This post has taken far too long to be written! because my mind had the idea that one post could contain this topic. Then I recognized that this piece of the nutrition puzzle today continues from the previous posts about junk food addiction. And this topic regarding “good fat vs bad fat” is more than one post. So here we go – - -!

You say, wait, I have to eat a low fat diet because I have a weight problem. I say, you have a weight problem because you are malnourished…and eating low fat foods is contributing to your body’s hunger for Real Fat so needed by all of our bodies, including rather importantly the brain part of our bodies. Please be reassured: this is NOT your fault that you keep eating foods that are not providing the real nutrients! Remember the previous post about junk food addiction? As you can see, all these posts for a few months fall into this topic.

Have you heard of the documentary, Hungry For Change? I mention the video, which can be streamed on Netflix and viewed on YouTube, because I understand that having imagery while hearing information gets the information into some folks’ brains. [Planning to start making videos to go with the main posts in Lifestyle Modification Support for those of you that get more out of eye contact.] Hungry For Change breaks down in simple terms how the food we are eating is not really food in the real sense…but “food-like products.” Hrmmm what does that mean?

I am going to anticipate your questions about this topic, beginning with a brief discussion today on whole fat versus low fat or non-fat. Please contact me all the ways that you do to ask your burning questions. The fat question is what instigated this post. In the past, I have spoken of how much sugar is clandestinely added to nearly every processed food you buy and eat. [Processed = anything prepared by someone you never met somewhere else. Examples? everything from cake and biscuit mixes, cereals, canned or packaged soups, frozen meals/snacks, salad dressings, pizza sauces, condiments, bread, flavored milks and vitamin drinks .... ]

Fat-free generally means LOTS of sugar products added. Why one is constantly hungry on low fat diets is that one is NOT giving the healthy fat that one needs while eating much more sugar than one might choose consciously. And, as I have mentioned before, sweet is added via a number of processed forms of “sugar”…high fructose corn syrup being the head of the pack. So imagine your brain, on the one hand requiring whole fat, not getting it; but also utilizing sugar rapidly  too, unhealthy over-processed forms of sugar, because it is HUNGRY!! for nutrition. And what happens next….is your brain is hard-wired to want sugar and starts craving more and more and more….. Sugar gives a beta-endorphin high. The more of this “high” the body gets, the more habituated the body becomes to it and thus needs …more!

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more to come……. additions will continue at the bottom of the article as they are added.

Focuses to include: what are whole healthy fats? and what are unhealthy (dangerous) fats? How fat protects us from toxins….

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Update on this brief story line…..

I have not been able to get out of this story because I went on to discover a lot more written on the topic plus then NYT published a very thorough article on The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” six days ago. I cannot stop studying it and “Running off” in cyber land to follow up the details…..!

Crazy making lines from the astounding article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4 :

“One article said something like, ‘If you take Lunchables apart, the most healthy item in it is the napkin.’ ”
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“… the food industry already knew some things about making people happy — and it started with sugar. Many of the Prego sauces — whether cheesy, chunky or light — have one feature in common: The largest ingredient, after tomatoes, is sugar. A mere half-cup of Prego Traditional, for instance, has the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar, as much as two-plus Oreo cookies.”
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“(Stephen)Sanger (of General Mills) was trying to say, ‘Look, we’re not going to screw around with the company jewels here and change the formulations because a bunch of guys in white coats are worried about obesity.”
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“These (new Lunchables) would be promoted as more healthful versions, with “fresh fruit,” but their list of ingredients — containing upward of 70 items, with sucrose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and fruit concentrate all in the same tray…”
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“The company’s Yoplait brand had transformed traditional unsweetened breakfast yogurt into a veritable dessert. It now had twice as much sugar per serving as General Mills’ marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms.”
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….and more…. O.o

…depending on where one is standing. Research is piling up on how high fructose corn syrup interferes with the message in our brain that tells us we are satiated. Thus, the consumer of the beverage or food that has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup continues to feel hungry despite repeated helpings of the artificially sweetened food. One thing leads to another…. we are drinking that soda or eating that cookie to fill an empty space in the tummy. When we still feel hungry, we continue to eat. Did I mention how many calories are in high fructose corn syrup? Or shall I go into the instruction on how our bodies utilize refined sugars versus complex glucose in vegetables, for example? Save that discussion for another day. Today, I am bringing up a few helpful hints about feeding your brain.

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Feed your brain….

foods that provide the building blocks for maintaining nerve cells. Oh that is right! the brain is our central nerve station. Naturally, nerve cells have needs. Sure, sugar..glucose is the brain’s fuel. But, like all food, sugar is a molecule that comes in many shapes and sizes. In the universe, there are surely uses for every shape of any molecule, but just as your car requires certain versions of oil to adequately remain clean and perform its job, your body requires certain versions of the various nutrients.

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I remember that old 1950s idea about “better life through chemicals”

because I am a late baby boomer and we were blitzed with all kinds of images: in school book stories, Life and other magazine images, the radio talk shows, and movies, with how our imminent future was going to look because science would save the day! Lots of jokes abound about asking what happened to those old “futuristic” images. Still very much a proponent of science, my viewpoint is that we have taken a left turn on science when we try to recreate what nature has already done a brilliant job of providing. Instead of scattering the earthly treasures provided, by changing them, perhaps we might apply science to truly understanding why the naturally occurring versions of molecules are so perfect for our bodies and the balance of this world as we know it.

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Foods that taste great AND feed your brain, so well, that you might find yourself actually satiated and forgetting ’bout craving that moon pie or dreamsicle:

This is the easy part, because naturally occurring brain foods are very satiating! As I said, glucose is the brain’s favorite chemical…and the most long-lasting source is the immediate intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Yes, it is preferable to lightly graze through the day rather than a few huge meals a day. Recently, studies have been touting the great benefits of berries for the brain. Not a fan of berries? avocados are a very nutrient dense food and the brain loves that healthy fat too. (Look for articles on healthy fat in the archives and in upcoming posts). Maybe you desire something unique to express your individualism…. pomegranates make many expert lists as an excellent source of protection against free radical damage to your brain cells. Drinking pomegranate juice skips the digging into seeds part of eating the fruit raw and condenses the amount of good food to your brain. Read the label and make sure the manufacturers did not muck up a good thing by sweetening it with high fructose corn syrup.  Whole grains are an excellent source of brain food too… in a well chosen grain, one improves circulation to the brain (and heart) as well as carbohydrates and even some omega-3s…talk about multi-tasking. Speaking of omega-3s … think: nuts, seeds, and cold water fish. Keep current on mercury levels of the fish of course. Right now the recommendation is Wild Salmon from Alaska, tilefish, shellfish, and light tuna. There is more I can share about food choices, MUCH more! but for the sake of keeping this brief enough to provide food for thought while avoiding boredom, I am ending this post with these quickie hints.

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Good news…

that I mentioned at the beginning is that if you are giving your brain the foods it truly craves …. a few yummy ideas provided here … then you are being a good provider to your brain. Who is going to make sure your brain works smoothly better than you? So, do not worry about high fructose corn syrup; just avoid consuming it in sodas and desserts and all the secret hidden places, like ketchups and sauces and crackers … Read the labels, because high fructose corn syrup, in one form or another, is nearly always near the top in the list of ingredients. More to the point, if you are giving your brain the food that human brains evolved eating to the gifted state we can now experience, then you will soon stop craving the altered foods that use high fructose corn syrup to tease your brain.

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One last thought….

experts report many unfortunate things about these altered/processed chemicals in the ingredients. High fructose corn syrup, for example, has now been linked to obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, liver dysfunction, higher triglyceride levels in men, and disruptions to memory and learning. Why take the risk with the gem of a brain you carry in your head? In the end, when what we eat satisfies us, WE EAT LESS. Eating less because you are eating right should help with the grocery tab, sure, but it also helps with the part of your brain tabulating your quality of life. Feel good, it really is easy.

How To: Debbie Allen Teaches Break the Chain Dance – YouTube.

Happy Sleeping Day!

Be well, be happy.

http://www.onebillionrising.org

via One Billion Rising Short Film – YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2AO-7Vlzk&feature=colike

This film may be hard to watch in the beginning, but it has a joyful finale` …won’t you please join us in making this finale` A REALITY…NOW?

…reading The New Midwifery (Page & McCandlish 2006) and how the “technocratic” system furthers the oppression of women, a subtle violence against women by silencing their voice, their right to have a say in their life. In so many aspects of life, we have choice but are unsupported to take it.

There is a One Billion Rising event happening near you February 14….
or you can start up your own.
Please join us in dancing our truth that violence against women is not okay.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT.  Ask me or go to the webpage: http://www.onebillionrising.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2AO-7Vlzk&feature=colike

More to come…

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[Today September 14, 2012] Ben Paynter of http://www.benpaynter.net/ who blogs/writes in many venues shared a particularly enlightening bit about the health of his intestines…or as he stated it, his “POOP BUGS”. You can find the short piece as number 14 of Living by Numbers: The Wired Guide to Health in Wired’s October 2012 issue (p 126). The article is apparently unavailable on wired.com, so I contemplated copying it in its entirety here because, honestly, in such a brief, and comical, description of his stool analysis, he provides a great deal of tips about why gastro-intestinal health is so crucial to overall health. [I strongly encourage you to get this issue and read his quipped essay.]

But the BIG reason I bring the article up here is the last sentence. In four short columns, Ben quickly shared the telling results of his Metametrix test….his “Adiposity Index,” his “Predominant Bacteria Analysis,” his “Yeast/Fungi” count, and last but so definitely NOT least, his “Drug Resistance” panel. What? drug resistance? in a stool sample? you remark avidly curious as to how drug resistance could be revealed in a stool sample. Never fear, I will not bore you with the details of how the DNA of the bacteria shows this….at least, not now…. suffice it to say, that the DNA in Ben’s gut bacteria were the source of all this fascinating information! By now, as highly intelligent as you have demonstrated yourself to be by your choice of reading materials, you have no doubt sleuthed the connection between Ben’s discovered drug resistance and the title of this blog “Organic vs Biotech”… I will let Ben’s words say it so simply, “I can’t turn my superbugs back into Clark Kent bugs, but I can eat organics to avoid future exposure to antibiotics.” !!!! and thus, prevent further antibiotic resistant bacteria from getting a toe-hold in his body, thereby preventing the antibiotic’s effectiveness in future should he need it. Remarkably, Ben thought it significant to mention that he likely acquired his particular superbugs via eating a food that had been exposed to said antibiotic, since apparently Ben has never taken the antibiotics for which he has discovered that he has a thriving resistance.

Yes, one more reason to eat organic…. a reason which can be measured….should anyone be interested in actually doing so rather than taking candy from the drug pushers, so to speak; meaning accepting without question a poorly structured “Study” by researchers of questionable motivations.

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Additional articles commenting on the organic vs biotech question:

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/09/five-ways-stanford-study-underestimates-organic-food

http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/09/04/michael-pollan-organic-study/?

http://geneticroulettemovie.com/

http://www.naturalnews.com/037108_Stanford_Ingram_Olkin_Big_Tobacco.html

More will be added to this blog…….

You can find the original article at: http://www.rodale.com/heart-attack-causes?cm_mmc=TheDailyFixNL-_-1033878-_-09062012-_-5_unexpected_heart_attack_triggers_title

Defuse heart attack triggers that lurk in your home.

A bacon cheeseburger fetish topped with a couch potato mentality is a surefire recipe for a heart attack. But those obvious bad choices aren’t the only things taking a toll on your ticker. Scientists discovering surprising new heart attack causes—including ones you may unknowingly be exposing yourself to every day. Learn about the new heart attack triggers and eliminate them from your daily routine!

Nonstick Chemicals
Nonstick and stain-repelling chemicals are convenient, but in terms of health, they might not be worth it. Previously linked to infertility, high cholesterol, and ADHD, a September 2012 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine also shows a connection between perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) chemicals and heart disease. Regardless of age, body mass, or the presence of diabetes or other diseases, researchers found that people with the highest PFOA levels in their blood were twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease compared with people with the lowest levels.

Avoid it: If you use nonstick pots, pans, and bakeware, replace them with uncoated stainless steel, made-in-America cast iron, or glass the minute you start seeing chips in the finish. More PFOA avoidance tactics? Stay away from fabrics, furniture, and carpeting advertised as “stain repellent,” and eat fast food less—many fast-food containers contain PFOA-containing grease barriers.

Antibacterial Soap
Triclosan, an antibacterial soap and toothpaste chemical, is a well-known bad actor when it comes to health, thanks to its ties to thyroid disease and its role in creating hard-to-kill, antibiotic-resistant germs. You can now add increased heart disease risk to the dangers of antibacterial soap, thanks to new research suggesting it can damage heart and muscle tissue.

Avoid it: You get virtually no benefit for the risk you take when buying and using antibacterial products, since researchers have proven that washing with regular soap and water works just as well. To avoid triclosan, steer clear of anything advertised as “antibacterial,” “antimicrobial,” “germ-killing,” “odor-free,” or “odor-killing.” When it comes to personal care products, check the label to make sure triclosan isn’t on the ingredients list.

Canned Food
Sodium isn’t canned foods’ only setback. The notoriously toxic canned food chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, is a potent hormone disruptor tied to breast cancer, anger problems in female children, obesity, and infertility. And now, it’s implicated in heart disease. A 2011 study published in the journal PLoS ONE found even small doses of BPA—ones we’re commonly exposed to—could lead to dangerous heart arrhythmia, erratic beating that could cause sudden cardiac death. The BPA-heart disease link gained more traction just months later when researchers discovered that healthy people with higher BPA levels are more likely to develop heart disease down the line.

Avoid it: Limit canned food and instead opt for fresh or frozen. (Eden Foods is one brand that went BPA free and disclosed its plant-based BPA replacement; some companies have eliminated the BPA but are using a toxic alternative.) Also decline trivial cash receipts. Thermal receipts—the most popular kind in use today—are coated in BPA that’s readily absorbed into your skin. Some No. 7 plastics also contain BPA, so choose glass or stainless steel food and drink containers, and never heat plastic in the microwave or dishwasher—higher temps accelerate leaching.

Traffic Jams
Traffic can kill, and not just via wrecks. Scientists have uncovered a connection between air pollution, traffic jams, and heart attack risk. German researchers interviewed heart attack survivors to try and pinpoint certain heart attack triggers. They found that people stuck in traffic—whether as a driver, passenger, bike rider, or passenger on public transportation—experienced a 3.2 times higher risk of having a heart attack compared to people who weren’t trapped in a traffic jam. (Add it to the list of reasons to pitch to your boss to let you work from home.)

Avoid it: Check air-quality reports before hitting the road, keep your windows closed on the highway, and lobby your boss to allow more telecommuting to reduce your exposure to tailpipe pollution.

Certain Seafood
Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish are supposed to protect your heart, not harm it. Syracuse University researchers churned up evidence suggesting you should be picky about what type of fish you eat, though. They found fish contaminated with high levels of mercury actually interfered with the body’s response to stress, increasing the odds of heart disease. The mercury interferes with the body’s natural cortisol hormone levels in a heart-unhealthy way.

Avoid it: In addition to tuna, fish with the highest levels of mercury are usually the big predatory species, such as swordfish, king mackerel, and any kind of shark. But watch out for recreational species, as well. The U.S. Geological Survey has found dangerously high mercury levels in some freshwater species, including trout and bass. For more tips on finding safer fish, read The Surprising Heart Attack Trigger in the Seafood Aisle and 12 Fish You Should Never Eat.

The American College of Nurse Midwives made this (see website link) brief, plain, and straightforward statement regarding a US Representative’s recent incorrect remark about rape and pregnancy. The most uncomfortable aspect of this political faux pas is its reflection of ignorance. My first reaction upon reading the remark so widely broadcasted was, “but people know better…don’t they?” followed by the disturbing realization that if this person gets away with saying this, the dark ages descend. Thus, I am hoping to keep the conversation rolling…. there are so many potential avenues regarding education. Please help me keep this vital issue rolling. Wherever you chat, blog, converse….ask others what they know about resources for education on health.