Eggs in diet are the answer, not the enemy

(NaturalNews) For years we've been listening to top health experts advising us to eliminate eggs from our diet. At the very most, they say, eat only three eggs a week. Any more would simply wreak havoc on your cholesterol levels. And of course all of this is starkly animated in television commercials showing regular egg consumers collapsing of violent heart attacks in the street.

Does that sound like cookie-cutter propaganda to you? There is some logic behind these claims: eggs contain cholesterol so they must surely raise cholesterol levels. This concept, however, is flawed and research is proving it to be so.

In 2006, Dr. Maria Luz Hernandez of the University of Connecticut's Department of Nutritional Sciences looked at the effect consuming eggs has on cholesterol levels. Her findings revealed that in two-thirds of people, consuming 2-3 eggs per day had virtually no effect on serum cholesterol levels. In the other one-third of people, both HDL and LDL levels rose equally, and the increase in LDL was due to particles simply getting bigger, not more numerous. This type of rise in serum cholesterol levels actually does little to increase a person's risk for health problems such as heart attacks.

Once you get past the assumption that eggs are terrible for you, there is room to discover the myriad of health benefits that come with eating them regularly. Eggs are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals in forms that can be easily absorbed. These include vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K in addition to iron, zinc, lecithin and choline. All of these help contribute to brain function, a healthy metabolism and disease prevention.

Eggs are also a great source of protein, especially for those who don't consume very much meat. It can be difficult to obtain all of the essential amino acids - the ones our bodies can't produce - if you eat a diet mostly based in grains. An egg contains each of the nine essential amino acids, making it a top source for these nutrients.

Of course, all eggs are not created equal. Commercial eggs are a nutritionally poor substitute for organic, free-range eggs. Chickens that are allowed to roam free provide eggs with a higher protein and vitamin content, while organic practices mean harmful pesticides and chemicals won't find their way into your breakfast. You can also look for eggs that contain higher levels of essential omega-3 fatty acids. These come from chickens that have been fed a special diet high in those healthy omega-3s.

If you've been afraid to commit nutritional sacrilege by enjoying a tasty omelet in the morning or a boiled egg for an afternoon snack, set your fears aside and relish in the wholesome goodness of one of mother nature's best gifts.

Sources:

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.c...

http://ifitandhealthy.com/healthy-e...

http://www.alive.com/454a2a2.php?su...

http://www.alive.com/1263a4a2.php?s...

New approaches to type-2 diabetes

A raw vegan diet for a month should clear this condition up very quickly. -Craig

Diabetes drugs given 'too soon'

Saturday, 7 March 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7929208.stm


One in three people with type 2 diabetes are given medication too soon, instead of being urged to eat better and do more exercise, a study suggests.

A study of 650 people in south west England found 36% were put on tablets within a month of being diagnosed, a Diabetes UK conference heard.

Yet UK guidelines recommend patients should first try to make lifestyle changes to control the condition.

The Royal College of GPs agreed diet and exercise should come first.

More than 400 people a day are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK.

It is often associated with obesity, and attempts in recent years to screen people for the disease has increased the number of people being diagnosed.

In the latest study, researchers found that in many patients lifestyle management was not given a chance, despite being widely recognised as being the initial first "treatment".

Metformin is the first drug of choice, but more drugs can be added if that is not doing enough to control blood sugar levels.

The researchers found that 13% of participants were actually on two types of tablets within the first few weeks of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Lifestyle

Study author Dr Rob Andrew, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, said they had not expected the figures to be quite so high.

"There is quite clear guidance that says when you're first diagnosed, you should have the opportunity to concentrate on lifestyle then if that doesn't work the next stage is metformin.

"When people are diagnosed, they're ready to make a lot of changes but if you give them a tablet, you're saying it is not their lifestyle that is the problem."

He added that incentive payments to encourage GPs to reduce blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes, a lack of NHS resources for lifestyle support and a cultural attitude that people will not make the necessary changes are probably all to blame.

Simon O'Neill, from Diabetes UK, said they were concerned that in some cases medication seemed to be the first port of call.

"A healthy, balanced diet and doing physical activity should always be the foundation of good diabetes management.

"Type 2 diabetes is a progressive condition - the longer a person has diabetes, the more likely they are to need tablets, and eventually insulin.

"Even if people are on tablets, medication should not simply replace diet and physical activity."

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said there was probably a case of jumping in too quickly with pills.

"It is a reminder for GPs and nurses managing newly diagnosed diabetes that lifestyle advice is the most important component."

He added that in some areas of the country there was a lack of resources for supporting behavioural changes.

Daily nuts might boost health

Daily nuts may help boost health

Tuesday, 9 December 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7767753.stm


Adding nuts to a healthy diet may help release people from a dangerous combination of health problems.

Up to 25% of people in the UK are thought to have "metabolic syndrome", which includes obesity and high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.

A Mediterranean diet of vegetables, fruit and fish plus daily nuts boosted health in more than one in eight at-risk volunteers, a Spanish study found.

The research was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal.

Disease risk

The healthy properties of certain kinds of nuts, eaten in moderation, has been noted before.

However, the researchers from the University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain, tested more than 1,200 volunteers with metabolic syndrome to see if adding nuts could boost existing healthy diets.

People with metabolic syndrome are at greatly increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The group was split into thirds, the first of which were just given advice on low-fat eating.



You can't just sit on the sofa this Christmas and eat nuts



British Dietetic Association



The next third got quarterly teaching on the Mediterranean diet, which as well as eating plenty of vegetables, cereal crops and fruit, also means cutting down on dairy produce and red meat. They were each given a litre of olive oil a week to supplement this.

The final third got the same teaching, but they were given a 300g bag of mixed nuts every day.

None was told they had to restrict their calorie intake.

After a year, the volunteers were reassessed to see whether their health had improved.

Approximately 2% of the group who were told about low-fat diets had improved to the extent that they were no longer classed as having metabolic syndrome.

Among those following a Mediterranean diet including olive oil, the figure rose to 6.7%.

Finally, 13.7% of those eating their daily bag of nuts as well as the Mediterranean diet had improved.

Even though none of the participants weight had dropped significantly over the year, waist circumferences had diminished in the nut-eating group, and cholesterol and blood pressure levels had dropped.

Salt concerns

The researchers said that the nuts may have been helping to cut the amount of chronic inflammation linked to their weight.

Dr Jordi Salas-Salvado, the lead author, said: "The results of the study show that a non-energy restricted traditional Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts, which is high in fat, high in unsaturated fat and palatable, is a useful tool in managing metabolic syndrome."

However, a spokesman for the British Dietetic Association warned that the findings did not give people licence to eat large quantities of nuts in the hope this would improve their health.

"You can't just sit on the sofa this Christmas and eat nuts - you should be making sure that if you add this many calories to you diet, you should take them out somewhere else if possible.

"And this probably only refers to tree nuts, such as hazelnuts and almonds, rather than peanuts, which aren't actually a nut at all.

"People should also be careful not eat too may salted nuts, as that certainly is no good for your blood pressure."

Kiwifruits- one of the highest anti-oxidants

(NaturalNews) The antioxidants found in kiwifruit are absorbed by the body more effectively than those from other antioxidant-rich fruits, according to a study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock, and published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Researchers fed 300 grams per day of green Hayward kiwifruit to seven healthy women volunteers who had fasted overnight before the beginning of the study. The researchers took blood samples from the women before they ate, as well as 1.5, 3 and 4.5 hours afterward. They measured the antioxidant capacity of each blood sample, then exposed the blood cells to hydrogen peroxide and recorded the degree of oxidative damage suffered.

The researchers found that kiwifruit had an antioxidant intake score of 12.5, substantially higher than the known score of 4.2 for grapes and 1.7 for strawberries. This means that eating kiwifruit resulted in the highest absorption and metabolism of antioxidants.

The mechanisms behind the differences in antioxidant absorption from different fruits are still unknown, although the researchers speculated that kiwifruit's high vitamin C content might be partially responsible.

Antioxidants are believed to be important for their ability to remove free radicals from the body. Free radicals have been linked to various kinds of cell damage, including some that cause cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia and various symptoms of aging.

"We're learning that anti-oxidants should be consumed with every meal," lead researcher Ronald Prior said, "and if you routinely skip anti-oxidants in your diet, over time, the excess number of free radicals being produced may begin damaging cellular components, ultimately leading to atherosclerosis and cancer."

The researchers noted that while it can not be proven that eating kiwifruit will have any specific health effects until more studies are carried out, the antioxidants in the fruit are known to lower rates of heart disease and cancer.

Sources for this story include: www.upi.com.
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Lower calories diet keeps people younger

Scientists stop the ageing process in an entire organ

Published on 11-08-2008 Email To Friend Print Version
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/200...ce&topic=latest


Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.

Published in today's online edition of Nature Medicine, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City also say the older organs function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells.

As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a build-up of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The researchers say the findings suggest that therapies for boosting protein clearance might help stave off some of the declines in function that accompanies old age.

In experiments, livers in genetically modified mice 22 to 26 months old, the equivalent of octogenarians in human years, cleaned blood as efficiently as those in animals a quarter their age.

By contrast, the livers of normal mice in a control group began to fail.

The benefits of restoring the cleaning mechanisms found inside all cells could extend far beyond a single organ, says Cuervo.

"Our findings are particularly relevant for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," she says.

'Misbehaving proteins'

"Many of these diseases are due to 'misbehaving' or damaged proteins that accumulate in neurons. By preventing this decline in protein clearance, we may be able to keep these people free of symptoms for a longer time."

If the body's ability to dispose of cell debris within the cell were enhanced across a wider range of tissues, she says, it could extend life as well.

In healthy organisms, a surveillance system inside cells called chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) locates, digests and destroys damaged proteins.

Specialised molecules, the "chaperones", ferry the harmful material to membrane-bound sacs of enzymes within the cells known as lysosomes.

Once the cargo has been "docked", a receptor molecule transfers the protein into the sac, where it is rapidly digested.

With age, these receptors stop working as well, resulting in a dangerous build-up of faulty proteins that has been linked, in the liver, to insulin resistance as well as the inability to metabolise sugar, fats or alcohol.

The same breakdown of the cell's cleaning machinery can also impair the liver's ability to remove the toxic build-up of drugs at a stage in life when medication is often part of daily diet.

In genetically modified mice, Cuervo compensated for the loss of the receptors in the animals by adding extra copies.

"That was enough to maintain a clean liver and to prove that if you keep your cells clean they work better," she says.

Settles debate

The study goes a long way towards settling a sharp debate in the field of ageing research.

Leading Australian ageing researcher David le Couteur, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney, says the paper is a major breakthrough.

"She has single-handedly shown that lysosome function is a crucial part of the ageing process," he says.

Cuervo has also shown, he says, the critical role the lysosomal receptor molecules play in keeping the liver clean of damaged proteins.

While her paper does not show increased survival rates among the mice, le Couteur, who has advised her recently on the research, says Cuervo does have data on improved survival rates which she intends to publish.

He also says she is now working with pharmaceutical companies to identify drugs that will turn the receptors on, or make them more active.

Cuervo believes maintaining efficient protein clearance may improve longevity and function in all the body's tissues.

It is also possible that the same kind of "cellular clearance" can be achieved through diet, she says.

Research over the past decade has shown that restricted calorie intake in animals, including mammals, significantly enhances longevity.

"My ideal intervention in the future would be a better diet rather than a pill," she says.

Plant food supports muscles in adults

Recent Study Finds Plant Foods Preserve Muscle Mass in Aging Adults

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 by: Leslee Dru Browning
http://www.naturalnews.com/023546.html


Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals and fiber that are key to good health. Now, a newly released study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists suggests plant foods also may help preserve muscle mass in older men and women.

The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.

The typical American diet is rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods. In general, such diets generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis" develops, according to the researchers.

The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass.

The typical American diet is rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods. In general, such diets generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis" develops, according to the researchers.

Acidosis appears to trigger a muscle-wasting response. So the researchers looked at links between measures of lean body mass and diets relatively high in potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables. Such diets could help neutralize acidosis. Foods can be considered alkaline or acidic based on the residues they produce in the body, rather than whether they are alkaline or acidic themselves. For example, acidic grapefruits are metabolized to alkaline residues.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis on a subset of nearly 400 male and female volunteers aged 65 or older who had completed a three-year osteoporosis intervention trial. The volunteers' physical activity, height and weight, and percentage of lean body mass were measured at the start of the study and at three years. Their urinary potassium was measured at the start of the study, and their dietary data was collected at 18 months.

Based on regression models, volunteers whose diets were rich in potassium could expect to have 3.6 more pounds of lean tissue mass than volunteers with half the higher potassium intake. That almost offsets the 4.4 pounds of lean tissue that is typically lost in a decade in healthy men and women aged 65 and above, according to authors.

Sarcopenia, or loss of muscle mass, can lead to falls due to weakened leg muscles. The authors encourage future studies that look into the effects of increasing overall intake of foods that metabolize to alkaline residues on muscle mass and functionality.

The study was published in the March issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source:

U.S. Department of Agriculture (2008, May 31)
(http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome)


About the author
Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions; Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An Herbal Perspective.

How to cook potatoes to have enough potassium

Cubing Potatoes Before Boiling Can Reduce Mineral Content By 75%

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80629080409.htm


ScienceDaily (July 2, 2008) — The preparation of a potato can have a big impact on its mineral content, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report in a new study of this popular vegetable.

Baked, roasted, boiled or fried, the potato is America's favorite vegetable. Every year, the average American eats about 130 pounds of potatoes, which are loaded with vitamins and minerals.

Cubing potatoes can reduce boiling time, but it also reduces mineral content by as much as 75 percent. That's one conclusion from a study by research geneticist Shelley Jansky and plant physiologist Paul Bethke at the ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit in Madison, Wis.

Jansky and Bethke subjected six potato varieties to various methods of preparation, and then ran a mineral analysis for potassium and 10 other minerals. They found that cubing or shredding potatoes prior to boiling resulted in significant potassium reductions.

This could be a good cooking strategy for potato fans hoping to reduce potassium intake, such as dialysis patients. But individuals who want to get the highest nutritional bang for their buck would be better off boiling their potatoes whole.

Jansky and Bethke also examined the effects of leaching the potatoes—letting them soak in water overnight. Their results showed that leaching had no significant impact on potassium reduction, in contrast with conventional wisdom.

The results of this research could help guide the cooking decisions of people who want to reduce the mineral content of their potatoes, as well as those people who want to maximize their nutritional benefits.