Let’s start with a close look at the popular 2005 book The China Study.

If you have read this book, you know that on the surface it appears to make quite a case against consuming animal protein. It asserts that higher animal protein intakes were clearly associated with increased risk of cancer.

First, it cites animal studies of the book’s author, US researcher Dr. T. Colin Campbell, which found that feeding casein (a protein from milk) to rodents gave them cancer.  The author then reasoned that human research was needed, so he looked to China where he hypothesized that China’s lower rates of cancer could be due to their lower intake of animal protein.

There are a couple of problems with the whole premise. First, while China does have lower rates of some cancers, it has the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world!¹ That fact is never discussed in the book.

Second, when you analyze the studies upon which the book was based, you find that the rates of cancer for meat eaters did increase, but only slightly.  In fact, as one author who analyzed the China study data pointed out, animal protein increased rates of cancer only slightly and smoking did not increase rates of cancer at all.²

With these results not being definitive, and in some instances so contrary to other research, we need to compare them to the work of other researchers.

In doing so, we find that other studies have not confirmed the China study data.  For instance, a study from 2006³ found no differences in “cancer rates between vegetarians and non-vegetarians.”  This study found that vegetarians did tend to have lower BMIs and lower cholesterol levels than non-vegetarians. They also had 20% fewer deaths from ischemic heart disease.

These findings led many to conclude that vegetarian diets are healthier, but when it comes to overall mortality, there is s no difference in vegetarians versus non-vegetarians.

If you look beyond cancer, is a vegetarian diet any more healthful overall than a diet that includes meat? Again, no — and research proves it.

• A Dutch review of the issue concluded that a vegetarian diet conferred no more benefit than a diet that included plenty of unrefined plant foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, but which also included animal protein. On the other hand, according to their literature review, a vegetarian diet does significantly increase one’s risk of certain nutrient deficiencies like vitamin B12, calcium, iron, and zinc — especially in vegans.⁴
• Another study found that vegetarian diets were associated with lower vitamin B12 status and therefore to increased levels of artery-clogging homocysteine.⁵
• A Slovakian researcher has stated that the healthiest inhabitants of Northern Europe are from Iceland, Switzerland and Scandinavia, populations that consume high amounts of animal protein.⁶

This is the type of balanced reporting that I find to be missing in many discussions of vegetarianism.

I do want to acknowledge that meat consumption is less healthy today than in the past. Fats in meats store pesticides and other toxins that occur in the environment. However, I do not feel a massive shift to vegetarian diets would improve our health statistics, especially in the 25% or so of the population who are insulin resistant.

So, what kind of diet do I recommend? Whole and unprocessed plant foods for their lowered health risks. Eat more vegetables and salads, and some fruit and beans, but limit grains and starchy foods to tolerance.

Unprocessed, organic animal proteins like chicken, turkey, and fish should also be included.  Red meat can be eaten, but limited to no more than once a week.   Grass-fed beef and bison are good red meat choices.

This is the diet we find to be most successful for the majority of people. It provides immediate health benefits like weight and cholesterol lowering, and is still satisfying.  And so far the evidence shows that it will be just as protective against cancer.

The author of the Slovakian study cited above concluded as I do, that it is “ample consumption of fruits and vegetables, not the exclusion of meat,” that makes one healthier.

References

1. http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/stomach/incidence/.
2. www.westonaprice.org/bookreviews/chinastudy.html.
3. Proc Nutr Soc. 2006; 65(1):35-41.
4. Arch Pub Health. 2005, 63:1-16.
5. Ann Nutr Metab. 2006;50:485-491.
6. Ginter E. Bratisl Lek Listy. 2008. 109(10):463-6.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country.  Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB's The Healing Prescription.  To learn more, click here.]

Our experience reflects both a national and international trend. Kidney disease is increasing in young and old alike in the U.S. and around the world.^1,2 And that’s why I feel compelled to warn you about it — and tell you how to keep your kidneys healthy.

Here’s some background. You have two kidneys, whose job is to remove wastes from the blood and to excrete them via urine; they then return cleaned blood to the body. The kidneys keep water and minerals at healthy levels and produce important hormones.

When the kidneys are diseased, they can’t efficiently filter out wastes and excess fluids. As the disease progresses, urine production decreases and eventually stops. At that point you need dialysis — a process in which the blood is filtered via either a machine or fluids that can be held in the abdominal cavity.

The primary causes of kidney disease are high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity. Indeed, obesity triples your risk,³ and the damage to kidneys from high blood sugar or blood pressure can occur even at the pre-disease stages.

So the first steps for protecting your kidneys are obvious: control your weight, blood sugar and blood pressure. It is also important to keep yourself well hydrated. If you do that, you should have a very good chance of retaining good kidney function into your old age.

However, there are other factors that could be playing just as important a role in the health of your kidneys, and most people don’t know a thing about them. Environmental chemicals and heavy metals damage kidney tissue and so can common over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers.

For example, a study has found that a group of Central Americans who don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure is nevertheless experiencing high rates of kidney failure.⁵ The suspected cause: agricultural chemicals.

Heavy metals from the environment can also accumulate in the kidneys and can damage them.⁴ We are exposed to heavy metals like cadmium, mercury and lead everyday from mercury in our fish, cadmium in our air, and lead in our pipes for example.

Common OTC painkillers such as acetaminophen and aspirin have also been linked to kidney disease.⁵ One study looked at people with end-stage kidney failure and found that heavier acetaminophen use increases the risk of kidney failure, with the heaviest use of 5000 or more pills over several years more than doubling one’s risk. In fact, about 10% of kidney failure is from acetaminophen use.⁶

Here are some ways to protect yourself. First, be very careful not to overuse acetaminophen. I see so many people making this big mistake, never realizing that it is compromising their kidneys. If you have daily headaches, get to a practitioner who can help you get to their root cause, but don’t think for a minute that daily pain reliever is not seriously affecting you.

If you do need to use it, take some N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), a supplement that is given in cases of acetaminophen overdose. This is a powerful antioxidant derived from the amino acid cysteine, which is found in foods. NAC increases levels of the natural antioxidant glutathione, especially in the liver where glutathione also helps to detoxify the body of toxins like heavy metals and pesticides.

I highly recommend NAC for those who regularly take acetaminophen or ibuprofen, and usually recommend 600 to1200 mg per day.

To protect yourself against heavy metals, there are several other substance that have been shown to facilitate their removal from the body:

• Vitamin C. Vitamin C also increases glutathione production, helping to detoxify and remove heavy metals including mercury and lead from the body. I recommend 1-2 g of vitamin C daily.
• Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum). Cilantro has been shown to help with detoxification of lead and mercury. Try to include cilantro as an herb in salads, soups, and pestos to help rid your body of mercury and other toxins.
• Aged Garlic Extract (Allium sativum). Components found in aged garlic extract help balance the immune system and detoxify the body by activating the antioxidants glutathione and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Aged garlic activates Phase 2 enzymes in the liver which protect the body from potential carcinogens. The typical dosage is 600 mg once or twice a day.

Chronic kidney failure comes on slowly and silently so I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to take good care of your kidneys. Since kidney disease can be hard to stop once it is set into motion, this is one condition where prevention is vitally important.

References

1. “USRDS 2008 Annual Data Report: Atlas of Chronic Kidney Disease and End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States.” NIH 2008.
2. J Hypertens. 2005 Oct;23(10):1771-6.
3. Science Daily. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from
4. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060513122553.htm.
5. Nephron Physiology. 2005 99(4): 105-110.
6. N Engl J Med. 2001 Dec 20;345(25):1801-8.
7. Acta Biomed. 2005;76 Suppl 2:58-67.
8. NEJM. 1994. 331 (24):1675-79.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB’s The Healing Prescription. To learn more, click here.]

If you ask me, it’s time that changed. At LMI, we do screen routinely for CRP. Let me tell you why.

First of all, we know heart disease doesn’t occur just due to high cholesterol. We now know that the biggest contributor to heart disease is inflammation. In fact, some people have heart attacks that didn’t even have high cholesterol.

The body produces higher CRP in response to inflammation, so it is called a biomarker of inflammation. For example, when atherosclerosis (plaque build-up inside the walls of arteries) starts to damage blood vessels around the heart, they become inflamed. This triggers CRP production.

Since increased inflammation plays a role in a number of other diseases, CRP is being studied to see if it is tied to any other disease risks, and indeed it is. Research has now tied CRP to:

• Cancer. A recent Danish study found that people with levels of CRP higher than 3 mg/L were about 30% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than those whose levels were less than 1 mg/L.³
• Macular degeneration. High blood levels of CRP have also been linked to an increased risk for age-related macular degeneration according to a report in the Archives of Ophthalmology.⁴
• Cognitive decline and dementia. Data from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS), a longitudinal community-based study of Japanese American men, found that those with the highest quartile of high-sensitivity CRP had significantly more cognitive decline than those in the lowest quartile.⁵

To me, the evidence is not only clear, it grows stronger every year. That’s why, even though we are sometimes criticized for routinely checking CRP levels, all these studies seem to show that it does correlate with many diseases. And that’s why, in my opinion, it should probably be routinely checked.

The only problem with CRP is that it could elevate even in response to say a cold or flu. However, in the absence of this type of illness or other infection, CRP is one way to tell if the body is experiencing chronic inflammation and putting you at greater risk for not just heart disease, but other chronic disease as well.

It’s easy and inexpensive to test for CRP. A simple blood test called the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) test does not even require fasting. It measures CRP levels in milligrams per liter of blood. A level of 0 mg/L is the goal. Anything between 0 and 3 is worth improving but is not considered serious. Anything above 3 however, is serious — it at least doubles your risk for a heart attack.²

So, what if your CRP levels are high? How do you get them down? You need to address all the usual sources of inflammation — insulin resistance, low thyroid levels, being overweight, etc. In addition, switch to a low glycemic index diet, and increase your intake of antioxidant-rich foods, vegetables, beans and some fruits, such as berries. And by all means, if you smoke, redouble your efforts to quit.

In addition, studies have shown that statin drugs will lower CRP; however a recent study showed that vitamin C was even more effective than statins, and you know from my past articles, that I believe in using statins only when absolutely necessary and keeping dosages as low as possible due to potential side effects, especially on brain health.

A study published in the journal, Free Radical Biology and Medicine found that vitamin C lowered CRP by 0.25 mg/L, while previous studies found that statins lowered levels by about 0.2 mg/L.⁶ The dosage of vitamin C that lowered the CRP was 1000 mg.

So, to summarize, I believe that CRP is a good indicator of inflammation in the body; just make sure you aren’t sick with a cold or flu or any other infection when you have the testing done. If CRP is elevated, it is showing you have hidden sources of inflammation in the body. The best approach for lowering it is to first tackle lifestyle factors like smoking, and metabolic imbalances like insulin resistance, while improving your diet.

And if you don’t want to waste any time trying to get it down, 1000 mg of vitamin C may also help. In fact, the lead author of the vitamin C study expressed that she believed vitamin C may be the wiser course of action for those who have elevated CRP but do not happen to have elevated LDL cholesterol.⁷ I couldn’t agree more!

References

1. Circulation. 2008 Nov 25;118(22):2243-51.
2. Cleveland Clinic, http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/news/hot/crp.aspx, accessed May 22, 2009.
3. J Clin Oncol. 2009 Mar 16.
4. Arch Ophthalmol. 2007;125(10):1396-1401.
5. Doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.01.008.
6. J.Free Rad Biomed. Jan 2009. 46(1):70-77.
7. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129322.php.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB’s The Healing Prescription. To learn more, click here.]

There are no short cuts to weight loss. In my experience, I still find that the most effective way to help people lose weight is with the combination of a healthier diet and exercise along with addressing underlying metabolic imbalances — such as insulin resistance, thyroid gland function and stress levels (because stress hormones impact both insulin resistance and thyroid hormones).

However, there have been recent discoveries, and much discussion¹ about the role that so-called brown fat may play in weight loss. Brown adipose tissue — brown fat — is common to many mammals. It’s different from our blobby yellow fat in that it has a very high metabolic rate and contains a protein that converts calories directly to heat. That helps it do its job, which is to keep mammals warm in cold weather. Even when brown fat isn’t kicking in to raise body temperature, its high metabolic rate also helps keep those animals lean.

As humans, we are born with some brown fat, but it was thought that we lose all of it as we age. However, recent research in the New England Journal of Medicine² has discovered that adults do retain some brown fat, and that brown fat is inversely proportional to body mass index (BMI). Researchers now think that increasing our brown fat activity may help us lose weight.

Since the primary trigger for brown fat thermogenesis (burning) is having adequate levels of T3 thyroid hormone,³ metabolic balance and optimization is the most important factor in keeping brown fat as active as it should be.

However, I did some research and there are ways to enhance brown fat activity.

One not-so practical way, the NEJM researchers found, is to keep yourself cold.² Things like sitting in a very cool room for two hours at one sitting and dipping one’s feet into cold water were found to increase brown fat activity. Sitting in a chilly room activates brown fat, but the researchers cautioned that it is not yet clear whether that would translate to weight loss.

I have certainly seen many women who have complained about the cold offices they work in, and who are still overweight. (See my comments above about low thyroid.)

Fortunately, there are other ways to up your brown fat activity. One way is to enhance the production of the fat-burning hormone, adiponectin.³ Two known ways to enhance adiponectin are:

• Eat lots of non-starchy vegetables.
• Get plenty of magnesium.

The omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, which are found in fish oil also up-regulate brown fat activity. In mice anyway, a diet that included DHA and EPA had the most pronounced effect on the thermogenic activity of brown adipose tissue.⁴

The third way to increase brown fat activity is really interesting to me because it is an herb I use quite often in my practice — bitter melon.

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) is a bitter green vegetable from the gourd family that is grown in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the Amazon, East Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America. Bitter melon has been used for years in Ayurvedic medicine for its blood sugar regulating effects.

Several studies have confirmed its ability to enhance blood sugar regulating mechanisms in the body.^5,6,7 As such, this herb holds promise as an anti-inflammatory and even an anti-carcinogenic substance, and so continues to be the topic of a good bit of research.

I have been using bitter melon (and most recently a proprietary extract of it called Glukokine®) for its blood sugar regulating effects in practice for quite a few years now. Since anything that improves insulin resistance will also typically enhance weight loss, I was not surprised to find that bitter melon is being studied for its potential anti-obesity effects.

But I was surprised to find that, in rats, bitter melon up-regulated the uncoupling protein that activates brown fat and therefore enhanced the oxidation of fat, which means it enhanced calorie burning via a whole different mechanism.⁴

Further research may indeed find that bitter melon also activates brown fat in humans. Until then, the best way to enhance brown fat would be to follow the two pointers for adiponectin up-regulation and to make sure you are getting DHA and EPA from regular intake of fish or fish oil. And if you are insulin resistant, bitter melon may help not only the insulin resistance, but also the brown fat in your body.

References

1. “Brown Fat Keeps You Thin,” American College for Advancement in Medicine. Accessed May 6, 2009. http://acam.typepad.com/blog/2009/04/bat-fat-keeps-you-thin.html.
2. Cypress AM, et al. NEJM. 2009 Apr9; 360:1509-1517.
3. Cannon B. and Nedergaard J. Physiol Rev. 2004. 84:277-359.
4. Oudart H. Intl J Obes. 1997. 21(11):955-62.
5. Qi T et al. Nat Med. 2004 May;10(5):524-9.
6. Laureen LY, et al. J. Nutr. 2005 Nov;135:2517-2523.
7. Fernandes NP, et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007;7:29.
8. Day C, et al. Planta Med. 1990; 56:426-429.
9. Grover JK, Yadav SP. J Ethnopharmacol. 2004 Jul;93(1):123-132.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB’s The Healing Prescription. To learn more, click here.]

Mushrooms are a good source of B-vitamins and are a wonderful base to this savory pâté. With only 7 net carbs per serving, this is yet another great way to enjoy a flavorful snack while keeping your blood sugar in check. Enjoy it as a dip with assorted vegetables or with low-carb crackers.

Serves: 6

Time to Table: 40 minutes

Healing Nutrient Spotlight
Good source of vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, selenium, copper, manganese

Ingredients*
2 cups chopped onion
1 T. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 ½ cups chopped green beans
4 cups sliced mushrooms (about 14 ounces)
2 T. dry white wine or sherry
1 T. soy or tamari sauce
½ tsp. dried thyme
2 T. slivered raw almonds, toasted
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

*Use organic ingredients for optimal nutrition

Preparation
Place almonds on a cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside.

In a medium skillet, sauté onions over medium heat in olive oil for about 10 minutes or until translucent. Add garlic, green beans, mushrooms, wine or sherry, soy or tamari sauce, and thyme. Reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, then uncover and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Combine toasted almonds, cooked vegetables and egg in a blender or food processor and puree until well blended. Serve with assorted raw vegetables.

Nutrition
104 calories, 4 g protein, 10 g carbohydrates, 5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 3 g monounsaturated fat, 1 g polyunsaturated fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 5 g sugar, 3 g fiber, .3 mg riboflavin, 2 g niacin, .2 mg vitamin B-6, .9 mg pantothenic acid, 7 mg vitamin C, 35 IU vitamin D, .3 mg copper, .2 mg manganese, 292 mg potassium, 8 mcg selenium, 170 mg sodium

(This recipe is adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook.)

One of the biggest areas of dietary confusion today is whether saturated fat is bad for us or not. For the most part, conventional medical thought remains firmly in the “saturated fat is bad for you” corner, while a growing number of people feel that not only is the jury still out on saturated fat intake, it may even have health benefits.

One of the primary reasons we are told to lower our saturated fat intake is to lower heart disease risk. As Jim and I have already discussed in several Total Health Breakthroughs articles, studies looking at the effects of low carb diets are a big reason the effects of saturated fats are being questioned; that’s because numerous studies have found that low carb diets lower total cholesterol and triglycerides while increasing HDL — despite being higher than is conventionally recommended for saturated fat intake.^1,2

These changes in lipid profiles lower the risk of heart disease, not raise it.

As if these findings aren’t reason enough to prove that conventional medicine may be wrong about saturated fat, another study out of Harvard has really raised some questions. This study looked at postmenopausal women who had previously eaten low fat diets and who, despite that fact, had plaque build-up in their arteries. But the same study found that when the women ate diets that were higher in saturated fat, the progression of arterial plaque stopped.³

Interestingly, the one factor that was associated with progression of artery clogging plaque was a higher intake of carbohydrates, as is typically eaten on a low fat diet.

Other findings that are shedding more light on the effects of saturated fats stem from research that is being conducted on the different types of fatty acid chains like lauric acid, myristic acid, stearic acid, and butyric acid, which together make up the whole category of saturated fats.

These fatty acids are all saturated, but they differ in composition and function depending on the length of their carbon chains. If you haven’t heard much about them yet, you will, because the research on them is hot and heavy.

Here are some examples of the research findings:

Stearic fatty acids are composed of 18 carbon atoms and are commonly found in cocoa butter and fatty meats, like beef. Quite surprisingly, research has revealed that stearic acid doesn’t raise cholesterol levels as much as myristic acid found in dairy foods; and palmitic acid from palm oil actually lowers cholesterol.⁴

Lauric acid, a 12-carbon chain, is commonly found in coconut oil, palm oil and breast milk. It is gaining attention because it raises healthy HDL cholesterol but not serum triglycerides and lipoprotein(a) concentrations (risk factors for heart disease). These findings further shatter the notion that saturated fats as a whole increase heart disease risk.

In considering whether we should consume saturated fats or not, heart disease should not be our only consideration. Higher saturated fat intake from full fat dairy products has been found to decrease a woman’s risk of being infertile, while eating low fat dairy foods, which most people do to lower their heart disease risk, was found to increase risk of being infertile.⁵

And while I see many headlines and articles stating that saturated fat intake in general is associated with an increased risk of cancer, many people feel that some of the risk could be from other factors like heterocyclic amines (HCAs) produced from over-cooked meats or the hormones that are sometimes injected into commercial livestock and poultry.

In fact, while it is not yet definitive, it looks like butyric acid, one source of which is butter (a saturated fat), may play a role in preventing cancer by stopping the development of cancer cells.^6,7

As more research accumulates, there is no doubt the messages to consumers about saturated fats will be modified. In the meantime, our position at LMI remains the same: limit carbohydrates and center the diet on plant foods and organic proteins. And we probably shouldn’t be afraid to include some saturated fats from butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and organic meats and dairy (as tolerated).

References

1. Mente A, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(7):659-669.
2. Hession M, et al. Obes Rev. 2008 Aug 11.
3. Mozaffarian D, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. Vol. 80, No.5,1175-1184; 2004.
4. German JB and Dillard CJ. Am J Clin Nutr. Sept 2004; 80(3):550-59.
5. Chavarro JE, et al. Human Reproduction. Feb 28, 2007; doi:10.1093/humrep/dem019.
6. http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/134/2/479.
7. German JB. Nutr Bull. 1999;24:293-9.

[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet – containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body’s chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace. To learn more click here now.]

We have only a few short weeks left until Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer — and bathing suit season for most people. If your New Year’s resolution to lose weight hasn’t worked as well as you had hoped, don’t despair. There’s still time to look better at the beach. And I can tell you how to do it.

Several studies comparing different methods of weight loss give the scientific evidence that supports what I’ve been telling you all along: low-carb eating plans are the best way to lose weight.

The first study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,¹compared the weight-loss results for 311 overweight and obese women who were assigned to follow either the Atkins (very low-carb), Ornish (very low-fat vegetarian), Zone (40% carbs) or LEARN (calorie-controlled, low-fat) diets. Those on the Atkins diet lost 10.3 lb compared to an average of 4.6 lbs in the other groups, and interestingly, far fewer people dropped out on the low-carb diet compared to the other diets.

Study two, from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association² looked at how a low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet compared with a high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet on ratings of hunger and eating restraint. Both groups ate less, but the low-carb group was significantly less hungry. Not surprisingly, they also lost more weight.

Study three is from the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.³ This study of 53 obese women compared a very low-carbohydrate diet to a calorie-restricted diet with 30% of the calories as fat. The very low carbohydrate diet group lost almost 16 lb in 3 months, and more of the weight lost was actual body fat compared to a 9-lb weight loss in the calorie- and fat-restricted diet.

There you have it. In all three studies, low-carb diets led to the greatest weight loss. End of story, right?

Well, not quite. There is no doubt — following a very low-carb diet will help you lose weight for the short term, and if that’s all you’re after, I’ll see you at the beach! But wouldn’t it be nice if you could sustain that weight loss?

Time after time I see study authors concluding that because compliance with low-carb diets starts to wane over time, they are ineffective. Well, no diet works if you don’t stick with it, but in a way they are right. What good is a diet you can’t maintain? And what good is short-term weight loss if you will only regain it?

That is why many years ago I began to evaluate weight loss, and I identified several underlying conditions or hidden factors that make losing weight either very difficult in the first place or else lead to regaining weight. I discussed each of the underlying factors at length in my book, Cracking the Metabolic Code. However, over the years I have found that there are five of these underlying factors that can be addressed fairly simply.

That’s why I developed a version of my Metabolic Code Diet that gives you simple strategies you can implement immediately to address some of the most common diet saboteurs:

1. Hunger
2. Insulin resistance
3. Stress-related carb cravings
4. Inability to sleep
5. Unrecognized food sensitivities

It also addresses some of the common pitfalls of very low-carb diets like constipation.

With this e-book version, you can develop an eating plan you can stick with and you can address common underlying factors that undo the best of diets, time and again. So you don’t just lose weight, you keep it off.

If you can’t lose the weight you want in this self-directed version of the Metabolic Code Diet, you can still be greatly encouraged because not only have you started to learn the diet you will need to follow, you have learned that you have deeper metabolic disruptions. In order to lose more weight, you need to dig in and find out what they are.

I can’t tell you how many of my patients find that bit of information to be a tremendous relief, because it means that your weight gain truly has not been your fault. No more guilt and needless self-effacement!

What you need is more thorough testing to evaluate underlying metabolic disruptors — for example, heavy metal toxicity that can disrupt thyroid hormones. This and other metabolic disruptors make weight loss inordinately hard. In doing further testing, you get a realistic picture of what is going on with your metabolism, and then you can go about the work of correcting these areas. This puts you back on the road to better health, and yes, eventually even weight loss.

So, do a very low-carb diet for quick weight loss if you want, but if your deepest desire is to never cycle on and off those very low-carb diets again, then consider trying my Metabolic Code Diet approach.

References

1. Gardener, CD, et al. JAMA. 2007;297:969-977.
2. Nickols-Richardson, S. et al. J Am Dietetic Assoc. 105(9):1433-1437.
3. Brehm, BJ, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab.88(4):1617-1623.

I was recently made aware of huge news on statin drugs from the labs at Iowa State University, where a researcher has confirmed something I have long suspected regarding cholesterol-lowering drugs — that they could seriously harm brain health.

The concern comes from simply knowing that brain cells, like liver cells, also manufacture cholesterol. Brain cells need cholesterol for a variety of functions. For instance, cholesterol is a primary component of the protective nerve coating called myelin. If your brain cells didn’t need cholesterol, they wouldn’t make it.

In the past it was assumed that statins primarily affect the production of cholesterol in the liver. However, as a pharmacist I have always thought it was naïve to think that a drug (statins) that circulates throughout the whole body would not affect other cholesterol-producing cells at all. My fears have now been proven correct.

Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at Iowa State, says his research shows that statins do indeed slow the production of cholesterol in the brain which then interferes with efficient brain function.¹ His study will soon be published in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

Shin found that too little cholesterol in brain cells significantly affected a protein that is needed for the release of neurotransmitters. Cholesterol is needed to change the shape of this critical protein, and in his words, “to stimulate thinking and memory.”

I cannot overstate how important this information is, and how big a ripple this news will cause as it is more widely reported. At least, I hope it will be widely reported.

If you deprive the brain of cholesterol, you “directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters,” said Shin. “Neurotransmitters affect the brain’s data-processing and memory functions. In other words — how smart you are and how well you remember things.”

As you probably already know, statins lower LDL, and while it is often reported that they can also help raise HDL somewhat, I frequently see people who cannot raise their HDL levels while they are on statin drugs, especially when they are on higher dosages. And other studies have shown that low HDL cholesterol is linked with memory loss.²

Ever since statin drugs entered the marketplace, some users have experienced severe memory problems from them. While it’s true that the most pronounced of these cases has involved a very small percentage of people, some of us have been watching closely to see how wider usage of statins will end up affecting the cognitive function of people using them.

Dr. Shin’s research conclusively confirms our suspicion that statins can be harmful to cognitive functioning. “Our study shows there is a direct link between cholesterol and the neurotransmitter release,” he said definitively.

We have to be really careful in taking statins, especially with newer guidelines advising us that LDL cholesterol should be 100 mg/dL or lower. For people at high risk for heart disease, 70 mg/dL is the suggested level.³ But the bad news for our brain is that very often to reach these more aggressive goals, higher dosages of statins must be used.

Since statin drugs do have some anti-inflammatory actions, the trend in medicine has been to get more and more people on statins, but this could have dire consequences when it comes to long-term cognitive health. One group I am particularly concerned about is people with diabetes.

A person with diabetes is in the high-risk category for heart disease, therefore s(he) will be targeted for more aggressive cholesterol lowering. This group is already at high risk for cognitive decline due to blood sugar elevation. (I explained this connection in more detail in the February 10, 2009 article in Total Health Breakthroughs.) To add further insult to a diabetic’s cognitive function from statins could be very risky.

A study out of UCLA recently found that many people are having heart attacks even though their cholesterol is at or below the 100 mg/dL target. There is no doubt in my mind that this study will be used as fodder to encourage increased use of statins. This will be despite the fact that 21% of the people in the study were using statins, and still had heart attacks.⁴

The bottom line is this: In addition to their CoQ10 lowering effects, we can add this newest discovery to our growing list of concerns about statin drugs. Kudos to Dr. Shin for this much-needed research and thanks to Ross Pelton, my friend and the co-author of my drug-induced nutrient depletion books for the shout out on this very important discovery.

References

1. Iowa State University press release, Feb. 23 2008; http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2009/feb/shin.shtml.
2. Singh-Manoux et al. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2008;28:1556; http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/8/1556?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=HDL+memory&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCITv.
3. http://docnews.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/1/2/1.
4. http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/2009/20091012-MeetingCholesterol.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB’s The Healing Prescription. To learn more, click here.]

In traditional approaches to dieting, one of the tools that seems to improve weight loss is food journaling, writing down everything you eat. This method works because it helps control the mindless eating that people do — just popping something in your mouth even if you aren’t hungry. In fact, one study found that food journaling every day led to twice as much weight loss among dieters.¹

While food journaling may help control mindless eating, as a dietitian I have observed that it doesn’t help people who are just flat out hungry. Out of all the dieting side effects, I find there is nothing that will undo a diet faster than hunger!

At LMI, we incorporate three important hunger-busting components into our Metabolic Code Diet because eating healthy is much less of a struggle when the food choices and quantities can quiet a rumbling stomach. What good is a lower calorie diet if it only leaves you so hungry you eventually snap, food journal or not?

One of the biggest allies to any dieter is protein. This macronutrient now has several studies showing that diets higher in protein reduce appetite.² As a bonus, people adhering to lower carbohydrate, high protein diets also experience a spontaneous reduction in their calorie intake.³

So, filling up on healthy organic protein sources such as eggs, poultry, grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish is a far superior calorie choice than any 100-calorie snack pack. Your body will reward protein with a feeling of satiety, but will usually rebel against the cheese do-dah’s (or whatever carb is in that snack pack) with a blood sugar drop and subsequent hunger pangs.

If protein is our diet hero, then the diet heroine is definitely non-starchy vegetables. Does beef tenderloin and buttery asparagus or Mahi Mahi with lemony sautéed spinach sound like a diet? Vegetables not only contribute variety, color, texture and a wide array of antioxidants and phytochemicals, but also stomach filling fiber. High fiber diets provide bulk, are more satiating and have been linked to lower body weight.⁴

One study exploring the effects of fiber compared an apple, apple sauce and apple juice with and without added fiber and found that overall, the whole apple increased satiety (feeling full) more than the apple sauce or juice.⁵ To me, this finding was particularly significant because they were studying a higher carbohydrate and simple sugar food. But it tends to hold true even for vegetables. Think of how long a big serving of Brussels sprouts or green beans would hold you compared to a vegetable juice. The fiber in the whole food is the key.

As an added bonus, it was recently discovered that non-starchy vegetables even improve insulin sensitivity by increasing the hormone adiponectin.⁶ So eating high amounts of protein and fibrous vegetables helps to keep you full and satisfied and improves weight loss. And that’s why these foods are the mainstays of our Metabolic Code Diet.

There is one other nutrient that helps keep you full longer and more satisfied, and that’s fat. It’s been known for quite some time that meals higher in fat stay in the stomach longer. This gives the stretch receptors in the stomach time to send the signal to the brain that you are full, and thereby reduces appetite.

Of course there are some fats that end up sabotaging weight loss anyway, like trans fats; but healthy fats from nuts, seeds, coconut oil, olive oil, and even olive oil blended mayonnaises are good hunger-controlling additions to your diet. Have you ever felt hungry after eating 5 oz of chicken salad made with a full fat mayonnaise served on a large bed of greens? This is not a bland, unsatisfying diet!

In eating this way, there is one other important factor to keep you on the diet, and that is simply having a good variety of tasty recipes to prepare. Our Metabolic Code Diet e-book furnishes tons of recipes to fulfill that need.

References

1. www.runnergirl.com.
2. McGonigal K.. A Yoga Sequence for Runners. IDEA Fitness Journal. Mar 2009. 74-76.
3. Hollis, JF et al. Am J Preventive Medicine. 35(2):118-126.
4. Jenkins T and Hershberger T. J of Nutr. 1975. Series no 4935: 124-136.
5. Brehm B et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 88 (4); 1617-1623.
6. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, Vol. 2, No. 3, 233-240 (2008).
7. Appetite. Volume 52, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 416-422.
8. J. Nutr. First published December 23, 2008.

[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet – containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body’s chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace. To learn more click here now.]

A New York Times article this week confirmed my worst fears – stress is sending Americans to candy stores in droves.¹

While at first glance this little headline, “When Economy Sours, Tootsie Rolls Soothe Souls” seems amusing, from my perspective it unwittingly brings up two important issues in healthcare today:

1. The simplistic assertion that to manage our weight, all we have to do is control calories in and calories out.

There are many factors that influence our ability to lose weight and keep it off, and this headline is an example of an important one – stress. Stress from economic crisis is doing what we see over and over again in patients at LMI — reducing serotonin and inducing carbohydrate cravings.

So what’s the harm in eating a little candy if you’re stressed? Nothing if you can stop at “a little,” but if you make that stop at the candy bowl too much of a habit, you can quickly undo weight loss and start to increase health risks.

Stress management is such an important factor for long term weight control, I have made it one of the key components of my approach to weight loss.

What do you do when stress is causing candy cravings — give in? Not in my book. You take steps to better manage your body’s response to that stress. What we do is choose from a variety of supplements that we have found to be very effective in combating stress – Relora for example for carb-related cravings. If you can enhance Relora’s effect with stress reducing mind-body exercises like Missy discussed in her February 24 article – all the better.

2. The belief that sugar and sweets are relatively benign foods.

For example, many diets allow the intake of refined sugars in candies and desserts as long as the overall caloric intake is controlled. The rationale is that by allowing yourself to eat a small amount of sweets, you won’t feel deprived. It seems reasonable, but in my experience, this approach will not work for many people for a number of reasons.

One reason is because once some people start eating the sweets they just can’t stop; instead of eating one of those little 100-calorie snack packets, they end up eating the whole box.

A study published in a journal called Eating Behavior looked at people with low mood who crave sweets, just like we are seeing now with people who are stressed and trying to lift their mood with candy. The study found that those people who get the biggest mood boost from sweets also have the worst control over their intake of sweets.² So, it gets to be a vicious cycle. And according to this study, the better the sugar makes you feel, the more likely you are to over eat sweets.

Unfortunately, eating too much sugar is indeed harmful. For one, studies show it raises triglycerides, blood fats that increase heart disease risk and that are deposited as fat in our fat cells. A very recent study found that while all sugars consumed in excess of our caloric needs are quickly converted to triglycerides, when the proportion was 50% or more of the sugar as fructose, the production of body fat increased significantly — and it even increased the production of fat from foods eaten later at lunch.³

Sugar also depletes chromium⁴ and magnesium,⁵ two minerals that are needed to properly process glucose. For example, insulin receptors need 4 molecules of chromium for them to become active; if you don’t have the chromium, the receptors simply don’t work. In fact, chromium depletion is a hugely under-recognized cause of insulin resistance, in my opinion.

Interestingly, a study from 2004 found that depressed individuals who had the highest level of carbohydrate cravings had significantly reduced carb cravings and improved mood and energy when given 400 mcg and then 600 mcg of chromium.⁶ (Instead of reaching for the candy bowl, try some chromium instead.)

Magnesium is also important for insulin to function properly; a recent study found that magnesium intake was one of only two dietary factors that can significantly increase our production of adiponectin, a hormone that improves insulin receptor function and helps control weight. ⁷ (The other factor that increased adiponectin was high intake of non-starchy vegetables, in my opinion another important part of any good weight management program.)

So, the more sweets you eat, the more you deplete the very nutrients that are needed to help your cells metabolize the sugar in them. It is via depletion of minerals that consuming too many sweets could indirectly be leading to insulin resistance.

Here’s my point. You could constantly be regaining weight because you don’t recognize that stress chemistry keeps leading you back to over intake of sugars. Or perhaps a history of high sugar intake has depleted your chromium and magnesium and contributed to insulin resistance and reduced adiponectin.

Perhaps you have just never learned how to eat more of those non-starchy vegetables that are so advantageous for your health and weight. If this sounds like you, maybe it’s time to stop putting your hope in over simplistic approaches to diet and start looking for more comprehensive solutions. If that is the case I strongly encourage you to consider the approach in my Metabolic Code Diet, which will reduce your stress and help you attain permanent weight loss the healthy way.

References

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/nyregion/24candy.html?th&emc=th.
2. Kampov-Polevoy AB, et al. Eat Behav. 2006 Aug;7(3):181-7.
3. UT Southwestern Medical Center (2008, July 28). Limiting Fructose May Boost Weight Loss, Researcher Reports. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/07/080724064824.htm.
4. Kozlovsky AS, et al. Metabolism. 1986 Jun;35(6):515-18.
5. Paolisso G. et al. Diabetologia. Sep 1990. 33(9):511-14.
6. Docherty JP, et al. J Psychiatr Pract. 2005 Sep;11(5):302-14.
7. Cassidy A, et al. J of Nutr. Feb 2009. 139(2):353-358.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is Executive Editor of THB’s The Healing Prescription and the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality. To learn more, click here.]