My inbox is filled with inquiries about detox diets.  Many are looking for a quick way to burn winter fat, while others want renewed vitality.

Your body, in particular your liver, naturally detoxifies in Spring.  Signs your liver is having trouble with this duty include fat you can’t burn off, hormone problems, allergies, frustration and anger.  Many toxins are estrogen mimics, which leads to the added pain of PMS, mood issues and fibroids.

You can stimulate weight loss and relieve such health issues by giving your liver what it needs: Spring foods, good fats, high quality protein and less toxin exposure.

Our livers can be overwhelmed from things like air fresheners dangling in our cars, flame retardants from our beds, BPA from plastic wrap, pesticides, perfumed laundry detergent and harsh cleaners.  Not only do we stay fat in the face of such chemicals, we tend to get moody and sluggish.  Stress compounds the problem.

It turns out such toxins may increase risk of autism spectrum disorders in unborn children.   Maybe it is all the chemicals, not the added weight per se?

A healthy liver can get rid of most toxins with a little help from you.

Start by getting out in nature, especially lush green areas, and move.  Walking and other movement stimulates the body’s qi, and thus energy, relieving frustration, balancing moods and burning fat.  The stress-reducing benefits of exercise are also key.  Taking in the color green also supports your liver.

Shift to appropriate Spring foods.  Sour and bitter flavors, most abundant in Spring, give your liver a  boost.  Begin your morning with a mug of warm water with fresh lemon or grapefruit juice.  The sour flavor on an empty stomach stimulates the liver detox pathway.  You might even consider a morning detox cocktail (see recipe at end).

Incorporate greens into meals, especially bitter dandelion, rapini and mustard greens as well as asparagus, artichokes and salads with arugula, radishes and romaine. Cooked greens are best steamed or boiled, then flavored with a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.  The broccoli family also helps the liver detox.

Include protein at each meal, including grass fed meats, lamb, wild salmon, small fish, soft boiled eggs and soaked almonds.  Despite the juice fast claims, your liver needs protein to detox.

Skip the alcohol and sugar for a few weeks. Sugar, and fructose in particular, causes the liver to get fatty.  Avoid fried foods and other sources of liver-aggravating vegetable oils.  Stick with EVOO, grass fed butter, ghee and coconut oil.  See if you can get most of your foods from the produce and meat sections, less out of cans and packages.

Depending on your constitution the right liver herbs brewed into a tea or tincture and sipped before meals will also help.  Licorice, burdock, boldo, dandelion and milk thistle are a few to consider.

I enjoy liver-cleansing foods and herbs most of the year (who doesn’t like garlicy sauteed greens?), so I am almost always detoxing to some degree, more in spring less in winter.   This enables me to stay size 2-lean and balanced without dieting, fasting or eating like a bird.  Why not skip agonizing diets and eat in a more detoxing way year-round?  You too can be a natural fat-burner and a happier human being in the process.

Liver Flush Cocktail Recipe
1 lemon, peeled
½ grapefruit, peeled
1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
½” piece peeled fresh ginger
1 large clove garlic, crushed

Blend all with enough water for a smoothie consistency.  Sip slowly on an empty stomach each morning for 7 to 10 days in Spring. Follow with an appropriate liver-cleansing herb tea.

Eat White Not Brown Rice

What?  White rice is better than brown rice?

Western thinking nutritionists assess food by nutrient levels, which gives brown rice a slight edge over white. Eastern thinkers look at the net effect on the body, which makes the winner white rice.

Brown rice can lead to digestive problems including gut heaviness after eating, an undesirable damp condition, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Despite claims, brown rice is not a pillar of nutrients to begin with. There’s only one gram of fiber more in a half-cup of brown rice than in the same amount of white.  There’s five times more fiber in an apple or serving of broccoli.

Neither rice provides vitamins B2 or B12.  A half-cup of brown rice contains 1.5 milligrams (mg) niacin versus .25 mg for white, which may sound like a big difference, but you can get more than 13 mg in a serving of salmon or a beef patty.  Brown rice has 7.8 micrograms (mcg) folate compared to 1.7 mcg for white, but you get a whopping 236 mcg in a cup of spinach, and 468 mcg in 3 ounces of chicken liver.

The dark side to brown rice is its anti-nutrients, like phytic acid, which binds with magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc so they can’t be absorbed.  Any extra magnesium in brown rice becomes irrelevant.

Grains, like rice, are the seeds of grasses and have evolved a survival mechanism in their outer bran: plant toxins.  Phytates, tannins, enzyme inhibitors, and lectins protect grains form grazing insects and animals by causing health and digestive problems for them, and you.

Cows and other grazers evolved rumens capable of disarming grain toxins.  We, on the other hand, have one stomach that is ill equipped to break down whole grains without side effects, including bloating and other digestive problems, deficiencies, weight gain and auto-immune problems.

Traditional cultures spend days soaking, sprouting, acidifying, grinding and fermenting grains in order to neutralize grain toxins and render them digestible. Not so in the U.S. Here are ideas for treating brown rice.

Making matters worse, last month Dartmouth researchers discovered brown rice may contain alarming amounts of arsenic. Much of the nation’s rice is grown in the southern US, once a cotton-growing region regularly doused with arsenic-based pesticides. High levels of arsenic increase risk of cancer heart disease, asthma and type 2 diabetes.  The extra gram of fiber in brown rice will not help you here.

White rice is far easier to digest and assimilate than other grains. Although not loaded with nutrients rice helps strengthen digestion and health.  Basmati and jasmine rice are aromatic, lighter and better choices for weight loss.  Avoid instant rice.

It’s very western to just judge a food by solely by fiber or vitamin content.  Poison oak is high fiber too, but you don’t see this recommended for health. Learn more about the energetic properties of food before calling it a health food.

If you’re overeating sweets, I tell my clients, you need to raise the bar on quality, especially with chocolate.   It takes a lot more M&M’s than uber rich dark Scharffin Berger chocolate to feel sated.

We love chocolate not only for its rich taste and silky texture but because it makes us feel good.  Chocolate calms us.  Studies show dark chocolate can reduce brain cortisol and thus anxiety levels.  Chocolate also boosts endorphins and serotonin, our feel-good brain chemicals.

A fat in chocolate called anandamide activates the same receptors in the brain as pot, albeit not as vigorously.

Single this Valentine’s Day?  Chocolate boosts brain levels of phenylethylamine, the very same chemical that bathes our brain in euphoria when we’re wildly in love.  Try wrapping your lips around a dark chocolate truffle.

Unfortunately Hershey’s kisses may not do it for you.  Food giants (Hershey’s in particular) are replacing velvety cocoa butter with cheap vegetable oil.   A contributor to inflammation, vegetable oils promote obesity (in particular belly fat), heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s.  Inflammation doesn’t feel good either.  Think pain.

Cocoa butter, found in higher end white and dark chocolate, is a blend of oleic acid (of olive oil fame) along with two saturated fats that may actually reduce risk of a heart attack, while protecting your liver from alcohol and drug damage.  A few bites of cocoa-butter-rich chocolate may be just what your liver needs with that wine.

Dr. Nicholas Proia, MD points to research showing that high end chocolate lowers cholesterol, prevents heart attacks and reduces blood pressure.  He also sells it.

High-end dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants that protect our organs and prolong life.  Highly processed chocolate however, is missing the full complement of these age-slowing chemicals, not to mention being laden with refined sugar, which counters the health benefits.

Raise the chocolate quality bar and you will be happier with less, the rich silky experience will make you feel good and you’ll be protecting your heart and liver.  Here are a few sources of healthy dark chocolate.

Here are a few sources of high quality chocolate.  The higher the cocoa percentage the better.
Theo
Brix
Endangered Species
Dagoba

Best Weight Loss Breakfast

What single food do you think is most linked with weight loss?  Celery? Chicken breasts? Neither.

A detailed 20-year study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health looked at food choices and weight changes in over 120,000 health professionals. Those who lost weight or maintained a healthy weight ate the most yogurt. They also ate the most nuts.

The study also showed a slight fat-burning advantage to whole milk products over skim and low fat dairy – more evidence that fat may help in the war on fat.

Interestingly, whole milk yogurt and nuts, both fat-rich, are not at the top of most diet lists.

Co-author Dr. Frank B Hu explains yogurt contains healthful bacteria that in animal studies increase production of intestinal hormones that enhance satiety and decrease hunger.  The bacteria may also raise the body’s metabolic rate. Studies show fat people and animals harbor unhealthy GI bacteria.

If you want to take this one step further, choose plain whole goat’s milk yogurt topped with freshly ground flax or chia seeds, almonds and other nuts.  Fruit adds sugar to a protein meal, which will not help in your quest for weight loss.

Goat yogurt contains double the fat-burning short and medium-chain fatty acids of cow’s milk.  These fats not only help you lose weight, they nourish your GI tract.  Cow’s milk does not have this level of fat-burning potential and can actually lead to bloating and other digestive problems.

Ground seeds and nuts add a nutty, almost grain-like sweetness and texture, plus  you get  metabolism-boosting properties from the omega-3 fats of flax and chia seeds.

Dariush Mozaffarian, epidemiologist and lead author of the study said in an interview, “What you eat makes quite a difference.  Just counting calories won’t matter much unless you look at the kind of calories you’re eating.”

My favorite breakfast has long been a big bowl of creamy goat yogurt topped with ground flax seeds and other nuts. It is filling, energizing and satisfying.  It is also one reason I have reached a comfy size 2 without cutting fat or calories.

Tempting treats are everywhere.  Chocolate gift boxes sit under the tree, dessert leftovers lurk in the kitchen and holiday cookies beckon us from festive platters.  Hostesses greet us with eggnog and wine.

“Oh, have some, its Christmas,” we’re admonished.  How do we survive this without looking a bit like Santa with chest pain?

Go for the fat.  I know this goes against everything you’ve been told, but a close look at the science confirms this is the best way to survive the holidays (and life) with your arteries clean and waistline lean.

Recently my pant size dropped from a perfectly acceptable size 4 to a loose size 2.  Have I been dieting?  No.  I’ve increased the butter, duck fat, foie and cheese.   I also have more energy than ever and rarely get sick.

How do we love both the holiday goodies and our body?  Think savory.  Go for the cheese plate not the cookie platter.  Eat olives and nuts, not fudge.  Nosh on popcorn, not candy canes.  Re-gift the almond roca and grab a handful of raw almonds.  Skip the sweet mulled wine and get a glass of tannin-plush zinfandel.

Try soft herbed goat cheese in endive leaves, not on bread.   Roll a slice of lox around some capers and thin slice of sweet onion.

If sugar craving are the problem, start your day savory.  Have eggs scrambled with spinach and feta.  Have a few slices of bacon instead of jam on toast.  Skip the fruit, honey and sugared coffee in the morning and you will diminish sugar cravings later.

I already know the Christmas Eve table this year will be teaming with potatoes, sugared carrots, fruity breads, fudge, gingerbread and pies.  I however, will have as much fun as everyone else feasting on the local cheeses, olives, smoked salmon, duck pate, Swedish meatballs, roasted Brussels sprouts and creamy nettle soup.  I will toast the holiday with an earthy pinot noir.  In the morning I will happily slip into my loose size 2 jeans and celebrate Christmas day with family. What can be more fun than that?

We’ve long known alcohol increases breast cancer risk in women.  The latest Harvard Nurses’ study shows it only takes 3 glasses a week – bad news for women who like to toast through the holidays.

For each added glass risk goes up another 10%.  Party drinkers are most at risk, and not only for breast cancer: Heavy drinking increases risk of colon and other cancers, heart disease and liver disease.

Wine can be calming and helps with digestion when sipped with a meal.  Moderate alcohol intake protects against heart attacks, strokes and gallstones.  Like many of life’s joys however, alcohol has a dark side, and for women, that includes breast cancer.

Now for the good news.  If you drink, but consume extra folate, you offset the breast cancer risk. Folate  is perhaps best known for preventing spinal defects in the unborn, but in adults folate prevents heart disease, depression and other cancers, including colon cancer.

According to a number of studies published in peer reviewed medical journals 400 to 600 micrograms (mcg) of folate per day cancels out the increased breast cancer risk, even in women who have four drinks a day.

I’m not giving you an excuse to drink. There’s still your liver, brain cells and reputation to think about.  Excess alcohol can kill in many ways.  But for women who worry about breast cancer and enjoy a drink at the end of the day, there’s a simple, proven solution found in food and supplements.

Start with food.  Liver is the richest source of folate, and appropriately served alongside alcohol in many cultures.  A three-ounce serving of liver provides over 600mcg of folate.  Greens, especially asparagus, cooked spinach and turnip greens contain close to 200mcg per cup. Good sources also include peanuts, lentils, garbanzos and other dry beans.

Wine and duck liver are at the heart of the French Paradox.  People living in southern France, the duck fat/foie gras region, live longer and have less heart disease than people living in any other part of France, and far longer than do Americans.

Breakfast cereals and processed grains are often fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of this vitamin.  Although fortified grains help prevent deficiency, this synthetic version may not always be beneficial at high levels.

If you drink even modestly, a supplement may make a difference. Although synthetic folic acid is the more common supplement form, folate, the form found in food and the body, is most likely the better choice.

Thanks to The Wine Cellar Insider for use of their photo.

Cheers.

Do you see a pattern?  First: Proposed legislation to restrict supplements.  Then, public outcry followed up by a steady stream of reports showing harm from supplements. The truth is supplements have never killed anyone and can safely and effectively replace pharmaceuticals.

Take vitamin C.  Although John’s Hopkins scientists have shown vitamin C can inhibit growth of tumors with no harm, this is not an option offered by oncologists, nor covered by the media.

How about vitamin D?   A plethora of studies show it cuts cancer risk by 60-77%.  Although it takes 5000IU or more of vitamin D to get this benefit, the media reported that you take no more than 600-800IU.

Drugs, used properly, take over 100,000 lives each year, and in many cases shorten lifespan.

A recent study showing early death in women taking supplements was doctored to get you thinking just what you are….. “Maybe I should stop taking my supplements?” That is what the pharmaceutical industry wants you to do.  Could they be threatened by the alternatives?

Big Pharma spent $20 billion in 2008 on promotion of drugs, with a big chunk going to the media, and another to doctors.  The latest study was published in a journal owned by the American Medical Association (AMA), an organization already associated with conspiracy and known to promote drugs while discouraging access to natural therapies.

The study was conducted by mailing over 30,000 women 3 surveys over 18 years asking them to recall what supplements they were using, a study that fails to answer many questions, including quality and quantity of supplements and whether there was any cause and effect.  Could those with illnesses be opting for supplements more often? Could they be taking cheap one-a-days?.

Researchers adjusted the data to get the results they wanted.  Before the data massage, here’s what the study showed:
Vitamin B complex was associated with a 7% reduction in mortality
Vitamin C was associated with a 4% reduction in mortality
Vitamin D was associated with an 8% reduction in mortality
Magnesium, selenium, calcium and zinc were also associated with reductions in mortality

Hundreds of other studies show benefits from these supplements.  As for iron and synthetic vitamin E, we already know these can be problematic.  Don’t take them.  Get educated.  We should be getting iron from food and taking natural vitamin E, not synthetic.

I have been watching clients effectively treat disease with appropriate supplements for over 25 years. If you are lucky you know one of the few doctors who quietly treat patients using supplements. Doctors can lose their licenses for using supplements instead of drugs.  Look for health advice from sources not connected to the AMA or pharmaceutical industry.  Always question the media.

Fall is walnut season.  Just a couple handfuls of these delicious nuts a day help fend off cancer and heart disease.  By publishing the studies that prove it, Diamond Foods, Inc. was informed by the FDA that their walnuts are to be classified as drugs and their unauthorized health claims subjected their product to seizure or injunction.

Diamond Foods pulled all mention of walnut health benefits off their site.  This kind of thing tells me walnuts must have real medicinal benefits and threaten drug sales.  FDA officials are often former or future drug company employees.

Let’s see what the FDA censored.

Research shows walnuts help fend off cancer and heart disease. In one study mice genetically programmed to develop breast cancer 100% of the time, developed cancer only half the time when fed walnuts. In those that got cancer, the rate of tumor growth was cut by half when the animals were fed walnuts.

A U.C. Davis Study found mice fed two ounces of walnuts a day developed prostate tumors only half the size of those in mice fed soy bean oil.

According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, walnuts help lower unhealthy cholesterol.

Hundreds of studies show walnuts or the fats they contain benefit human health.  Read this for more on how the FDA censors this information.

Walnuts are one of the only nuts rich in omega 3 fats and vitamin E, which fight cancer, nourish brain cells and reduce inflammation. Buy them fresh or in the shell for flavor and health benefits. Store shelled walnuts in your freezer.

Here’s a recipe for a decadent walnut sauce perfect for transforming broccoli or asparagus into a healing culinary delight.  Thanks to Science Daily for the photo that ran along with their article on how walnuts help improve motor skills in older adults.

Creamy Walnut Pesto

1 cup freshly shelled walnuts, lightly toasted (bake at 300 F 10 minutes)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp softened pastured or organic butter
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp minced red onion
1 tsp sea salt

Drop garlic into food processor. Then add walnuts and salt and process until coarsely chopped.  Add onions and pulse a few times.  Add butter and olive oil and process until blended.  Use at room temperature and pour onto broccoli, asparagus or chicken.

Supplement Cures

Taking quercetin (an antioxidant found in fruits) can halt a sinus allergy in minutes.  A client of mine from New York was on prescription drugs for allergies.  She was surprised she could not only breathe clearly but smell roses for the first time in years after taking a quercetin capsule instead of her meds.

Taking magnesium helped reduce anxiety and provided relief from PMS for a young mother I recently counseled.

Taking vitamin D can cut cancer and heart disease risk by half.

Taking vitamin C can prolong life by 6 years.

A male client of mine in his early 70’s suffered a painful enlarged prostate and was facing surgery and a host of potential side effects.  After taking saw palmetto and pygeum extract his prostate returned to normal.

Your freedom to choose these natural remedies may end this year.  A new bill introduced by Sen Dick Durbin (D-Ill) will treat supplements like drugs, making them very expensive or unavailable at all.

The FDA’s open comment period expires on September 30 this year.   You can help fight this threat to your health options by writing your representative and tell them to vote no on S 1310, the Dietary Supplement Labeling Act of 2011.

For more detail plus a step-by-step guide to contacting yoru representatives click here.

The FDA, once considered a watchdog for consumers, is now more of a client to drug companies.  Many drug company executives are now on the payroll of the FDA! 

Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, accused the FDA of being a servant of the drug industry.  Industry influence has gotten so bad that the FDA employees “are inhibited from acting against drug company interests,” she says.

If you want to let the FDA know what you think, click here to take action.

An estimated 106,000 hospitalized people die each year from properly prescribed drugs.  Another two million suffer serious side effects.  Few to no one dies from dietary supplements.

I have worked with supplements for over 25 years.  They can be a safe and effective alternative to drugs and surgery.  You can bet this threatens a multi-billion pharmaceutical industry.  It takes minutes to take action to protect this freedom.

Photo thanks to:  http://healthwyze.org

Low Salt Diets, Depression and Heart Attacks

Is salt as bad as they say?

To some, salt is synonymous with heart disease.  However this still debated. A recent study in JAMA found those heavy handed with the salt shaker are not more prone to high blood pressure and actually less likely to die of heart disease than those eating low salt.

This wasn’t the first study to link salt with longer life.

When confused by science I often step back and look at the world.  Who eats the most salt?  Who lives the longest? The answer to both:  The Japanese and the French.  All that salt doesn’t seem to be killing them off.

Just like with confusion over fats and sugars, the answer to the salt question may be less about quantity and more about quality.

Unrefined salts (sea salt, Himalayan, Celtic salts) contain sodium and chloride balanced with 75-80 trace minerals essential to life.  Refined salt used in processed foods, on the other hand, is heated  to  damagingly high temperatures, stripped of naturally occurring minerals and often contains nasty chemicals and sugar.

Sodium and chloride are necessary for cell function and our nervous system.  Salt is one of the few sources of chloride, a component of hydrochloric acid, the key to protein digestion and parasite protection.  Sodium enables us to make bile, which helps us digest fats.

Salt, like fat, is a natural mood booster.  It keeps us from getting depressed.  Could that be the government’s worry?

This year the government imposed stricter than ever, telling most of us to keep it below 2300 mg, and under 1500mg  for those over 51 years or in high risk groups.  The majority of us, me included, consume far more salt than that.

The Japanese get from 8000mg -15,000mg or more per day.   The The French, famous already for their fat intake,  traditionally consume around 10,000 mg per day.  As they reduce their salt and fat intakes, their waist lines and rates of death are increasing.

Of course we can suffer consequences from excess salt, just as we can from excess water, but are we?

Have you cut your salt intake too much?   If you are fatigued, have weak adrenals, feel dizzy upon standing or have low blood pressure, you may need more salt.  A fasting chem panel should show your sodium and your chloride to be in normal ranges.

If you have high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease, you probably need to cut back on processed foods, including refined salt.

Switch to fresh produce, meats, fish, poultry and legumes and add your own sea salt.