Category Archives: anti-aging

These Unhealthy Food Cravings Are a Sign of Mineral Deficiencies

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 Natural News

nutrient defeciency

The following cravings are less common than those detailed above, but are still regularly reported in today’s society:

Oily and fatty foods: You are deficient in calcium. Good sources of calcium include raw milk, cheese, turnip greens and broccoli.

Ice: You are deficient in iron. Eat more iron-rich foods like leafy greens, meat, blackstrap molasses and sea vegetables.

Salty foods: You are deficient in chloride and/or silicon. Try adding more fish, nuts and seeds to your diet.

Rather than giving in to food cravings, we can deal with the root cause and help our body regain balance, and Stay Healthy.

Cooking with vegetable oil releases toxic chemicals linked to cancer

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Robert Mendick

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Vegetable oil could be one of the most unhealthy cooking oils.

Cooking with vegetable oils releases toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases, according to leading scientists, who are now recommending food be fried in olive oil, coconut oil, butter or even lard.

The results of a series of experiments threaten to turn on its head official advice that oils rich in polyunsaturated fats – such as corn oil and sunflower oil – are better for the health than the saturated fats in animal products.

Scientists found that heating up vegetable oils led to the release of high concentrations of chemicals called aldehydes, which have been linked to illnesses including cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Martin Grootveld, a professor of bioanalytical chemistry and chemical pathology, said that his research showed “a typical meal of fish and chips”, fried in vegetable oil, contained as much as 100 to 200 times more toxic aldehydes than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organisation.

In contrast, heating up butter, olive oil and lard in tests produced much lower levels of aldehydes. Coconut oil produced the lowest levels of the harmful chemicals.

Professor John Stein, Oxford’s emeritus professor of neuroscience, said that partly as a result of corn and sunflower oils, “the human brain is changing in a way that is as serious as climate change threatens to be”.

Because the vegetable oil is rich in omega 6 acids, it is contributing to a reduction in critical omega 3 fatty acids in the brain by replacing them, he believes.

“If you eat too much corn oil or sunflower oil, the brain is absorbing too much omega 6, and that effectively forces out omega 3,” said Professor Stein. “I believe the lack of omega 3 is a powerful contributory factor to such problems as increasing mental health issues and other problems such as dyslexia.”

He said sunflower oil and corn oil were now banished from his own kitchen, replaced by olive oil and butter.

Professor Grootveld, of De Montfort University in Leicester, who carried out a series of experiments, said: “For decades, the authorities have been warning us how bad butter and lard was. But we have found butter is very, very good for frying purposes and so is lard.

“People have been telling us how healthy polyunsaturates are in corn oil and sunflower oil. But when you start messing around with them, subjecting them to high amounts of energy in the frying pan or the oven, they undergo a complex series of chemical reactions which results in the accumulation of large amounts of toxic compounds.”

Health concerns linked to the toxic by-products include heart disease; cancer; “malformations” during pregnancy; inflammation; risk of ulcers and a rise in blood pressure.

Saturated fats, including butter, ghee and coconut oil are a healthier option.

Stay Healthy.

High Blood Sugar Level Increases Risk of Breast Cancer and Brain Shrinkage

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from William Faloon, Luke Huber, ND, and Kira Schmid, ND

Protecting arteries against after-Meal glucose Spikes

 

With 12% of all American women destined to develop a breast tumor, taking preventative steps make sense, especially if the same approach also slashes risk of dementia and heart attack…and helps shed fat pounds.

An abundance of published research links high-normal blood glucose levels to increased breast cancer risk. This article reviews the evidence and emphasizes the importance of maintaining glucose at safe low-normal ranges.

Compelling Findings
Senior Woman With Adult Daughter In Park

Life Extension®’s  analysis of 12 independent studies identified strong data suggesting increased breast cancer risk amongst women with so-called “normal” blood glucose levels. For example, premenopausal women with a blood sugar above 84 mg/dL had more than two-times the risk of developing breast cancer compared to those with a blood sugar below 84 mg/dL.

A study of 10,633 women from Italy found significant relationships between blood sugar levels and breast cancer risk.9 In this study, women in the highest glucose quartile (median 96 mg/dL) had a 63% increased risk for breast cancer compared to those in the lowest quartile (median 73 mg/dL) after being “fully adjusted” for multiple variables. The authors stated in the discussion:

Glucose: Our Modern Day Enemy

High-normal blood glucose is a leading cause of premature death overlooked by mainstream doctors today.

More than 80% of the adult population has blood sugar levels that are too high. Most of these people are not diagnosed with diabetes, but just by having high-normal fasting glucose  (over 85 mg/dL), risk of death from cardiovascular disease increases by 40% according to a long-term study conducted on close to 2,000 people.27

This and other studies show that even in otherwise healthy people, those with high-normal glucose are at increased risk of vascular death. For example, those with higher after-meal glucose (for example, 101 mg/dL compared to 83 mg/dL) had a 27% increased risk of death from stroke.

A large body of published scientific research documents that people with higher after-meal glucose spikes have sharply increased risks for most of the diseases we associate with aging such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, kidney failure, retinal damage, and vascular blockages.

Chart 1 on this page shows the horrific consequences when glucose levels are elevated above optimal ranges. (We classify optimal fasting blood sugar as under 86 mg/dL).

Chart 1: Increased Health Risks in People with “Normal” Glucose Levels
Condition Glucose Levels (mg/dL) Increased Risk
Developing Type II Diabetes 100-104 Up to 283%
Stomach Cancer 95-105 Up to 130%
First-time Heart Attack Above 88 242%
Need for Coronary Bypass or Stent Procedure Above 95 73%
High Normal Blood Sugar Harms the Brain
Blood Sugar Test

In September 2012, Australian researchers published findings showing blood glucose at the high end of normal resulted in significant brain shrinkage.47,48

The shrinkage occurred in regions of the brain (hippocampus and amygdala) involved in memory and other critical functions. Atrophy (shrinkage) in these brain areas worsens memory.47,48

For this study, neuroscientists at Australian National University in Canberra studied 249 people in their early 60s. Each of them had blood sugar levels in the normal range. The study subjects’ brains were scanned at the beginning of the study, and again four years later.

Comparing the before and after images, the researchers found significant brain shrinkage among those whose blood sugar levels were high but still below the World Health Organization’s threshold for pre-diabetes (fasting glucose under 110 mg/dL). The researchers report that these high normal levels may account for a 6% to 10% decrease in the volume of the hippocampus and amygdala.

The lead researcher stated, “It is this chronic exposure to high glucose levels that is more likely to lead to poorer brain health.” He cautioned that these findings should not be taken “lightly,” as the association between high normal blood sugar and brain shrinkage was “robust.”

Proven Methods To Lower Blood Glucose

Intermittent Fasting is a great way to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels.

Ensuring adequate intake of nutrients like chromium, lipoic acid, and green tea extract improves insulin sensitivity, as does ensuring that you maintain youthful blood levels of hormones like DHEA.

green olives plate
Why Aren’t Doctors Taking Steps To Lower Blood Sugar Levels?

Doctors rely on outdated reference ranges, meaning they accept dangerously high glucose levels as being normal. Yet more than 80% of the adult population has glucose levels that put them at increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer. The bottom line is that doctors are not lowering their patient’s glucose levels enough to prevent these needless diseases.

Taking Charge of Your Blood Sugar

It is advised that we keep their fasting sugar in the range of 75 – 80 mg, and an abundance of peer-reviewed published research findings validates this position.

If your last blood test showed fasting glucose of 86 mg% or higher, please see an Integrative Medicine specialist near you, and get back on the path to good health.

Summary
Technician with patient getting mammogram

High-normal blood glucose is a leading cause of premature death overlooked by mainstream doctors today.  More than 80% of the adult population has glucose levels that are too high.  An abundance of published research links high-normal blood glucose level to increased breast cancer risk.  New research links even high normal blood sugar level to brain shrinkage in key areas involved with memory.  Reducing ingestion of simple sugars and starches helps, but as people age, most of them produce excess glucose in their liver (gluconeogenesis) that causes higher glucose levels no matter how many carbohydrates they restrict. The key is to inhibit intestinal absorption of carbohydrates, suppress excess production of glucose in the liver, and improve glucose utilization in tissues through enhanced insulin sensitivity.

It is simple to Stay Healthy.

 

Why This Common Cooking Oil is a Cancer Nightmare

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Cancer-Nightmare-Oils

 A Von Butz in Cancer 101, Cancer Causes, Foods, Nutrition

 

In 1956, a major cooking oil company published a series of magazine advertisements claiming that “fried foods become light foods” when vegetable oil is used in place of butter or lard. The clear message to health-savvy homemakers was that vegetable oil was a low-calorie solution to the more traditional fats they were cooking with. Millions of well-meaning cooks took the bait and made the switch, thinking their families would be better off as a result.

Fast-forward 60 years and this cooking oil marketing blitz was evidently an industry success. Vegetable oils continue to remain the go-to fat used in fried and processed foods. Marketers are still claiming that they’re better for human health than animal fats because they contain no cholesterol and aren’t saturated. But what does the latest science have to say about this vegetable oil madness?

French fries in a deep fryer closeupIn a nutshell: all that “golden goodness” being dumped into deep fryers, drizzled on salads, and poured into frying pans isn’t exactly the health boon that industrial processors have long claimed it is. So-called “heart healthy” cooking oils (i.e. soy, canola (rapeseed), cottonseed, sunflower, and corn) just so happen to be among the leading causes of heart disease and cancer in America today. Most consumers have no idea that they’re being duped.

History of this Cooking Oil Exposes it as Toxic Waste

The chemical industry and popular media have long hyped vegetable oil as the “healthy” choice for dietary fat. This is primarily because it’s cheap to produce and generates sizeable revenues for the corporations that make it. The alleged health benefits of vegetable oil as a cooking oil are minimal at best. And after more than 100 years of use in the food supply we are now seeing the dire consequences of this deception − rampant chronic disease.

The origins of vegetable oil and how it came to be the standard fat used in American food preparation are disturbing, to say the least. According to the critically acclaimed book The Happiness Diet, it all began with global consumer product giant Procter & Gamble (P&G). P&G convinced the American public to abandon the use of animal fats in favor of its own industrially-processed vegetable oil.

When William Procter and James Gamble teamed up and began manufacturing soap from cottonseeds during their company’s infancy, they realized that this process generated a lot of waste in the form of cottonseed oil. This oil would eventually be peddled off as a “nutritious food,” though it has virtually no nutritional value at all. In its raw form it’s actually a toxin that some countries use as a form of male birth control.

A crafty array of marketing tactics combined with aggressive sample distribution eventually landed this cooking oil into millions of homes and restaurants throughout America. Though this feat took considerable time and effort, the transformation of this industrial waste from filth to food was a success, and the rest is history.

A piece published in Science Monthly succinctly sums up how cottonseed oil, and vegetable oils

at large, went from noxious waste to common cooking oil:

“What was garbage in 1860 was fertilizer in 1870, cattle feed in 1880, and table food and many things else in 1890.”

Vegetable Oil is Extremely Unhealthy, and Here’s Why

So what’s the big deal? If vegetable oil supposedly helps lower cholesterol and prevent artery hardening, does it really matter where it comes from or how it came to be standard fare in the American palate? Not so fast. Here are a few dirty facts about vegetable oil that you may not know:

You Should stop using vegetable oil.

1) Vegetable oils are often rancid due to heavy processing and oxidation
A combination of high heat, pressure, and chemical solvents is used to extract vegetable oils from plants, exposing them to an incredible amount of air and light. When this occurs, these oils oxidize and become rancid, as well as lose many or all of their healing antioxidants. This renders them toxic and inflammatory.

2) Many vegetable oils undergo hydrogenation, which turns them into trans fats
In order to create a desirable consistency and texture for use in baking and other forms of cooking, vegetable oils are often hydrogenated to make them “creamier” and solid at room temperature. Hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils are essentially trans fats that interfere with the body’s normal metabolism of nutrients, leading to health conditions such as:

  • Gastrointestinal disease
  • Immune system damage
  • Liver disorders
  • Atherosclerosis
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Cancer

The hydrogenation process might make vegetable oils last longer on the shelf, but consuming them has repeatedly been shown in the scientific literature to induce many forms of cancer. One study out of Vanderbilt University found that trans fat consumption is associated with an increased risk of death. Not only from heart disease but from all causes, meaning these oils are generally toxic to human health.

3) Vegetable oils are associated with cancers of the colon, breast, and more
Researchers in Europe discovered several years back that trans fat intake can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer nearly twofold. Similar case studies have demonstrated trans fat intake as a major risk factor for colon and other forms of cancer as well.

What Cooking Oils ARE Good for You?

So what’s the solution? Reverting back to the animal fats of old is a surefire way to avoid the pitfalls of vegetable oil consumption. If you don’t consume animal products, be sure to use healthy saturated fats such as palm and coconut oil. Contrary to popular belief, saturated fats aren’t responsible for clogging your arteries and promoting heart disease − vegetable oils are!

“Unsaturated fat makes up 74% of the fat that is found in clogged arteries, and more than half of that is polyunsaturated fat,” explains Dr. Josh Axe, a leading expert in progressive health and nutrition.

The best oils you can use for cooking, as extensively corroborated by the renowned Weston A. Price Foundation, include:

  • Butter (preferably grass-fed butter that is darker yellow in color)
  • Tallow and suet from both beef and lamb (pastured with no hormones or antibiotics)
  • Lard from pigs (pastured with no hormones or antibiotics)
  • Chicken, goose, and duck fat (pastured with no hormones or antibiotics)
  • Coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils

The important point is, the oil you use should be COLD PRESSED or filtered, NOT refined.

Stay Healthy Always!

Magnesium as Weight Loss Support?

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 Angela Buhri

Minerals and microelements

Recently we hear a lot about magnesium. Since I am taking natural magnesium on a regular basis my health has drastically increased in several regards. But how about weight loss? Can it really support your weight loss process?

So I decided to give that mineral a closer look. And what I got to learn so far sounds very promising.

To begin with, the older you are the less your body can utilize magnesium from food and the larger amounts you need to supplement.

Here are some facts about magnesium:

  • Magnesium helps the body with basic functions of the nerves, what is crucial these days with the increasing electromagnetic pollution through cell phones.
  • Not only nerves, but also muscles and other organs need magnesium for proper function. Very good news for us is the fact that magnesium also makes better use of all nutrients for sufficient digestion and it helps the body to better process the food you consume. This can definitely help you maintain a healthier weight.
  • If you have a blood sugar problem, magnesium might at least be part of the solution since it plays an important role in regulating your blood sugar levels. According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Nutrition, a high intake of magnesium has been linked to lower glucose and insulin levels. Both of them control fat and weight gain.
  • British researchers found in another study that supplementing magnesium can help reduce water retention and relieve bloating during the menstrual cycle.
  • Younger people can achieve weight loss simply by adding magnesium-rich food to their daily diet. Fruits, green leafy vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, fish, meat and dairy products are all rich in magnesium. Of course the food has to be fresh from the market or the farm. The older you get, a healthy diet may not be enough and you may need to supplement magnesium.
  • Magnesium is a contributing factor in balancing your metabolism and providing the body with energy, which makes exercising easier and the fat-burning process faster and more effective. It helps the body synthesize proteins, carbs and fats and you need less food to be full and satisfied.
  • Another tremendous benefit of that mineral is that it allows the body to convert blood glucose into energy effectively what plays a major role in your body’s insulin function. That way supplementing magnesium alone can help to apply healthier eating habits.
  • A deficiency in magnesium leads to a loss of energy and fatigue, just to name a few side effects. This again reduces the motivation to work out and exercise. Healthy amounts of magnesium make you feel better emotionally and physically. You find it easier to eat properly for better weight maintenance.
  • When your magnesium levels are low, you feel more exhausted and you crave any kind of food.
  • Magnesium can even reduce anxiety and stress…both can cause increased hunger and appetite. While under stress, your body stores more fat, making it difficult to lose weight. According to Dr. Carolyn Dean magnesium neutralizes the effects of stress.

Products rich in magnesium on wooden spoons.

Whatever nutrient you lack, your body begins to crave it. Since most of us have un-learned to listen to their body, lack of vital nutrients often show in form of cravings for sugary and unhealthy foods. Hardly anybody craves magnesium per se, unless you regularly supplement it so that your body had the chance to get used to and distinguish it from other nutrients.

Of course as one of my long-time readers you already understand that all this only works if you strictly stick to whole foods. Processed foods have not only lost most of their nutrients (including magnesium), but also contain lots of additives and toxins that contribute to weight gain.

Therefore, when weight is an issue, there is only one option: eat natural, healthy, organic produce and, depending on your age, you may want to add some extra magnesium. For faster and easier weight loss, both internal and external use is recommended. You can purchase a natural magnesium salt from the Dead Sea and regularly take a bath with Epsom salt.