemia is a condition characterized by an abnormally low level of blood sugar. It's commonly associated with diabetes, but you can be hypoglycemic even if you're not diabetic. Common symptoms of a hypoglycemic crash include:
  • Headache
  • Weakness
  • Tremors
  • Irritability
  • Hunger
As your blood glucose levels continue to plummet, more severe symptoms can set in, such as:
  • Confusion and/or abnormal behavior
  • Visual disturbances, such as double vision and blurred vision
  • Seizures
  • Loss of consciousness
One of the keys to eliminating hypoglycemia is to eliminate sugars, especially fructose from your diet. It will also be helpful to eliminate grains, and replace them with higher amounts of quality proteins and healthful fats, However it will take some time for your blood sugar to normalize. You'll want to pay careful attention to hypoglycemic signs and symptoms, and if you suspect that you're crashing, make sure to eat something. Ideally, you should avoid fasting if you're hypoglycemic, and work on your overall diet to normalize your blood sugar levels first. Then try out one of the less rigid versions of fasting and work your way up to a full 24-hour fast.
As for pregnant and/or lactating women, I don't think fasting would be a wise choice. Your baby needs plenty of nutrients, during and after birth, and there's no research supporting fasting during this important time. Sisson lists three studies on fasting during pregnancy, and all three suggested it might be contraindicated, as it can alter fetal breathing patterns, heartbeat, and increase gestational diabetes. It may even induce premature labor.
My recommendation would be to really focus on improving your nutrition during this crucial time. A diet with plenty of raw organic, biodynamic foods, and foods high in healthful fats, coupled with high quality proteins will give your baby a head start on good health. You'll also want to be sure to include plenty of cultured and fermented foods to optimize your—and consequently your baby's—gut flora.
Others categories of people that would be best served to avoid fasting include those living with chronic stress, and those with cortisol dysregulation.

Fasting—Is it Right for You?

I understand it can get confusing at times, trying to determine when and what to eat in order to optimize your health. Unfortunately, besides a few basic principles that will apply to virtually everyone, such as strictly limiting consumption of sugars (particularly fructose) and grains, the rest is really a matter of figuring out what works for your individual biochemistry. This requires some trial and error.
For example, there is good evidence supporting the recommendation to eat a protein-heavy breakfast if you want to lose weight, and even more so if you exercise first thing in the morning to optimize muscle growth and recovery. But there may be times when you feel like you've hit a plateau, and while your diet and exercise routine may be good, the simple act of skipping breakfast and exercising on an empty stomach could be just the thing that will kick start you onto that next level.
Personally, I skip breakfast and exercise in a fasting state whenever I've gained a few pounds and want to get them off. I find this works well for me. While I'm not eating breakfast, I don't really eliminate that meal entirely; rather I'm simply delaying it until noon or later, in order to reap the metabolic rewards of exercise combined with calorie restriction.
While I have not widely promoted calorie restriction in the past (as I believe most people need to address the foods they DO eat, before considering skipping meals), it is an important piece of the puzzle, and intermittent fasting may be helpful for many, especially if you've already mastered a nutritious diet, which really should be your first step. Fasting combined with a highly processed, toxin-rich diet is not going to do your health any favors. In fact, you may be making things worse, since you're not giving your body proper fuel when you DO eat.
Also remember that fasting does not mean abstaining from ALL food for extended periods of time, but rather a dramatic reduction of calorie intake at regular intervals—whether you opt for a 16, 20, or 24 hour fast once or twice a week, or fasting every other day, or simply delaying certain meals, such as skipping breakfast and exercising on an empty stomach. As always, listen to your body, and go slow; work your way up to full day fasts if your normal schedule has included multiple meals a day. Also be sure to address any hypoglycemic tendencies, as it can get increasingly dangerous the longer you go without eating to level out your blood sugar.

Bottom Line

I will finish off with Mark Sisson's "bottom line," practical, and sound recommendations, as he sums it up nicely.
"... [T]here is no concrete, objective law regarding the suitability of intermittent fasting for a particular person.
If you're truly hungry, eat. Failing to do so will add stress.
If you're stressed, don't IF (intermittent fast). You don't need another stressor.
If you're training six days a week, don't IF. Unless you're genetically blessed, you'll need lots of fuel to prevent overtraining.
If you're not hungry, don't eat. If coffee's enough, skip breakfast.
If life is good, try fasting.
In the end, the prudent path is to simply listen to your body. Don't let CW grazing propaganda drive you to eat when you aren't hungry; don't let the IF dogma make you feel guilty about grabbing a handful of macadamia nuts and jerky in between meals when you are fasting. Try it out, skip a meal, go fourteen hours or so (you already do eight every night) without eating, get a workout in, go for a walk, go about your day and see how you feel. A quick trial is not going to kill you...
Are you lightheaded?
Are you weak?
Did your workout suffer?
Then maybe it's not for you. Maybe you need to fix a few things (Primal eating, sleep, chronic stress) and then try again..."

Saturday, July 27, 2013

How to Make Drinking Water Safer with Natural Disinfection Processes

It's estimated that half of all hospital beds in the world are occupied by people who have become sick from drinking contaminated water. In fact, over 1 billion people (or about one-sixth of the world's population) do not have access to safe drinking water, and millions in developing countries die each year from water-related diseases.
In third-world countries, sunlight exposure is often used to help make water safer, but this natural disinfection process can take anywhere from six to 48 hours (depending on cloud cover and so on).
Now researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have found a simple twist to make this disinfection method even more powerful, not to mention much faster …

Lime Juice and Sunlight Can Help Make Water Safer

When researchers added lime juice or lime slurry to water that had been contaminated with various types of bacteria and viruses, then exposed it to sunlight, levels of both E. coli and MS2 bacteriophage virus were significantly lower than when compared to solar disinfection alone.2 Kellogg Schwab, PhD, MS, senior author of the study, said:
"The preliminary results of this study show solar disinfection of water combined with citrus could be effective at greatly reducing E. coli levels in just 30 minutes, a treatment time on par with boiling and other household water treatment methods. In addition, the 30 milliliters of juice per 2 liters of water amounts to about one-half Persian lime per bottle, a quantity that will likely not be prohibitively expensive or create an unpleasant flavor."
Noroviruses in the drinking water were not significantly reduced using the lime juice/sunlight technique, so unfortunately it is not a perfect solution. However, limes are readily available in most tropical countries, as is steady sunlight, so this finding could still have an extremely beneficial impact in countries that don't have ready access to clean drinking water.
You may be surprised to learn, however, that your drinking water may still be contaminated even if you live in the developed world. Further, many of the "modern" disinfection processes used in the United States and other developed countries create their own set of issues …

Have You Heard of Disinfection Byproducts?

Part of the allure of natural disinfection processes like exposure to sunlight and lime juice is that they have no harmful side effects – unlike the chlorination process used by most U.S. municipalities.
If you receive municipal water, the main chemical used to disinfect the tap water in your house is chlorine. While your local government is quick to assure you that there is relatively no danger from drinking chlorinated water, that simply is not the case, because the levels of chlorine disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that are produced by this process are both dangerous and alarming.
There is actually no safe level for many contaminants found in drinking water, including heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, hormones and DBPs, but they persist nonetheless, in varying quantities.
The government is much more concerned with providing water that doesn't kill you by causing diarrhea (the way it does in many third-world countries) and it does a good job at that, although some microorganisms (cysts and parasites) do survive the chlorination process (cryptosporidium, Giardia, for instance) and can lead to isolated outbreaks of disease and even death to those with compromised immune systems.
If you have not heard of DBPs before, you need to pay close attention as it turns out that DBPs, not chlorine, are responsible for nearly all the toxic effects of chlorinated water. Chlorine by itself is relatively harmless, but its side effects, by producing DBPs, are what cause nearly all of the problems.
As it turns out, DBPs are over 10,000 times more toxic than chlorine, and out of all the other toxins and contaminants present in your water, such as fluoride and miscellaneous pharmaceutical drugs, DBPs may be the absolute worst of the bunch.
The most common disinfectant byproducts formed when chlorine is used are:
  • Trihalomethanes (THMs)
  • Haloacetic acids (HAAs)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) takes the dangers of THMs -- which are measured in parts per billion (ppb) -- very seriously and regulates these compounds. The maximum annual average of THMs in your local water supply cannot exceed 80 ppb, and the maximum annual average of HAAs permitted by EPA regulations is 60 ppb.
However even though these are allowed, ideally it would be best to have zero. These levels have been regularly adjusted downwards over the years as science progresses and gains a deeper appreciation of their true toxicity. What makes DBPs so toxic?

Disinfection Byproducts May Cause Cancer, Reproductive Problems and More

THMs are Cancer Group B carcinogens, meaning they've been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. DBPs have also been linked to reproductive problems in both animals and humans, and human studies suggest that lifetime consumption of chlorine-treated water can more than double the risk of bladder and rectal cancers in certain individuals.
One such study found that men who smoked and drank chlorinated tap water for more than 40 years faced double the risk of bladder cancer compared with smoking men who drank non-chlorinated water. A second study found that rates for rectal cancers for both sexes escalated with duration of consumption of chlorinated water. Individuals on low-fiber diets who also drank chlorinated water for over 40 years more than doubled their risk for rectal cancer, compared with lifetime drinkers of non-chlorinated water.
As the vast majority of the U.S. population continues to receive and consume disinfected or chlorinated drinking water, we can assume that Americans are consuming disinfection byproducts every single day, and the number of related cancer cases could be substantial. And, you're exposed not only when you drink chlorinated water but also, and even more significantly, when you shower or bathe, as well as when you breathe in the chemicals from the air.
The chlorine that enters your lungs is in the form of chloroform, a carcinogen, and chlorite, a byproduct of chlorine dioxide. These forms of chlorine hit your bloodstream instantly before they have a chance to be removed by your organs of detoxification. The DBPs that enter your body through your skin during showering or bathing also go directly into your bloodstream. And the warm or hot water maximizes absorption by your skin. So unless you are regularly taking one-minute long cold showers, your body is like a sponge for these airborne toxins every second you spend in a shower.
If you are like me and obtain your water from a private well, then DBPs are a non-issue as they are only produced when chlorine is added, and it's highly unusual to add chlorine to most private well water systems. However, well water has its own set of potential hazards as well.

Is Well Water Safe?

Unless you are getting your water from a well that is located 800 feet or more below the ground surface, chances are your well water has been contaminated by some if not many toxic substances that have been dumped into the ground soil over past decades. Some common toxins that are dumped by the millions of pounds into soil every year are:
  • Herbicides
  • Pesticides
  • Estrogen-mimicking hormones
  • Drug residues
  • Heavy metals
Many private wells in the United States have been affected by these types of chemical or heavy metal runoff from the surrounding ground soil, and this is to say nothing of the microorganisms living in well water as well. No matter how clean or pure your natural ground water looks, this has nothing to do with potential bacterial contamination or toxic pollution in the water. Many of the offenders in well water are just much too small to be seen with the naked eye.
So if your home uses well water, you really need to test to see what unwanted contaminants you're piping into your house, and then filter it accordingly. And if you get municipal water, you should have that tested too, as Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. told ABC News that there are more than 140 chemicals in U.S. drinking water supplies that are not regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This includes gasoline, pesticides, rocket fuel, prescription drugs and more. Furthermore, more than 20 percent of U.S. water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last six years!

You Can Get Chlorine (and Other Toxins) Out of Your Drinking Water

Most people in the United States are not going to take the time to expose their drinking water and bathwater to sunlight, then add lime juice, to help make it more pure – and this wouldn't do anything to eliminate the chlorine or fluoride it contains anyway.
Fortunately, there are other options at your disposal.
If you can only afford one filter there is no question in most experts' minds that the shower filter is the most important product to buy for water filtration, even more important than filtering your tap water. This is because the damage you incur through your skin and lungs far surpasses the damage done by drinking water (which at least gives your body a fighting chance to eliminate the toxins through your organs of elimination).
An even better solution to the problem of harsh chemicals and toxins in your home's water supply is to install a whole house water filtration system. This not only protects your body, but also your appliances as well. There's just one water line coming into your house. Putting a filter on this is the easiest and simplest strategy you can implement to take control of your health by ensuring the water and, subsequently, the air in your house is as clean as possible.
Remember, if you are getting your water from a municipal source your indoor air quality, especially in the winter when your windows are closed, is likely atrocious. This is related to the chlorine and other toxins evaporating from all your toilet bowls, showers, baths, dishwashers and washing machines.
My advice for whole house filtration systems is as follows: Find a system that uses at least 60 pounds of filter media and can produce eight or more gallons a minute. When you are running two different showers, the dishwasher and the kitchen sink at the same time, you'll find out why these minimum levels are so important. This recommendation covers a home or apartment up to 3200 sq./ft, or in other words, a residence with about three and a half bathrooms. For more than that you will probably require two whole house water filtration systems.
You also need to look for a whole house water filter that has three separate stages of contamination removal:
  • Stage one removes sediment
  • Stage two removes chlorine and heavy metals
  • Stage three should be a heavy-duty carbon filter for removing hormones, drug residues, chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides
You want to look for granular carbon in the carbon filter, not a solid block of carbon. The granular carbon allows for better water flow, which translates to more water pressure and better filtering properties as well.
You also want to look for NSF certification, which ensures your water filter is meeting national standards. NSF certification is only granted when a product is proven to remove everything it claims to. It's also good to makes sure all particles under .8 microns are being filtered out of the water. A lower number is actually better, but .8 microns is the standard I recommend because that covers most bacteria, viruses and VOCs.
Your body requires a constant daily supply of water to fuel all the various waste filtration systems nature has designed to keep you healthy and free of toxins. Your blood, your kidneys, and your liver all require a source of good clean water to detoxify your body from the toxic exposures you come into contact with every day.
When you give your body water that is filled with by-products from chlorination, or with volatile organic compounds, or water that is contaminated by pesticides or hormones, you are asking your body to work twice as hard at detoxification, because it must first detoxify the water you are drinking, before that water can be used to fuel your organs of detoxification! Clearly, one of the most efficient ways to help your body both avoid and eliminate toxins, and reach optimal health, is to provide it with the cleanest, purest water you can find.

Eliminate This ONE Ingredient and Watch Your Health Soar

People are Really Waking Up to the Dangers of Sugar

His lecture, which was posted on YouTube in July 2009 went viral and has received more than 2.2 million views so far.
Many of those views are no doubt due to this newsletter, as my two previous articles on Dr. Lustig's work: Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly, and This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism alone have well over one million views. People are watching the lecture at the rate of 50,000 a month, even though it's 90 minutes long, The New York Times reportsi. Calling sugar a "toxin" or a "poison" 13 times, and referring to it as "evil" five times, Robert Lustig explains that the dangers of sugar apply to all forms of it,  whether it's the white granulated stuff – commonly known as sucrose – or high fructose corn syrup.
And his stance has nothing to do with calories, according to the NYT:
"It's a poison by itself," Dr. Lustig says.
"If Lustig is right, then our excessive consumption of sugar is the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years," the NYT says. "But his argument implies more than that. If Lustig is right, it would mean that sugar is also the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles — heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them."
The NYT added that Lustig has "a mass" of evidence to back up his claims. In related news, according to the Epoch Times, a report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)ii has found that the United States is the fattest of 33 countries studiediii. Seventy percent of Americans are now overweight, a number that will increase to 75 percent by 2020 and 86 percent by 2030!

Changing Our Diets Could Save U.S. $1 Trillion per Year...

For the first time in history, "lifestyle" diseases -- diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers -- are killing more people than communicable diseases. And treating these entirely preventable illnesses costs more than one-seventh of the U.S. GDP.
So it stands to reason that simply preventing these diseases could save the US health care system around one trillion dollars a year!
How do we prevent them?
By putting an end to this insane over-consumption of sugar.
A recent New York Times opinion piece discussed the dramatic health care savings promised by healthier lifestyle habits and dietiv:
"The many numbers all point in the same direction. Look at heart disease: The INTERHEART study of 30,000 men and women in 52 countries showed that at least 90 percent of heart disease is lifestyle related; a European study of more than 23,000 Germans showed that people with healthier lifestyles had an 81 percent lower risk.
And yes, we definitely know that people will buy anything that's marketed well. Unfortunately, our current food industry doesn't support a switch to whole, healthy foods. The food industry simply will not change without a fierce fight. Processed foods are HUGE business with great profit margins.
They have NO incentive whatsoever to switch to selling and marketing whole foods—unless the market absolutely demands it… I believe the current situation can change, but only if enough people understand the simple truths of healthy eating and refuse to buy sugar-laden processed foods.Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard-affiliated pediatrician, recently wrote a commentary in JAMAv, offering concrete suggestions to turn this disease-producing diet trend around, such as:
  • Restructuring subsidies
  • Regulating the marketing of food to children
  • Adequately funding school lunch programs
  • Using existing and future technologies to allow the food industry to retain profits while producing more healthful products
Those are all good suggestions, but while politicians debate and search for their moral compasses, I suggest you do your own homework and change your own diet. At least that way you won't be part of these sad disease statistics.

The Primary Reason Why Sugar is Such a Pernicious Toxin

Many conventional diet "experts" have strongly disagreed with Dr. Lustig. They contend that sugar in fruits and table sugar in moderation is just fine and part of a normal "healthy" diet.  Well let me make it crystal clear that I could not disagree more strongly with that position.
What they completely fail to appreciate is the obvious fact that should be hitting EVERY expert on the head. Fructose is the NUMBER ONE source of calories in the US.  It is beyond shocking that these supposedly intelligent "experts" fail to appreciate that, especially in light of the very carefully elucidated biochemistry that Dr. Lustig reviews. And it’s the sheer overconsumption that makes it so toxic to your system.
The central issue is that fructose is so cheap it is used in virtually all processed foods.  If one were able to assiduously keep their total grams of fructose to below 25 per day then it would not be an issue. But the key here is that while that is theoretically possible, precious few people are doing that. 
Remember the average person is consuming 1/3 of a pound of sugar EVERY DAY which is five ounces or 150 grams, half of which is fructose or 300 percent more than the amount that will trigger biochemical havoc.  Remember that is the AVERAGE; many consume more than twice that amount.
The moment I first saw Dr. Lustig's presentation nearly two years ago, I knew he was right.  I consider this NY Times article a true landmark story that comes out only once every few years. It has given me the foundation and courage to come out even stronger on this issue and you will see that position emphasized in all future newsletters. I am going to be relentless about WARNING people about this danger in just about every article on weight, cancer, heart disease or diabetes. You might get tired of it but you have to be a beacon of light to your friends and family and let them know so they can change their eating habit and avoid these very real dangers.

Abnormally High Sugar Consumption Fuels Disease Rates

It's important to realize that when we talk about "sugar," ALL sugars are included. So when you're evaluating your sugar consumption, you can't stop counting once you've accounted for the number of spoons of table sugar you've added to foods and beverages. You must also include all other types of sweeteners, such as corn-based sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), honey, and agave.
As you probably know, obesity and diabetes rates have dramatically increased in the past 30 years. These increases dovetail nicely with a profound increase in sugar/fructose consumption with the advent of inexpensive HFCS, which is nowfound in virtually ALL processed foods. The prevalence of added HFCS in foods and beverages is now so great that thesingle largest source of calories for Americans comes from fructose.
It's loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in most processed foods—from bologna to pretzels to Worcestershire sauce to cheese spread. Even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola!
To put the US sugar consumption into further perspective, based on USDA estimates the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, which equates to about TWO TONS of sugar during their lifetime. Think about that...
Two tons!
Is it any wonder then that the United States is the fattest of 33 countries, with a whopping 70 percent of Americans crowding into the overweight category?No, there can be no doubt whatsoever that this is a direct result of excessive sugar consumption, and the fact that this sugar-rich diet also fuels a number of deadly diseases is another no-brainer. Yet conventional medicine keeps ignoring the basics, seeking to find magic solutions in the form of a pill...
Do yourself and your family a huge favor, and educate yourself on the health effects of sugar instead, because the truth is, simply making this ONE lifestyle change—drastically reducing your sugar consumption—is the "miracle cure" everyone is seeking!

Do You have Any Idea How Much Sugar You Consume Every Day?

It's interesting to note that we've long acknowledged that the Western diet is associated with increased rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer. Yet the conventional paradigm is extremely reluctant to accept that it isthe sugar content of this diet that is the primary culprit! Doctors and health officials alike are still trying to make you think that you can have your cake and eat it too, as long as it's in moderation.
Well, that's the whole point. If you eat a diet consisting primarily of processed foods, moderation immediately goes out the window!
Cutting out a few desserts will barely make a dent if you're eating a "standard American diet"—in fact, I've previously written about how various foods and beverages contain far more sugar than a glazed doughnut. Take Vitamin Water, for example. One 20 oz bottle contains 33 grams of sugar, which equates to THREE Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts! Another common lunch staple for many kids is Oscar Mayer Lunchables, but just one box of crackers with processed turkey and American cheese contains 36 grams of sugar.
It's like sending them off to school with three-and-a-half doughnuts...
Unfortunately, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) still has not been able to come up with any sort of guidelines on sugar consumption. They acknowledge that there's plenty of research incriminating sugar in increasing disease rates, but have yet to nail down any recommendations for upper limits.
However, if you look at historical data, back in the 1700's, the average person consumed a mere 4 pounds of sugar per year. By the 1800's it had increased to about 18 pounds a year. The primary difference is that they didn't have processed foods back then, so you didn't get 36 grams of added HFCS in your cracker and cheese lunch... Hence, the answer the sugar over-consumption dilemma should be obvious, but I'll spell it out anyway: Return to a diet of natural, whole foods and avoid all processed foods and sweetened beverages!

How Sugar Turns to Fat and Destroys Your Health

We now know that fructose elevates uric acid, which decreases nitric oxide, raises angiotensin, and causes your smooth muscle cells to contract, thereby raising your blood pressure and potentially damaging your kidneys. Increased uric acid also leads to chronic, low-level inflammation, which has far-reaching consequences for your health.
For example, chronically inflamed blood vessels lead to heart attacks and strokes; also, a good deal of evidence exists that some cancers are caused by chronic inflammation.
There are more than 3,500 articles to date showing a strong relationship between uric acid and obesity, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, kidney disease, and other conditions. In fact, a number of studies have confirmed that people with elevated serum uric acid are at risk for high blood pressure, even if they otherwise appear to be perfectly healthy.
Uric acid levels among Americans have risen significantly since the early half of the 20th Century. In the 1920s, average uric acid levels were about 3.5 ml/dl. By 1980, average uric acid levels had climbed into the range of 6.0 to 6.5 ml/dl and are probably much higher now. When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per dl, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases, including:
  • Hypertension
  • Kidney disease
  • Insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes
  • Fatty liver
  • Elevated triglycerides, elevated LDL, and cardiovascular disease
  • For pregnant women, even preeclampsia
This is exactly why I am so passionate about educating you about the dangers of sugar, particularly fructose! I am thoroughly convinced it's one of the leading causes of a great deal of needless suffering from poor health and premature death.
Additionally, sugar/fructose:
  • Leads to insulin resistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but also many cancers. Researchers from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer have reported that those who are obese and/or diabetic are at greater risk of cancer.
  • Tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism, as it turns off your body's appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") and doesn't stimulate leptin (the "satiety hormone"), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.
  • Fructose rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity ("beer belly"), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure—i.e., classic metabolic syndrome.
  • Fructose metabolism is very similar to ethanol metabolism, which has a multitude of toxic effects, including NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). It's alcohol without the buzz.

The Sugar/Cancer Connection

The factor that links obesity, diabetes, and cancer is insulin resistance.
According to Lewis Cantley, director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, as much as 80 percent of all cancers are "driven by either mutations or environmental factors that work to enhance or mimic the effect of insulin on the incipient tumor cells," Gary Taubes reports, adding:
"As it was explained to me by Craig Thompson, who has done much of this research and is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the cells of many human cancers come to depend on insulin to provide the fuel (blood sugar) and materials they need to grow and multiply. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (and related growth factors) also provide the signal, in effect, to do it.
The more insulin, the better they do.
Some cancers develop mutations that serve the purpose of increasing the influence of insulin on the cell; others take advantage of the elevated insulin levels that are common to metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Some do both.
Thompson believes that many pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that turn them into malignant tumors if they weren't being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it."
Some cancer centers, such as the Cancer Centers of America, have fully embraced this knowledge and place their patients on strict low-sugar, low-grain diets. But conventional medicine in general has been woefully lax when it comes to highlighting the health dangers of this additive.
It's quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or are currently undergoing cancer treatment, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar!

Not All Calories are Created Equal

As described in Taube's brilliant New York Times article, a calorie from glucose, such a potato or bread, is vastly different from a calorie from sugar (which is a 50/50 mix of glucose and fructose, or in the case of high fructose corn syrup, a 45/55 mix.) This is because they are metabolized differently, and hence affect your body in different ways.
As I've explained before, fructose (whether from regular sugar of HFCS) is metabolized primarily by your liver, whereas glucose is metabolized in every cell of your body. Making matters worse, when you consume fructose in liquid form, such as soda, the effect is not only sped up but also magnified.
Your liver converts the majority of this fructose into FAT.
Additionally, since all sugars raise your insulin levels, you eventually end up with insulin resistance. In response, your pancreas starts releasing higher amounts of insulin in an effort to curb your rising blood sugar levels. Eventually, your pancreas loses the battle; your blood sugar levels keep rising, and you end up with full-blown diabetes.
You've now also laid the groundwork for hypertension, heart disease, and cancer, just to name a few.

What about Healthy Fruit?

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.
But for most people it would also be wise to limit your fructose from fruit to 15 grams or less, as you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose if you drink beverages other than water and eat processed food. Remember, the average 12-ounce can of soda contains 40 grams of sugar, at least half of which is fructose, so one can of soda ALONE would exceed your daily allotment.
Fifteen grams of fructose is not much -- it represents two bananas, one-third cup of raisins, or two Medjool dates. In his book, The Sugar Fix, Dr. Johnson includes detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods -- an information base that isn't readily available when you're trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this excellent resource.
Here's a quick reference list of some of the most common fruits that you can use to help you count your fructose grams:
FruitServing SizeGrams of Fructose
Limes1 medium0
Lemons1 medium0.6
Cranberries1 cup0.7
Passion fruit1 medium0.9
Prune1 medium1.2
Apricot1 medium1.3
Guava2 medium2.2
Date (Deglet Noor style)1 medium2.6
Cantaloupe1/8 of med. melon2.8
Raspberries1 cup3.0
Clementine1 medium3.4
Kiwifruit1 medium3.4
Blackberries1 cup3.5
Star fruit1 medium3.6
Cherries, sweet103.8
Strawberries1 cup3.8
Cherries, sour1 cup4.0
Pineapple1 slice
(3.5" x .75")
4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red1/2 medium4.3
FruitServing SizeGrams of Fructose
Boysenberries1 cup4.6
Tangerine/mandarin orange1 medium4.8
Nectarine1 medium5.4
Peach1 medium5.9
Orange (navel)1 medium6.1
Papaya1/2 medium6.3
Honeydew1/8 of med. melon6.7
Banana1 medium7.1
Blueberries1 cup7.4
Date (Medjool)1 medium7.7
Apple (composite)1 medium9.5
Persimmon1 medium10.6
Watermelon1/16 med. melon11.3
Pear1 medium11.8
Raisins1/4 cup12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red)1 cup12.4
Mango1/2 medium16.2
Apricots, dried1 cup16.4
Figs, dried1 cup23.0

What About Xylitol?

Xylitol is a sweetener of a type known as a sugar alcohol, or polyol. Sugar alcohols are not as sweet as sugar, but they contain fewer calories. One reason that sugar alcohols provide fewer calories than sugar is because they are not completely absorbed into your body. Because of this, eating many foods containing sugar alcohols can lead to abdominal gas and diarrhea.
However, sugar alcohols -- including xylitol -- do not make "sugar free" foods calorie free. If foods containing sugar alcohols are eaten in large enough quantities, the calories can be comparable to sugar-containing foods. As with all foods, you need to carefully read the food labels for calorie and carbohydrate content, regardless of any claims that the food is sugar-free or low-sugar.
Maltitol, a commonly used sugar alcohol, spikes blood sugar almost as much as a starchy new potato.  Xylitol, in comparison, does not spike blood sugar much at all. Pure xylitol also does not usually produce the gas or bloating associated with other sugar alcohols.
In moderation, some sugar alcohols can be a better choice than highly refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Of the various sugar alcohols, xylitol is one of the best. When it is pure, the potential side effects are minimal, and it actually comes with some benefits such as fighting tooth decay. All in all, I would say that xylitol is reasonably safe, and potentially even a mildly beneficial sweetener.

How You Can Protect Your Health and Avoid Cancer, Starting TODAY

It should be abundantly clear that preventing chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer requires lifestyle changes, and cutting out sugar in all its forms is an essential element.
The good news is that this is something YOU can do right now—no doctor's visit or prescription required.
Ideally, I recommend that you keep your fructose consumption below 25 grams a day. This includes ALL sources, from beverages to condiments, including the fructose you get from whole fruits. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
The easiest way to dramatically reduce your fructose consumption is to avoid sweetened drinks, including fruit juices, and processed foods of all kinds. This will require you to spend a little more time in the kitchen preparing and cooking your meals from scratch using whole ingredients, but it will be one of the best investments you could possibly make!
If you're in the habit of adding sugar to your coffee or tea, try using stevia instead. Many complain about a bitter aftertaste with steeia, but this is typically related to the processing. I find that most people enjoy the liquid stevias like French Vanilla or English Toffee that only require a few drops to sweeten a drink. Alternatively, you could use Lo Han or pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener. It costs about $1 a pound and does not cause the adverse biochemical disasters that fructose does.
It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose though, so you'll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose—but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose. Glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose.
Switching to cane sugar, honey, date sugar, coconut sugar,  brown rice syrup,  fruit juice, molasses, maple syrup, sucanat, sorghum, turbinado or agave syrup will NOT ameliorate any of the risks as they all contain HIGH amounts of fructose. Agave is probably the worst of the bunch as it can be as high as 90% fructose. Commercial fruit juices come a close second as they are high in methanol that can contribute to MS, just like aspartame..  Also, do not make the mistake of switching to artificial sweeteners as they can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.

Bottom Line

If you want to RADICALLY reduce, and in many cases virtually eliminate your risk of the following diseases
  • Cancer
  • Heart Disease
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes
  • Alzheimer's
... then start getting VERY serious about restricting the level of fructose to no more than 25 grams per day. If you already have any of these diseases or are at high risk of any of them, then you are probably better off by cutting that to 10-15 grams per day.
Please remember that I am a fanatic about exercise, especially Peak Fitness exercises, but exercise will NOT compensate for fructose use and can destroy many of the benefits of your hard work. So, if you haven't done so already PLEASE get VERY serious about restricting fructose as there is no doubt in my mind when it is consumed in quantities over 25 grams per day it will rapidly accelerate your path towards chronic degenerative disease.

Did You Know?

fructose overload infographic

What Else Does the Science Say about the Health Impact of Fructose?

According to GreenMedInfo.com, scientific studies have linked fructose to about 30 different specific diseases and health problems. Select the hyperlinks provided to review how fructose may:
Raise your blood pressure, and cause nocturnal hypertensionInsulin resistance / Type 2 DiabetesNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Raise your uric acid levels, which can result in gout and/or metabolic syndromeAccelerate the progression of chronic kidney diseaseIntracranial atherosclerosis(narrowing and hardening of the arteries in your skull)
Exacerbate cardiac abnormalities if you're deficient in copperHave a genotoxic effect on the colonPromote metastasis in breast cancer patients
Cause tubulointerstitial injury (injury to the tubules and interstitial tissue of your kidney)Promotes obesity and related health problems and diseasesPromotes pancreatic cancer growth