How much Arsenic is too much?

How much arsenic is too much?  If you remember the book 'Flowers in the Attic', it can take years to slowly poison someone with this isotope.Symptoms of arsenic poisoning begin with headaches, confusion, severe diarrhea, and drowsiness. When the poisoning becomes acute, symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, cramping muscles, hair loss, and stomach pain.The organs of the body that are usually affected by arsenic poisoning are the lungs, skin, kidneys, and liver.

Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease have virtually all the same side effects.

But gluten is not just dangerous to those who are outwardly sensitive as previously thought.  90% of people with gluten sensitivity are unaware of the fact that they should not be eating gluten. If you consider fatigue, undernourishment  rashes, and a beer belly normal (or something you have always dealt with), you may not realize that you are sensitive to gluten.

Over time, consumption of gluten will cause them to gain weight, have elevated triglyceride levels, elevated blood glucose levels, lipotoxicity, glycotoxicity, increased LDL levels, and eventually could lead to serious liver damage, also referred to as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease typically attributed to alcohol abuse.

So with all this bad press, why can we not get past our obsession with wheat?

In part it comes down to what is between our ears.  Elements of gluten bind to the same receptors in the brain that narcotics do, causing some people to become 'addicted' to bread and pasta.  Like anyone who has a soft spot for ice cream to those who are fighting an addiction like drugs and alcohol, some people are literally addicted to wheat.  They suffer withdrawals, headaches, and after 3-5 days off gluten are able to function again.

Further exacerbating the issue is the USDA and the American Diabetic Association.  Both organizations recommend eating whole grains as part of a healthy diet.  The USDA recommended changes to the American diet in 1985 to include generous portions of whole wheat.  While I do remember a couple of larger folks in 1985, there was nowhere near the volume of morbidly obese individuals we see on a daily basis now.   The American Diabetes Association perpetuates the same misinformation that some hospitalists are now recognizing as harmful.  What always confused me about the diet recommendations for diabetics was how they could recommend staying away from sugars and alcohol lest the diabetic risk elevated glucose levels, but they largely ignored and even recommended eating breads and pasta.  If you remember high school science, breads are carbohydrates that turn into sugars when digested.  Even with the advent and popularity of the glycemic index, the organizations still clings to whole wheat recommendations despite the fact that a piece of whole wheat bread will spike your insulin levels higher than Snickers Bar.

I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to what I put in my body. If elevated blood sugar is bad for diabetics, it is probably bad for me too. If elevated blood sugar was the only reason to reevaluate my consumption of wheat products, I would probably do it anyway. But there is more evidence.
When there has been shortages of bread due to war, such as in France in World War I, doctors noticed an increase in the health and wellbeing of the diabetics in their care only to watch them deteriorate once bread was reintroduced. Hospital staff who work with hospitalized diabetics are starting to recommend a gluten free diet because they have seen the benefits first hand. Knowing that some diabetics are able to reverse the progress of the disease by eliminating wheat from their diet.well that is good enough for me!

But there is more reason to refrain from that Panini.

The genetic change in wheat over the last 100 years has been pretty astounding.  All commercial wheat has been genetically modified to create a dwarf strain that grows faster and shorter with more kernels. Ancient wheat had many less chromosomes than modern wheat.  Modern wheat has evolved into something that looks like wheat on the outside, but once broken down and absorbed into your system behaves very differently than ancient grains.  In fact, no one has bothered to test the modern wheat to see if it is safe for human consumption.  Why?  Because it looks virtually the same...but your body knows the difference.

A study was conducted on blood samples from military personnel during WWII. Specifically they were looking for the dreaded celiac marker which would indicate someone is gluten sensitive. About .10% of the samples showed sensitivity. Fast forward, and comparing apples to apples, scientists compared modern blood samples from all male military personnel and found a staggering difference.  More than triple the sensitivity levels were evident in the modern samples.  More and more people are becoming resistant to modern wheat proteins and the numbers are accelerating at an alarming rate.

I haven't even touched on how wheat affects schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, skin disorders like psoriasis, or those with compromised immune systems.  In my opinion, a single one of these reasons would be enough to get me off wheat.The collection of reasons gathered in the book 'Wheat Belly' are enough to make me an evangelist!  People deserve to know how desperately their beloved hamburger bun is hurting their health.  I am almost envious of celiac patients.  The discomfort they get from ingesting anything wheat is enough motivation to refrain forever. The physical manifestations of their reactions to wheat are so obvious and so dreadful that there is no doubt about the damage being done internally. Those of us who don't have those effects need to be vigilant against wheat with the potential of improvement as our only reward. Unless you believe you are malnourished, weak, loosing hair or memory, or sporting a beer belly due to your consumption of wheat, you have no belief basis to make that drastic and critical change for your health.

Wheat is pervasive and in almost every processed food out there: peanut butter, soy sauce, corn chips, ice cream (cookies and cream anyone?).  It is not an easy undertaking, but start somewhere.  Eliminate or change your bread and pasta habits. Substitute spaghetti squash for pasta. Drink tequila or potato vodka (Chopin) instead of beer. Start reading labels. Start reading websites. Read 'Wheat Belly'! I started my dad on the book and by page 71, he was a convert.  Instead of phasing wheat out of his diet by year end, he quit cold turkey and lost 5 lbs by eliminating two pieces of bread a day from his diet. Many people I have heard of, read about or talked to have lost significant weight after cutting wheat from their diet.  That alone is a fantastic reason to at least try a gluten free life.  Most people simply end up feeling better and don't have that 'bloaty' feeling. Bottom line, take charge of your life and longevity through what you eat. Don't let your dietary choices make you a 'Flower in the Attic'.

Take aways:
Eat no gluten!
Eat Whole foods where you are in control of the ingredients.

Resources:
Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health - William David, MD 

Inflammation is Bad

Spend 21 days on a juice fast and food quickly becomes an obsessive thought.  When I can eat again, what will I eat? Will it contribute to gaining the weight back? Is there any way I can eat that WON’T cause me to gain back all the weight I lost?

I did the Martha’s Vineyard Cleanse about two years ago.  No chewing allowed.  Only juices (mostly veggie) and soups, blended to macerate any content. No protein.  No carbohydrates.  I lost about 18 lbs on the program. During the program, I started to obsess about what I would eat when I could eat solid food again.  Since I was not eating, I did a lot of reading.  The Martha’s Vineyard program was very restrictive, but the education found in the book was eye opening.  One passage in particular mentioned that certain foods caused inflammation in some people and should be avoided.  Another, that you should not eat certain foods together lest you create an inflammatory response.  Inflammation sounded bad but I was not really clear how this could affect weight control or longevity. 

One of the first books I found was on the Hays Diet.  In 1933, Dr. William Howard Hay published a book called New Health Era that explained that all disease in the body is caused by ‘auto-toxication’  or self-poisoning due to acid accumulation in the body.  The Hays Diet is a diet based on basic food combining principles.  Eating certain foods, like proteins, combined with carbohydrates, like potatoes, causes an acid reaction in the body.  On the Hays Diet you make food combinations of either protein and veggies OR carbohydrates and veggies.  When I finished my 21 day juice fast, I tried the Hays Diet which largely drove me to become a vegetarian.  I almost always chose the carbs over the protein, despite the fact that I knew that protein is the building block of muscle, and without it, thin is possible. Looking healthy and fit with muscle and definition, is not.

Reading more, I realized that individual foods themselves had alkaline and acid properties inherent to each and every food.  Why not choose foods primarily low on the acid production profile and try to reduce acid through diet?  If you Google ‘PH balance of foods’, you will see many resources on food choices that are primarily alkaline in your system.  Foods you would expect to be acid, like lemon juice and vinegar, are extremely alkaline in nature.  Foods like waffles, sweet rolls, and muffins will spike your acid levels hand in hand with a spike in your insulin levels. I don’t think I need to tell you that both are very, very, very bad for long term heath and longevity.

Some measure of inflammation is necessary in all humans.  Our immune systems launch immunity reactions to an injury, internal or external.  It is how we heal ourselves.  Chronic and excessive inflammation, however, has been linked with everything from anxiety to cancer.  Inflammation can be endogenic, resulting from internal factors such as a hard work out (lactic acid).  Exogenic factors are those that are introduced from outside the body.  Everything you do and eat is exogenic and has a reaction, some good and some bad, in your system.  These exogenic stimuli can result from stress, diet, and food reactions to name just a few. 

Our bodies are always trying to maintain a delicate balance between acid and alkaline.  Too far in either direction and we could die.  Our body will maintain a pH balance of 7.4 , sometimes at a very high price.  Move .5 off that mark up or down and you will die, no joke. The body will strive to maintain the balance at any costs, including cannibalizing our own bones for alkaline calcium salts if necessary.  A healthy PH balance allows the immune system to function properly, fighting off disease with ease and assists in maintaining a healthy bone structure.

Contributing to the acid load in your body is sometimes unavoidable, but there are several things we do every day that could be changed or avoided to promote a healthy pH.  Carbonated sodas are a source of carbonic acid.  Coca Cola contains phosphoric acid.  Drinking carbonated beverages will effectively leach calcium from your bones and accelerate the osteoporotic effects of aging at an alarming level.  My sister used to do bone density testing as part of her job with an occupational health company.  She could easily identify those people who drank too much soda by their readings.  Removal of soda from their diet at her recommendation produced a dramatic improvement in the readings.  People with the bone density readings of an 80 year old woman saw marked improvement in a single year, just by reducing diet or regular soda from their diets.

Personally, I noticed that focusing on alkaline foods promoted wonderful side effects in my body.  In particular, my brand of homemade lemonade brought peace to my mental outlook.  I mix 4 oz pure lemon juice, two teaspoons of stevia, and 20 ounces of water over ice to make my lemonade concoction. I drink about two of these a day.  I used to have issues with anxiety and had the prescription to prove it.  I no longer have any symptoms, unless of course I don’t drink my lemonade.  When I feel that tight feeling in my chest and between my shoulder blades, I don’t reach for any anti-anxiety medication.  I reach for my lemonade and the symptoms go away.  Just knowing this helps alleviate what would have turned into a full blown anxiety attack in the not so distant past.

Recently, (and you will hear me mention this frequently) I read a book called ‘Wheat Belly’ by Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist in Wisconsin.  He eloquently points out how wheat, primarily the protein element gluten, will affect pH balance as well as a host of other very nasty issues I will touch on in future blogs.  Looping back to the Hays diet, I had avoided animal proteins (except fish) in part because of the acid load created by eating meat (I figured I needed all the help I could get!).  Davis points out that recent studies suggest that protein rich meats have other effect that partially negate the acid load.  Consumption of animal proteins create a bone strengthening effect through the hormone growth factor (IGF-1).  Combine that with the alkaline effects of fruits and vegetables and the basic hunter/gatherer diet of meats and veggies proves healthy for bone and alkalinity. In other words…Meat is Good! (avoid cured meats however…!)

We have been hearing for years about the ‘low carb’ diets, but current research shows that this is not just a fad.  Reducing wheat carbohydrates is consistent with a healthy pH balance.  Increasing fruits, and even more importantly, veggies will assist you in creating the pH balance you need to be lean and healthy. Think about it.  No one ever got fat eating veggies and chicken or steak.  It doesn’t mean you have to eschew dairy or fats.  Cutting back on carbohydrates, which induce insulin spikes (deadly!) and create an acid load that your system can not readily ameliorate is a perfect first step towards health and vigorous longevity.

Take aways:

Drink more lemon and use more vinegar

Eat plenty of lean meats

Eat NO Gluten!

Get familiar with alkaline foods, even if you don't eat exclusively from this list.

Eat your veggies at EVERY meal... even breakfast.

Resources:

“Lose 21 Pounds in 21 Days: The Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox“ - Roni DeLuz
“Wheat Belly” – Dr. William Davis
“New Health Era” – Dr. William Howard Hays

New Beginnings

Every morning I wake up, the first thing I do is run my hand over my abdomen to see if I am still skinny. I used to do this every morning when I was heavier as well, but the intent was different.  Today I look to see if I still have hip bones and how little flesh covers my belly.  Before it was to see how much flesh was on my belly and how far away my hip bones were from being palpable through the padding.

Every day I am scared I am going to wake up heavier, and that little bit heavier today will balloon into heavier tomorrow.  Before long I would be back at my heaviest weight again, completely miserable because I allowed it to happen again.

All this transpires in 10 seconds before I even open my eyes.

Then I remind myself that things are different this time.  I have learned so much about diet and about what works for me.  A year ago I started with my fabulous nutritionist, Carla Heiser, who ran a boat load of tests on me to determine why and how I metabolize food.  We learned a lot about me in particular, and what specifically was standing in my way of being the me I have always struggled to maintain.

My beloved boyfriend Chris is a very athletic person.  He has trained himself and many others for triathlons.  He understands how to get someone into shape to be able to run a marathon or compete in an Olympic distance triathlon.  He trained himself for IronMan competition.  He was absolutely stunned by my ability to hold on to weight, despite 'clean' eating and 8 hours a week+ in training.  He wanted to know WHY if I ate 3 ounces of food, I gained 4 ounces of weight.  Each pound I carried during training created wear and tear on my joints.  Typical approaches to weight loss didn't work for me and he was hoping Carla had some answers.

Carla came to me through a friend who was starting a health driven website.  He abandoned that website when his travel site got startup funding, but he was already working with Carla and recommended her highly.  After sitting on her number for 6 months, I finally called her.  We have worked together on the phone only as she is in Chicago, I am in California.  But we have accomplished some great things.  I won't bore you with the specific details, but suffice it to say that nearly EVERY balance and system was out of whack in my body.  My fasting glucose readings were way too high (over 85 is a marker for increased risk of everything from cardiac arrest to diabetes, though your doctor and your lab will say that under 100 is normal), my hormones were out of control, I had yeast issues in my gut, and most distressing of all, my heavy metal readings were outrageously high. Any one of these issues alone could create the fat grabbing body I was living in.  This is where my life changed forever and for the better.

I take a lot of supplements that Carla specifically recommended for me.  I will not be taking all the supplements for the rest of my life.  I consider this my therapeutic stage, and once my readings are normal, I will taper off some of the supplements.  Some I will take always, such as:
1. Fish Oil - I take 4 pills of fish oil a day.  Life Extension has some great, non-burpy fish oil supplements.
2. Multi-vitamin - I take one from NuMedica for women.  4 a day.
3. Zinc - I take this twice a day and am working up to where I have a metallic taste in my mouth, considered the therapeutic level for optimal health.  I firmly believe that taking Zinc regularly is why I don't get sick when others are dropping like flies.
4. Magnesium - twice a day.
5. Super Bio Curcamin - this is essentially a tumeric extract that addresses inflammation.  Studies suggest tremendous benefit from taking daily to reduce joint and systemic inflammation.  From Life Extension
5. Cinnergy - NuMedica Cinnamon supplement to address the elevated glucose readings

I take vitamins twice a day for maximum potency.  A once a day pill is not going to be as effective, but is better than nothing if you just can't remember to take your vitamins.

My basic diet beliefs are as follows:
1. No Gluten - massive inflammatory response from ingesting, along with a spike in insulin levels.  Gluten is poison (I will blog on this subject alone in the near future)
2. Low/No Carbs - This takes a complete rewiring of what you have ever known about eating.  Essentially, of the 5 food groups, I have eliminated one for the most part.  I substitute veggies for the bread, pasta, chips, crackers...
3. Lots of Veggies - I try to eat veggies at every single meal.  Breakfast consists of eggs and tomatoes or spinach.  You don't need bread to sop up the yolk.  Use your head and grate some veggies up for a wonderful substitute.
4. High fiber, low sugar fruits only - I eat apples and grapefruit regularly.  Berries are also good, but stay away from mango, banana, and papaya which are considered high sugar fruits.  If you do eat them, take with a handful of nuts to help you metabolize the sugars.
5. Lots of Oil - Yep, that's right.  I eat a ton of oil.  I do not restrict it in anyway, except to say the oils need to be healthy and you need to be very aware of the heating abilities (or inability) of certain oils.  The best oils to use are coconut (good in high heat), lard (I know!), and butter/ghi because they are saturated in MCTs - Medium Chain Triglycerides.  MCTs do not store as fat but are utilized as carbohydrates.  They actually assist the body in burning stored fat.  Extra virgin olive oil is great, but DO NOT HEAT this oil.  It breaks down and causes the fats to function more like a trans fat.  I have seen it myself in slides of my blood where all my platelets were sticking together due to excessive heated olive oil consumption.
6. Nuts- Walnuts, Almonds, Pecans by the handful!  All healthy oils and full of fiber.
7. Meats - I don't care for chicken, probably the life long diet mentality of eating lean meats like chicken has turned me off forever, but any uncured meats are fair game. Steak, Turkey, Chicken, Pork...you name it!  If you eat fish, stay away from the predatory fish which are more likely to have high levels of mercury.  That means saying goodbye to your favorite seared Ahi on a regular basis, along with swordfish, shark, tuna, and any other fish that eats other fish.  Its just safer that way...

Enough for now.  Next Blog - Inflammation and pH balance!

References:

www.lef.org - Life Extension Foundation.  Great source for information and vitamins
"Wheat Belly" - Dr. William Davis
Carla Heiser, Nutritionist - Phone/email available on request.

Introduction to Me...Learn from my mistakes and successes

Not all that long ago, I was a fat girl.  I spent most of my adult life (and parts of my childhood) fighting weight.  I have lost close to 300 lbs over the last 25 years, not all at once, but 40-60 lbs at a time only to regain it again.  I have done Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, SlimFast, South Beach, Atkins and a half dozen other diets that are cleanses for anywhere from 3 to 21 days at a time.  Each time I lost weight.  Each time I gained it back. 

At one point I had given up.  I was over 200lbs and my back hurt from carrying all the added weight. I had no energy, no will power, and no drive to work out.  I had a BMI of 32.  I had seriously contemplated just giving up altogether and just getting fat enough for bariatric surgery. I only had to make up 3 points in BMI to be eligible (at the time the cut off was 35. I believe now you can have a BMI of 30 to qualify).  Then something happened…I got pregnant.

Getting pregnant at 203 lbs was not the best nor healthiest way to start, but it was done.  I tried walking but started having contractions, so any hope of working out was dashed immediately.  I ate very healthy and gained only moderately through the first 7 months.  Just as all seemed like clear sailing, I ended up with toxemia, also known as pregnancy induced hypertension.  It was monitored and at 37 weeks it was determined that we needed to induce labor (my doctor, not the best with her bedside manner, told me we needed to terminate the pregnancy…termination and delivery are apparently synonymous in her book).  I ended up in the hospital and had a beautiful baby boy via caesarian.

I spent the next year heavy but in no pain. I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight within 6 weeks, but my dreams of breastfeeding to a size 6 was not going to happen.  When my boy was a year old, things changed dramatically.  My blood levels reduced back to normal and all my bones seemed to grind together all at once.  Particularly bad was my back. I couldn’t pick up my son or pull up my pants without sever and debilitating pain.  A visit to the doctor resulted in a cortisone injection in my SI joint, which alleviated the major pain but cause me some concern.  Utilizing cortisone regularly causes the ligaments to become brittle.  One shot was no big deal, but continuing on this path would be dangerous to my long term mobility.

That’s when I began my journey to a healthy me in earnest.  I wanted to take advantage of my ability to move to start to get healthy.  I cleaned up my eating.  I utilized Weight Watcher principles and purchased a work out program I could use at home (I had no clue there were babysitters at the gyms who would watch my bundle of joy while I sweated).  I worked all day, would come home, take care of my boy, put him down at around 9pm, and then I would start to work out.  It sucked.  I hated working out that late, but that was the only choice I could find.

I was writing for a magazine that I owned with my then husband and ended up doing an article on a local boutique gym.  At that point I had lost 30 lbs and still had a way to go to be where I thought was healthy. I interviewed a man named Sherman, who was a manager and a trainer.  He informed me about the KidsClub (there are such things!) and I signed up immediately.

I have been an active member of a gym since that day over 8 years ago.

But my story doesn’t end there.  There were so many things that I had yet to accomplish, and still so many things that had yet to go wrong to get me to where I am today.  I will continue to share as I blog, but I wanted you to know that I am not a skinny girl who has always been skinny spouting advice on how to be thin.  I have struggled. I have hated myself for so many reasons: lack of ability to control my weight being the primary personal sin. 

There is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel…education is the first step in gaining control over your weight.  I am going to cover everything from diet (duh!), supplements, oil consumption, carbohydrates, PH balance, cleanses, labs, doctor visits and so much more…I am a nutrition junkie.  I make it my personal business to know everything I can about food, nutrition, and exercise to do my best to reverse the aging process and improve the quality of my life, which I hope to be as long as it is healthy. I have a lot of things planned before I go visit the crematorium. I need to be mobile and active to accomplish all I want to do and see in this life.  

Knowing what to do to promote these goals is important.  The will power to accomplish this lies in knowing WHY these recommendations are important.  This is not a one size fits all recommendation.  I did not get here overnight. You will pick and choose the things that make sense for your life. You will ignore or contemplate the rest until such time that those recommendations may make sense for you too. 

My struggle with weight, and ultimately health, was not an overnight success. I have spent the last 8 years working, learning, and struggling to get to where I am now.  I am happy.  I am below the goal weight I put on my drivers license some 15 years ago.  I am able to maintain it with moderate exercise and conscientious food choices. Nothing hard.  Nothing dramatic. It can work for you too…