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Hydration, Thirst, and Drinking Water

Published on July 5, 2023

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Most of us equate the expression “hydrate extra” with drinking more water but – unfortunately – this is incorrect. In any online dictionary “to hydrate” means to create “…a substance that is formed when water combines with another substance…” In other words, water alone is not a hydrating fluid but it must be combined with something to become one. We do not have water in our body on its own; we have a substance we call electrolyte. I wrote substantially on the topic of hydration, mixing water with minerals, as part of the protocol that prevents migraines. However, a new problem has surfaced: when to drink water? Several articles have recently published water drinking instructions on the internet. Most of these articles consider it bad practice to drink water when one is not thirsty and recommend drinking water only when thirsty. There are several serious flaws with this argument.

Sweat

The first flaw is that most research is aimed at athletes, but athletes are not representative of the majority of the population. Furthermore, athletes should not be drinking “water” to hydrate. Drinking water cannot be absorbed by cells without adequate sodium to hold onto it. When athletes sweat, the content of sweat is not water but electrolyte. Many sports drinks aim at re-hydrating athletes but their problem is their sugar or sugar substitute content, defeating the purpose — see how much sports drink one needs to drink to make up the content of sweat for an athlete. Then add up the sugar in a typical sports drink: 1 teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams of carbs. An average serving of a typical sports drink provides between 14 grams to 54 grams of carbs, all sugar, which converts to 3.5 to 13.5 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Drinking sugar substitutes is even worse because sugar substitutes fool the body like it is receiving glucose so insulin spikes but there is no glucose. This creates insulin overflow in the blood causing you to become hungry! Sugar substitutes may lead to obesity and metabolic syndrome. Drinking sports drinks with sugar substitutes actually reduces muscle energy.

Moreover, anything that converts to glucose in the body removes both water and sodium from the cells¹ so drinking/eating sugar with sodium (salt is the form in which sodium is available to us) and water is worse than not drinking anything at all. Many athletes have smartened up and drink pickle brine rather than water. Pickle brine is great, assuming the brine is of salt and water and not vinegar. Vinegar is fermented ethanol (alcohol). Thus, drinking vinegar-processed pickles will dehydrate further. Look for pickles made with salt rather than vinegar.

Best Hydrating Fluid

Whole milk is an ideal hydrating fluid because it has a perfect electrolyte balance in sodium, potassium, water, blood sugar (lactose), calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and protein. Whole milk is THE perfect electrolyte. Some athletes drink water and take salt pills (also called electrolyte pills). That is also a great option, particularly since they are easy to carry around and take when needed.

The second flaw in the argument of “drink water when thirsty” is that many people feel thirst after eating sugar when it is the least advisable to drink water. Since about half of sugar converts to glucose, and glucose pulls water and sodium out of the cells¹, if one is thirsty after eating sugar and drinks water, the metabolic process will remove more water from the cells. This can cause edema. Although most articles today blame salt for causing edema, the opposite is true.

While sodium retains water inside the cell, glucose removes water and sodium from the cell and forces the water to be retained in extracellular space². Eating salt when one has edema reduces edema by the sodium bringing water back into the cell. This was easily demonstrated by a previous article showing how this works.

The problem with most studies that blame salt on retaining water is that no studies have ever controlled for both salt and sugar at the same time in the same experiment. All studies I could find only looked at the effects of salt on the body regardless of the amount of sugar, water, or protein the subjects had consumed before the experiment. Since the body can easily be tipped out of balance and is never in a vacuum for a pristine controlled experiment, one cannot say with certainty that one element makes a particular change without looking at what else is affecting the body. No such studies exist except in my migraine group where we control for all variables. We found that being thirsty often means the person does not have enough salt to keep water where it belongs³. A migraineur should never drink water when she is thirsty, particularly not if carbohydrates were consumed.

The final problem with only drinking water when thirsty is the population of people who have diabetes 2; they are always thirsty. Being thirsty can be a sign of diabetes mellitus and not the need for more water.

Should You Wait Until You Are Thirsty Before You Drink?

Absolutely not, and for sure drinking water alone will not get you hydrated. How much water you should drink is a question I will address in another article. Drinking the minimum 8 glasses of water is a myth; people vary in size, age, and activity, implying that each person needs a different amount of water. Many online water calculators go into detail of weight, climate, activity, altitude, your health, pregnancy, nursing, etc. For each person the amount of water and thus hydration needed (not just water) will differ and for that hydration level you need to make sure you drink adequate amounts of water as part of your hydration protocol.

Sources

Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J. Harrison’s Manual of Medicine 18th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill Medical; 2013.
Millar T. Biochemistry Explained: A Practical Guide to Learning Biochemistry. Vol reprint edition: CRC Press; 2002.
Stanton, Angela A. Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: A Complete Guide: How To Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medicine

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The Ketogenic Diet: What You Need to Know

by Angela A Stanton, PhD

Published on January 18, 2017

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There is hardly a day that passes without seeing a new article popping up about the damage sugar and refined carbs can cause but only lately is the connection of sugar to obesity and metabolic disorders starting to be realized. Many people we know may have some weight problems or metabolic health conditions and follow some weight loss program—none of which seems to be effective in the long run. This makes sense. If any weight loss program had led to permanent weight loss, those using it could stop and the company promoting it would go out of business. Long-term (often life-long) membership is essential if one wants to avoid yoyo dieting.

Lately, I see many people rushing to change from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to various new diets, such as the Low Carbs High Fat (LCHF) or the Ketogenic diets. Are all these “diets” for weight loss? Some people call these “fad” diets, but are they?

There was a time when sugar covered cereals were called “fads” but look what has become of that fad! It has become our everyday SAD. Fad is “a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal: craze” (here). Sugar covered cereals have been with us for over 100 years, so definitely not a fad. What about the LCHF and the ketogenic Diets? Are they fads? Maybe, maybe not. Let’s dig a little deeper into the ketogenic diet since I consider the LCHF a less strict version of the ketogenic diet.

Is the Ketogenic Diet a Fad?

Looking at its history, “[ketogenic] dietary regimens have been used to treat epilepsy since at least 500 BC” (here). The ketogenic diet utilizes a metabolic process that can be awakened by fasting—though fasting is not necessary. “The ketogenic diet was introduced by modern physicians as a treatment for epilepsy in the 1920s” (here). Therefore, we can safely say it is not a fad. Since it has been used therapeutically for seizures for a very long time, it is not a diet either. What it this ketogenic “thing”?

Ketogenic Metabolic Process

Ketogenic is the human native metabolic process. It is a different metabolic process from the process SAD requires. The ketogenic diet is mostly fat, limited amount of protein, and very small amounts of carbohydrates—the exact opposite of SAD. Eating carbohydrates or protein require insulin for conversion to glucose. Fat is the only macro-nutrient that doesn’t need insulin to generate ATP (Adenosine triphosphate)–in ketosis the role of insulin is fat regulation rather than glucose management to generate ATP (here). ATP is cellular energy, which, after all, is the goal of eating macro-nutrients.

Metabolic Processes

Image from Ketopia.

As you can see in the above image, the end-product for all metabolic processes is the same: energy. However, the complexity differs—this metabolism map is simplified. Note something very important: we can completely remove carbohydrates from the above diagram and not miss a beat in our energy creation. Protein only partially needs to be converted to glucose at the pyruvate step but some protein can directly turn into energy without conversion to glucose. We can remove all sugar, pasta, pizza, cereal, whole wheat bread, all fruits and vegetables from our diet and eat fat and protein instead to meet all our energy need. Most minerals and vitamins are found in meat and dairy so supplementation or eating fruits and veggies may not be necessary. Vitamin C is found in eggs and organ meats.

Why is Ketogenic Important?

Carbohydrates joined our evolutionary path several times, depending on how far you wish to go back. I choose to go back to just before farming. Prior to farming, carbohydrates were hard to come by, especially during the Ice Age. Even civilizations in hot parts of the world, such as the Masai in Africa, don’t eat carbohydrates because they have too little nutritional value. They eat meat, fat, milk, and blood—all high fat and nutrient-dense food. Carbohydrates are not nutrient dense since they lack many amino acids and fatty acids.

The ketogenic metabolic process, on the other hand, is rich in amino and fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins. See the chart below for vitamin and minerals and where we can find most of them.

Ketogenic is a simpler metabolic process that burns fat, so the belly you built up over the years can be used up as energy. Furthermore, since our brain is mostly made from fat, we might as well feed it fat. Feeding the brain fat is beneficial to your health in many ways. The ketogenic diet has been used therapeutically because of the high fat. It is used as curative today for epilepsy, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, for neuromuscular diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, sleep disorders and autism, and even migraines and much more. It appears that the ketogenic way of eating cures the negative consequences of the SAD diet.

Is Ketosis a Starvation Diet?

People often label ketosis, the method of fat burning in the ketogenic diet, a “starvation” diet. Some even call it a state of “acid-base disturbance” without realizing its importance. However, ketosis is far from being a state of starvation since our body has a lot more fat-storage ability than glucose (glycogen) storage at any given time. While our liver can retain maximum 500 grams of glucose equivalent in glycogen (about 2000 calories worth of energy), our body contains tens or hundreds of thousands of fat calories (depending on how much fat you carry). Should a famine ever arrive, the ones starving to death will be those who depend on the availability of carbohydrates and not those who can store and burn their fat.

We need to turn the “starvation” theory up-side-down. Carbohydrates (prior to our commercialization) were only available for short periods of time and only in some places where the climate was favorable. How did humans survive in cold climates or seasons? Eating fat and meat – of course – from the animals they captured.

How Can More Calories be Generated by Starvation?

From each gram of fat 9 calories of energy are generated, whereas from a gram of carbohydrates only 4 calories of energy is generated Which one is the starvation mode in your opinion? It seems that consuming carbohydrates makes sense only as a desperation move in times of fat shortages.

Note that if you eat only carbohydrates, you need to eat 2.25 times as much as when you eat fat since carbs only generate 4 Calories whereas fat 9 (simple math). I would think that a starvation diet becomes necessary when nothing better is available. In this case, carbohydrates offer less than half the energy so that is indeed the starvation diet. Furthermore, the length of time one needs to eat also matters. Surviving on carbohydrates takes 2.25 times as long eating-time as surviving on fat if we want to eat the same amount in calories. This translates very well to our modern society where eating three main meals and two snacks is necessary to survive on a carbohydrate rich SAD diet while those on the ketogenic diet may eat only once a day to get the same calories (this is because of the calorie differences macro-nutrient types provide). Since the ketogenic diet is so much more advantageous, let’s evaluate some common beliefs about it.

Keto Flu

Keto flu is not an illness. It represents a transition time for your body from carbohydrate to fat burning mode. It requires the cooperation of many hormones and the replacement of some cells since these metabolic processes are extremely different. During this initial period you don’t burn fat efficiently, you may feel more tired during workout, have a headache, cramps, or bad breath. This period may last anywhere from a couple of days to several months. It does dissipate, however, but most academic research has been conducted for too short a time period for the keto flu to pass and much fight is ongoing to prove that. The subject is still only discussed within academic circles.

Individuals who try the ketogenic diet have little support from their doctors and nutritionists, most of whom have never heard of the ketogenic diet because they must follow the dietary guidelines of the USDA or the American Heart Association. As a result, people must rely on the often inaccurate ketogenic material found on the Internet, as this dieter explains.

Useful Ketogenic Information

Ketogenic diet is inhospitable to most parasitic and bacterial life in the human body (here). Bacterial infections, yeast and perhaps even mold find it impossible to survive in an environment that uses fat rather than glucose for metabolism (here). Cancer is a metabolic disease that feeds on glucose (here). Where there is no glucose (or a very limited amount), there is a much smaller likelihood of cancer–cancer is a metabolic disease (here).

My Experiences with Dairy

Whole milk doesn’t affect ketosis . Whole milk has no sugar (in spite of the label on the box). It has lactose. Lactose is a disaccharide, meaning two molecules are bonded: glucose and galactose. Lactose requires the enzyme lactase to break it up and this happens in the intestines. Therefore, the sugar from milk doesn’t increase in the blood until the enzymes have broken lactose into glucose and galactose (here). Since lactose is a disaccharide bond between glucose and galactose, only 50% of it is glucose. While glucose certainly finds its way back to the blood from the intestines, it does so slowly and perhaps some happy bacteria already fermented some of it. So, even the assumption of 50% returning as glucose is very generous.

Lactose free milk affects your glucose levels immediately because in this type of milk the lactose is already broken up into the simple sugars of glucose and galactose (here). Don’t drink lactose free milk in ketosis.

Yogurt interferes with ketosis because of the fermenting of lactose by the bacterial cultures produce lactic acid (here). This means that much of the lactose bonds have been broken before you put yogurt into your mouth. Yogurt will likely bring you out of ketosis—depending on how much glucose is left unfermented in it.

Medicines, Supplements, and Ketosis

Prescription medicines as well as some supplements may interfere with ketosis (here). This is rarely if ever talked about but I can pass on my experience. Many medicines and supplements use insulin receptors to get into our cells. A notorious prescription medicine to instantly bring you out of ketosis is Prednisone—including corticosteroid epidurals. Prednisone uses up all the insulin your body is capable to produce (it can induce type 2 diabetes) and starve the brain of glucose (some brain parts always need glucose though small amounts). The more the brain demands glucose, the more glycogen the liver pumps into the blood but as there are no free insulin receptors, blood sugar levels may reach near diabetic level (mine did from Prednisone).

Some vitamins, such as vitamins D and C also use insulin receptors and you may find similar behavior to Prednisone (here). Some medicines may work against ketosis. The ketogenic diet works best in a medicine free body because this “diet and nutritional supplements improve so many conditions that the prescriptions often become an overdose or unnecessarily strong” (here). Furthermore, Western Medicines are made to work in a carbs-burning metabolic process so it is not at all surprising that they don’t work in a fat burning metabolism.

For example, some seizure or heart arrhythmia medications may become agonists in a ketogenic metabolic process. Ketosis is a state when your body is in recovery mode, rebuilding fat and cholesterol in your brain and heart to insulate your voltage passing neurons. Medicines that block these neurons from working, such as voltage gated calcium channel blockers or voltage gated sodium-potassium pumps or channels blockers, may end up amplifying the condition by working against the medicine while the medicine is working against the ketogenic repair process—this happened to me.

A person should not come in and out of ketosis. One is either in the ketogenic metabolic mode or out. A body can only have one metabolic process at a time given that both processes use insulin but for very different purpose–as described earlier. When a body is not used to eating carbohydrates, the insulin resets to a healthy level. This means that the reaction to a cheat day may bring with it a diabetic level insulin spike. Repeat this often and this may become a factor in insulin resistance that perhaps nothing can reverse. So make a decision and stick with it. As my body proved it to me (and to a few others in the ketogenic mild for migraine group on Facebook), once the body is in efficient fat-burning mode, it wants to stay there.

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Sweet Death by Sugar

by Angela A Stanton, PhD

Published on January 19, 2015

6119 views

We all know that sugar is bad for us but we cannot resist it. Why not? Expert Robert Lustig MD, reasoned on 60-Minutes that for humans in nature all sweet tasting things are edible and not poisonous. There are no toxins in nature that taste sweet, and thus, evolutionarily speaking, favoring sweet things is predetermined in our genes; we are born liking sweets. All of this is true with one major exception: sugar, the natural substance, can become poisonous when modified.

Sugar and Ethanol

Consider the simple modification of squeezing a fruit for its juice. The modification is not chemical: we merely separated the sugary liquid from the insoluble fiber in the fruit–some soluble fibers may remain. This little change makes no difference for most fruits or our taste buds, but it modifies how our body metabolizes sugar in it. According to Lustig’s book Fat Chance (a must read!), when we eat the fruit with insoluble fiber attached (typically the skin), the fructose in the fruit (most sugar in fruit is fructose) bypasses our metabolic digestive process (insoluble fibers are not digestible) and heads straight to the gut where the good bacteria digest the fructose as their food from the fibers, thereby producing more nutrients for us. But if we drink the juice alone without any insoluble fiber, the same amount of fructose now gets into the metabolic cycle and by a complicated process turns into ethanol and gets stuck in the liver. Ethanol is a toxin. Ethanol is an alcohol we also use to improve car mileage. Ethanol causes non-alcoholic “alcoholic” liver disease. In fact, ethanol is alcohol and those drinking apple juice (thinking of kids now) are in fact drinking alcohol in terms of the likely outcome of the metabolic process, as per Dr. Lustig.

So we all thought that feeding our kids fresh fruit juices is a good thing but we also knew that they should not be getting too much sugar because their behavior changes from it. Now it is clear why their behavior changes: the part of sugar that turns into ethanol is alcohol. The other parts of the fruit juice that do turn into digestible sugars (glucose and sucrose) do something else to the body.

What is Glucose?

Glucose is “blood sugar” meaning the sugar our body can use. Sucrose converts to glucose as well. What happens to the glucose?

Some stores sell glucose in a liquid gooey form—thicker than honey—that I recommend you taste. Take a small teaspoon, fill it with glucose and swallow. The first thing you will notice (yes, I did the tasting test) is that it is not that sweet. The second thing you will notice is that the moment you swallow it, you cannot count till 5 and you are hot. So you take your sweater off. Then you have the urge to do something—paint the house? Mow the grass? If you are a kid: bounce off the walls and drive the people around you nuts. This is normal. This is what glucose feels like.

Note, however, that when you eat a teaspoon of table sugar, you will neither feel so hot, nor will you have so much energy. What is the difference? What happens when you drink a diet drink or eat sugar substitutes? You will neither be hot nor have any energy. The difference in feeling hot and having energy versus not feeling hot and not having energy represents the difference in the metabolism of glucose versus fructose and the fake sugar stuff.

The Metabolism of Glucose versus Fructose

I will not get into deep chemical equations or models; for that please watch the video below by Dr. Lustig. Rather, I will reduce all complexity and simply tell you the end of the story with as minimal of the underlying process as possible.

When food arrives into the body, insulin is released to convert the food into fat and deposit it for later use as glucose. Glucose is used by our brain and muscles for energy. After insulin has done its conversion, all insulin is used up. When the brain is hungry, it fetches the hormone leptin to get some energy. Thus, leptin grabs a hold of the available glucose and serves it to the brain (this is highly simplified!). The brain is happy and full of energy.

Now consider the situation when the only food we eat is glucose. Insulin is released but it has nothing to convert. It is already in the final form (glucose for the brain) and so the glucose goes straight to the brain, the kids are popping off the wall, and you suddenly find yourself painting the house. Note, however, that the insulin is in the blood and it is waiting for the food to arrive so it can work and convert it to fat. But there is no food; we only ate glucose and it is already being used by the brain! So what is insulin in the blood to do? Insulin stays in the blood, circles around looking for food. It finds none. By staying in the blood, over time this is a “cry wolf” scenario and the body starts ignoring insulin announcing the arrival of food that isn’t there. This is how insulin resistance starts.

Now consider that instead of glucose, you drink a glass of apple juice. It has natural sugar in it, some vitamins (very little), no fiber, no protein. The sugar of fruit is mostly fructose but a small part of it is also sucrose. So insulin releases again to match the size of the apple juice drink we just had, but again, it faces a problem. While sucrose becomes glucose in our body and can be converted and stored as fat, fructose is not seen as sugar. So once again, insulin is looking for food but finds none; it keeps on circling in our blood looking for food. It is ignored and insulin resistance begins.

The Metabolism of Glucose versus Sugar Substitutes & “Natural” Sugars like Stevia

Now consider you eat a diet something—by diet I mean sugar substitutes with reduced or zero calories. It certainly tastes sweet (very sweet indeed) but again, there is no glucose or sucrose in it and while it does not become alcohol in the liver, it certainly makes insulin run around in circles looking for food to convert to fat and deposit. Cry wolf again and the insulin is ignored. Insulin resistance begins. Why is this important? Because insulin resistance is type II diabetes!

The Famine

Now let’s continue about the peril of our non-toxic sweets. The fact that insulin is out looking for glucose also signals leptin that energy is incoming! Leptin is a hormone that is in charge of messaging the brain that glucose is available. In the case when insulin is running around in our blood in search of food it can convert to fat for later use as glucose but there is no food to be found, leptin finds no glucose. Thus, leptin tells the brain that famine is here.

Famine for the Brain is Obesity for Your Body!

The famine message to the brain means one thing: conserve energy. It reduces all non-essential activities, and literally, will not let you get up from that couch! This is highly simplified of course, but pay attention to the outcome. You are actually eating and drinking and at the same time your brain is getting the message of famine. What will that lead to? When the brain thinks it is famine time, it is famine time. The fact that you are eating and drinking sugar or sugar substitutes with lots of calories is not noticed by the brain. As far as it is concerned, there is no glucose available so it must slow your metabolism. A slow metabolism leads to obesity.

Sugar Anyone?

So, while there are many people who think nothing of having sweets or a soda, consider what it does to your body! Consider that it slows down your activity and forces you into famine state even though you are well fed! Consider that it makes you obese and sets you up for type 2 diabetes.

Now tell me if you still think that sweets are not toxic poisons for us! They are. And there is one more thing to add to the story that no one talks about. I mention this because I deal with a group of migraineurs—I was one of them until I figured things out and wrote a book about it and several articles about it on Hormones Matter.

Consider this quote from the Harrison’s Manual of Medicine:

…serum Na+ falls by 1.4 mM for every 100-mg/dL increase in glucose, due to glucose-induced H2O efflux from cells. (page 4)

Na+ is sodium ion. Sodium is part of sodium-chloride, which is salt. Glucose-induced H2O efflux from cells represents water exiting the cells as a result of an increase of glucose. Why is that, you may ask? The answer is very simple: sugar is an amazing water soak-up device. It pulls water from everywhere it can. It holds onto water like its life depended upon it. Unfortunately for the body, sugar pulls the water from the cells leaving the cells empty on the inside and a lot of fluid tied to sugar on the outside. As long as that sugar is there, the cells are not able to hydrate in any fashion until the level of Na+ is increased beyond a threshold level where Na+ can take water away from the glucose. Na+ also attracts water. In fact, all saline electrolyte liquids provided by IV or for drinking in hospitals are Na+ heavy to rehydrate the cells.

Thus, sugar not only starts and enhances diabetes II and obesity; it also shuts down cell hydration. This may cause headaches or migraines depending on your propensity.

In conclusion, if someone asks you if you would prefer to eat a teaspoon of sugar or a teaspoon of salt, while your taste buds will undoubtedly scream for sugar, you should know better!

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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References

Sugar: The Bitter Truth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Longo et al., Harrison’s Manual of Medicine. 18^th edition. McGraw Hill. 2013.
Artificial sweeteners could cause spikes in blood sugar by By Brady Dennis September 17, 2014
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-suggests-sweeteners-could-contribute-to-obesity-and-diabetes/2014/09/17/c3c04ea6-3dc2-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html
Artificial sweeteners could lead to obesity, diabetes. By Michelle Castillo CBS NEWS July 10, 2013, 4:28 PM
CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-could-lead-to-obesity-diabetes/
Artificial sweeteners may promote diabetes, claim scientists
The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/17/artificial-sweeteners-diabetes-saccharin-blood-sugar
Do Artificial Sweeteners Really Cause Diabetes? By Published: June 7, 2013 By Jessica Chia
Women’s Health Magazine: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/artificial-sweeteners-cause-diabetes
Could artificial sweetener CAUSE diabetes? Splenda ‘modifies way the body handles sugar’, increasing insulin production by 20% by Rachel Reilly Published: 12:27 Est, 30 May 2013 | Updated: 12:27 Est, 30 May 2013
The Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2333336/Could-artificial-sweetener-CAUSE-diabetes-Splenda-modifies-way-body-handles-sugar-increasing-insulin-production-20.html
How To Starve Cancer To Death By Removing This One Thing From Your Diet
Organic Health: http://organichealth.co/starve-cancer-to-death-by-removing-this/
Is sugar a toxin? Experts debate the role of fructose in our obesity epidemic By Tamar Haspel, September 2, 2013
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/is-sugar-a-toxin-experts-debate-the-role-of-fructose-in-our-obesity-epidemic/2013/08/30/58a906d6-f952-11e2-afc1-c850c6ee5af8_story.html
Scientific team sounds the alarm on sugar as a source of disease. By Barbara Sadick Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-health-1210-sugar-metabolic-syndrome-20141205-story.html#page=1

Thanksgiving Dinner: Ideas for Diabetics, Vegetarians and Everyone in Between

by Lauren Chmiel

Published on November 21, 2012

1739 views

The holidays symbolize a joyous time of family, friends and food. As a big proponent of a plant-based diet, this time of year has usually served as a conundrum for me. While my family is carving the turkey and noshing on honey-baked ham, I have always found myself turning to the carbohydrate-heavy side dishes. I have decided I am done torturing myself and have taken to the Internet and vegan/vegetarian cookbooks for help in planning a healthy, plant-based holiday. Rather than turkey, I indulge in acorn squash stuffed with spinach and a bit of Gorgonzola (or, for my vegan audience, try a quinoa mushroom pilaf stuffing instead). The traditional turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes is not necessary for a fulfilling holiday. If you are curious about plant-based Thanksgiving dishes, I highly recommend sites such as The Post Punk Kitchen, Vegetarian Times or One Green Planet. For me, experimenting with new, healthier foods has been an exciting and challenging adventure.

Regardless of dietary status, it is important to recognize that the average person consumes anywhere between 5,000 to 6,000 calories throughout Thanksgiving Day. Such a deluge of food into the human body overworks our system. According to Joanna Gorman, a registered dietitian quoted in the Las Vegas Review Journal, insulin and the breakdown of fat kick into high gear and cause unnecessary strain and stress. For those among us who must monitor their insulin, there are a number of substitutions one can make on Thanksgiving, such as switching out potatoes for mashed rutabagas, parsnips or cauliflower for more fiber and lower carbs. Try sautéed green beans with garlic instead of casserole, which can be heavy with cheese and cream. Use whole-grain bread crumbs (or even brown rice) and double the veggies for your stuffing. The Mayo Clinic and dLife (a Diabetes resource site) both share a number of recipes and ideas for a healthful holiday.

The best way to avoid overeating for one big meal is to partake in smaller meals throughout the day. Portion control and light exercise is key; rather than sitting on the couch all day, maybe take a little walk around the block with a loved one instead. Listen to your body and don’t keep allowing yourself to eat out of boredom or based on the deliciousness of a particular dish. Not only should we keep ourselves from overeating, we shouldn’t push our loved ones to eat more when they are already sated either.

It is important to enter the holiday season armed with knowledge on how we can better care for each other and ourselves. Many choices we make during this time of year, such as overindulging in sweets or tripling our calorie count can be harmful to our bodies. I know I have made these mistakes many times and felt remorse and physical pain as a result of my overeating. I truly hope these resources will allow my readers to seek out new and interesting recipes and partake in a healthy and happy holiday season.

Sugar and our Hormones

by Lisbeth Prifogle, MFA

Published on April 2, 2012

3564 views

It’s Easter season, which outside of religious practices, means candy, candy and more candy for a lot of Americans. Peeps, Cadbury Eggs, jelly beans are just a few of the hallmarks of this spring holiday. But, along with our growing waistline, scientists and Americans are both scrutinizing our diet and a common culprit seems to repeatedly point back to the white stuff. Even CBS News, 60 Minutes is looking at the toxicity of sugar. Is candy and sugar in our diet really the cause of America’s obesity and health problems? It’s now estimated that the average American consumes up to 180 lbs of added sugar per year. Here’s another statistic that demonstrates the increase of sugar in our diets over the years:

In 1700, the average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year.
In 1800, the average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year.
In 1900, individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year.
In 2009, more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar per person
DAY—translating to a whopping 180 pounds of sugar per year!

“Walk away from the Peeps, Ma’am!” might be what you’re telling yourself, but this sugar epidemic is out of control thanks to the highly processed foods and soft drinks where sugar hides under a variety of names. Here are some fancier names for sugar:

Sucrose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, syrup, mannitol, molasses, ethyl maltol, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, diatase, cane sugar, caramel, carob syrup, barley malt, beet sugar, C12H22O11,

But, that’s not all. There are as many names for sugar as Eskimos have for snow. As the public becomes more aware of the many dangers of sugar, the food industry has to try to hide it under different names.

Is it ironic or coincidental that this heavenly, legal substance that give us so much pleasure looks identical to illegal drugs such as cocaine, meth, heroine? In my opinion the only difference is that sugar is a legal drug. Am I exaggerating? No, actually I’m not. In a recent study where rats were given the choice between water, sugar and cocaine the rats choose … SUGAR! This is vital information for you and your family’s health because when you start cutting sugar out of your diet you will likely go through withdrawal symptoms as you would with any addictive substance. As an adult you can cope with the headaches, irritability and fatigue; but if you are cutting sugar out of a child’s diet they won’t understand what is happening to their body. Something to be aware of as a parent when you start cutting processed foods and sugary treats out of your children’s diet.

I’m sure some of you are reading this thinking, I’m not diabetic, this doesn’t apply to me. What if I told you that your high cholesterol and muffin top is more likely linked to the sugar than bacon? Interested now? To break it down barney-style, sugar (whether it be white rice, processed bread, soda, lemonade, plain ol’ sugar in your coffee) turns into glucose in your body. Your body releases insulin, a hormone, to cleanse the blood. What your body can’t use immediately as energy is stored in the liver and fat tissue of the body for later use. When you overload your system with sugar, your whole body has to work overtime to clean it out of your system and this means putting its everyday tasks aside to deal with this toxic overload. So, instead of processing healthy fats, proteins, good carbs, etc., your system is processing junk. Then, it has to do its normal jobs after that. No wonder you’re so tired and lethargic all the time – you’re forcing your whole body to work double shifts everytime you reach for that candy bar or soda!

SUGAR = FAT = HEART DISEASE/CANCER/DIABETES/OBESITY/LIVER DAMAGE/INFERTILITY/ACNE/AND MORE.

Can it get worst? Actually, yes. In 2007, Child and Family Resource Institute released findings that sugar disrupts the sex hormones as well.

“Glucose and fructose are metabolized in the liver. When there’s too much sugar in the diet, the liver converts it to lipid. Using a mouse model and human liver cell cultures, the scientists discovered that the increased production of lipid shut down a gene called SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), reducing the amount of SHBG protein in the blood. SHBG protein plays a key role in controlling the amount of testosterone and estrogen that’s available throughout the body. If there’s less SHBG protein, then more testosterone and estrogen will be released throughout the body, which is associated with an increased risk of acne, infertility, polycystic ovaries, and uterine cancer in overweight women. Abnormal amounts of SHBG also disturb the delicate balance between estrogen and testosterone, which is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease, especially in women.”

So, what can you do? How do you beat the cravings? The first step is to remove table sugar and processed foods out of your house. If it’s not there, you can’t be tempted. The second step is educating yourself on the hidden ingredients that are actually sugar. (Here’s a scary tip – did you know that juice is depleted of all nutrients, flavor and color, stored for a year, and then artificially flavored and colored?!) Thirdly, check out my post, Sweet Alternatives, for some healthy alternatives that will help you and your family beat that sweet tooth for good.

Photos Jdurham, jasoncangialosi Creative Common 2.0

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SUGAR = FAT = HEART DISEASE/CANCER/DIABETES/OBESITY/LIVER DAMAGE/INFERTILITY/ACNE/AND MORE.

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