Bacteria may offer a new way to treat cancer, a small, preliminary study suggests.

Researchers injected a weakened strain ofClostridium novyi-NT bacteria spores into tumors in six patients. The bacteria grew in the tumors and killed cancer cells, the investigators reported.

C. novyi-NT, which lives in soil, is a close relative of the bacteria that causes botulism. Before injectingC. novyi-NT into the patients, the researchers weakened it by removing its dangerous toxin.

Five of the six patients are still alive, while one died from unrelated causes several months after receiving the bacteria injection, according to the study to be presented Saturday at the annual Symposium on Clinical Interventional Oncology in Hollywood, Fla.

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A breakthrough study from Harvard’s Peter J. Turnbaugh and Duke’s Lawrence David reveals some of the ways in which our diet shapes our microbiome — and thereby affects our ability to digest various types of food. In 2011, the researchers fed volunteers two very different diets. One group was given a high-protein diet consisting of bacon and eggs, spareribs, brisket, salami, cheese, and pork rinds. The other was fed a very high-fiber diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans. Bacterial analysis of fecal samples collected before, during, and after the experiment showed that what each group ate had a huge — and almost immediate — effect on their gut bacteria.

Lo and behold, each group began to develop the very type of bacteria that would most help them digest the particular types of food they had just eaten. In just 24 hours, meat eaters saw an increase in bacteria that are resistant to bile acids (bile acids are a byproduct of the breakdown of meat). If you’re a meat-eater, you need those bacteria — so the microbiome responded. The vegetarian group had far fewer bile-resistant bacteria, because, given their diet, they didn’t need them. The microbiome was responding to them, too. Even the long-term vegetarian who agreed to eat meat for this study saw a rapid microbial shift.

Continue reading…

We eat certain foods and take supplements to keep our eyes, brain, bones and joints strong and youthful, but do you eat to keep your gut happy and healthy? Lately, there has been an explosion of new products geared for improving gastrointestinal health. Specially fortified yogurts, probiotic supplements in the forms of capsules, powders and liquids, and many other options have been appearing on store shelves, TV shows and in doctor’s offices. These products have been touted to improve digestive health, boost immunity, and relieve inflammation that causes everything from arthritis to eczema. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any label health claims for probiotics.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), “probiotics are live microorganisms (e.g. bacteria) that are either the same as or similar to microorganisms found naturally in the human body and may be beneficial to your health.” Although some bacteria are harmful to humans, we rely on a wide variety of bacteria to help our body function.

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What exactly does eastern medicine have to offer the western dieter?

Well, even a most cursory look at the traditional approach to Chinese medicine reveals that it derives much of it’s effectiveness by being integrated into many facets of everyday life.

The food, the family structure and customs, the recreational activities such as Tai Chi, and even the very therapeutic activities of drinking Green tea, all work together producing a strong base level of health.

Jenny Koh tells us all…

Health Benefits of Chinese Medicine

How is it different?

So what sets traditional eastern medicine apart from western allopathic medicine?

There are a good many differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine and western medicine. Many are listed on page 10. But the main four are:-

1. Traditional Chinese Medicine is patient centred not illness centred
2. Focuses on and gives treatment for the root cause rather than merely giving relief to symptoms
3. Uses holistic approach to treatment
4. Prefers the patient to take a highly active part in both prevention and treatment

Eastern medicine is not hardly ever intrusive or invasive to the body. We don’t use things like surgery or laser treatment as these traumatize the body system.

The basic concept of balancing and harmonizing the body energy or ‘chi’ with nature needs to be understood, i.e. the ‘yin’ (female) and ‘yang’ (male). It is the balancing of the opposites that is important to eastern medicine. Observe nature and its cyclic and constant change, and yet, there is nothing chaotic about the process.

Every cycle has a pattern – within this pattern are other patterns – all inter relating and affecting each other. If there is an extreme action within a cycle the response is usually an opposing extreme reaction. An example could be a drought followed by a flood. The interesting thought here is that the corresponding reaction is often enough to return the situation to a balance.

No Pills

The Chinese,  are not a nation of pill poppers, but the method of our cooking helps us reduce any unwanted fat. We tend to sauté or steam our vegetables or double boil our soups so that the nutrients or life force of the plants remain in the soup.

We use a lot of red/black dates and bitter gourd to purify our blood and proper Chinese cooking has got no MSG. Ginseng roots are often used to ‘warm’ and build immunity. We’ll be looking at this topic in more detail another time.

Holistic Harmony

A characteristic of the Chinese lifestyle is to help and support the immune system by harmonizing and balancing the subtle energies of the body e.g. lung, gall bladder, digestive, kidney, liver systems.

Continued fat storage and the resultant gain of excess weight is a sure sign that the system is out of balance. This can be due to a number of factors. This can include poor diet– imbalanced or deficient in all that the body requires; Stress– a particularly western phenomena; Illness– due to multiple factors as we shall see later

Compare Chinese with Western Medicine

Different Methods

Traditional Chinese medicine uses a number of different method to administer its remedies. It has been found scientifically that bio availability of medication taken in the following form has the following results

• Pills and capsules, only 10-15%
• Patches or massages-40%
• Drinking-50%
• Injection-80%
• Inhaling – 100%

So it obviously makes sense to use the most effective of these methods as often as you can

Drink Yourself Fit

As I said earlier, our ‘medication’ is more an integrated part of our lifestyle than a separate entity. We need to drink fluids each day so why not use that to deliver nutrition? This is a very effective method because the body will easily metabolise half of nutrients in this form. So half of the nutrients and other good stuff will find its way very quickly in to our bloodstream. That way, merely drinking green tea will increase the effectiveness of your immune system two fold!.

One of the ways of losing weight is by eliminating toxics and fats from our body through just drinking hot green tea with no sugar or milk. It is a natural elixir. Green tea contains a high content of vitamins, minerals , particularly from the “cathechin” family, containing powerful antioxidants. Scientifically, its proven that it appears to be the panacea to many modern illnesses.

Purdue University suggested that drinking more than four cups of green tea a day could provide enough of the active compound EGC to slow and prevent the growth of cancer cells. Other research shows that green tea may be a promising weapon in the fight against cancers of the breast, stomach, colon, bladder, prostate, oesohagus and liver.

One study even pointed out that although Japan has one of the highest rate of smokers in the world, they have one of the lowest rates of lung cancer of any developed nation because the Japanese have long consumed green tea with their meals.

Green tea is drunk with neither milk nor sugar. While the western fashion is to take black tea with both. If Goat’s milk were used then is good, it is closest to mother’s milk but not cow’s milk. That’s best for cattle! Coca Cola and other canned or bottled drinks, has 10 teaspoons of sugar. Iced lemon tea, or coffee very much the same. Note, that one cup of coffee takes a further 5 litres of water to flush the caffeine out of the body system!

Can Green Tea Replace Exercise?

If you are trying to lose weight, sipping green tea may be the only workout you need according to some researches. In a study at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, green tea appeared to raise metabolic rates and speed up fat loss.

From the list earlier, we can see that body absorbs this most effectively by inhalation. Inhaling a weight reducing agent will be the most effective way to encourage weight lost. With this in mind, consider diffusing aromatherapy pure essential oils of green tea . They are 100% safe, with no side effects. It is also anti tumor, anti cancer and anti cellulite and by the way, it is also anti-aging.

An understanding of essential oils.

The ancient delicate art of extracting the subtle, yet volatile liquids that are distilled from plants, shrubs, flowers, trees, bushes and seeds produces what we have come to know as Essential Oils.

Science, through quantum physics are testifying to the incredible value of the healing power of essential oils, which are the life blood of the plant kingdom.

Documented scientific clinical studies show Essential Oils to be:

• Immune-stimulating
• Anti-viral Anti-infectious
• Anti-bacterial Anti-microbial
• Anti-septic Anti-tumor
• Anti-fungal Anti-parasitic

Interestingly, all of these oils are available to everyone without the need of a prescription. This is not folklore, but reality! The efficacy of these oils is backed by scientific research and over 6,000 years of use.

One of the many incredible aspects of the oils is their amazing ability to penetrate and carry nutrients through the cell wall to the cell nucleus. They literally “fly” through the thickest cell walls. This is so due to the oxygenating molecules found in the oils which transport the nutrients, then delivers them through the cell for feeding the nucleus. The oils are nature’s most effective catalyst and delivery agent for feeding cells.

Our bodies are indeed marvelous. Incredibly complex but under normal circumstances each system, organ and cell moving in rhythm. As one speed up so do others as an example, when you exercise, your heart rate goes up to pump more blood around to the parts of the body that need it AND your breathing increases to get the oxygen into the blood in the first place. Now should the system get out of rhythm say by your breathing speeding up without your heart rate increasing. Then that would obviously cause a problem (Hyperventilation).

In the modern world, there are many things that could cause this to happen.

Every day the body is bombarded by many, many pollutants. Its amazing that it copes as well as it does. However, this relentless attack will eventually takes it toll and the bodies systems will get out of sync with each other.

Essential oils are probably one of the most effective ways to retune the bodies system – bringing the various organs, glands and even the nervous system back into unison. And the body as a whole back to a state of good health.

For health professionals – further information on how this works can be found here.

Using Essential Oils

Further research has shown that with their immune-stimulating properties, essential oils enhance and support the building of the immune system, whether they be inhaled or applied on the body topically. Even those who contract a cold or the flu recover 70 percent faster using essential oils.

Perhaps one of the greatest attributes of essential oils is their ability to purify the air we breathe. When diffused in the home they release oxygenating molecules into the atmosphere where they stay suspended for several hours to destroy and prevent bacteria, fungus, mold, and freshen the air with natural fragrances.

In addition to removing dust from the air, the diffused oils allow us to breathe in their wonderful antiviral, antibacterial and antiseptic properties. This is the most perfect way to improve our home environment, either to help us relax, relieve tension and headaches, dispel odors, or just create an atmosphere of peace and harmony. If you have children, or suffer from Emphysema, Sinusitis, Asthma, and allergies, diffusing essential oils into your home will make an essential difference for you and your family’s health.

Some Common Questions

What potions are there available that will really help me lose weight or control my hunger?

Green Tea is the fastest, as indicated above. Also, rubbing angelica ardent into the Cho San Li point, on the stomach meridian line will help. Massage anti clockwise with the oil will increase your metabolic rates and therefore burn your energy and fats, thus reducing one’s weight. (Angelica Ardent oil contains rose oil, primrose oil and tong kui herbs)

For some want who wants to gain weight, then the essential oils to use are apple and argumes. These essential oils are good for those who are recovering from illnesses as it whets their appetite.

Can essential oils be used for other purposes that would make weight control easier

If your elimination system is not function, you may want to use the Bel Air magnolia essential oil, (anti inflammation), Bel Air forsythia (support of the liver) together with the ‘vital meridian’ oils as base oil, a key signature Bel Air meridian massage oil (only kind in the world at the moment that combines 18 chinese herbs and the 5 western essential oils including frankinscene and myrrh) to support the proper functioning of your liver, stomach, digestive system and your spleen through meridian massage oils.

Massage is not something you would immediately associate with weight control – how can it help?

If you want to lose weight and get rid of stubborn fats, the meridian massage, particularly on the stomach, digestive and lymphatic systems will be massaged to speed up the detoxification and hence the loss of body weight.

It is noted US Health and Human Services, in admitted that “over 90% of Americans are walking around with clogged colons”. Dr Harvey Kellogg wrote that of the 22,000 operations I have personally performed, I have never found a single normal colon”. Most people do not know that on the average, person stores between 2-10kg of waste matter accumulated over the years in the colon! Clean the colon, you would have an instant weight reduction! Now, there are DIY colon hydrotherapy machines.

If you are constipated, what you can do to help yourself and not strain yourself in the bathroom is to stand up and massage your tummy, anti clockwise ten times and clockwise ten times and repeat it twice more. However, if you had bad constipation, magnolia pure essential oils will help with any stomach inflammation from within.

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…

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.

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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Cheese, Cream, more cheese, in fact everything and anything dairy can be found on the Snack Box Diet plates.

Eating high calcium, higher fat dairy foods, may not be the heart attack weighting to happen foods many people think they are. In fact they can be one of those foods that actually helps you to lose fat, and for good reason too.

Danish Study on Eating More Calcium

Now, a recent study conducted in Denmark has observed that the more calcium you eat in your diet the less body fat you will have, and therefore the less you will weigh. This points to the fact that not only is dairy a high-energy food, it could be that dairy itself can help you absorb less fat.

Professor Arne Astrup, Head of Human Nutrition at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark, undertook a study to prove this fact.

In the study, a group of volunteers spent one week eating a diet that was high in calcium, typically more than 2000milligrams of calcium a day; and week 2 was on a low calcium diet, where they were eating around about 500milligrams of calcium a day.

These diets were designed so that they had the identical amount of calories and crucially, they also had the same fat content each week.

The known science led the researchers to expect that the higher calcium diet would indeed cause the body to absorb less fat than on the lower calcium diet.

Better than Expected

However, the results that actually came out were even better than expected, in fact on the higher calcium diet tests on the subjects excretions showed that they passed through twice as much fat as they did on the lower calcium diet.

Putting that another way, on the higher calcium diet they absorbed only half the amount of fat than they did on the lower calcium diet.

What this means for snack box dieters is that when you eat dairy products, not all of their calories count.

But of course, that still doesn’t give you an excuse to binge out on cheese!

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.

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.

Continue reading…

It’s a fact that many folk on 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.

Should you eat fibre?

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.

The Test

In his test, he took two lorry drivers, who both had a high-fat, low-fibre diet, and tracked their bowel movement as they took one of their international journeys from Southampton to Turin. They were given a special pill which was used to measure the transit time of the food as it passed through the digestive system.

Before the diet, it took Don 22 hours and 39 minutes to allow the pill to go through his digestive system. Wolfgang, however, took an amazing 42 hours and 25 minutes. For the next ten days the truckers were given a diet that ensured that 50grams of fibre was consumed each day. The test was carried out again with both drivers showing a significantly quicker transit time. After increasing their fibre intake, the time taken for the pill to pass through their digestive systems had been reduced to an average of nearly 21 hours.

One of the things to bear in mind here, though, is that the two guys who were chosen to do this test do have a job that involves them sitting down for most of their working day. There is a direct correlation with how active you are as to how quickly your digestive system works. It should also be borne in mind that they were given 50g of fibre a day whereas the recommended allowance is between 18-24g per day.

Please do see our article on Fibre, available from the website.