Tag Archive for Sugar

Can You Eat Potatoes ( or other starchy Real Whole Foods) ? Test Your Blood Sugar!

4 girls after walking cere

( I love this pic of my girls! Raise healthy kids!  They’re depending on us!)

Potatoes, corn, carrots, plantains, bananas, beans,…wow, they sure do cause confusion.  Years ago, Dr. Atkins came out with his first book and completely demonized these foods by lumping them in with grains and sugars.

It was a great book, and he had a TON of research behind his initial recommendations, which were that if you’re overweight and want to lose, cut waaay down on the carbs, and consume lots of protein and fat.  He’s right.  Crappy carbs will not only put weight on us – and our kids – but they’re the perfect vehicle for:  inflammation, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurological conditions, ADD, ADHD, skin issues, and just about every disease out there.  Crappy carbs cause an Inflammatory Environment in our body – and our kids bodies.

Crappy Carbs are Evil.

But are those Real Whole Foods I listed above “Crappy Carbs”?  No. But that doesn’t mean you get to eat them.  Sorry.  The real answer is, “It depends.”  What do they do to your blood sugar after you eat them?  There’s an easy way to find out:  buy a blood sugar kit, aka, a Glucometer.

IT’S SO FUN – honest!  You might think Glucometers are just for diabetics, but they’re not.  Anyone can buy a kit in any drugstore or Walmart, or off Amazon, anywhere.

If you’re a weight loss client of mine, you probably already own one.  If you’re not a client, but a blog reader, buy one today.  Here’s why.

When blood sugar rises above “normal”, (normal is between 80 – 100, but some labs have lowered that value to 70 – 90), the pancreas releases the hormone INSULIN.  Insulin is an anabolic, building hormone.  Insulin takes the excess blood sugar, the amount that sends the value over “normal”, and stuffs a little in our muscle cells (the empty ones), a little in the liver-glycogen storage (if it’s low) and then…….turns all the rest of the excess into FAT/triglycerides, and stores them in the fat cells.

How does Blood Sugar get above normal?  EASY.  Every single carbohydrate we eat becomes blood sugar in our gut.  EVERY. SINGLE. CARB. Whether it’s from a grain, pure sugar, fruit, veggies, beans, nuts, whatever.  The carbohydrate in those foods is reduced to Glucose.  That’s the gut’s job:  break food down to chemical molecules so our cells can use it.  All carbs become glucose and fructose, 2 tiny, simple sugars that fit in cells easily.  (Today, we’re just talking about glucose; fructose is evil too! More on that later.)

How much blood sugar is too much?  If we weight 150 pounds, we have about 4.7 liters of blood.  “Normal” blood sugar – a measurement of 85 on the glucometer – equals 4 grams of sugar in the whole body.  4 Grams.  4 Grams. That’s 16 calories of carb (1 gram = 4 calories).  More than that, and the conversion of sugar/glucose to fat/triglycerides happen.

A medium French Fry has 47 g of sugar (all carbs break down to sugar).

A can of coke has 39 g of sugar.

Krave Jerky Lime Chile has 39 g of sugar per package.

1 cup of pasta has 43 g of sugar/carbs.

1 cup of orange juice 27 g of sugar.

Those are all obvious Crappy Carbs; the starches become sugar/glucose very very quickly and go from gut to blood stream fast.  But the real reason they’re Crappy is because they’re highly, highly processed and have no nutritional value at all.  None.  They’re so anti-good for us they’re poison!

Conventional wisdom tries to tell us that pasta has B vitamins, or french fries from McDonalds are vegetables.  Bull Crap. Those B vitamins – added/fortified – back into the pasta, were made in a factory in China from synthetic materials.   And those Mc D’s french fries?  19 ingredients!!  Gross! That’s not real!  Read their ingredient list, and several others, here.  Please, read it.  Our kids eat this stuff, and our kids are getting sicker and fatter and sadder than ever.

It’s. The. Food.

So what about YOU, and ME, and potatoes, or corn, or plantains, or all these other starchy fruits and veggies?  How does that affect our blood sugar since we know they’re carbohydrates?

I don’t know how they affect you; I know how they affect me because I’ve pricked my finger and tested a million times in the past 5 years.  Buy the glucometer and test yourself.  They’re cheap and they’re easy to use. Prick your finger 90 minutes after a meal (peak blood sugar), and look at the number.  See how your oatmeal or your pasta or your crackers affected you.

And see how a meal of corn or potatoes or bananas or beans, or any high carb fruit or veggie, affects you.

Five years ago, I had pretty fluctuating blood sugar.  I considered myself “low carb” because I ate a lot of “low carb” foods:  Kashi Go Lean, Low Carb Tortillas, Low Carb Bread, Low Carb Ice Cream, Low Carb Cookies…..  then I bought the glucometer.  Wow.  Did I get a wake up call.  My blood sugars were way too high, and it scared me into action.

No more Low Carb Crap, just Real Whole Foods.  Of course, I worried about the high carb fruits and veggies, and the glucometer showed that yes, they did raise my blood sugar too much.  So I cut way back on them.

In the past 5 years I’ve changed and refined my diet – a lot.   I eat more herbs and spices than ever – every day.  I use essential oils.  I’ve added more fat than I ever thought possible.  I’ve managed to completely delete “cheat days” from my life (thank you God), I’ve become scared of processed foods to the degree that I’m literally afraid of them.  I’ve joined several food co-ops, I go to a couple different farmers markets.

Last summer I went totally ketogenic for a few months.

In other words, I’ve taken several actions, consistently, for several years now, and guess what?  Now when I take my blood sugar ( which I still do all the time – and I take my kids and Mark’s often also), it’s always good.

A few mornings a week I throw a banana into my smoothie – blood sugar stays low.

I eat potatoes or plantains for dinner at least 4 or 5 nights a week.  The other night I measured before dinner, I was 78.  After a dinner of roasted potatoes coated w butter, squash coated with olive oil and parm, a steak, and a piece of dark chocolate, I was 98.

I’VE BECOME SO DARN NORMAL.  It’s awesome!

I believe you can become normal too, with persistence and consistence.

What’s normal?  Normal is when you eat a real whole food, in normal amounts, in a normal diet full of nutrient dense foods loaded with good fats, some protein, and a ton of vegetables, and your body processes it just fine.

Your muscle and liver cells are open to the carbs and the fat both, you sleep well, you don’t feel sick, bloated or brain foggy – ever, and your energy and immune system hum.

By the way, as good as they look, 6 pack abs aren’t totally normal, especially for most women. Having some body fat – is normal.  Being ripped, lean, and shredded, goes against most body types, and the actions needed to get there usually lower thyroid function, lower body fat to unhealthy levels, and mess up our sex and adrenal hormones.

Not normal.

How can you become normal?  There’s only one way: change how your brain things about about your body and food.  No more diet and weight loss focus, it doesn’t work. Focus on your health instead.  Pledge that at least a few times a week you’re going to read something from Dr. Mercola or Suzy Cohen or Dr. Davis/Wheat Belly or if you’re interested in the science behind the Ketogenic Diet (because I really do believe it heals cells and the liver and reverses insulin resistance) check out Dr. Nally here.

Here’s my Cigarette Analogy:  would you ever pick up a cigarette butt off the sidewalk and put it in your mouth? No! That would be disgusting, and there’d be no effort at all in resisting that urge.  I want you to look at a slurpee or a box of cookies or a fast food burger and think:  “I’d never put that in my mouth, that’s disgusting!”.

Here’s something that’s not disgusting, and it’s delicious!  2 Recipes, each I’ve had on here before, but they’re worth repeating.   The first is my Sweet Potato Pizza – Oh My Gosh is it delicious!!

Chipotle Sweet Potato-Zucchini Pizza

20150627_145925

1 large sweet potato
1 large green zuc, ring out water by 20150627_172301twisting in a towel
1 heaping tbsp chipotle powder
3 eggs, beaten
5 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pat onto a pizza pan. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes. Top with tomato sauce and cheese ( and whatever else you want, I’ve done corn, cilantro, and peppers). Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes – kids love this and it’s so much better than french fries-

roasted potatoesScrub and dice potatoes
Pour a couple tbsp of melted KerryGold butter and coat them w it
Salt & Pepper
Bake at 425  50-55 minutes, flip w a spatula half way through.

By the way, these things freeze and reheat beautifully, they’re a great Power Cooking food.

Sugar Cravings, Pimples on Your Butt, Fatigue, and Cracks at the Corner of Your Mouth? You Can Heal That.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe’re officially into The Season Of Eating, where many of us will actually EXPECT to gain weight, somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds, by January 1, 2015.  Not me.  Not Mark.  And I want you to say, Not Me Either.

I don’t want you on a diet, I don’t want you to count calories or carbs or fat.  I want you to start thinking of Food as Information, because the Food We Put In Our Mouth Becomes Who We Are.

So how are you?

Symptoms, like those listed in the title,  are a “sign of the existence of something, especially of an undesirable situation.” Sugar cravings, pimples on your butt,….they’re signs of Nutrient Deficiencies, not medicine deficiencies.  Do you want to be a Happy Weight, with great energy, hair, skin, low levels of inflammation and perfect digestion?  You need to feed your cells what God intended for them to eat.

Our bodies are made from Water (~60%), Proteins/amino acids (~16%), Fatty Acids (~15%), Minerals (~4%), Vitamins (~2%), and LESS than 2% (made from) Carbs/Sugar.  If we eat a diet LOADED in carbohydrate ( say…..11 servings of grains a day per My Plate),  plenty of Low Fat foods, chemicals that make things taste/smell/look like ACTUAL food, bad oils, and Drugs – for all our ills – we’re in trouble.

“Food is Information; we’re NOT a calories in/calories out model, we’re a chemistry set.” JJ Virgin.

Look at this short list of Symptoms.  I’m going to attach possible deficiency causes, and I want you to start thinking of FOOD in terms of What It Does To Us, the good (glowing health), the bad (weight issues), and the ugly ( CANCER and DISEASE):

Sugar Cravings:  You could be deficient in L-Glutamine, an amino acid that builds Dopamine. Dopamine alleviates anxiety (sugar momentarily does that, but long-term actually worsens the dopamine deficiency – it’s a vicious cycle).  Is your addiction to sweets overpowering?  Practice thinking of simple sugars as Devils Food, seriously.  Processed sugar’s links to CANCER, Heart Disease, and Diabetes are concrete and undeniable.   Supplementing with L-Glutamine is a great way to deal with cravings and addictions; ask me if you’re interested in trying this.

Pimples on your butt/arms/thighs/checks:  You could be deficient in Omega 3, Vitamin A, or Vitamin D. Make a big effort to eat foods high in those nutrients: salmon, sardines, grass fed dairy, leafy greens, and orange/red fruits and veggies.  Green Pastures Fermented Cod Liver Oil is a great source of all 3 nutrients, as are the Fruit/Veggie and Seafood areas at the grocery store.

Fatigue: So many possibilities, let’s just look at Adrenal Fatigue.  Do you get enough fat? Your adrenal glands are made of fat, and the Fight/Flight hormones they make are produced from fat and cholesterol, and the Sex Hormones they make are produced from fat and cholesterol. Eat a low fat diet, and you’ll have low functioning Adrenal Glands, guaranteed.

Cracks at the corners of your mouth:  iron, zinc, and B vitamin deficiency, and iron absorption is enhanced by Vitamin C, so maybe C deficiency.  Do you get enough good red meats?  Eggs from chickens allowed to eat bugs and plants, uncaged and free?  Do you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables?  Do you occasionally eat oysters or liver?  They’re super nutrient dense.

Dry Skin: your skin is made from proteins and fatty acids.  Do you eat enough?  Look at your skin closely in the mirror and access it.  Your skin is an ENORMOUS reflection of your diet.  Do you eat too much sugar?  Sugar, from grains, alcohol, and the white stuff, GLYCATES our skin cells.  That means glucose molecules ( from sugar/alcohol/ and grains ) improperly attach to our skin cells and destroy both their function and their ability to communicate.  This is evidenced as premature wrinkling and age spots.  Quit eating sugar, and add Bone Broth.

Headaches/High Blood Pressure/Diabetes/Cardiovascular Issues/Muscle Cramps:  there’s a good chance you’re Magnesium deficient.  Statistically, 80% of Americans are Magnesium deficient, which is a bad thing.  Magnesium’s involved in several hundred chemical reactions necessary for good health.  Foods which SHOULD be high in Magnesium are leafy greens, avocados, nuts, and seeds.  We’ve got a problem though;  food gets it’s minerals from the soil, and our soil is almost devoid of Magnesium; this also applies to organic food unless it’s been grown in soil to which minerals have been added.  Another depleter of Mag?  Round-up;  actually the chemical in Round-up called glyphosate, which “chelates” or grabs on to and EXPELS from our body, several minerals including Magnesium.  (A good reason to avoid GMO)

My point here, Magnesium Supplementation is pretty much a MUST for everyone. Even a diet full of Magnesium rich foods probably won’t supply the levels we need.  Let me know if you need a recommendation, because the quality and origin of supplements matter.

Back to my opening; PRACTICE and FOCUS on thinking about food in terms of your health and your energy and your skin and your immune system.  When you become careful about what you put in your mouth because your know that certain foods can cause Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Bad Skin, Thin Hair, and Depression, you have the strength and motivation to Just Say No without the stress.

Moms, this is why it’s easy for me to say NO to Shelby when she asked for “a Real Cake with Flour” for her 18th birthday.  I’m not giving her cigarettes, I’m not giving her alcohol, I’m not giving her drugs, and I’m not giving her gluten and sugar.  It’s Toxic. ( BTW, she’s my #4, so YES I know she eats crap, but on her own dime and not in the house. )

Be determined to become very conscious about what you eat.  Every single food we eat sends signals and information and has hormonal effects that either make us healthier, or less healthy. Every single food.  There are No Neutral Foods.  Practice thinking of food in terms of what it contains in every way EXCEPT CALORIES.  Calorie counting is a SHAM.  It’ll just make you sick, CRAZY, and probably overweight ( 95-99% of EVERYONE who goes on a diet gains their weight back, 50% gain more than they lost.)  

Need help?  Get in touch with me.  You can do this!  You can change, you can lose weight, you can become healthier, you can improve the health of your whole family.  Ditch the sugars, the grains, and the chemicals, and eat Real Whole Foods.

Success Story: Conquer Your Blood Sugar and Your Food Addictions

dominos energy liftYou’re going to love today’s Success Story.  Aida has been working with me since last Fall, and so far, she’s lost more than 30 pounds ( so has her husband ). She’s also reduced and eliminated several medications, become a regular “packer” and
“cooker”, and broken her food addiction.  Really broken, as in, it’s amazing.  Thank goodness she listened to her “fear”.  Too many people AREN’T afraid of the state of their health, they think their prescription drugs actually make them well.  They don’t.

If you’re on meds, say like, BP pills, statins, mood meds, migraine/headache pills, pain pills, stomach pills, etc, you’re got  problems.  These medications aren’t making you better, they’re suppressing and managing your symptoms;  the CAUSE of the symptoms is still there and still doing damage. If you want to get healthy, you have to (1) eat for health (2) figure out the root cause of the symptoms and address that (lifestyle changes).

Aida’s a Type 2 Diabetic; diabetes 2 is a LIFESTYLE disease.  It can be reversed lucky strikethrough lifestyle changes.  Insulin and blood sugar rise and fall according to our food choices, exercise/activity, and stress management. No One has diabetes because they’re deficient in diabetes drugs.  Did you know that by 2020, the CDC predicts that 50% of the US will be diabetic, and that it will cost 3.35 TRILLION dollars to “manage” it.  Not CURE it, or REVERSE it, but MANAGE it.  No health care system EVER could afford that.  EVER.

What about Food Addiction, because this is HUGE.  I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: if you’re trying to get healthy/lose weight with Low Fat, No Fat foods, or Diet Processed Foods, you’re just feeding and nurturing your addiction and furthering your inflammatory state.   You’ve got to ditch Grains, Sugar, Chemicals, and Hydrogenated Oils, and you’ve got to focus on a diet full of healthy fats, good proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some dairy if you can tolerate it.  Grains, sugars, and chemicals stimulate the Addictive Areas of Your Brain.  Always.

Think you can’t live without your Cereal, your Bread, Your Beer or Wine (liquid donuts)?  You can.  Lot’s of people break their addictions, why couldn’t you?

7UPMoms and Dads, are you raising future Diabetics, or future Food Addicts? If you’re raising your kids on a diet of pop tarts, cereals, sandwiches, pizza, and junk food, rest assured, you are.  And it will happen to them far quicker than it happened to your generation.  No One can eat those foods without accumulating damage.  No One.

Take control of your thoughts, instead of nurturing your addictions, nurture positive habits and attitudes about food, yourself, and exercising. Forget everything Big Food, Big Pharma, and our government has told you about Healthy Whole Grains.  All carbohydrates are broken down to single cell sugars in our gut; that means ALL CARBS BECOME EITHER GLUCOSE OR FRUCTOSE.  ALL OF THEM. High blood glucose and fructose levels and high insulin create an inflammatory state, and inflammation’s the cause of EVERY DISEASE OUT THERE.  You can change yourself.  Honest.  You can be an inspiration and example for your children.  You can feel energetic and well; you can be a healthy weight, start with Real Whole Food.

Here’s Aida’s story:

Last fall, I was scared. I was tired. I was frustrated.

I had let my health go unchecked, even though I knew better, and was on a lot of medications.  I had let my appetites go unchecked, knowing that it was hurting my body, but I was addicted.  Now, my doctors were getting really serious with me, and it made me scared. They kept adding more and more medications.  I had to do something, but I felt as if I had tried everything before and failed. Why try it again to just fail again?  When I tried to do what the doctors told me to do, it seemed as if I never improved, and sometimes got worse.  I was also seeing my husband’s health getting worse as well.  We didn’t want to do another weight loss diet. We needed to get healthy.  We wanted to get healthy.

Someone suggested I look at this website, and enter Debbie! Debbie sat us down together and began teaching us.  This is the first time I had heard most of the information she was sharing.  Her plan for us began with just eat real whole foods!  Our health would begin with what we put in our mouths, and our attitudes towards our foods.  Stop wheat and other grains – which we had done before and were somewhat successful with.  We knew we could do that.  Stop sugars, including most artificial sweeteners,  which would be tougher, because I was addicted.

We listened to what she had to say and began implementing this new approach and were shocked that almost immediately we saw improvement in our health.  Hunger went away.  Cravings went away.   For me, my blood sugars normalized within days!  I began to look forward to my next round of doctors, just to make sure that this new way of life was really working.  And it was!  All my “numbers” showed improvement within a couple of months, and have continued to improve with each doctor visit.  I have been taken off some of the medications.

Through monthly meetings and daily emails, Debbie has continued to teach and encourage.  She has helped me understand what makes me personally healthy. She has helped me with my food addictions. My husband’s health also reflects the changes we have made.

Now, I am looking forward to this spring, with clarity, with energy, and healthier (and lighter) than I have been in over 30 years!

Aida M. Kling

 

 

Estrogen, Cortisol, and Thyroid; GIRLS SCOUT COOKIES, Recipes

blood spotOkay, Full Disclosure:  I’m Going Through Menopause. Ugh. This picture to the left?  That’s a “Blood Spot” test I did this morning. More on that in another post, I promise.  I’m actually just letting you know because today I’m tying Hormones to Health, Mood, and Food. What We Eat Affects Our Body and Mind.  I’m doing this after being inspired by a client email last night, asking if eating a few Girl Scout cookies would undue a “good” day. Let me tie my menopause, YOUR body, and her girl scout cookies together, because they are.  Our body, our energy, our emotions, our health,.. they’re one big connection.

Here’s some interesting facts:

*The Ingredient list for Samoas:(Don’t be hatin on the Messenger!)

Sugar, vegetable oil (soybean and palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm kernel and/or cottonseed oil), enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin,reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1],riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), corn syrup, coconut,sweetened condensed milk (condensed milk, sugar),contains two percent or less of sorbitol, glycerin, cocoa,invert sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, cornstarch,salt, caramelized sugar, soy lecithin, dextrose, natural and artificial flavor, carrageenan, leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate).

Pure Poison.

* Since our body could CARE A LESS about calories, and is DOMINATED by the hormones Insulin and Cortisol, does “food” like this undo a good day?  YES!,  “food” like this is ALWAYS harmful for your body. Always.  After eating this, your blood sugar and insulin spike, your Immune System is suppressed for 24 hours, you’ve allowed in Cancer Causing Sugar and Flour (glucose – cancer’s favorite food), Chemicals (artificial colors, flavors), soy, hydrogenated oils and Omega 6/Inflammatory vegetable oils. If ONLY the worst side effect was a little weight gain.

* What if you’re in the Majority of Women, and struggle with Bloat and Headaches; bile beanswhat affect will this “food” have on those issues?  Bloat, which happens in the Small Intestines, is from Bacteria or Yeast that DOESN’T BELONG THERE.  BLOAT IS NOT NORMAL. EVER.  Eat “food” like these Girl Scout Cookies, and you’ve just fed that bacteria and yeast it’s most favorite, fortifying meal.  It’s like when Popeye eats the can of spinach and then he can beat up Bruno.  That’s what’s going on in your “dysbiotic gut” (overgrowth of the bad stuff, not enough good):  you’ve just empowered it and prolonged your condition.

* Headaches are highly linked to Sugar/Flour/Insulin/Cortisol/Thyroid/Estrogen.  There’s a cascade effect going on that’s too long to write about, but eat this “food”, and if you’re prone to headaches, you’ll get one.

* Eating “food” like this suppresses/destroys our beneficial gut bacteria.  Here’s one surprising side effect from that: after our body produces estrogen,(this is for MEN and WOMEN) and uses it, it’s sent back to the liver to be broken down.  After leaving the liver, the “conjugated” estrogen is sent to the small intestine to be further broken down, or actually consumed by, the bacteria “lactobacillus acidophilis”.  If you’ve destroyed your gut bacteria with: SUGAR (the kind in Girl Scout Cookies), Processed Refined Foods (like a Girl Scout Cookie), Antibiotics, Cortisol/Stress, chemicals in water (fluoride, chlorine, etc), birth control pills, anti-inflammatories, acid suppressors, or Splenda,  you’ve likely impaired your bodies ability to break down and get rid of “old estrogen”;  back into the system the estrogen goes instead of being pooped or peed out of you.  Not Good.  (Bryan – there’s your favorite word again)

*The Sugar, Flour, and Chemicals in this product will ABSOLUTELY STIMULATE AND NURTURE the Addiction Centers in your brain.  And your child’s brain.

*Eat enough of these to raise your blood sugar way above normal, and your pancreas will respond with a big dose of Insulin to push it back down.  Unfortunately though, when blood sugar crashes, Cortisol is called in to correct it. Boom!  Stress.   Like I said above, Cortisol and Insulin are our 2 Dominant hormones, whether we’re male or female.  Too much Cortisol and too much Insulin mean that Sex Hormones and Thyroid Hormones will have to take a back seat.  Reproduction and Metabolism are not priorities.  Balancing blood sugar ( because SUGAR IS TOXIC), and Fight/Flight (staying alive) are priorities.

What’s all this have to do with my peri-menopause?  So far, my only symptom has been losing my period.  I’m sleeping well, no hot flashes, no up and down moods.  If pretend foods like Girl Scout Cookies were a normal part of my diet, I’d be a nut case.  ( to my husband and children, ……..)  Being a hormonal nut case IS NOT NORMAL.  It’s the food, it’s the food, it’s the food.  It ALWAYS matters, always.

When you look at that cookie or cake or chip or whatever it is that’s calling you, STOP.  Ask yourself, “how will I feel about this in an hour”;  practice thinking about the long term consequences from our actions.  Isn’t that what we tell our kids?  It’s great advice for us too!

Parchment-SalmonHere’s a recipe we made last night, oh my gosh it was delicious! Samoras-2-0051 I used cod instead of salmon because it’s cheaper and I can always find wild caught.  The parsley and lemon together were so good!  Did you know that parsley helps the body detox heavy metals, and that’s it’s LOADED with Vitamin’s K, C, A, and Bs, and a whole bunch of minerals.  And here’s a Paleo Samoa cookie Meg made – it was excellent!  You can have a dessert that doesn’t shoot up your blood sugar and instigate destruction of your brain and body, or your kids brain and body.  Real Whole Food is the answer.

All Behavior is Belief Driven

elfJust 9 days til Christmas – I feel the energy in the air!!  Along with a giant To-Do list in my notebook.

I’m going to blast some facts at you, because : All Behavior Is Belief Driven.  Think it’s hard to walk past platters full of doughnuts, cookies, or bagels without eating any? It depends on your belief:  do you believe that flour and sugar are literally toxic to your brain and body, or do you still look at food as calories that you can work-off or starve-off later?

Fact: flours that contain Gluten (a group of proteins that are in grains) have ADDICTIVE properties, they literally stimulate pleasure centers in your brain that make you want more.

Fact:  no human being on earth has the digestive enzymes to break down glutens from wheat, barley, or rye.  Think you don’t have a problem because you’re not a Celiac?  Celiac disease is an AUTO IMMUNE reaction to the glutens. That happens to some people.   For the rest of us, the damage accumulates over YEARS:  the undigested proteins leak thru the gut wall, inappropriately; our immune system responds to the foreign objects, and where we’re most vulnerable (joints, brain, nervous system, thyroid, etc) gets attacked.

Fact:  sugar has ADDICTIVE properties. Studies show that it’s MORE addictive than Cocaine.  In 1700, the average American ate 4 lbs of sugar a year; in 1800 it was 18 lbs;  in 1900 it was 90 lbs,  in 2009, it was 180 lbs.   

Imagine the power that foods containing both Gluten and Sugar possess.  Think you can have just a little?  Maybe,  there’s actually still some people left that can have a bite and walk away, but they’re in the minority.  Most people have their appetites seriously triggered, and it tends to stay triggered.

Fact: in 1890, 3% of the population was overweight,  in 2010, 70% of our population was overweight.

Fact:  Gluten and Sugar are conclusively linked to Cancer, Heart Disease, Obesity, Migraines, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Auto Immune Conditions, Depression, ADHD, ADD, Anxiety, and just about every disease out there.

Fact: 70% of Illnesses today are PREVENTIBLE.  70%.

There’s a sweet, sweet girl who’s wisdom I follow, her name is Charis.  She wrote one of the most profound statements this past weekend.  She said to spend time before the New Year thinking about what you manifested this past year.  OMG I LOVE THAT.  Our life, our body, our thoughts, our “luck”, our relationships, they’re all exactly what we made of them.  Evaluate where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.  If it’s a different place, it won’t be doing the same old thing, that’s for sure.

We only have a few weeks left of the Change.   Nothing changes if our thoughts don’t change.  Nothing.  Actually, I should say, nothing PERMANENTLY changes.  Will powering through situations is do-able, for a little while.  Then there’s the backlash.  Remember that quote I used the other day, ” for every diet, there is an equal and opposing binge”?

Practice making the association between every bite you put in your mouth and your health, your energy, and your resilience.   If you have children, help them make that association too.  We live in a world that promises happiness if you drink diet coke or eat pop tarts and frozen pizza.  We’re bombarded with ads promising quick fixes with pharmaceuticals.  We see pictures of beautiful people indulging in alcohol, chips, and candy, sending the message that if they do that and look that good, we can do that and look that good.  It’s not true.  Our body, our brain, and our spirit need Real Whole Food, sleep, exercise, and love.

I’ve got 3 quotes for you; if you really want to change, write them down and meditate on them.  Post them on your lamp your mirror your steering wheel;  practice positive, productive thinking.

(1) “Most of us have practiced doing things the wrong way for years, we can’t expect everything to turn around in a few weeks. ”  Joyce Meyers

(2) “Change your thoughts and you change your world.”  Norman Vincent Peale

(3) “Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.”  Golda Meir

 

Got Impotence or Wrinkles? You’re a Sugar Burner. Plus, Nutritional Therapy Weekend

debbie (23)Does your body burn fat all day, or does it burn sugar/glucose all day?  That TOTALLY depends on your diet.  And I’m not talking about the Old Fashioned Conventional Wisdom Diet: eat low-fat, low-cal, and exercise a ton.  That diet is a Sugar Burning Diet;  there’s too much hard scientific research now showing that if we’re Sugar Burners, we’re setting ourselves up for disease, pain, and weight gain. Oh yeah, and Impotence and Wrinkles.  Who wants those??  Here’s what’s going on:

When you eat Carbohydrates ( pasta, fruit, starchy veggies, ALL GRAINS, beans, and skim milk products), your body breaks them down to GLUCOSE/SUGAR.  When your blood stream ( where all the glucose goes after digestion) becomes OVER full of glucose (easy, because it doesn’t take much), much of the EXCESS carbs are converted to Triglycerides, (a fat), and deposited in your fat cells.  IF ONLY THIS WERE THE EXTENT OF THOSE DARN EXCESS CARBS.  Fatness.  But it’s not….  When excess sugar is consumed, it takes the body a while to clear it from the blood stream back down to “normal” levels (80-100mg).  During that time, the excess sugar is literally wrecking havoc on your brain, your joints, your immune system, your mood, your organs, your nerve cells, and your blood vessels.  The damage accumulates slowly, but it’s happening.  100% guarantee.

What about the Impotence and Wrinkles?  When your blood sugar is chronically high, which is typical if you eat the Standard American Diet ( 5-6 meals of grains, sugars, and “low fat” foods), glucose is allowed to linger in the blood too long.  This give the Sugar/Glucose molecules the opportunity to attach to proteins ( in the blood, or on the body, like the cells lining your blood vessels, brain, joints, or skin, for example).  When this happens, it’s called an Advanced Glycated Endproduct (AGE); here’s where, Bad Stuff happens.   Cells in your Blood Vessels are unable to produce Nitric Oxide, and blood flow is impeded.  There’s your Impotence.

When it happens in the skin, the AGE’s attach to the protein Collagen; stiffness and lack of blood flow, and clumps of debris cause: wrinkles, inflammation, inhibited skin cell growth, liver spots, and general “accelerated aging”.

It always comes down to TOO MUCH SUGAR.  What if you don’t eat sugar?  What if you’re not bowl of pastaoverweight?  If you’re eating any amount of Carbohydrate ( whole grains/ whole wheat/flour products, or beans) they’re digested down to GLUCOSE/SUGAR. Period.  Each time/every time/all the time.  Our body breaks food down to it’s barest molecules. Always. You don’t need to eat “sugar” to have sugar in the blood.  Read above sentence.

Okay, back to Impotence and Wrinkles: they’re bad.  No one wants them.  But we’ve also got the fact that if you have elevated sugar/glucose in your blood, your body WON’T pull fat from your FAT STORES to burn for energy.  Even if you’re working out.  Sugar’s toxic, the body needs to clear it ASAP;  fat’s NOT toxic, so the body converts the excess sugar to fat and stores it.

Am I convincing you yet that you need to give up your bread and pasta?  Are you addicted??  Here’s a little clip from a show called Portlandia;  it’s about Pasta Addiction, and it’s maybe one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.  You might relate.

I’m at a hotel for 3 days during my Nutritional Therapy Weekend, so I want to post my meals and workouts.

Yesterday: No Workout:(  Left the house too early and had to do homework first.

Paul Newman Coffee w Raw Cream
B – Smoothie w/beets/blueberries/whey protein/coconut flakes
L – (packed) chicken breast, apple, coconut butter w cocoa powder (see my last post for recipe)
D – (cooked in room on a plug in frying pan) 2 chicken thighs, fatty broth, chopped cabbage and cauliflower w curry powder (I’d put this in a baggie before I left home)  2 celery sticks with cauliflower hummus

I’m off to the gym now, but I don’t want to leave you thinking: damn, I’m in trouble.  A lot of damage can be reversed, honestly.  Start eating Real Whole Food Fats (they’re healthy), cut way down on your carbs (especially flours/grains and sugars), include healthy proteins and tons of vegetables, cook, pack, and practice paying attention to your food.  Read Practical Paleo or Grain Brain or any of the great “how to eat books and why” that are out there.  It’s never too late!    Let me know how you’re doing:)

Change Your Body By Changing Your Thoughts, and a LHBI

You really can’t change your body without changing your thoughts. If your thoughts about food have been dominated by Calories and Fat Grams, then you’ve probably either been in a yo-yo weight pattern, or a gaining pattern, or you’re always hungry. Because thinking of food in terms of Calories and Fat is NEVER a winning, healthy, long term strategy. (70% of Americans are overweight, and Diet Foods are a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry.)
It’s the INGREDIENTS in our food, and the amount of SUGAR/CARBOHYDRATES that have the biggest impact on your hormones, your mood, your willpower, and your hunger. Here’s what I mean.

juice bottlesLook at Odwalla Juices, which you’ll find in the healthy section of your grocery store.
Wow, their Website looks Natural!! They’ve got soft colors, what looks to be hand-drawn leaves and flowers, and you can even help them Plant Trees for the Environment. You have to keep their juices refrigerated, and they have little “gluten free” signs on their bottles. Surely this would be a healthy food for you or your kids? A Real Whole Food??
I pulled out 10 different product lists, some of which had 16 ingredients, and they all contain HUGE amounts of carbohydrate. 43 grams/bottle, 30 grams/bottle, 28 grams/bottle, and so on.

All Carbs Become Sugar/Glucose In the Body. Period. Always. Carbs are Sugar/Glucose. So under the Carbohydrate line in the ingredient list, where it has a sub catagory for sugar, DISREGARD that line. It’s deceiving. All Carbs Become Sugar In the Body.
4 grams of Carbohydate equals 1 Teaspoon of sugar. Our body can handle about 2 teaspsoons of Sugar in the Blood before the pancreas has to spit out Insulin and do Damage Control.
I’ll go into this further later, but for now know this: All Excess Sugar/Carb/Blood Glucose gets remade into Triglycerides and deposited in the midriff area. Plus, this amount of sugar leads to a blood sugar high, and a blood sugar drop.
High Blood Sugar and High Insulin do a lot of damage to every area of the body: your brain, your organs, your hormones, your extremities, your eyes, your arteries.
Lots more on Blood Sugar later.
Let’s examine a FEW of the many ingredients on the ingredient lists. Soy Protein, and Soy Protein Isolate: soy is usually GMO and always a Phytoestrogen, – no one needs phytoestrogens!!! Not males, and not females. Think excess female hormones, thyroid problems, and cancer. “Invert Cane Sugar” is on several lists, that’s just Sugar. Tricalcium phosphate is on several lists, which is listed on the Hazaradous Chemical Data base as having possible side effects of irritation to the skin, eyes, lungs, and gastrointestional tract. There’s also plenty of “added” vitamins. If they’re ADDED, they’ve usually been synthesized in a factory. As opposed to Real Vitamins and Minerals and PhytoNutrients that are Naturally contained within Real Whole Foods. The ability of the body to absorb and use Real nutrients as opposed to Synthetic nutrients is very different.
The bottom line is, if you want some fruit, grab an apple or a banana, or some strawberries.
Let’s go back to my subject line: you can’t make a physical change without making a mental change. If you’ve been struggling with your weight or your health, and thinking of food in terms of just calories and fat, it’s kept you in your holding pattern. Thinking of food in terms of Real, and Whole, and Nutrients will make you Healthy. Leanness is a Side Effect of being Healthy.