Rest In Peace Clare (JustMEinT)

The lady behind JustMEinT, Clare McConville-Harris, is no longer with us.
I am sad to tell you all that Clare passed away on the 31st of March 2015 after a brief hospital stay, her sudden passing caught us all by surprise.
Clare had been unwell but as it turned out the issues she faced were bigger than anyone, herself included, had anticipated. Truth be told, even though the cause of death will not state it, she died of a broken heart after the recent passing of her husband in January.
This will be the last post to this site.

Tony Cook, Her Son.

What is T?

Another wonderful – easy to understand explanation from Dr. Kendrick

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

Some questions puzzle me, and I search for the answer. For a number of years I am trying to establish. ‘What is T?’ My wife helpfully remarked that it is a drink with jam and bread. Ho, ho.

Moving swiftly on. My question relates to the concept of Number Needed to Treat (NNT). The NNT is a figure widely used in medicine as an outcome measure. It means how many people do you need to treat ‘T’ to achieve a benefit of some kind. The benefit can be many different things, for example: pain relief, curing a chest infection, improving pain and mobility following a hip replacement.

In these cases the ‘T’ is pretty clear cut. You have a medical problem and you intervene in some way to make it better, or cure it. But what is the ‘T’ when you are in the world of preventative medicine? If you…

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BORON A Magical ESSENTIAL Mineral – Part Three

Of all the articles I have posted in the Health Area, I think this topic BORON has attracted the most attention. It has been up and available for quite some time now and, as does happen from time to time, when sharing information from other sites, links no longer work, or are taken down by their owners.

I was just today advised by a reader that a couple of links in my two earlier articles are no longer available. I promised that I would try and find others that maybe similar and of use to seekers of knowledge.

The History of this mineral is well worth researching.
HISTORY

TIMELINE

Reports and Publications from Rio Tinto

Life depends on boron
The role borates play in life and modern living. This is fascinating.

Planet Boron
Boron applications in everyday life

Borates’ Health and Safety Effects – Backgrounder
Commonly asked questions and answers about boron and its impact on health and safety

Boron – The Marker Of A Healthy Diet 

Plants get the boron they need from soil and water. In fact, they can’t live without it. For humans, experts agree that boron is nutritionally important, and mounting evidence suggests that boron may be an essential element to our diet as well.   Full story

The Physiological Effects of Dietary Boron — WORTH READING

ABSTRACT: Boron may be an essential nutrient for animals and humans. Dietary boron influences the activity of many metabolic enzymes, as well as the metabolism of steroid hormones and several micronutrients, including calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. Boron supplementation in rats and chicks has been shown to increase bone strength. Boron may also play a role in improving arthritis, plasma lipid profiles, and brain function. Additional research is necessary to further clarify boron’s influence in human and animal physiology, as well as determine a dietary requirement for humans.

In The Green: Update on boron’s role as an essential plant micronutrient

The roots of civilization

Animals and vegetables are alike in at least one important way: they both need minerals to survive. People didn’t know about mineral nutrients when they first started growing crops more than 10,000 years ago. But they did know that planting seeds and harvesting crops raised their own survival rates.

With the advent of agriculture, the roots of civilization took hold. Figuring out what nutrients plants need to thrive has concerned us ever since.

When we knew of only four “elements,” it was pretty clear that plants needed three of them – earth, water and air – to grow. With better science, the list grew longer. Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium were identified as primary nutrients and, on the second tier, sulphur, magnesium and calcium.

But it has only been in the last 75 years that scientists and farmers discovered another section in agriculture’s intricate chemical orchestra. Key to producing full-volume crop yields are seven micronutrients: boron, copper, chlorine, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc.

The fruits of knowledge

These seven elements are the unsung heroes of the plant world. Only trace amounts are needed, so we don’t hear about them often. They perform at the cellular level, so we don’t see them work. Nevertheless, they have an enormous impact on plants’ – and thus everybody else on the planet’s – survival.

Picture the world without even one of them:

Boron
Boron is integral to a plant’s reproductive cycle; controlling flowering, pollen production, germination, and seed and fruit development. The mineral also acts as a fuel pump, aiding the transmission of sugars from older leaves to new growth areas and root systems. Fields of cotton, canola, clover and corn produce higher crop yields with boron supplements. Farmers get up to 13 bushels more soybeans per acre. In fact, boron makes almost every fruit, nut and vegetable crop healthier – and more marketable.

Take the boron bonus out of the system and what happens? Celery grows crooked. Carrots fork. Apple cores get corky. Table beets blacken. Peanuts develop hollow hearts. And cotton yields decrease. While these problems sound whimsical, the consequences are anything but for the farmer who cannot market the damaged crop, or indeed, for the global food supply.

For new readers here are the links to PART ONE  and PART TWO of the articles this page refers to.

I have enjoyed reading your comments and find this mineral study to be most interesting.

Outing the Big Guns….Knowledge is POWER

The BIG POINT here is that getting better via lifestyle changes means you no long need DRUGS…. and that is the bottom line as I see it – the reason why the agencies in question do not openly support this… they and the drug cartels will lose money! Cynical? who me!

Metabolism Miracle/Diabetes Miracle Blog

 

 

So…I thought it was time to write an open letter to the “Big Guns”.…the American Diabetes Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Formerly the American Dietetic Association).

 Here’s a link to the press release.  http://www.prlog.org/12308275-open-letter-to-the-american-diabetes-… 

 I choose to rattle their cage from time to time to call attention to MM/DM…  and to shine a light on the fact that the ADA and AND are well aware of all the benefits of The Metabolism Miracle and The Diabetes Miracle, but choose to pretend it doesn’t exist.  Their lips are sealed when it comes to a scientifically- proven, medically sound program that has so many health benefits…including a decrease in the need for billions of dollars of medications AND stopping the progression to more and more disease. .

 

Did you know that the latest diet philosophy of the ADA and AND is…Everyone should follow…

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I have been found guilty too of extremism

It was a little like going gluten free. (I am not diagnosed celiac) My Mother was responsible for my attitude of –  if you are going to do something you may as well do it properly first time – saves on having to do it again later! So, when my gastro doctor said -I went the whole hog so to speak and became a gluten super sleuth. Some would tell you I was better at finding hidden gluten than many who really do have the dreaded auto-immune disease.

By the way – going gluten free (and eventually milk free) did help my digestive issues somewhat – although not as much as I had hoped it would.

Then I discovered Grain Free…. and learned that all those gluten free grains I had been buying and cooking with  were no good either so they got tossed out and  – WOWEE!!!!!! The change I had been looking for finally arrived. My hernia settled down – go figure. My acid reflux of 25 years duration — on prescription medications to help stop regurgitation – vanished in the ether – poof – gone who knows where. I felt so much better because the bloating was not there any longer either and neither was the irritable bowel pain I had suffered from for most of my life. The bouts of constipation versus diarrhea, week in and week out no longer keep me tied closely to the bathroom – I am for all intents and purposes a new woman!

So have I become a Grain Free Extremist? YUP, because that is what I must do to maintain my health. However while all this was happening I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes….. certainly NOT from removing grains from my life – but because I had been eating and living a very poor lifestyle for many years, and slowly, but surely, I had been damaging my vascular system due to all the unknown and certainly unfelt insulin spikes and damage to my liver – my earlier poor lifestyle had caused.

Now I can admit to becoming an extremist (post diabetes diagnosis) but let me be specific….. I became a CARBOHYDRATE EXTREMIST. I knew I had to remove sugar from my lifestyle. I knew many fruits were also high in sugar too. I did what every diabetic ought to do – got a blood glucose (finger prick) meter, and began testing myself before and after meals.

I learned which foods spiked my blood sugars and which ones didn’t. I learned that when I spiked my BGL’s it also meant my insulin levels would soar as well – and that was NOT something I wanted happening. It had been those silent, but deadly Insulin Spikes which had done the damage to my heart, had caused my cholesterol levels to climb, had been responsible also for the fat deposits that were being laid down all over my body and sent my liver enzymes climbing into the danger zone, not to mention triglyceride levels which were very high and unhealthy.

For myself – a registered Type 2 Diabetic It was imperative – if I wanted to not only stop further damage from occurring, but hoped to put the disease into remission – then I had to stop all spikes from happening. To do that meant drastically cutting carbohydrates from my eating plan. YES I could do that….. and over a twelve month period I have all my markers nicely back in the normal healthy non-diabetic range.

But in my enthusiasm for the way of life which I had chosen to follow I became an EXTREMIST, blogging and writing and emailing everyone I could think of, and telling them they would be literally killing themselves if they too, didn’t change their whole lifestyle and ditch the sugar, drastically eliminate the carbohydrates and follow the same way of life – which I believe is helping me tremendously. Will I apologise? Perhaps. Then perhaps not 🙂

You see I do really subscribe to this way of life whole-heartedly, and I do want to see people take up the baton and learn how to prevent damaging themselves the same way I did.

However I was reading an article by Tom Naughton (of Fat Head fame) today which helped me realise that we do not have to rant and rave and start wars about the differences in the dietary/lifestyle approaches we use to achieve good health…… we really ought to be seeking the similarities and praising them, rather than ranting over the differences. He wrote:

Take a look at real-food diets falling under various labels – Paleo, Primal, Weston A. Price, the Atkins Diet (as it’s designed now), the Perfect Health Diet – and there’s a helluva lot of commonality: Eat whole foods, not processed food-like substances. Most of your energy should come from fat, not glucose. The Lipid Hypothesis is hogwash, cholesterol is not your enemy, and high cholesterol isn’t a disease that requires medicating. Natural fats, including saturated fats, are good for you. Enjoy your meats and eggs; they won’t kill you. Butter is awesome. Eat a variety of vegetables and low-sugar fruits. If you consume dairy products, go for the full-fat varieties and try to get them as raw and unprocessed as possible. Sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, soy products, processed vegetable oils and modern mutant wheat will screw up your health, so avoid them.

Lots of agreement on what makes for a good diet. People following any one of those diets will end up eating most of the same foods and avoiding most of the same foods. So it’s a little silly to go into attack mode because some people consume potatoes or gluten-free bread and (gasp!) insist they feel better as a result, while others prefer to go ketogenic.

That isn’t to say there’s no battle over diet worth fighting, but please, let’s focus on the real enemy — the supposed nutrition authorities who are actually screwing up the nation’s health.

YES I have to agree with Tom………. tiz far better to work on the positives and find mutual ground – than to dig a huge chasm where differences cannot be worked out – that is the way of extremism and many a war starts that way, I have left that behind me now. There most certainly is room for every individual to tweak their food intake to suit their particular lifestyle and needs.

Till next time, be as well as you can.

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2014/04/10/differences-commonalities-and-the-peoples-front-of-judea/

 

 

 

Why Bother Eliminating Grains?

PALEO living was not designed to manage weight issues, but to promote better health ……  (paraphrased)   I read this today – as told By Dr. Loren Cordain – the ‘inventor’ of the Paleo Movement. It makes good sense actually that we should do our best to minimise or completely eliminate if we can all forms of toxins that enter our body. These are what makes us sick, causes cancer, autoimmune disorders, gastrointestinal distress…. you name it !

You will discover that grains of all types can make you quite ill – but unfortunately the government health edict is still for everyone to eat many servings of grains each day. It seems they are not prepared to come out and admit they were wrong when they put this edict into place some thirty odd years ago. Look at the Food Pyramid and The Food Plate advertisements put about by governments across the world. It is heavily stacked in favour of eating grains.

Natural News shared the following information with readers about some of the problems associated with eating grains: 

Grains have only been a part of the human diet for about 10,000 years, which is a very small time in the context of evolution. Just because humans can tolerate grains to a certain degree doesn’t mean that we are designed to consume grains or that we can achieve optimal health on a grain-based diet.

1) High-carbohydrate density and increased insulin load
Carbohydrates are eventually converted into a simple form of sugar, glucose, after they are consumed. Insulin is secreted and allows glucose to be transported into various cells throughout the body. Individuals who aren’t very physically active don’t have the need to continually refill their muscle and liver cells with glycogen, and these cells often start to become insulin-resistant on a grain-based diet. Regular consumption of high-density carbohydrates is not only linked to insulin resistance and overweight, but also Leptin resistance, altered gut flora and inflammation.

2) Antinutrients
Grains are the reproductive material of the plant, and plants don’t make the reproductive material to give away for free to animals. Cereal grains have evolved Lectins, Phytic Acid, Protease Inhibitors and other anti-nutrients that potentially disrupt normal gut physiology when they are consumed over time. Only certain anti-nutrients are problematic in humans, and they seem to operate in a dose-dependent manner. Regular consumption of anti-nutrients in grains may lead to poor mineral absorption, autoimmune disease, leaky gut and low-level chronic inflammation. More studies on human subjects are needed to fully understand the detrimental effects of Lectins and other anti-nutrients on human health.

3) Gluten
Studies and anecdotal reports indicate that gluten intolerance is much more common than previously thought, and many asymptomatic individuals react to gluten with some type of inflammatory response.

4) Insoluble fiber
While fruits and vegetables contain heart-healthy, soluble fiber that promote good gut flora, cereal grains are high in insoluble fiber that shouldn’t be eaten in excess. More insoluble fiber is often recommended for healthy digestion, despite the fact that healthy gut bacteria is the key to relieve constipation and achieve healthy bowel movements.

5) Dietary imbalances
Cereal grains have several dietary shortcomings, and a grain-based diet can disrupt adequate nutritional balance. Cereal grains are poor sources of fiber, minerals, vitamins and protein compared to animal products, fruits and vegetables. They contain no vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B12, calcium nor sodium, and several animal studies show that grain consumption can induce vitamin D deficiencies and alter the metabolism of several minerals. Cereal grains only supply some of the essential amino acids, very few essential fatty acids and are also characterized by a high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

Our modern lifestyle which is very fast paced induces us to reach for fast foods and easy to prepare meals. Rarely are these wholesome natural foods which our bodies have developed to eat. More likely they are filled with chemicals and colours and toxic substances, high levels of vegetable oils and preservatives, sugar and salt. And to fill them out, so they will induce a feeling of fullness quickly, they are served with grains, starches, carbohydrates, which are cheap to add as fillers to the foods.

We are loading our bodies with toxins, and damaging our bodies vasculature with all the grains and carbohydrates we are consuming. Carbohydrates – like it or not – are broken down during digestion and converted into glucose. An excess of glucose equates to an excess of insulin. Insulin spikes cause an inflammatory response….. and even Blind Freddie will have read or heard in the news, that inflammation damages the arteries and the organs of the body.

What we put in our mouths as ‘food’ has to be broken down to be used as nutrition by every cell in the human body. There is good nutrition and there is bad nutrition. It seems reasonable that the bad stuff will do the damage!

A new study indicates that a diet low in carbohydrates is also more effective than a diet low in fat in reducing saturated fatty acids in the blood and reducing markers of inflammation. LINK

The science is there for all to see….. accepting that you have been wrong, and been responsible for damaging millions of lives is a HUGE thing which, as of yet, those in politics have refused to accept. The tide is turning, slowly………

The reason eating grains is promoted as a so called “healthy” eating style, is because they can be grown quickly, stored and shipped worldwide efficiently, can be manipulated as in GMO’s to grow bigger and yield more – so there is a lot of money to be made off them…. sadly not for the farmers! But all in all no one involved in this is prepared to accept that this entire enterprise is damaging the human race….. follow the dollar and to heck with the consequences.

Myths and outright lies about the alleged benefits of genetically engineered crops (GE crops or GMOs) persist only because the multinationals that profit from them have put so much effort into spreading them around.

They want you to believe that GMOs will feed the world; that they are more productive; that they will eliminate the use of agrichemicals; that they can coexist with other crops, and that they are perfectly safe for humans and the environment.

False in every case, and in this article we’ll show how easy it is to debunk these myths.

Even if you are still sitting on the fence as it were in regards to GMO’s…. you ought to do yourself a big favour and learn about the PALEO and Low Carbohydrate (Banting) style lifestyles that are achieving such good results with health and waistlines.

This blogs title asks –   Why Bother Eliminating Grains? If you follow the links in this BLOG you should uncover many reasons why this would be of benefit to you and those whom you love.

Here is to your Good Health.

 

 

Natural News Link

“If someone created a drug this effective, everyone would be on it”

The Science of Human Potential with Prof Grant Schofield

What do a Renal Physician, an AFL Club Doctor, an Epidemiologist, a Radiologist, a Pathologist, an Orthopaedic Surgeon, an Anaesthetist , a Pharmacist and a Biochemist all have in common?

Answer: They have all taken a long hard look at current nutrition guidelines, noted that they’re not working, queried where the evidence was for them in the first instance and decided to do something about it.

Grant shared with you what he learned from the recent Low Carb Down Under conference in Auckland last month. Now here’s my take on it.

Almost 200 people packed the Auckland Museum Auditorium to listen to a day of evidence-based recommendations to improve their own health and the health of the New Zealand population overall. None of the presenters were recommending a miracle drug, no one was trying to sell something, all were eminently qualified and had initially been healthily sceptical. All were a…

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How to start LCHF – Part 1: Clean out day

IMPORTANT: When you take out carbohydrate you must increase fat….protein should stay about the same.

The Science of Human Potential with Prof Grant Schofield

By far and away the most email, comments and questions we get are around how to start LCHF, what a LCHF whole food eating plan looks like, whether its doable for the average person, and how you know what success looks like. We’ll address this in a series of posts but here are the first three steps……

By Helen Kilding and Grant Schofield

Back in April of last year, Grant talked about what he and his family eat, but let’s go a step further and look at how you might adapt your current menu to achieve a Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) lifestyle, that delivers all the nutrients your body needs, in the quantities required. Note I say lifestyle, not diet, as an LCHF way of eating can be as beneficial and enjoyable for people who don’t need to lose weight as for those who do.

First there are two…

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Some People have Wax in Their Ears!

One of Professor Julius Sumner Miller’s famous one liners was ‘Why is it so?’ And in this case I believe it is most appropriate to ask the question.

Many of my associates are living the Low Carbohydrate High Fat lifestyle….

With this way of eating the other vital macronutrient PROTEIN is kept in the medium range….. not too little not too big – I hate to use a cliché but a ‘Kellogg’s’ would be ‘just right’!

The lower the carbohydrate consumption – the less glucose will enter the blood.

The lower the amount of glucose – the lower the amount of insulin needed to transport – or shove that glucose out of the blood and into the cells. This also will help to prevent insulin resistance, as over time, if too much insulin is released by the pancreas, in response to too much  glucose needing to be dealt with, the cells become resistant to it and Type 2 Diabetes is the next step in the equation.

When carbohydrates are lowered some other nutrient is needed to fill the gap. With this lifestyle good healthy fats come charging in to the rescue. Ask any LCHF lifestyler, and they will tell you about how they are not hungry between meals, enjoying bacon, avocado, pork cracklings, fat on their pork chops, coconut oil and lashings of butter on their vegetables. The human body needs these to transport the fat soluble vitamins into the cells where they are needed. Eating your broccoli without butter seems such a wasteful exercise…… those healthy vitamins in the broccoli NEED the fats to do their job – otherwise they will simply sail through the digestive system and end up as fertilizer somewhere!

But when it comes to protein LCHF aficionados choose to be moderate…. yes MODERATE in how much they consume, and there is a good scientific reason for this. You see it has been proven that excess protein (amino acids) can be converted by the body into glucose – and that would be the very last thing they would want to happen. Why – well as mentioned earlier, glucose needs insulin and excess insulin can lead to resistance and type 2 diabetes. The technical name for this process is gluconeogenesis.

WHY IS IT SO then that a scientist would scream headlines that the ‘faddish’ Low Carbohydrate Dieters eat too much protein and are going to become very sick people? (paraphrased) Mind you the study used Mice – not human beings, bear that in mind when considering the findings please, as I seem to remember that meeces munch readily on grains, and I honestly cannot remember seeing any at table devouring a nice filet mignon recently!

Professor of geriatric medicine David Le Couteur from Sydney’s Anzac Research Institute was part of the team which modified the diets of 900 mice with dramatic results.

“If you’re interested in a longer life span and late-life health, then a diet that is low in protein, high in carbohydrate and low in fat is preferable,” he said.

“You can eat as much of that as you like.

“You don’t have to be hungry, you don’t have to reduce your calorie intake, you can just let your body decide what the right amount of food is.”

The paper is linked here for you to read , however I think it noteworthy to observe that he also stated:  …. plenty of data in humans already exists that shows people who choose a high-protein diet have worse outcomes in terms of death and disease.

“Certainly we found and we expected to find that high-protein diets led to weight loss and led to increased muscle bulk, but this was associated with worse outcomes, whether it was blood pressure or diabetes or life span,” he said.

Now where I wonder did the Professor get the idea that LCHF Life styler’s choose to eat a diet high in protein…. YES he has his facts wrong seems he has wax in his ears!

It is such a pity that they did not leave the poor meeces to much on their ‘Kellogg’s Diet’ which I can guarantee would not contain HIGH protein at all!

The other question I have is who funded the research? I think that is a fair question to ask.

The article that I am quoting from has closed off comments from the general public – how convenient is that – however if you are curious, do take time to read some comments that managed to be posted from other people.

I’ve lost 10 kg, but what about my cholesterol?

Professor Grant Schofield as always has interesting information… This article is NO exception

The Science of Human Potential with Prof Grant Schofield

Folks, here’s a great story about health and weight loss – along with some excellent examples of what to actually eat on the LCHF plan.  I’m often asked about cholesterol and how to interpret the numbers on the blood form. People get (rightly) concerned that their metabolic markers are heading in the right direction.  So that’s answered here too.  Enjoy.

Hi Grant

MY BACKGROUND

• Have been on LCHF in earnest since since May 2013, cutting out all processed carbs and high carb natural foods
  
• Between Nov 12 and May 2013 I cut out sugar only
  
• Nov 12 I was 92kgs and now range between 82-85kgs – have had to buy a size smaller clothes during this time.
  
• Foods I eat:-
  • Breakfast (choice from one of these)
    
    • Greek Yoghurt .75 Cup, Raw Almonds .25 cup, Raspberries/Blue Berries .5 Cup, Cream  30ml
    • 2 Eggs and rasher bacon plus Baby Spinach 1 cup…

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