Nutrition

Here’s a big step forward in dieting technique. Ever wonder why some people seem to lose weight easily and yet others, on exactly the same regimen, don’t seem to be able to lose at all? The answer always was that people are different. But to understand just how different, we need modern science, especially an understanding of DNA variability.

Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity A Matter of Policy with Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H. [This article from the New England Journal of Medicine reveals just how evil and cynical the food industry corporations are, systematically going after vulernable children and their eating habits, knowing there is great profit to be made by exploiting their naivety, making them sick for dollars. It seems slightly ironic to me this professor shares the name of one of these iconic food giants! Scott-Mumby] Everyone knows that American children are becoming fatter, but not everyone agrees on the cause. Many of today’s children routinely consume more calories than they expend in physical activity, but this imbalance results from many recent changes in home, school, and neighborhood environments. Concerned about the health and economic costs of childhood obesity, in 2004 Congress asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine one potential cause the marketing of foods directly to children.

Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity A Matter of Policy with Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H. [This article from the New England Journal of Medicine reveals just how evil and cynical the food industry corporations are, systematically going after vulernable children and their eating habits, knowing there is great profit to be made by exploiting their naivety, making them sick for dollars. It seems slightly ironic to me this professor shares the name of one of these iconic food giants! Scott-Mumby] Everyone knows that American children are becoming fatter, but not everyone agrees on the cause. Many of today’s children routinely consume more calories than they expend in physical activity, but this imbalance results from many recent changes in home, school, and neighborhood environments. Concerned about the health and economic costs of childhood obesity, in 2004 Congress asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to examine one potential cause the marketing of foods directly to children.

Magnesium seems to be involved in several hundred enzyme pathways, all essential for optimum health. Not surprisingly, therefore, a lack of magnesium can lead to a great diversity of symptoms. Many of magnesium’s important functions are connected with the nervous system. Lack of magnesium causes a state of over excitability, with twitching, tremors, anxiety, hyperactivity, cramps, convulsions and insomnia. Because it counters such symptoms, magnesium has been christened ‘Nature’s tranquillizer’. Correction of some of these symptoms due to magnesium deficiency may be vital to the allergic patient, who may mis-assign them to am allergy.

Magnesium seems to be involved in several hundred enzyme pathways, all essential for optimum health. Not surprisingly, therefore, a lack of magnesium can lead to a great diversity of symptoms. Many of magnesium’s important functions are connected with the nervous system. Lack of magnesium causes a state of over excitability, with twitching, tremors, anxiety, hyperactivity, cramps, convulsions and insomnia. Because it counters such symptoms, magnesium has been christened ‘Nature’s tranquillizer’. Correction of some of these symptoms due to magnesium deficiency may be vital to the allergic patient, who may mis-assign them to am allergy.

Even Joe Mercola has fallen for it. There is one fatal fundamental flaw in the hype surrounding William Wolcott’s “metabolic typing diet”. It does NOT work for everyone and makes many people ill. It’s just that those who are devoted to it are not telling you the downside. I’ve been writing since the late 70s that everyone’s perfect diet is unique. Wolcott supposedly acknowledges the fact that we are all different and then naively claims we can all fit into one of only 3 categories – the ones he invented, not the ones Nature invented. The truth is, I can tell you after dealing with over 10,000 patients first hand, is that there is an almost infinite variety of “metabolic types”. These words are almost meaningless and merely denote the fact that, due to countless biological variable differences, each of us is almost unique in constitution and what we need and what we tolerate. It sounds like science but it isn’t.

Even Joe Mercola has fallen for it. There is one fatal fundamental flaw in the hype surrounding William Wolcott’s “metabolic typing diet”. It does NOT work for everyone and makes many people ill. It’s just that those who are devoted to it are not telling you the downside. I’ve been writing since the late 70s that everyone’s perfect diet is unique. Wolcott supposedly acknowledges the fact that we are all different and then naively claims we can all fit into one of only 3 categories – the ones he invented, not the ones Nature invented. The truth is, I can tell you after dealing with over 10,000 patients first hand, is that there is an almost infinite variety of “metabolic types”. These words are almost meaningless and merely denote the fact that, due to countless biological variable differences, each of us is almost unique in constitution and what we need and what we tolerate. It sounds like science but it isn’t.

Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products. Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNIS) Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries. Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%), of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195) Myth: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and fermented soy products.

Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products. Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNIS) Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries. Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%), of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195) Myth: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and fermented soy products.

Chocolate as everyone knows is disgustingly unhealthy; it makes you fat, it makes you blue. Yucckkk! Well, let’s back up right there. Because this bit of pseudo-science isn’t really true. Chocolate is given a lot of bad press, because of ignorance and disinformation. It is true that most chocolate candy bars you buy at the store, or the chocolate drinks you consume from the designer café outlets, are bad for you. They contain too many calories, too much sugar (or artificial sweetener, which is even worse) and a number of metabolically undesirable substances which are the products of the manufacturing process. But take those away and the product has very different properties.

Chocolate as everyone knows is disgustingly unhealthy; it makes you fat, it makes you blue. Yucckkk! Well, let’s back up right there. Because this bit of pseudo-science isn’t really true. Chocolate is given a lot of bad press, because of ignorance and disinformation. It is true that most chocolate candy bars you buy at the store, or the chocolate drinks you consume from the designer café outlets, are bad for you. They contain too many calories, too much sugar (or artificial sweetener, which is even worse) and a number of metabolically undesirable substances which are the products of the manufacturing process. But take those away and the product has very different properties.

By Jon T. Stevens For most of my life, or at least as long as I can remember, I have been overweight. No let me rephrase. I have been fat. Yes, fat. Not just a little overweight, not big boned, not plus sized or comfortably large. Not weight challenged or in need of loosing a few pounds. I was fat. Fat, fat, fat. Fat to the point of being teased and of having problems finding cloths that fit. Fat to the point of just being miserable. It was amazing how one aspect of my life could so completely take control of my life. One day, while on vacation, I noticed a couple on the beach obviously enjoying each other and life in general. Yes, they were fit and trim just like the perfect picture we all know about. I don’t know for sure what it was about them that hit me the way it did. After all, it wasn’t like I had never seen happy, fit people before. Maybe it was the fact that being alone the way I was, I often found myself in a state of introspection especially when on a vacation. But that scene, of those two people, changed my life forever. Right then and there, I decided I was going to lose weight and keep it off, no matter what it took. I decided that I was strong enough to do this and I was going to prove it to the world – at least my world. I was going to be trim, fit and happy with the girl of my dreams.