The Paleo Diet and its Benefits

            So paleo diets are something that I have personal experience with. My parents were both on the edge of diabetes and in response they changed their life style to be paleo. Basically what they did was eating a diet that did not include legumes, grains, sugar, and minimal diary. The point of the diet is to eat like our Paleolithic ancestors and because they were basically healthier. One fundamental thing people living a paleo lifestyle focus on is the idea that humans are basically allergic to grains. The thought is that people are allergic to grains and that we all have varying reactions to grains, but that we don’t notice them because it is something we have been living with our entire lives. In short it means eating the way humans are genetically designed to.

Heath Benefits Include…

1.      Weight loss.

2.      You’ll feel full faster.

3.      Increased iron intake.

4.      Vegetables act as an anti-inflammatory.

The Cons to a Paleo Diet…

1.      It’s expensive.

2.      Consuming no diary isn’t great for your bones.

3.      Most people have to take vitamins.

4.      It’s hard for vegetarians because they can’t eat beans.

More information on the Paleo diet can he found here

Could a Ketogenic Diet Prevent Cancer?

So to talk about this I need to establish a few ideas first.

Idea 1: Cancer is cells the continuously divide (reproduce themselves) and collect together to form tumors.

Idea 2: Cells feed off glucose. Carbs and sugar break down into glucose.

Idea 3: Our cells are multi-metabolic and can feed off glucose or ketones, but cancer cells can only feed off of glucose.

Idea 4: Ketones themselves are the body’s alternative energy source for when there is no available glucose. When the body is completely dependent on ketones this is called ketosis.

Now to the point of discussion, can a ketogenic diet help prevent cancer or even hinder its growth?

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02469/cancer-lambert_2469736b.jpg

Thinking about the points listed about, what I suggest is that you can starve cancer cells by entering into ketosis. You can get to ketosis by eating a no or low carb diet. I personally believe that this may be an alternative to some harsher treatments, or an addition to current treatments, that would positively affect cancer patients. Ketosis can also function as a preventative treatment. People who are obese are at a higher risk of cancer than people who are not, and ketogenic diets are proven to help people lose weight.

http://www.kentchemistry.com/links/organic/molecules/Ketone13.gif

I believe that ketogenic diets have the possibility to help prevent and stop cancer, but I do not what you to take my word for it. I am not a registered dietician, this is just the opinion I came to after looking at the evidence. I just want to encourage you to look further into it.

For more on the topic you can look here. I have also written a post on this topic before that would provide you with additional info on ketogenic diets specifically. 

Alcohol and its Horrendous Effects on Our Bodies

          Something I’ve noticed living on a college campus is that alcohol is a big part of the culture, obviously. What I’ve seen on campus is that students are surrounded by peers who encourage alcohol abuse and contribute to all the drunk nights, but what I have not seen is anyone telling students to ease up and take care of them selves. This is seeing as there have been few to no campaigns talking about the effects of alcohol on your body. This has inspired me to educate my peers about the tolls that alcohol can take on your body. Some of the things alcohol abuse takes a toll on include…

The Pancreas

            So first let’s establish that your pancreas is the organ the produces and regulates insulin, and a lack of insulin is what results in diabetes. Ok, now that you know that we can continue. Considerable alcohol consumption can cause the pancreas to excrete toxic fluids and that would eventually result in pancreatitis. This can destroy the pancreas, which would lead to a decrease in insulin production, and then diabetes. So by killing your pancreas alcohol can give you diabetes. Scary huh.

The Liver

            There is a lot of science behind this, but it’s a bit too much to explain here, so I’m just going to go through and tell you about all the great liver related diseases you can get from alcohol. The first is alcohol hepatitis, which is an inflammation of the liver. This can result in jaundice, which causes your skin and eyes to turn yellow. Still not convinced? Alcohol abuse can result in cirrhosis, which is scaring in the liver, and ultimately liver failure. That means a really expense liver transplant while your body fills with toxins. And no thats not some sort of turd, its a liver.

The Brain

            So the obviously shift in cognitive abilities while under the influence is a result of alcohol on the brain, but the other effects you don’t usually hear about are much worse. After extended use of alcohol the frontal lobes in your brain will shrink. What this means is that when you try and get sober you’re at risk for eye paralysis, Vitamin B deficiency, seizures, delirium, and tremors.

For more information on alcohol and its effect on your body click here

A Ketogenic Diet

Ketogenic diets are becoming increasingly popular, but for those of you who don’t keep up on the happenings, you might be asking what a ketogenic diet actually is? Well I’m here to tell you all about it. First we’ll start with the most generic break down of ketosis. Ketosis is when the ketone bodies in the blood are at elevated levels. This means the body has reached ketosis and fat metabolism is at its peak. This means less protein is used for energy sources and more is allowed to go towards muscles gain, because the body is using ketones for energy and not glucose.

Now on to the particulars of the diet. In a ketogenic diet you eat majority fats, required protein, and minimal to no carbs. This again, allows the body to get its energy from more easily accessible ketones, rather than glucose.

So what are good foods to eat if you want to stay in ketosis?

Dairy: Such as milk and cheese. Cream cheese is a great choice for someone aiming for ketosis.

Poultry: Chicken is naturally a good choice because it doesn’t have a lot of carbs, but duck is good too because it contains good fats.

Other meats: Pretty much any meat you can think of will work, as long as you’re eating more fat’s than protein. Bacon is a great option because it has a high fat content.

What foods shouldn’t you eat if you’re aiming for ketosis?

Sugar: Anything containing substantial amounts of sugar is a bad idea. Remember you’re trying to stay away from glucose, and what does sugar ultimately break down into no matter its initial form? That’s right, glucose.

Breads and Pasta: This is a no brainer because if you are aiming for ketosis carbs are obviously the enemy. This is because they end up in simple sugars like glucose too.

Now that we’ve covered that lets talk about where vegetables fit in.

They are interesting case because when you calculate the net carbs in food you subtract fiber from total carbs. So even though veggies contain carbs it doesn’t end up having as big of an effect on your ketosis as if you had just downed a bowl of Panera’s mac and cheese. 

I hope this inspired you to enter ketosis!

Healthy Alternative Sugars

I don’t think I need to explain why sugar isn’t good for you so I’ll just hop into telling you your other options.

Stevia: According to the Global Stevia Institute stevia is a plant indigenous to South America and known for its sweetness. Each plant contains many different steviol glycosides. These glycosides are anywhere from 200 to 350 times sweeter than sugar. Though this sweetness comes without all the calories.

Whey Low: Whey low is another sugar substitute consisting of fructose, sucrose, and lactose. It comes in many different varieties and it proven to be healthier for diabetics. According to the sellers of whey low it only contains 4 calories per tablespoon, compare to sugars 9.

Xylitol: Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol in many vegetables. It has 1/3 as many calories as table sugar. It also has a lower glycemic index.

Honey:  Honey is also a natural sugar substitute. It’s composed of fructose, glucose, sucrose, and maltose similar to whey low. Honey is considerably more caloric than table sugar, but honey is sweeter so you have to use less to get the same effect as sugar. Another benefit to honey is that is less likely to become fat compared to table sugar.

 When it comes to caffeine it’s safe to say I’m an addict…

So aside from the obvious side effects of long term caffeine (headaches, the craving, etc.) I was wondering what was going on inside by body and what else was being effected that I didn’t know about.

I did some research and what I found was very interesting.

According to Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database there are many different side effects of caffeine that vary based on age, weight, and the time period that one’s been consuming caffeine regularly.

Here are the effects on an average sized 17 year old who’s been regularly drinking coffee since they were in sixth grade.

1.      Insomnia (Caffeine can cause sleep disorders in people with AIDS)

2.      Nervousness

3.      Restlessness

4.      Stomach Irritation

5.      Nausea

6.      Vomiting

7.      Raised Heart Rate

8.      Irritation of Heart Disorders

Though I did find some good side effects

1.      Caffeine can help with asthma because it’s shown to open airways for four hours after consumption.

2.      Caffeine can result in mild weight loss because it causes temporary metabolism boost.

3.      200mg of caffeine a day is shown to increase memory.

4.      Caffeine is also used in an IV to help with post-surgery patients. 

This is another post about coconut oil.

     

       For a long time now my family has used coconut oil before it was cool. My dad used it to cook with, but I personally used it for hair mask. Let me say, it’s an amazing hair mask. Though I’ve always wondered what else it can be used for and why it’s considered so healthy?

            According to the Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, coconut oil is composed of about 53% lauric acid. Lauric acid seems to be the main contributor to coconut oils nutritional value, because when it’s ingested its directly metabolized and not stored as fat. Studies have also shown that lauric acid contributes the least to fat build up out of most saturated fats.

    So that we’ve covered what, chemically, makes coconut oil good for us, lets get into the fun stuff.

Uses for Coconut Oil:

1.      Coconut oil can be used to assist weight loss, because it can cause you to feel fuller, but it also doesn’t directly contribute to fat stores in the body.

2.      Coconut oil can be used to clean your teeth. This is called oil pulling, and you just rinse with coconut oil for about 10 minutes before you brush. This takes all the harmful bacteria in your mouth and basically collects it so that you can just spit it out. It also can result in whiter teeth.

3.      Coconut oil can be used as a beauty product. Coconut oil can easily be used as a moisturizer for your hair, face, and skin. You can also shave with it. 

Busting The Fat Free Myth

There has been a lot of question lately as to if the fat free craze from the 90’s has benefitted us and whether or not fat free is even good in the first place?

            Well the running idea at the time was that high fat foods lead to heart disease so avoid them at all cost. What they didn’t know was that there was actually a lot of benefit to eating polyunsaturated fats and avoiding saturated and trans fats specifically. That looks like avoiding creamy or solid fats and eating liquid fats.

            This is because saturated fats are made by adding a hydrogen to their chemical structure. That’s where the word hydrogenated comes from. What this means is that companies have added hydrogen to the natural fats in foods because it typically taste better and increases the shelf life. These means processed foods that contain some kind of cream agent are the ones you should avoid and the ones that more likely to cause heart disease (i.e. lard)

So what kinds of fats should you eat?

Good examples of healthy fats include olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, and most other oils, with the exception of canola oil.

Now aside from heart disease what are the other pros and cons of healthy fats?

According to an article by Sarah Haan, a registered dietician, there are five key pros and cons to eating fats. The first being that it becomes harder for your body to absorb vitamins with a low fat diet. There are a lot of vitamins that are absorbed into fat such as A, D, E, and K, and without fats it’s harder for your body to make use of these vitamins. The second side effect of a low fat diet is that it can cause depression or mood swings. Omega 3, found in fatty acids, can affect your mood. A lack of essential fatty acids has the potential to cause depression. The third side effect of eating fat free is that you are more likely to get colon, breast, or prostate cancer. The fourth negative effect of eating fat free is that since you’re not eating enough your probably taking in more carbs which can result in a nutrient imbalance. The fifth is that eating fat free can result in overeating because you don’t get full as fast and most people tend to eat more of the fat free foods because they think the calories don’t count.

Pasteurization? Is it actually good for us?

Since I was little by dad has always warned against pasteurization. Well I've always wondered, is it really bad for you? Where’s the scientific evidence and what’s actually done in pasteurization? So I decided to do a little digging and find out for myself. 

First, for those of you who aren't aware, I'll establish what pasteurization is. 

Pasteurization is the process of heating milk (there's some other products they do it to too) to about 145ºF to 150ºF for 30 minutes and then lowering the temperature by only about 55ºF. This process was invented by Louis Pasteur in 1864. It was created with the intention of using it on beer and wine in an effort to increase the shelf life.

What the CDC and the FDA claim about pasteurization is…

1.      Pasteurization kills bacteria claimed to cause illnesses in children such as: tuberculosis, typhoid, and diphtheria.

2.      Pasteurization doesn’t get rid of any nutrients that aren’t replaced by other aspects of the American diet.

3.      Pasteurization doesn’t kill the enzyme lactase, it does kill enzymes, just not ones pertinent to the American diet.

4.      Pasteurization doesn’t encourage lactose intolerance

Ok so let’s break down their argument…

According to Foodborne Pathogens and Disease “Several documented milk borne disease outbreaks occurred from 2000-2008 and were traced back to consumption of raw unpasteurized milk” and in retrospect a much smaller number of cases were traced back to pasteurized milk. So the CDC and the FDA’s argument that unpasteurized milk has the potential to cause disease is not false. Ok so let’s say that the first part of their argument is true.

The second part of their argument is a little more off. This should sound fishy considering that the CDC and FDA aren’t denying that pasteurization gets rid of important nutrients. Though they are claiming that the nutrients lost are easily replaced in the American diet, but really who eats what the FDA claims to be healthy? We’re going to disagree with their second point.

As to their arguments third part, it’s up in the air. There are not solid sources stating that there is or is not a significant amount of lactase in raw milk. The enzyme is contained in raw milk and the CDC acknowledges that pasteurization kills enzymes in the milk, but they won’t tell us which ones pasteurization kills.

The fifth part of their argument is closely tied to the fourth. It’s possible that pasteurization doesn’t encourage lactose intolerance. Though how can we really know when there’s no solid evidence that pasteurization doesn’t get rid of the enzyme lactase that allows humans to digest lactose?

So as for this debate it’s still undecided because neither side of the argument has provided sufficient evidence.