Healthy Fats Trump Carbs!

The American Heart Association began encouraging Americans to limit dietary fat, particularly animal fats, in order to reduce their risk of heart disease as far back as 1961. Yet research has been pouring in refuting the saturated fat/heart disease link while linking processed carbs to higher rates of disease. As of 2015, the current dietary recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) still make no distinction between healthy saturated fats and decidedly unhealthy synthetic trans fats in your diet.

Every five years, the US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) convene a 15-member panel to update the nation's dietary guidelines. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) scientific report is an important part of this process, and this year's report finally acknowledged "Dietary advice should put the emphasis on optimizing types of dietary fat and not reducing total fat."7 As noted by Forbes:

"[T]he recommendation to have no more than 35 percent of your calories coming from fats is over. 'Placing limits on total fat intake has no basis in science and leads to all sorts of wrong industry and consumer decisions,' said Dariush Mozaffarian, one of the authors of the new [JAMA] paper. Modern evidence clearly shows that eating more foods rich in healthful fats like nuts, vegetable oils, and fish have protective effects, particularly for cardiovascular disease.

Other fat-rich foods, like whole milk and cheese, appear pretty neutral; while many low-fat foods, like low-fat deli meats, fat-free salad dressing, and baked potato chips, are no better and often even worse than full-fat alternatives. It's the food that matters, not its fat content."

Evidence of this was highlighted in an editorial in the journal Open Heart.10 In it, research scientist and doctor of pharmacy James J. DiNicolantonio reviews the cardiometabolic consequences of replacing saturated fats with carbohydrates, which includes the following:

• ·       Shift to overall atherogenic lipid profile (lower HDL, increased triglycerides, and increased ApoB/ApoA-1 ratio)
• ·       Increased risk of coronary heart disease, cardiovascular events, and death from heart disease and increased overall mortality (all causes)
• ·       Increased oxidized LDL
• ·       Increased inflammation
• ·      Impaired glucose tolerance, higher body fat, weight gain, obesity, and diabetes

Before making any wholesale changes to your diet, it is always advisable to consult with a healthcare provider who specializes in incorporating nutrition as part of your overall care plan to make sure that it is safe for you. Our programs have helped our patients reverse diabetes, reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure and get off of their medications so that they can live a healthier life, naturally. If this is your goal, give us a call (210) 468-1891!

In Health, 

Dr. Niewierowski

Sit Less For a Healthy Life

The evidence is overwhelming and crystal clear: avoiding sitting is a key component of a health-promoting lifestyle. According to Dr. James Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University Obesity Initiative, some 10,000 publications have shown that sitting is harmful to your health. He was one of the first to bring attention to this controversial subject, and even wrote a book about it called "Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It."

Prolonged sitting actively promotes dozens of chronic diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. Even more remarkable, this holds true even if you're very fit and exercise regularly. It's also an independent risk factor for an early death even if you lead an otherwise healthy lifestyle. In fact, chronic sitting has a mortality rate similar to smoking.1 And, the less you exercise, the more pronounced the detrimental effects of sitting become. Research also shows that your risk for anxiety and depression rises right along with hours spent in your chair.

Standing for One-Fourth of Your Day Reduces Your Risk of Obesity

We can now add yet another paper to the growing list of studies demonstrating the health effects of sitting versus standing. Published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, this study2^,3 examined the relationships between standing time, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, alongside and independent of exercise.

A total of 7,075 healthy adults of both sexes between the ages of 20 and 79 were included, and the results revealed that:

·       Men who stood up for a quarter of the time (about six hours) each day or more had a 32 percent lower risk of obesity

·       Men who stood up for about half the day had a 59 percent reduced likelihood of obesity

·       In women, standing a quarter, half, and three-quarters of the time each day was associated with a 35 percent, 47 percent, and 57 percent lower risk of obesity respectively

Exercise PLUS Standing Decreases Your Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

Moreover, those who regularly stood up and met weekly exercise guidelines also had a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, compared to those who either did not meet exercise guidelines and/or sat down most of each day.

Among regular exercisers there was a clear dose-response relationship between the amount of time they stood up and their risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome, which led the authors to conclude that:

"Standing a quarter of the time per day or more is associated with reduced odds of obesity. The inverse relationship of standing to obesity and metabolic syndrome is more robust when combined with health-promotingleisure-time physical activity...

Clinicians and public health practitioners should consider encouraging patients to achieve the physical activity guidelines and increase standing time for chronic disease prevention."

Standing Six Hours a Day Reduces Risk of Obesity by One-Third

November 20, 2015   Mercola.com

In Health, 

Dr. Niewierowski 

Think Again Before You Reach For That Hot Dog Or Breakfast Meat

It's well-established that food processing and food additives can create health hazards, and processed meats are no exception. Processed meats are those preserved by smoking, curing, salting, or the addition of chemical preservatives.

This includes bacon, ham, pastrami, salami, pepperoni, hot dogs, some sausages, and hamburgers (if they have been preserved with salt or chemical additives) and more. Previous studies have linked processed meats such as sausages, hot dogs, and sandwich meats to an increased risk of cancer, male infertility, and early death.

For example, a 2007 analysis by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) found that eating just one sausage a day may raise your risk of bowel cancer. Specifically, 1.8 ounces of processed meat daily – about one sausage or three pieces of bacon – was found to raise your likelihood of the cancer by 20 percent.

The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) has long recommended avoiding processed meats entirely for this reason. The institute explicitly warns that that "there is no safe threshold" for eating processed meats. It also recommends limiting red meat to a maximum of 18 ounces per week, to avoid raising your risk for colorectal cancer.

Processed Meats Now Classified As Group 1 Carcinogen

After reviewing some 800 studies, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is part of the World Health Organization (WHO), also recently concluded that processed meat can cause colorectal cancer in humans, classifying it as a Group 1 carcinogen.

"IARC classified processed meat as 'carcinogenic to humans' on its group one list along with tobacco and asbestos, for which there is 'sufficient evidence' of cancer links. Each 50-gram (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent, the agency estimated. A 50-gram portion would be the equivalent of eating one hot dog or two slices of bacon. Americans eat about 21.7 grams of processed pork per day, according to a 2011 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."

When it comes to CAFO meats and processed meats, the latter of which contain a number of potentially harmful food additives, the cancer link may actually be due to the way such meats impact your gut flora. We also know that glyphosate can have a significantly detrimental impact on healthy gut bacteria, and CAFO animals are typically fed grains contaminated with glyphosate. This affects not only the animals' health, but your health as well.

In Health, 

Dr. Brad Niewierowski

Source: Processed Meats Declared Carcinogenic   Mercola.com  November 11, 2015

Foods that Surprisingly Have More Sugar than Doughnuts

The American Heart Association and the World Health Organization recommend limiting your daily added sugar intake to nine teaspoons for men and six teaspoons for women. It's a good common practice to limit daily fructose intake to 25 grams or less from all sources including fruit for all genders. The average American, however, consumes around 20 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which is more than three times the recommended amount.

There is no doubt that the overconsumption of sugar is fueling the obesity and chronic epidemics we’re currently struggling with.

Here are a list of foods that actually higher amounts of sugar than doughnuts.

·      Starbuck’s Caramel Frappucino

·      Jamba Juice Banana Berry Smoothie

·      Odwalla Superfood Smoothie

·      Kraft French Style Fat Free Dressing

·      Snapple Peach Tea

·      Craisins Dried Cranberries

·      Naked Pomegranate Blueberry Juice

·      McDonald’s Fruit and Maple Oatmeal

For more information on making the right choices and reducing disease call us at (210) 468-1891 for a free consultation.

In Health, 

Dr. Jacob Torres 

Reference- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/09/30/31-foods-with-more-sugar-than-doughnuts.aspx