Food... As Medicine?

Surprising statement, no? But why? After all, Hippocrates (an ancient Greek considered to be the father of modern-day medicine) is quoted as saying, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

So it was no surprise to us when we read a recent article from Medical News Today that talked about how doctors are turning to food high in soy protein, phytosterols, and other nutrients as a means to fight metabolic syndrome. "Doctors are stymied about how to treat it. Billions of dollars are spent on it-unnecessarily" is what the article says. Stymied is a synonym of stumped.

According to the article, metabolic syndrome is "the simultaneous occurrence of any three or more of the following five conditions: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal obesity, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, or high triglycerides".

The Result of the Study
"The research findings indicate that this combination of plant-based nutrients can be a powerful enhancement to lifestyle therapy." This indicates that improving your eating habits, increasing your daily activity, and ingesting a higher quantity of certain nutrients can in fact reverse many problems that are literally stumping doctors who strictly prescribe medications to their patients with metabolic syndrome.

Survey Results
The article also provides survey results... Unfortunately, they "indicate that physicians feel ill-equipped to help their patients make significant lifestyle changes that will improve their health. Rather, their training and education prepare them to prescribe multiple drugs or even surgery."

Don't wait... It is your responsibility and not that of your doctor(s). Change your eating habit. Participants in this study were fed "low glycemic load Mediterranean-style diet" and encouraged to do "regular, moderate exercise". But remember that key nutrients are essential to see increased results.

Article [Medical News Today]: Food Fight! Battling The Effects Of Unhealthy Diets-with Food!

Bacteria and Obesity

In numerous posts before we have stated that obesity has very little to do with calories going in vs calories going out.

We have pointed you in the direction of maintaining a healthy body and the body will consume its accumulated fat as it needs to, in a slow and healthy manner. No drugs, no tricks, just give the body what it needs, stop giving it what it doesn't need, and increase your activity.

But these lifestyle changes will only get you so far. You need to supplement. First, with our peptide blend. Next, with our antioxidants and phytosterols. And now, research published this morning suggests that you will also benefit from taking a probiotic.

See... There are several systems that have a say in how much fat you burn and how much you store. Your endocrine system (hormones) has a lot to do with this. It almost completely dictates what to store, when, and where. If a single hormone in any of these processes is off, it will manifest as either too much store or excessively fast utilization. The circulatory system takes care of moving the fats that for burning or storage. The digestive system breaks down the food we eat and releases essential nutrients.

It is in the digestive system that probiotics do their job... In the gut! We have millions of bacteria inside the gut and we needs to replenish them on a regular basis. According to the study, "The researchers also found that in people with certain genetic variations in taste receptor genes, a low level of bacterial diversity in the gut correlated with a higher likelihood of obesity, while a high level of bacterial diversity correlated with a lower likelihood of obesity."

The more diverse of a culture you have in your intestine, the better. See, in the gut, these bacteria will compete with one another for resources (foods we eat). And when one is dying off, another kinds will rush in and take their food and kill it off. Bacteria are at constant war with each other for resources. They want to survive along with their "family" (same bacterial types).

Article [Medical News Today]: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/190022.php

There are lots of probiotic supplements sold in stores... Sad thing is that the majority of these do not have a full spectrum of bacteria and in many cases, the bacteria is dead because there was little or no food added to the capsules or the powders.

Our probiotic supplement is guaranteed to have live bacteria. Contact us for a quick explanation this probiotic supplement, our fat-loss system, or our optimal health system.

Huge Steps in Glycomics & Glycobiolgy

As defined on our web site, glycobiology "refers to the study of biological sugars". Glycomics encompasses the method by which these sugars are studied.

For years we have known about genetics which is the study of genes. We have also known about proteomics which is the study of proteins. These fields are extremely complicated to understand but incredibly easy to study in the sense that DNA and protein sequences can (and have been for many years) be synthesized because of molecule association.

Let me explain. DNA has three major components:

1. Deoxyribose (a 5-carbon sugar; D in DNA)
2. Phosphate (creates bond between deoxyribose molecues to form backbone)
3. Nucleic Acids (A, C, G, T; NA in DNA)

A is for adenine, C for cytosine, G for guanine, T for thymine. Hydrogen bonds between these four nucleotides hold DNA's double helix together as can be seen in this picture:


Pay close attention and you will notices that a big nucleotide (purine) always binds to a small nucleotide (pyrimidine). The specificity goes into even more exactitude! Not only can you predict that an A and G will always bind to a C or T, but you can predict that an A will ALWAYS bind to a T and a G will ALWAYS bind to a G. That's just the way it is. In DNA, no other nucleotides are present and other combination exists. Geneticists can fairly easily (although concept or procedure might be complex for non-biologists).

The same predictability is true in the study of proteins (proteomics). An amino acid has two end points which can attach to other amino acids to form (not fold) an oligopeptide, a true peptide, or a protein. Here is a list of the 20 amino acids in the human body:


Do you see the H₃N⁺ and COO^- at the top of each of the diagrams? The amino group (H₃N⁺) from one amino acid will ALWAYS bind to the carboxylic acid group (COO^-) of another. The only exception is when folding, other interactions can occur between sides groups but the protein backbone (line of H₃N⁺ to COO^-) linkages between amino acids) is not modified during fold/unfolding. Again, having a predictable pattern for linkage has facilitated the creation of proteins in labs for research purposes.

Sugar on the other hand has no such predictability... Or at least it didn't. Yesterday, ScienceDaily reported that scientists from the University of Georgia had found a way to synthesize complex carbohydrate structures in a much faster, more accurate process than ever before.

Why is this important?
Direct quote from article:
"The emerging field of glycomics has been severely hampered by a lack of robust, well-defined libraries of carbohydrate molecules, which are greatly needed to decipher the 'carbohydrate codes' used by cells for processes such as cell signaling, embryogenesis and neuronal development," said Pamela Marino, director of the glycobiology portfolio at the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

This article linked to a similar article (March 23, 2009) in which German scientists boasted of having created "a device that builds these intricate [sugar] molecules in a few hours — rather than the months or years required with existing technology." This second article talks about the direct links to possible vaccines and medications that can spawn from this advancement.

Article [ScienceDaily]: New Method for Producing 'Libraries' of Important Carbohydrate Molecules
Article [ScienceDaily]: First Automated Carbohydrate 'Assembly Line' Opens Door To New Field Of Medicine

It's time you look at sugar a different way. Not all sugar is sucrose (table sugar) or glucose (fuel source and responsible for insulin secretion). No... Instead, glycobiology has been referred to by many prominent doctors as the latest frontier in medical and scientific research. To learn more about it, visit our site. Glyconutrients are eight essential sugars commonly found on surfaces of cells in the human body.

Subliminal Messages in Food Labels II

On March 14th of this year, we wrote about six food claims that may be easily manipulated by vendors and marketers.

Recently we came across an article on The Daily Green website that listed 5 additional areas of concern that were not mentioned in the article we previously wrote about. These are:

1. Ingredients - Companies will often break up ingredients by name and not by substance. Ingredients are listed in order, from highest to lowest, of amount present in product. The example given is sugar. No one wants to say their single-most ingredient is sugar. So manufacturers will break it down into things like high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glucose, white grape juice concentrate. These are all different ways to say sugar with an extremely high glycemic index, sugar with a high glycemic index, sugar with a high glycemic index respectively.


2. Serving Size - Many times what we think are single serving packages actually contain more than one serving. Example soda. While it may be easy to carry a 12oz soda can or 12-20oz plastic bottle, the "Standar Serving Size" is 8oz. So there are 1.5 servings in a soda can and 2.5 in a 20oz bottle. Be sure to multiply nutritional values by that much when thinking of consuming the whole thing.


3. Omega-3 - There are two ways a product which contains Omega-3 can advertise that it has Omega-3. One is by saying it contains Omgega-3's and another is by indicating that the product can reduce risk of coronary heart disease. To make the health claim the product must contain Omega-3's but must also be low in saturated fats and other risk factors. Be careful... "Omega-3" does not necessarily mean that the product is good for you (or your heart).


4. 0 Trans Fat - Read the label! Many products that openly advertise "0 Trans Fats" have high amounts (replaced trans fats) of saturated fats. Saturated fats are essentially just as bad.


5. Free Range Eggs - There is no way to determine if this is true as the government has not regulated this claim for eggs.

Aticle [The Daily Green]: 9 Food Label Lies