Nutrition, Diet and Lifestyle Strategy

ebiotec

Lifestyle Success for You!

The eScale Newsletter

Salute to the Diet Plan Quitter

Here is to you, all dieters who are wise enough to quit your diet plans in good time!
I salute you! Your subconscious is making wise choices!

Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Carbs?

There are only three "bad" nutrition choices: excess food, an unbalanced diet and trans fatty acids (partially hydrogenated oils.) Diet doctors will tell you about bad carbohydrates and good carbohydrates, good fats and bad fats, the right and the wrong source of proteins. Are you paranoid yet?

Diet gurus create their own customers. A very "diet conscious" person will worry a lot. A lot of worry will increase the level of stress hormones. The body in its wisdom wants to recharge your energy so that you can deal with the stress. It takes less than a second to activate stress-related hormones, which will increase the appetite. Nature makes a lot of sense. Diet doctors often make a lot of commercial sense. Are they helping you?

Carbohydrates Revisited

In the last newsletter you looked at a short summary about carbohydrates (carbs). The best known form of carbohydrate is the refined disaccharide, known as cane sugar. Nutritionists have taught us to avoid it. Less known is the fact that the long chains of sugar units in carbohydrates will be digested to disaccharides (two sugar molecules bound together.) These disaccharides are the equivalent of cane sugar. In reasonable amounts, neither will ruin your immune system. (I get spam too.)

Plants store energy and building blocks for new plant materials as carbohydrates. Therefore, carbohydrates occur in highly concentrated form in seeds, such as grains or we eat them as roots, such as potatoes and carrots. The most tasty form of concentrated carbohydrates are fruits. Eating any of these carbohydrates in their natural forms is a very good idea because in their natural packaging they come together with vitamins, phytochemicals (some are colorful and most protect our health, taste good or stimulate in some way. More in a separate chapter.)

Most sources of carbohydrates also contain some fiber. Fiber consists of carbohydrate (sugar chains) as well, but humans cannot digest this portion of the carbohydrate group. While fiber does not reduce the risk of colon cancer, it does slow down the uptake of sugar during digestion. You will see why this is very important.

Making food easy to eat and easy to digest by removing the fibrous carbohydrates is a bad idea. The modified foods are refined sugar, refined white flour, white rice and foods made with these ingredients. The fiber content in grains, potatoes and other starchy foods is naturally low. Eating heaps of mashed potatoes is only slightly (very slightly!) better than eating refined sugar.

To lose some pounds, Grandmother's diet tip was: "Don't eat starchy foods!" Grandmother was right!

Grandmother was also wise. She never quit eating substantial amounts of vegetables or fruit in favor of predominantly consuming protein and fat. Of course, in her times vitamins, minerals and herbal products were hard to come by. Most people had to do physical labor to survive. These facts restricted the choices and prevented hazardous experimentation. Regular physical activity and respect for the workings of nature will have the same benefit today.

Are You in the Zone?

Lower carbohydrate diets, such as the "Zone Diet" are modern forms of Grandmother's Diet. You are "in the zone" when you take in about equal numbers of calories from protein (meat, eggs [milk counts in both categories]) and from carbohydrates (mostly vegetables and fruits with little starch and high fiber content to keep the intestines busy.)

You can find the necessary information in a small booklet by Drs. Rachael and Richard Heller.

Title: The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet
ISBN: 0-451-17339-2 (Reprint Edition)

The price won't break the bank. The book is about the ideas behind the low-carb diets. There are meal suggestions for everyone who wants to shed some pounds. The diet works well, especially when it accompanies a change in mindset. The diet can easily be modified to fit personal needs. This early "low carb diet book" deserves a lot more credit than it gets. It avoids the extremes, unlike some more modern extreme diets, which shall remain nameless.

The Simple Secret behind the Low-Carb Diets

Actually, there is no secret.

The success of low-carb diets is based on the regulation of blood glucose levels by two hormones, insulin and glucagon. The diet works when blood sugar levels are kept steady. That is accomplished by avoiding calories that come from carbohydrates. Eating slowly will also prevent the "sugar high" (increase in blood glucose) and the drop in blood sugar afterwards, which will make you feel hungry and reach for more food.

If you want an easy reference to learn what these hormones do in the body, here is a very simple overview for you: www.endocrineweb.com

What happens after a starchy meal or sugar snack?

The pancreas releases more insulin. It binds to insulin receptors, which are present on the surface of most cells in the human body. This signals to the cells, "There is a lot of glucose (sugar) around in the blood. Get the level back to normal!" The cells respond by taking up the glucose, breaking it down further and using the energy to do some muscle work or make some fat for later muscle work.

There needs to be some store of energy for metabolic activity as well. This is the overhead in the process. The cells require energy to do their work (metabolism).

The merchants who want to sell you pills to "lose weight while you sleep" cater to a dieter's desire to make calories evaporate by turning them into metabolic energy. Fat chance! To get rid of calories the body will have to use them for some activity.

Whenever you are tempted to "give the pills a try" anyway, make this purchase conditional. Buy the product only after you have figured out where all that energy from "burning fat" is supposed to go. Is it used for physical (muscle) work? Will the drug or supplement increase your heart rate and blood pressure? Do you expect the body to lose the calories in form of heat?

The positive aspect is that nature has build in many barriers that keep us from destruction.

Your metabolism is too slow? Is that so? How do you know that?

Did your body fail to perform its natural functions? Did it quit digesting food, did your heart bother you with its sluggish performance? Did you not breath, walk around, think and talk and work? If your metabolism did not need any specific "encouragement" to do all this, then it is exactly as fast as it needs to be.

Unless you have a firmly diagnosed disease (not some diffusely defined "condition"), do not try to "increase your metabolism". There is no way to make fat or calories "disappear". There is no safe pill to increase metabolic speed in a healthy person. If those pills do anything at all, they will be dangerous. Please read on to get an idea why that is.

Insulin and glucagon work together to keep the blood glucose levels in a normal range. The blood glucose levels go up high after eating a heap of carbohydrates really fast. As a result, the insulin level will also go up high to take care of this potentially dangerous condition. Insulin regulates the blood glucose level down as fast as it possibly can. The reduced blood glucose level now acts as a signal: Eat some more, there is little glucose in the blood stream and still enough insulin left to do some work!

Those fat cells do want to work, unfortunately. The signal is "Eat while there is food. Who knows how long the bliss will hold."

Eat slowly. A steady insulin level makes it easier to stop eating at the end of a meal.

Some More Facts about Insulin

Cells in the pancreas produce some insulin all the time. Insulin levels rise not only after eating carbohydrates, the level also increases (to a lesser degree) after eating other foods.

Here is another fact that you may want to give a lot of thought:

Almost every cell in the body has receptors for insulin. The many influences of both, insulin and glucagon, on all these many different cells is not even close to being fully understood!

Science has a way of turning up at least 10 more questions with every answer. This should keep us all humble. Each answer provides a chance to gain more insights. Insulin receptors exist, for example, in the brain. What are they doing there?

Current research suggests that insulin and glucagon, among other factors, also influence memory functions. It should not be too surprising if this turns out to be true.

In fact, learning where and when to find sources of edible food is very important in nature. By the way, a cat will "teach" its kittens what type of food to eat. Kittens will practice to hunt mice by instinct. However, they do not instinctively know that mice are cat food and may actually deliver the dead mice to their human keepers.

Nature ascertains that the organism survives long enough to reproduce and raise the next generation. Strong measures of security guard the very important metabolic functions. Even more marvelous is the intricate puzzle of metabolic functions that fits together seamlessly even though the puzzle creates pictures, which keep changing according to our needs. All functions are as secure as possible. All functions are interdependent. This measure of ingenuity has never been duplicated in technology.

Please keep in mind the intricate work of all body functions, which depend on food and eating. If you had not known that a steady insulin level is important for the proper function of the brain (memory) you may have believed that you could play around and try extreme diets or try to "increase your metabolism" with pills. Obviously, that is not safe. Let's not try to improve on perfection!

Now That You Know:

A healthy diet is very important. Learn, then learn again by teaching your children.

Overeating is less likely when each meal contains equal amounts of carbohydrates and protein as measured by calory intake. You may need to vary the ratios of protein to carbohydrates to fit your lifestyle.

Respect the intricate work of your metabolism. NEVER try to "increase your metabolism". You may succeed!! Read about the consequences of using Fen-Phen, a mixture of several prescription diet drugs.

The site also shows the "compensation" for damages as negotiated in the class action suit against the manufacturer. The most severe damages are mitral valve and aortic valve impairment or death. Some children miss one of their parents.

Next Issue:
All Natural: The Case of Nature vs. Chemistry
Whoever Invented Exercise?
Please come back!

TOP | HOME | I appreciate your comments!

On Pasteur and Yoghurt

It is always safer to write about past errors. There are no groups with interests in a particular product. Amazingly, the bigger problems have not changed much over time because they are grounded in human behavior.

Louis Pasteur, the famous chemist and microbiologist lived from 1822 to 1895. It was a habit of scientists in his days to make excursions into unfamiliar fields. Scientists of this age still believed that scientific strategy was very important and the necessary background knowledge could easily be added when needed. Pasteur ventured into the field of population statistics and longevity.

believe that such studies are useful? I agree.

People in different parts of this world have different life spans. Louis Pasteur looked around in his world. First he selected a group of people with longer than average life spans. His attention then focussed on a group of Southeast Europeans that was known for individuals with unusually long life spans. The control group consisted of average people in France.

Pasteur's question was, "How did the lifestyle of the Southeast Europeans contribute to their longer life spans?"

You

A conclusion emerged from Pasteur's longevity studies. The Southeast Europeans ate a lot of yoghurt. Pasteur probably entertained a more discerning view. However, the yoghurt got stuck in the sieves of simplification. There it was: Eat yoghurt and you will live longer!

Doesn't the scientific mind filter out the essential knowledge from the slush of random facts? That is certainly true. However, Pasteur's yoghurt became the detail that fit the need for a simple explanation. Complicated explanations do not sell very well.

Scientists grow up with the belief that natural phenomena function according to a simple logic. That is a useful hypothesis. Albert Einstein's remark is equally useful: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler!"

Pasteur could not have considered genetic influences. This field was not yet developed. However, he could and should have known that the yoghurt was only one factor among so many others. The endearing idiosyncrasies of mankind had been subject to many studies before his quest for longevity. Only fierce determination could have hidden the fact that most Frenchmen had started to become urbanites while the Southeast Europeans lived the lifestyle of herdsmen.

Scientific laboratories in Universities and drug companies are run by human beings. Most try to do the best they can do. Altruistic motivations notwithstanding, scientists and commercial endeavors act according to their interests. In case of Pasteur, the oversimplification increased his status as an expert. Today, we prefer to measure success in terms of the almighty dollar in tandem with an expert status.

In terms of carbohydrates and the hormones insulin and glucagon, this means that we must look beyond the oversimplification. Diet and lifestyle influence the blood glucose levels and with it hunger, energy levels, mental activity and cell growth. There are likely a lot more functions for insulin. Some will work to connect nutrition with emotions.

Today, the panacea for longevity would make a lot of money a lot faster if it came in pill form along with a concept so simple, a todler could recite it.

People will act according to their interests. Lifestyle choices are safer with this truth in mind.

TOP | HOME | I appreciate your comments!

Where the Information is

Comparing Diet Plans:

Consumer Guide: Diet Reviews, Nutritional Information

Like always, all information is subject to your good judgement, even when it comes from well-established places. Testimonials do not carry any proof and should never be taken as "evidence" that a diet is either effective or safe.
Only recently, I was "invited" to join a "club" (for $49.95/month). The club's benefit consisted of having access to something that I would call "a mutual admiration society".
They promised "amazing" effects, but they might have been talking about your pocket book!

It is unwise to publish opinions about current commercial diet drugs. However, here is an article about Ephedra
(now banned).

The important message here is the danger from becoming a guinea pig in an uncontrolled "supplement" experiment. The FDA will not protect you in due time. Ephedra was originally classified as a "supplement" (food) and therefore, the FDA needed a lot of convincing before it finally acted.

My own opinion is simple:

A diet pill, if effective, works by interfering with the regulation of vital metabolic functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, memory, energy regulation and emotions.

Your doctor will be able to help you with a diagnosis once your heart valves, liver, kidneys, your memory and sexual functioning are damaged. The advancements in medicine are formidable. Alas, medicine is not quite ready to give you a new heart, liver or kidney without imposing serious strains on life and finances.

It is important to be vigilant. Patients must investigate drugs before taking them and remain aware of the risks. Never forget that commercial interests have a strong pull. This investigation through books, consumer groups and the internet gets easier every day. Here is an article about the diet drug Meridian.

It is surprising to me that diet drugs that interfere with basic metabolic functions are allowed as a general rule. They should be banned as a group together with other poisons. The difference between poison and diet drugs is only in the dosage and time it takes for the effective ingredients to do serious harm. I am sure that supplement sellers disagree, but it is my conviction that the potentially lethal "side effects" are in fact the basis for the desired weight loss effect.

There is no real need to wait for the newest research on diet drugs. Their intended effect is dangerous.

Atlanta, Georgia (USA), June 19, 2004

TOP | HOME | Your comments are welcome!

[for eScale written by Ursula Peter-Czichi (Ph.D.)]
Do not reprint without permission.