1. Questions

Many folk fail to ask themselves why they want to lose fat. By not asking detailed enough questions, you fall victim to only giving yourself vague reasons and vague goals. If you don’t know exactly where the goal is you will find it almost impossible to score.

2. Quantity

Make sure you absolutely know how much you should be eating for your activity level, and body size. (Height and frame type). Eating too little can be as self-defeating as eating too much.

The other quantities you absolutely must know are the size and weight you want to be when you reach your target. Notice that was size and weight. The most important of these is actually the size you want to be, as your weight can be influenced by the type of exercise you do to help achieve your goal.

3. Quality

You really are what you eat. People who eat junk and processed food on a consistent basis really do have lower health levels than those who take full responsibility for what they put into their bodies.

Just have a look at the long list of preservative and taste enhancers that you find on the ingredients list of commercially produced food.

The only way you can almost guarantee not to be slowly poisoned by them is to prepare your food from quality, fresh and preferably organically sourced ingredients. Which for the most part need not cost any more if you do you shopping wisely.

4. Quitting

In a word… Don’t

Churchill’s admonition to never, never, never give up was spot on particularly for those in the battle against the bulge.

That seemingly weeks going by with no movement in the scales does not mean your overall condition is not improving either. And remeber – using weight to measure how much you have lost is not the best way to see how you are doing anyway

If your body is getting it’s energy from the food you eat – well thats OK. But if it is burning the excess fat for energy – well that’s even better especially if you want to lose weight.

Here a quick resume about the two most misunderstood hormones that every dieter should know about.

Glucose is a simple sugar that provides energy to all of the cells in your body. Your cells then take in glucose from your blood and break it down for energy.

For instance, brain cells and red blood cells rely solely on glucose for fuel. The glucose in your blood comes from the food you eat.

When you eat, food gets metabolised via your intestines and is distributed through the bloodstream to the cells in your body.  In all conditions your body tries to keep the supply of glucose constant, maintaining as consistent as possible glucose concentration in the blood.  If it did not do this (as in diabetes for example) your cells would have too much glucose right after a meal (particularly a high carb one) and starve in between meals and during sleep.

When you have an excess of glucose, your body stores this in your liver and muscles by making glycogen,  long chains of glucose. Conversely, when glucose is in short supply, your body mobilizes glucose from stored glycogen and/or stimulates you to eat food.

To maintain this constant blood-glucose level, your body uses two hormones, insulin and glucagon, that are produced in your pancreas and have opposite actions.

Your pancreas is formed from clusters (Islets) of alpha and beta endocrine cells. The beta cells secret insulin and the alpha cells secret glucagons. Both these secretions are protein hormones made up of amino acids.

Continue reading…

Think cocaine is bad for your brain? Then you might want to change the way you think about sugar. Eating high-sugar foods lights up your brain on an MRI “like a Christmas tree,” Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., founder and medical director of UltraWellness Center, said during a recent interview on HuffPost Live. The part of the brain that lights up is the very same part of the brain that’s triggered by cocaine or heroine, according to research by Dr. David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D.

It’s research like this that Katie Couric, Oscar-winning producer of “An Inconvenient Truth” Laurie David, director Stephanie Soechtig and Hyman explored in the documentary “Fed Up”.

Read more…

It’s a certain fact that many folk on low carb diets don’t take enough notice of how much fibre they eat. If this is left to the extreme it can cause many problems. However, as we will see from this short article, the remedy is simple and effective

According to dieticians in the UK, their recommendation is that people should be eating between 18-24 grams of fibre a day.  However, a recent survey sponsored by one of the large supermarkets has shown that the average UK intake is just 12grams.  So the question is: can changing your diet and increasing your fibre give your digestive system a new lease of life?

Studies have shown that one way of decreasing colon cancer is to ensure that the food travelling from the mouth through the digestive system to the anus, when kept on the move, will prevent potentially harmful waste products from being easily absorbed.  In a recent test – Dr Mark McAlindon, who is a consultant gastro-entroologist at the Royal Halampshire Hospital in Sheffield, carried out a recent test showing that increasing fibre can indeed quite dramatically change the way our bodies handle food.

Continue reading…

You eat less than your skinny friend but still put on weight – can that be true?

It is true that our metabolism – the rate at which we process the food we eat – varies from person to person.

What is not clear is why two people can appear to eat virtually the same amount of food, which causes one to be thin and the other to pile on the pounds.

We uncover some home truths…

Many of us have friends who seemingly can eat anything they want and never put on weight. Whereas there are some of us who can just look at a slice of cake and we can feel our waistline getting bigger by the second. Whilst metabolism may have some effect, the answer is not as simple as we may think.

The Test

In this test, two friends – Cindy and Michelle – were the volunteers. They both have very different shaped bodies. Cindy was very slim while Michelle was nearly 15kg over her desired weight.

They both thought that the amount that you ate was really down to your metabolic rate.

Over the course of ten days, both Cindy and Michelle were watched closely and also asked to record how much food they ate in their food diaries.

However, it wasn’t left entirely to chance, or the honesty of the two ladies! At the beginning of the test they were each given half a litre of doubly labelled water. This is water in which both the hydrogen and the oxygen have been partly replaced with an uncommon isotope of these elements, in this case a non-radioactive form of deuterium and oxygen 18.

By doing this, it was possible to see exactly how many calories each of the girls were consuming, as well as the energy they were using just by moving around, by examining a urine sample each day.

It won’t be too much of a surprise that by the end of the week, the urine samples didn’t match the food diaries! The urine samples showed that although they did much the same amount of activity, Cindy actually ate 50% less each day than Michelle did.

Here is a simple but stark fact, and it may fly in the face of a lot of things that you understand, the fact is that the larger you are, the higher amount of energy your body will use, even at rest.

This means that your metabolic rate is higher as well. If you think about it, this is obvious, because even though you are at complete rest, larger people need more energy to pump the blood around the body and keep moving. You could use the analogy of a big car, having a big engine, so it uses more fuel to move itself around. In the same way, a bigger person uses more energy to move themselves around.

So the next time you’re tempted to blame your metabolism for your weight, remember, here’s the simple stark truth.

Some people eat less.

The other thing that should be pointed out is that whilst our two friends thought they both ate about the same, remember, Cindy ate 50% less than Michelle, and no-one was more surprised about that than her!

Now it is possible to make your metabolism work faster. One of the simplest ways of doing that is by exercising to the point where you start to be out of breath.

Once your body gets the message that it needs to ‘up’ the energy level – it will continue to do so even when the exercise has stopped.

That means you’ll be using up more calories even when you’re sleeping.

An avocado a day might help keep bad cholesterol at bay.

Eating one per day as part of a certain heart-healthy, cholesterol-lowering diet can help improve “bad” LDL cholesterol levels in people who are overweight or obese, according to a small study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Cholesterol is a type of fat made by the body. It’s key for good health. But high levels, often caused by an unhealthy diet, can raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. Being overweight raises your risk of having high LDL levels.

Avocados are a source of monounsaturated fat, which is good for you when eaten in moderation. They’re also rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, compounds that block cholesterol absorption in the body (phytosterols), and antioxidants that can play a role in preventing cancer and heart disease (polyphenols).

See more…

Scientists have long linked oedema, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease with inflammation. Only recently the medical community has implicated the process to diabetes, certain cancers and other unsolvable degenerative conditions. The latest research links heart disease more to various inflammatory conditions than to high cholesterol. Researchers are doing their best to come up with anti-inflammatory drugs and other cures for this inflammation.

Rather than try to find a cure, it might be wise to find out what causes inflammation and stop the cause rather than look for a cure. There are many things that cause inflammation in the body: viral and bacterial infections, surgery, a bruise, a broken bone, allergies, vaccinations, high blood pressure, oestrogen therapy, smoking, obesity, chronic fatigue, and dental problems, among others.
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Biggest Offender

One of the biggest offenders of inflammation is ingestion of sugar. By sugar I mean table sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, honey (even raw), maple sugar, corn sweetener, dextrose, glucose, fructose and any other word that ends in an “ose”, barley malt, rice syrup, liquid cane sugar, concentrated fruit juice and others. Don’t be fooled by the name organic when it applies to sugar. Sugar is sugar, organic or not, and the following will explain exactly what can happen in the body when you eat as little as two teaspoons.

Every time a person eats as little as two teaspoons we can upset our body chemistry and disrupt homeostasis, the wonderful balance in the body needed for maintenance, repair and life itself. One of the many changes this upset body chemistry causes is for our minerals to change relationship to each other.(1)(2)

No mineral is an island: minerals can only function in relation to each other. When one of the mineral levels drops in the blood stream, it’s a sure thing that other minerals cannot function as well and can become toxic or deficient.

Although calcium and phosphorus give structure to our bodies through the formation of bones and teeth, most minerals function primarily as catalysts in enzyme systems within the cells and body fluids. As enzyme catalysts, the minerals are able to help our bodies grow and maintain themselves, regulate our body processes and supply us with energy. When there are very slight changes from the normal mineral composition inside the cell, this alteration may result in profound physiological consequences, without making any appreciable difference on the total mineral makeup of the body as a whole.(3)

Enzymes

One of the body processes for which enzymes are important is digestion. Enzymes help us break our food down into simple product which can then move easily from the digestive tract to the bloodstream. Enzymes break down fat to fatty acids, carbohydrates to simple sugar and protein into first, polypeptides and then into amino acids. Unfortunately enzymes can not function without minerals. You can deplete the enzymes when you eat sugar. Therefore, when the enzymes cannot function well, all of the protein in the food does not digest. This protein gets into the blood stream as partially digested protein, or polypeptides.(4,5)

Dr William Philpott, in his book BRAIN ALLERGIES says, “One of the most important systemic functions of the pancreas is to supply proteolytic enzymes (enzymes from the pancreas that aid in the digestion of proteins into polypeptides and then amino acids) which act as regulatory mechanisms over inflammatory reactions in the body. Poor digestion of proteins to amino acids occurs as a consequence of insufficient pancreatic proteolytic enzymes. As a result, unusable inflammation evoking protein molecules are absorbed through the intestinal mucosa and circulate in the blood, reaching tissues in partially digested form.

The medical community rejected this concept for years. As the old saying goes, first they ignore it, then they ridicule it, then they call it their own. Well, that is just what they have done. They call it the leaky gut syndrome, gut permeability and/or food allergy. As partially digested protein molecules (peptides), the immune system, which protects us from foreign invaders, sees these protein molecules as foreign invaders and responds the only way it knows how with inflammation. Depending on where this partially digested protein goes in the body, inflammation can set in any organ or tissue.(6)

This foreign matter, or partially digested protein, is in particles too large to be utilized by the cells. They can not get into the cell and function. This form of food allergy can cause havoc in our blood stream.(7) One of the things these particles can do is cause the classic symptoms of allergy, the inflammatory response, the runny eyes, sinusitis, sneezing and scratchy throat.(8),(9) These particles can go to the joints, tissues or bones and cause arthritis.(lO),(ll). They can go to the nervous system and cause multiple sclerosis.(l2) Medical research shows that this foreign matter can go to the skin and cause psoriasis,(13) hives,(14), and eczema.(15) The inflammatory process takes place in all these diseases.

Acne and Water Retention

From my clinical experience, acne and water retention also are caused by food allergy. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are also caused by undigested protein.(16) The nonusable protein can go anywhere in the blood and cause problems. At this time our immune system looks at this undigested food as a foreign invader, and our immune system comes to our defence and removes this foreign protein from our blood.(l7),(l8)

When we consume sugar over and over, we weaken our body tissues, our white blood cells and our immune system.(l9),(20) Our white cells and other tissues need protein to function optimally. The cells can not get the correct protein when it is not digested and assimilated properly.

When our body tissues and immune system are weak, we can not fend off foreign invaders. Not only are we now susceptible to degenerative diseases but also infectious diseases. Whatever infectious disease we will get depends on what bacteria or virus is in the environment, and the weakness in our genetic blueprint determines what tissue will be affected and to which degenerative disease we are susceptible.

Too Much…

Sugar in the amount that we eat today (over 150 lbs, or over 1/2 cup a day,) continually upsets our body chemistry, causes the inflammatory process and leads to disease. The less sugar you eat, the less inflammation, and the stronger the immune system to defend us against infectious and degenerative diseases.

So what is there left to eat that is sweet? Lots. Whole fruits are healthy foods for healthy people. Melons and berries have the least amount of sugar. A glass of grape, orange or apple juice has the same amount of sugar as a soft drink of the same ounces and is just as detrimental. So eat your fruit whole. A mashed sweet potato is also a sweet food and is great mixed with carob or coconut milk and grated coconut. Eat just a small portion for a low carb diet. Some whipped cream with vanilla is a great topper for fruits or sweet potatoes.

For more information on sugar’s detrimental affects, a great sugarfree recipe and more on inflammation go to www.nancyappleton.com This information came from three of Dr. Appleton’s books: STOPPING INFLAMMATION, LICK THE SUGAR HABIT and LICK THE SUGAR HABIT SUGAR COUNTER.

Author:
Nancy Appleton, Ph.D.

References

1. Dr. Albrech, 1897, University of Missouri, found that minerals worked in relation to each other in the soil, then later realized that this was the same in the body.

2. Eck, Paul, Analytical Research Lahs Inc., 2338 West Royal Palm Road, Suite F,Phoenix, Arizona, 85021.

3. Ashmead, Dewayne. CHELATED MINERAL NUTRITION, Huntington Beach, Calif.; International Institute of Natural Health Sciences, Inc., 1979.

4. Ratner B.G and Gruehl, H.L. “Passage of Native Proteins through the Normal Gastrointestinal Wall”. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION, 1934; 13:517.

5. Warshaw, A.L., Walker, W.A. and K.J. Isselbacher. “Protein Uptake by the Intestine: Evidence for Absorption of Intact Macromolecules. GASTROENTEROLOGY, 1974;;66:987

6. Philpott, W.. BRAIN ALLERGIES. New Canaan, Conn.; Keats Publishing Inc., 1980.

7. Paganelli, R., Cavagni, G. and Francesco Pallone. “The Role of Antigenic Absorption and Circulating Immune Complexes in Food Allergy.” ANNALS OF ALLERGY. 57;1986:330_336.

8.Taylor b., Norman A.P, Orgel H.A. et al., “Transient IgA Deficiency and Pathogenesis of Infantile Atopy.” LANCET 1973;2:11

9. Stevens, W.J., and C.H. Bridts. “IgG_containing and IgE_containing Circulating Immune Complexes in Patients with Asthma and Rhinitis.” JOURNAL OF ALLERGY AND CLINICAL IMMUNOLOGY. 1979;63:297.

10. Catteral, W.E. “Rheumatoid Arthritis Is an Allergy.” ARTHRITIS NEWS TODAY, 1980.

11. Darlington, L.G., Ramsey N.W. and J.R. Mansfield. “Placebo_Controlled, Blind Study of Dietary Manipulation Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis.” LANCET, Feb. 6, l986. 236_238.

12. Jones, H.D., “Management of Multiple Sclerosis.” POSTGRADUATE MEDICINE. May 1952;2:415_422.

13. Douglas, J.M.. “Psoriasis and Diet.” WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE 133 (Nov. 1980)450

14. Brostoff J., Carini C., Wraith D.G. et al. “Production of IgE complexes by allergen challenge in atopic patients and the effect of sodium cromoglycate.” LANCET 1979;1:1267

15. Jackson, P.G., Lessof M.H., Baker, R.W.R., et al. “Intestinal permeability in patients with eczema and food allergy.” LANCET. 1981;1:1285

16. Wright, R., Truelove, S.C. “Circulating Antibodies to Dietary Proteins in Ulcerative Colitis.” BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL. 1965;2:142

17. Kijak, E., Foust, G. and R. Steinman “Relationship of Blood Sugar Level and Leukocytic Phagocytosis.” SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STATE DENTAL

ASSOCIATION JOURNAL 32;9 (Sept.1964).

18. Sanchez, A., et al. “Role of Sugars in Human Neutrophilic Phagocytosis.” AMERICA et al., AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY. r1992;135(8):895_903 N JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION. Nov. 1973. 1180_84

19. Selye, H. THE STRESS OF LIFE. San Francisco: McGraw_Hill, 1978

20. Editorial. “Depression, Stress and Immunity.” LANCET I, (1987) 1467_1468.

21. PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE. 49:435 & 450. (Sept._Oct. 1987).

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How Our Bodies Get Energy

Do you know how your body gets the energy it needs and what it does with it?

Like many people, you will probably have an idea but no real details about how our bodies get and use the food we eat. So here’s a quick resume covering the two most misunderstood hormones our bodies use.

Knowing about these will give you an insight about how our bodies convert what we eat into energy and what happens to the excess ‘energy’ our bodies produce. More importantly, it will show you just how you can gain more control over what your bodies does with what you eat and how by having that knowledge, you can get the most from the Snack Box Diet through evening out your eating habits.

Where we get our Energy

Glucose is a simple sugar that provides energy to all of the cells in your body. Your cells then take in glucose from your blood and break it down for energy.

For instance, brain cells and red blood cells rely solely on glucose for fuel. The glucose in your blood comes from the food you eat.

When you eat, food gets metabolised via your intestines and is distributed through the bloodstream to the cells in your body. In all conditions your body tries to keep the supply of glucose constant, maintaining as consistent as possible glucose concentration in the blood. If it did not do this [private_silver](as in diabetes for example) your cells would have too much glucose right after a meal (particularly one that is high in carbohydrates) and starve in between meals and during sleep.

When you have an excess of glucose, your body stores this in your liver and muscles by making glycogen, long chains of glucose. Conversely, when glucose is in short supply, your body mobilizes glucose from stored glycogen and/or stimulates you to eat food.

To maintain this constant blood-glucose level, your body uses two hormones – insulin and glucagon. These are produced in your pancreas and have opposite actions.

The Pancreas

Your pancreas is formed from clusters (Islets) of alpha and beta endocrine cells. The beta cells secret insulin and the alpha cells secret glucagons. Both these secretions are protein hormones made up of amino acids.

What Insulin Does

Insulin is used by almost all of your body’s cells, but it’s most active in the liver, fat and muscle cells. Insulin has the following effect:-

• Inhibits the liver and kidney cells from making glucose from intermediate compounds of metabolic pathways (gluconeogenesis)
• Causes the liver and muscle cells to store glucose in glycogen
• Stimulates fat cells to form fats from fatty acids and glycerol
• Causes the liver and muscle cells to make proteins from amino acids

Insulin production is the signal for the body to store energy (as fat). It does so by reducing the concentrations of glucose, fatty acids and amino acids in the bloodstream.

What Glucagon Does

Now when you don’t eat or eat food that have a very low glycemic index  (Are low in carbs), your pancreas releases glucagons instead which causes your body to produce glucose… Glucagon acts on the same cells as insulin, but has the opposite effects in that it:

• Stimulates the liver and muscles to break down stored glycogen (glycogenolysis) and release the glucose
• Stimulates gluconeogenesis in the liver and kidneys

The action of glucagon is opposite to insulin in that glucagon mobilizes glucose stored inside your body and increases the level of glucose in your blood, thus stopping your blood glucose levels from falling dangerously low.

How Insulin and Glucagons Work as a Tag Team

Under normal circumstances, the levels of insulin and glucagon are effectively counter balanced.

When you eat, your body metabolises the food quite rapidly and registers the presence of glucose, fatty acids and amino acids absorbed from the food. This causes the pancreatic beta cells to release insulin into your blood and inhibit the pancreatic alpha cells from secreting glucagon.

As the levels of insulin in your blood begin to rise they act on the liver, fat and muscle cells in particular causing them to absorb the incoming molecules of glucose, fatty acids and amino acids. The insulin acts to prevent the concentration of glucose, fatty and amino acids from increasing too greatly in the bloodstream.

In this way, your body maintains a steady blood-glucose concentration. This action occurs when you eat a properly balanced diet as opposed to the high carb diet of today. Unfortunately, where the diet is high in carbs (or there is just too much food) it has to go somewhere and inevitably, it is deposited as fat in just where you don’t want it to go.

Between meals, or when you are sleeping, your body senses that it is effectively starving. However your cells still need a supply of glucose to keep going. So while in this condition, the slight drops in blood-sugar level stimulate glucagon secretion from the alpha cells in the pancreas and in turn inhibit the release of insulin.

This causes glucagon levels in the blood to rise and start acting on the liver, muscle and kidney cells to mobilize glucose from glycogen to make glucose that’s then released into your blood. Such action prevents the blood-glucose levels from falling too much.

This change occurs many times throughout the day with the secretion of either insulin or glucagons helping to keep your blood-glucose level relatively constant, typically in the range of 90 mg per 100 ml of blood.

However, seeing as the secretion of the pancreas lag behind the blood glucose levels, the action of eating large quantities of high carb food will drastically disturb this. Simply put, when the blood glucose level is overly high more quantities of insulin will be produced than are needed as the glucose will have been dealt with. So more glucose will have been absorbed than was necessary. This will cause a dip in the blood glucose level causing us to feel a lack of energy and trigger a production of glucagon.

Sunday Lunch Syndrome

This is something I call the “after Sunday lunch syndrome” as it is most often seen after a big meal. You will most likely have noticed that 30 – 60 minutes after eating far too much (as in a typical Sunday lunch) and then not moving a great deal either, you tend to feel really sleepy and quite soon many will also start to get the munchies and go looking for that last roast potato or piece of pie. In fact the body is wanting anything that will get the blood sugar up again – and so the cycle continues…

What Can You Do?

Well, the most obvious first step is to cut down on foods with a high level of carbohydrates in them.

The nest thing would be to even out the amount you eat by eating smaller quantities more regularly throughout the day.

Just by taking these two small steps in cahnging what and how you eat will make a masive difference to how your body reacts to what you eat. And that will be shown by improved or more even energy levels and slowing down or even reversing the process of fat gain.  I.E. You will start to lose fat instead of putting it on.[/private_silver]

Having a thyroid problem can mean that you may end up putting on weight even when you take drugs?

But what a lot of people don’t know is that paying attention to your diet can have a drastic effect sometimes even  leading to a drug free solution too…

Drugs

One of the main drugs used to treat a thyroid problem is Synthyroid.

Synthyroid is a brand name of Levothyroxin, and is a replacement for the hormone that is normally produced by your thyroid gland to regulate the body’s metabolism and energy. These types of drugs are normally given when the thyroid does not produce enough of its own hormone, in a condition known as hypothyroidism.

In simple terms, people with low thyroid hormone have a slower metabolism then people with normal levels of the thyroid hormone, which generally means that they are apt to put on weight. The idea of taking a synthetic hormone is to bring the level of the thyroid hormone up in the body so that your metabolism is working more normally. At which point your energy levels and the rate at which you use the food which you are eating, should increase and hopefully stabilise, to the point where everything is working as it should be.

However, as with all synthetic hormone treatments, it is not a perfect answer to [private_silver] the problem.

Your History

One of the most helpful things you can do in cases like this is to look back over your health history and see if you can identify the reasons why you might have had an inactive thyroid in the first place.

The two most common causes of hypothyroidism are iodine deficiency and chronic thyroiditis. Iodine deficiency is quite rare in Europe, North America, and chronic thyroiditis is an inherited condition, and is commonly diagnosed by checking the levels of thyroid auto-antibodies in the blood. A third most common cause is removal of the thyroid gland, either because of cancer or infection, or as a rather drastic way of treating hyperthyroidism.

Foods

There are a number of foods that also cause hypothyroidism, if eaten in sufficient quantities. Overindulgence in these foods, particularly if you have an iodine deficiency, can cause not only hypothyroidism, it can also cause enlargement of the thyroid. This is because they block the conversion of T4 hormone to T3, which is the active form of the thyroid hormone in our bodies. The most common forms of food that cause this type of condition are turnips, kale, corn, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and almond seeds. Seeing as corn is one of the most common ingredients in many snack foods, it is little wonder that instances of hypothyroidism are on the increase.

It should be noted that these foods should also be avoided if you have a problem with your thyroid, help producing enough thyroid hormone should avoid them.

The good thing is that if consuming these foods are the cause of your problem, eliminating them from your diet will cure your hypothyroidism within four to six weeks.

Drug Side Effects

There are a number of drugs, also, whose side-effects are the cause of hypothyroidism. These vary from steroids like Prednisone and Hydrocortisone which are common treatments for inflammation, right the way through to beta-blockers, such as Propranolol. In addition, you have heart drugs like Amiodarone, psychiatric treatments whose ingredients include Lithium, and of course anti-thyroid drugs themselves.

There are many auto-immune diseases which, it should be noted, are primarily caused either by poor diet or reaction or sensitivity to a specific diet ingredient, and again elimination of these types of food to which you are sensitive from your diet can start the chain reversal which could lead you getting back to normal health.

Diabetes

There is also a profound link between diabetes and the onset of hypothyroidism. It is true to say that in many, many cases where the diabetes is brought back under control by sensible diet, most effectively controlling the intake of carbohydrates, then the hypothyroid problem will also go away as well.

Going onto the problem that many people have with hypothyroidism, and that is the difficulty in losing weight. Given all the above, and assuming that you wish to continue on the taking thyroid hormone route, there are a number of things that you can do in order to get back to your optimal weight.

For the diet to be successful, you need first to abandon any old-fashioned notions of what constitutes a healthy diet. The diet that can most help a thyroid condition is one in which the amount of carbohydrates are drastically reduced, particularly carbohydrates that are obtained from grains.

However, this needs to be put together with the second and also crucial part of a successful weight-loss regime for anyone who is suffering from hypothyroidism, that being exercise that stretches you to the point where you are exercising your cardio-vascular system. It should be noted that in this case you need at least 90 minutes a day, every day, in order for it to be effective, but only up until the point where your ideal weight is achieved.

The Soya Link

The next thing that is particularly prevalent to low-carb dieters, is the increased consumption of soya. In order to get the amount of carbohydrate in their foods to a supposedly low-carb friendly level, many manufacturers now include soya protein as quite a main ingredient to many so-called low-carb products, and indeed, non-low-carb products. The unfortunate thing is, the inclusion of soya starts at some of the earliest ages that it can do, as it’s a major ingredient in many of the instant formulas that can be found on the shelves today. The simple thing is that researchers have found that there is an unmissable link between the over-consumption of soya based protein and the onset of hypothyroidism. Keila Daniels article (on the website) goes into this in more detail.

Lastly, I mentioned earlier that the taking of synthetic thyroid hormone which only replaces T3 or T4 is not always the best way of treating thyroid conditions, and in fact many people respond much better to a natural form of the thyroid hormone, and in a few cases a combination of both natural and synthetic. The answer to that problem is to find a medical practitioner who is willing to help you find the right mix of treatment for your personal condition.

This really is a very vast subject, so you owe it to yourself to find out as much about it as you can, and then sensibly apply what you have found out to your own personal version of the condition.

The bottom line is that if your thyroid has not been removed or damaged beyond repair, then the condition is not only treatable, it’s reversible too. Obviously, treating the thyroid condition in the most effective way, combining that with a sensible change in diet and exercise will bring the weight under control as well.

What to do next.

What ever you do, don’t accept to do nothing.

It may be your regular doctor knows about the things we’ve mentioned here and may support you trying out solutions that are better for you.

If they are not supportive, you owe it to yourself to find a medical practioner who not only knows about the other treatments, but can also guide and support you in seeking a better solution.[/private_silver]

I’m very fortunate to live iin a community where we can get good quality raw milk – in our local supermarket (SPAR). It comes from a farm a little up the valley and if I have a mind to do so I can even go and watch the cows as they making it for me. (OK not just for me – but you never know…)

But just why should we want to drink raw milk, why is it better then treated milk?

Thomas Cowan MD explains

As I’m sure most of you know by now, there are very few subjects as emotionally charged as the choice of one’s diet. Sexual relations, marriage and finances come to mind as similarly charged subjects and, like diet, we are all sure we know all we need to know about each of these subjects. The subject of milk, as I have discovered during the past four years, when properly viewed will challenge every notion you currently have about what is good food and what isn’t.

The story of milk is complex and goes something like this.

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A Little History…

Back in the pre-processed food era (that is before about 1930 in this country) milk was considered an important food, especially for children. Not only was there an entire segment of our economy built up around milk but, as I remember, each house had its own milk chute for the delivery of fresh milk directly to the house. It was unquestioned that milk was good for us and that a safe, plentiful milk supply was actually vital to our national health and well-being. It was also a time (now I’m referring to the early part of the century) when many of the illnesses which we currently suffer from were rare.

As an example, family doctors would often go their whole careers without ever seeing a patient with significant coronary artery disease, breast or prostate cancer, whereas current doctors can hardly go one month without encountering a patient with such an illness. Furthermore, as scientists such as Weston Price, DDS discovered, there were pockets of extremely healthy, long-lived people scattered about the earth who used dairy products in various forms as the staple of their diets — further evidence that milk and its by-products were amongst the most healthful foods man has ever encountered.

Recent past

If we fast forward to the 1980’s, we now find an entirely different picture. For one thing, there have been numerous books written in the past decade about the dangers of dairy products — the most influential being a book by Frank Oski, MD, the current chairman of paediatrics of Johns Hopkins University and perhaps the most influential paediatricians in this country. It’s called Don’t Drink Your Milk. In it Oski pins just about every health problem in children to the consumption of milk, everything from acute and chronic ear infections, constipation, asthma, eczema, and so on. Secondly, just about all patients I have now in their initial visit proudly announce that they have a good diet and that, specifically, they don’t eat dairy (which they pronounce with such disdain).

One might well ask where the truth in this picture. Perhaps the experiments of Dr. Francis Pottenger in the 1940’s can help to solve this mystery. In these experiments Dr. Pottenger fed one group of cats a diet consisting of raw milk, raw meat and cod liver oil. Other groups were given pasteurized milk, evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk instead of raw milk. The results were conclusive and astounding. Those that ate raw milk and raw meat did well and lived long, happy, active lives free of any signs of degenerative disease. Those cats on pasteurized milk suffered from acute illnesses (vomiting, diarrhea) and succumbed to every degenerative disease now flourishing in our population, even though they were also getting raw meat and cod liver oil. By the 3rd generation a vast majority of the cats were infertile and exhibited “anti-social” behavior — in short, they were like modern Americans.

What’s ‘in’ Milk

Since the 40’s the “qualities” of milk have been extensively studied to try to find an explanation for these dramatic changes. Studies have shown that before heating, milk is a living food rich in colloidal minerals and enzymes necessary for the absorption and utilization of the sugars, fats and minerals in the milk. For example, milk has an enzyme called phosphatase that allows the body to absorb the calcium from the milk. Lactase is an enzyme that allows for the digestion of lactose.

Butterfat has a cortisone-like factor which is heat sensitive (destroyed by heat) that prevents stiffness in the joints. Raw milk contains beneficial bacteria as well as lactic acids that allow these beneficial bacteria to implant in the intestines. All of these qualities are destroyed during pasteurization. Once heated, milk becomes rotten, with precipitated minerals that can’t be absorbed (hence osteoporosis), with sugars that can’t be digested (hence allergies), and with fats that are toxic.

Raw milk has been used as a therapy in folk medicine — and even in the Mayo Clinic — for centuries. It has been used in the pre-insulin days to treat diabetes (I’ve tried it — it works), as well as eczema, intestinal worms, allergies, and arthritis, all for reasons which can be understood when we realize just what is in milk — such as the cortisone-like factor for allergies and eczema.

How to Ruin Milk

Another way we ruin milk is by feeding cows high protein feed made from soybeans and other inappropriate foodstuffs. Rarely is anyone truly allergic to grass-fed cow’s milk.

Fresh raw milk, from cows eating well-manured green grass is a living unprocessed whole food. Compare this to the supposedly “healthy” soy milk which has been washed in acids and alkalis, ultrapasteurized, then allowed to sit in a box for many months.

The Pottenger cat studies provide a simple but profound lesson for all Americans: Processed, dead foods don’t support life or a happy well-functioning society. We must return to eating pure, wholesome, unprocessed foods, including whole raw milk from pasture fed cows.

In my practice I ALWAYS start there — I encourage, insist, even beg people to eat real foods— no matter what the problem. Often with just this intervention the results are gratifying. SO, find a cow, find a farmer, make sure the cow (or goat, llama, or whatever) is healthy and start your return to good health!

Author: Thomas S Cowan MD

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