The No Diet Blog

Insomnia, Disease and Obesity

By Linda | September 21, 2008

Are financial worries keeping you awake at night? Kids waking you up? Perhaps you never get a good night’s sleep.

I used to think, “Another sleepless night, no big deal; I’ll make up for it.” Not anymore. A sleepless night is about as destructive as a pile of greasy donuts. Repeat that several nights a week and you’re headed for serious health problems. I do all I can to sleep a full 8 hours.

The health risks of getting less than 8 hours sleep include impaired blood sugar metabolism, obesity, diabetes, and breast cancer. Sleep deprivation has a similar effect as aging on your body’s hormones and blood sugar. According to a 1999 study in The Lancet men’s blood sugar levels took 40% longer to drop following a high-carb meal when sleep deprived compared to when they slept 8 hours. All that sugar puts you at greater risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity. High cortisol and insulin resistance resulting from sleep deprivation are thought to be involved in age-related memory loss.

Studies show Americans averaged around 9 hours of sleep at night in the early 1900’s and 8 hours in the 1960’s. Today we average 6 to 6.7 hours sleep per night. Not enough for health. I know many of my clients get less than 6 hours.

Getting 5 hours of sleep a night? Your risk of obesity is 50% greater than if you got 8.

Sleeping just 6 hours? Your obesity risk goes up 23%.

Part of this has to do with increasing insulin levels, which promote fat storage; the other part is that sleep deprivation drives you to EAT.

Lack of sleep stimulates stomach levels of ghrelin, a chemical that spurs appetite, especially for sugary, greasy foods. It also suppresses blood levels of leptin, a protein that signals you to stop eating. This a double chemical dose that sabotages willpower.

Sleep deprivation upsets melatonin balance too, which can increase risk of breast cancer.

And then there’s the obvious: lack of sleep leaves you tired, spacey and prone to mistakes.

Need help sleeping? Here’s a few sleep tips; more to come in my next Top Nutrition Tips newsletter. Be sure to sign up on my web site if you haven’t already.

Tips for Better Sleep

Exercise or take a hot bath or sauna in the afternoon. As your body cools, sleep is induced.

Get to bed by 10pm. According to Ayurvedic medicine, that is when your body naturally shifts to sleep mode; wait later and you will be fighting a rising energy pattern.

Wear toasty socks or even heat your feet in the tub before bed. Cold feet can keep you awake.

Avoid or reduce alcohol. A small glass of wine might help put you to sleep, but much more and a low blood sugar crash will wake you up.

Avoid caffeine after noon. Caffeine can remain in blood for more than 7 hours.

Get rid of electro-smog. Wireless Internet, cordless phones, and electric clocks ALL create electro-magnetic fields that disrupt the pineal gland, interfere with melatonin and serotonin production and may lead to sleep disturbances.

Exercise aerobically daily. This helps normalize hormones and reduces stress chemicals that may be keeping you awake. Don’t exercise right before bed.

Establish a bedtime routine. Experiment with meditation, deep breathing, reading relaxing material or listening to music.

Share your best sleep strategy here.

Topics: Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Raw Food Diet, Stone Age Thinking

By Linda | September 10, 2008

New research suggests the introduction of cooked foods some 150,000 years ago spurred the giant leap from stone age thinking to today’s human intelligence. The reasoning goes that cooked food is easier on digestion than raw. rendering nutrients more available to the brain. This flies in the face of raw food enthusiasts’ claim that raw foods are superior to cooked for health.

I know I will be punished by a few raw foodies for writing this, but my health, energy and digestion improved so much by cooking my foods a bit more, I feel it important to discuss.

Cooked foods are a central part of the diet of the world’s longest-lived cultures. Of course most cultures eat some raw food too, but soups, stews, congees, cassoulets, roasts, and stir fries are not only satisfying, they form the dietary foundation for many of the world’s longest lived people.

Ancient Ayurvedic and Chinese healing traditions are based on cooked foods, not raw. For certain soups, the longer the cooking time, the more powerful the healing properties. Raw foods are described as too “cold” and “damp” for our digestion and ultimate health. Weight gain, bloating, indigestion and diarrhea often result from such properties in excess.

My Chinese doctor once told me our overindulgence in salads was one of the reasons Americans suffer so from obesity. Nowhere but in the United States are salads such a popular “health” food. That should tell you something right there; we’re also the fattest population. Raw food zeal has expanded far beyond salads now days, to things like grains, lasagna, cakes and cookies and even raw poultry.

The concept of raw foods sounds healthy enough: all those vitamins and enzymes are unscathed by heat and thus at the ready to nourish our cells. Although good in theory, this is not the case in real life. Consider:

Cooking is much needed pre-digestion. Bloating, gas, indigestion, diarrhea and fatigue are signs of cold in the digestive system and can be exacerbated by raw foods.

For more on the recent Shanghai research on intelligence and cooked food, see: http://www.livescience.com/culture/080811-brain-evolution.html

What do you think?

Topics: Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Why Do We Overeat?

By Linda | August 21, 2008

We overeat, or drink, and crave foods to change the way the feel. Anxiety, boredom, depression, fatigue and habit are common triggers. Some eat for entertainment, others to numb out, and still others stuff down nasty feelings.

Interestingly, a bad day probably has less to do with a binge than your biochemistry. Stress may trigger eating, but beneath the angst is a biochemical imbalance. That makes food and supplements among your best remedies for finding balance and controlling appetite.

If it were all in our heads, psychotherapy would be the cure. I have counseled more than a few obese therapists in my career. In traveling and studying other cultures and their eating habits, I’ve learned many people, despite challenging lives, don’t associate stress with extra large pizzas or bags of potato chips as so many Americans do.

What drives us so off course with our eating? Often, it’s the American diet. Many Americans are still influenced by the low-fat myth, others avoid meat and still others live on packaged processed foods. Low-fat foods, insufficient meat and processed foods (especially artificial sweeteners) are all sources of imbalance behind emotionally-driven eating.

Do you have a big appetite, and love meal time? Do you enjoy salty, rich foods? You probably need more protein than those more blasee about food. Not just any kind of protein will work. You need purine-rich dark poultry, organ meats including liver, and fatty cuts of red meat.

Do you overeat when tense or tired? Do you crave chips and other fried foods? You may not be getting enough fat. According to reports in the Lancet and the British Journal of Nutrition, low fat diets leave us angry, tense, anxious and tired, the most common emotional triggers to eat!

Add more real butter to your vegetables, oatmeal and rice. Snack on fresh nuts. Load your salad with avocado and olive oil. Use whole dairy products, not low or non-fat and make sure they are from grass-fed sources.

Are you anxious and crave sweets and chocolate? You may need more magnesium, a key mineral for regulating blood sugar and producing serotonin, the happiness and satiety chemical. It’s missing in packaged foods and needs fat for absorption.

You may be impacted by lack of sunlight, by appetite-stimulants in food or a myriad of other factors. My next Top Tips Newsletter will bring you 10 tips for Stopping Overeating. What do you need to know around food choices and cravings? Share your questions and experiences here.

For help understanding and changing your eating or drinking patterns, join me in my upcoming teleclass: Unmet Needs Unwanted Weight. It starts next week. You’ll learn nutritional tools and Compassionate Communication skills to change your eating and drinking patterns.

Topics: Cravings, Overeating, Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

Saving Money on Sustainable Food

By Linda | August 5, 2008

Making the right food choices can save you thousands of dollars on your health, plus give you more vitality to enjoy life. Scrimping on food may cost you more money on doctors and drugs as well as down time.

My clients sometimes make poor food choices because of money. “Organic is too expensive,” I often hear. But is it? And is “organic” what you really want? Although better than “conventional”, organic is not always the best choice. Large food conglomerates have diluted the term organic and made “organic certification” too costly for small farmers who may go beyond organic. If you look carefully, you can find the most flavorful and healthful foods at reasonable prices from small, sustainable farmers who don’t label their foods organic.

“Sustainable” and “ethical” are the new organic. Your best food choices come from smaller local sustainable dairies or farms, places you can see for yourself. Smaller herds are more likely raised on pasture, the ticket for real health benefits, not organic feed. The same holds for poultry, eggs and produce.  And, by purchasing local, you potentially save on shipping costs.

Sustainable goes beyond avoidance of pesticides and upholds practices that lead to healthier food while promoting the health of our planet, including our air and drinking water.

Want to save on meat? Healthy meats come from happy grass-fed animals, not feedlots. Check my shopping guide for sources. A client recently told me she spent just $2 per pound on a freezer full of meat by sharing a grass-fed cow with friends.

To save on produce, subscribe to a local CSA for organic, local, fresh produce or shop your local farmer’s market. At the very least, buy seasonal produce; it is the least expensive, freshest and most nutritious choice. If you buy conventional, at least avoid the toxic “dirty dozen.”

Look for coupons and sales on your favorite meal ingredients. I just saved $1 on Organic Pastures butter with a coupon. I buy extra bottles of my favorite olive oil when it goes on sale.

Consider growing a few things yourself. You will not only save on fresh produce, you will enjoy more flavorful food plus a new healthy hobby.

Use real food. More than 90% of the U.S dollar spent on food is for processed foods. By making a meal from fresh, sustainable meat, dairy and vegetables, you fuel your family’s health, save money and promote the health of our water, air and land.

Finally, don’t rule out organic due to price. You may not need to spend more after all.

Share your ideas for saving on real, ethical, sustainable food.

Topics: Sustainable Food, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Death By Breakfast Cereals

By Linda | July 21, 2008

Are you doing yourself more harm than good with your whole grain breakfast cereal? Even without the addition of sugars, hydrogenated fats, and chemicals, cereals can be toxic.

In order to become a crispy wheat flake, a crunchy grain nugget, or an oaty “o,” a whole grain must be subjected to a grain-damaging extrusion process.

Grains are processed into flakes and nuggets with use of high temperatures and pressure, which extrude grain slurry through a special shaped hole that creates the desired form. This process not only destroys fragile vitamins and minerals found in whole grains but also renders the essential fatty acids and amino acids toxic.  Cereal company research shows this.

An unpublished study by Ann Arbor University compared rats fed corn flakes and water with rats fed ground corn flakes boxes and water. The rats fed the box lived longer than the rats fed the corn flakes! Before their death, the corn flake fed rats developed schizophrenic behavior, bit their fellow rats and went into convulsions.

In another study, researchers found rats lived longer on plain water than with puffed wheat cereal. The study found rats lived over a year when fed unprocessed whole wheat. Yet when that wheat was puffed into a cereal and fed to the animals, it killed them off in less than two weeks. Rats fed plain water lived for two months, far longer than those fed cereal.

This does not even account for the infamous health effects of the corn syrup, fructose and other sugars found in most breakfast cereals, nor the disease-producing effects of trans fats and damaged oils.

Although I believe the high sugar content and processed oils of many breakfast cereals are the among the most significant dietary contributors to obesity, diabetes and other diseases, some researchers say natural whole grain cereals may be more harmful than sugary cereals because their higher protein content results in more amino acid toxins and peroxides.

Improve your health with eggs and/or breakfast meats or cooked whole grains such as whole oats, whole rye, millet or quinoa.  Whole grains purchased in bulk are also less expensive than dry cereals, an issue for many these days.

How important is boxed cereal for you? What is your favorite healthy breakfast?

Topics: Breakfast, Uncategorized | 13 Comments »

Should Kids be on Drugs?

By Linda | July 10, 2008

Should 8-year old kids be on cholesterol-lowering drugs?

We need cholesterol; it is the building block for all our hormones and for vitamin D.

Statin drugs, used to lower cholesterol levels, may be harmful and ineffective at prolonging life for adults, say many health experts. Research shows drugs may lower cholesterol levels but do not prolong life and some even increase artery plaque. Despite the studies, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending statin drugs as an aggressive new heart disease strategy in kids.

Is this a good for children? Let’s look at the research. There is no long-term evidence to show safety or effectiveness in kids. Could there by long-term side effects, possibly additional health problems that lead to heavier reliance on drugs?

Properly prescribed drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Over 100,000 deaths are caused by drugs, according to American Medical Association publications. Baycol (a statin) was pulled from the market because it leads to too many deaths.

In 2003 Researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center found statins lower cholesterol levels but allow plaque to continue building in arteries. Artery plaque is considered the enemy in heart disease.

Researchers in Denmark looked at 500,000 residents found those who took statins were more likely to develop weakness, and tingling and pain in hands and feet. Some ended up with permanent nerve damage.

Cardiologist Peter Langsjoen studied 20 patients with normal heart function. After six months on Lipitor (a statin), two-thirds developed abnormalities in the heart’s filling capability.

A study published in the American Journal of Medicine showed patients treated with statins for six months performed poorly in solving complex mazes, in psychomotor skills and memory tests.

The 2002 ALLHAT trial, the largest North American cholesterol-lowering trial ever and largest trial in the world using Lipitor showed although cholesterol levels are reduced by statins, mortality remains the same with or without the drug.

In the ASCOT-LLA trial Lipitor versus a placebo was tested in patients with high blood pressure and three cardiovascular risk factors. Lipitor did not reduce death rates.

The PROVE-IT study in 2004 compared low dose statins with high dose. The high dose statin group enjoyed a 30% reduction in heart disease mortality, but no difference in all-cause mortality.

Fifteen percent of statin patients develop cognitive side effects including amnesia and complete memory loss according to Duane Graveline in his book Lipitor: Thief of Memory.

Is it that hard to feed kids real food and nudge them into physical activity?

Topics: Drugs | 4 Comments »

How Low Calorie Diets Fail

By Linda | June 30, 2008

If you’ve ever dieted, you probably noticed you ended up gaining weight in the end. I started out pretty close to a normal weight, but after dieting on and off for 5 years, gained 50 pounds more than when I started. The more strict the diet the more dramatic the weight gain. This paradox is well documented.

One of the first studies on weight loss diets was conducted in 1944 by Ancel Keys, the guy who first proposed saturated fats cause heart disease (still a theory). He also invented K rations for WWII soldiers.

Keys put 32 men on 1570-calorie low-fat diets. I don’t know about you but this is more calories than I ever dreamed of in my diet days. He called it a starvation experiment. The men lost 15 pounds in 6 months.

In the end, they gained back all the weight they lost, plus 5 percent of their starting weight, a roughly ten pound weight gain. More disturbing however, they ended up losing muscle and gaining 50% more body fat than they started with.

During the study the men became cold, lethargic, apathetic and depressed. Their hair fell out. They lost interest in their normal activities. They lost their sex drive. Metabolisms dropped by more than half. Food became an obsession and the group compulsively collected recipes and studied cookbooks while imbibing huge amounts of coffee and constantly chewing gum. Five suffered character neurosis and two were committed to a psychiatric ward.

As the study concluded, Keyes allowed the men up to 3000 calories a day, the amount they once ate normally. But this wasn’t enough; the men remained hungry and craved more food. When the men were finally allowed to eat all they wanted, they overate. A single meal of 8000 calories wasn’t even enough for some, despite the physical discomfort of all that food.

Why do medical professionals still urge the obese to follow low-fat, low-calorie diets? Is there a way to boost metabolism without reducing calories?

Topics: Weight Loss Diets | 13 Comments »

Newer Entries »